The Like A Dragon: Ishin remake was announced on September 14, and despite that, the game already had a demo available for visitors to play at TGS 2022! We got a chance to try out this demo first-hand, and want to share with you the experience we got playing this remake of a game that was only available in Japanese, for far too long.
▍Like A Dragon: Ishin TGS 2022 Demo Impressions
If you’ve never heard of it, I don’t blame you. Only available in Japan as Ryu Ga Gotoku: Ishin, the title is a reimagining of the Yakuza series, featuring beloved characters from the series reimagined as characters in 1860s Japan. Characters from the Yakuza series would instead become members of the Shinsengumi police force, including Sakamoto Ryoma, Okada Izo, Okita Souji, and many more.
This remake of the title replaces character models that were taken from Yakuza 5, with ones from Yakuza 0 and 6, most notably the three Dojima Lieutenants, and Joon-Gi Han.
The demo shown at TGS 2022 is the PS5 version of the game. During this demo, you could choose to play the game set during the day, or at night, with different encounters being available like a fight against Okaza Izo if you played it at night. We chose to try the game set during the day, so we could explore the streets of Kyoto, check out different side stories, play mini-games, and even trade-in stores.
As expected from a Like a Dragon title, there’s no shortage of random encounters and bizarre happenings around every corner.
One notable addition to Like a Dragon: Ishin, was being able to use skills from the Battle Dungeon in regular combat, letting you apply buffs to D-pad. The game still keeps its four battle styles, keeping the freedom you had during combat, with even more options.
The TGS demo lasted for 20 minutes, and although the game didn’t offer too many new additions from the original title, the game still feels incredibly refreshing with the new cast, and with the game being available in English, it’s definitely worth getting excited about whether you’ve played it already or not when it releases on February 22, 2023.