“How is that possible? It's literally right around the corner,” cries Ryoma, the beleaguered samurai protagonist of the upcoming Like A Dragon: Ishin remake. Minutes ago, Ryoma provided a lost courier with directions to an address – now, he finds the postie waiting in the same spot, once more lost after trying unsuccessfully to locate his destination.
Ryoma is frustrated, but samurai in glass minka shouldn't throw stones. Within this preview session for Ryu Ga Gotoku's upcoming remake of their periodic role-playing game, Ryoma's primary objective – to achieve a close barracks – lies within tantalising reach. Yet sprawled between Ryoma and his destination lie the dense streets of Kyo’s Fushimi district, along with dozens of citizens waiting to take advantage of the samurai's goodwill.
It's simple to get lost in Kyo. The streets wind and twist, and any distraction – Ishin's gorgeous visuals, for example, or perhaps a chance encounter with bandits – can send your navigational skills spiraling. Once Kyo has you in its sticky web, its citizens slink from the woodwork like hungry insects prepared to feast on your free time using their litany of problems and trivial troubles to solve.
Minutes into the preview, Ishin‘s encounters came thick and fast. A vintage woodcutter guilt-tripped Ryoma into chopping his logs using a minigame that actually works him into an increasingly frantic slicing machine. Next, the samurai was tested on his listening skills by a woman whose tedious gossiping had left her with no other audience to tell it to. In some cases, Ishin teased side stories with snippets of overheard dialogue or scenes that proved too alluring to face up to: one street was blocked off by what seemed to be a flash mob, while another story sent Ryoma running in the opposite direction to the barracks to protect a naive westerner in the cities angry inhabitants. Reaching those barracks began to seem like a Sisyphean task – each time I edged closer, there would be another enticing proposition or absurd chore to transmit me jogging the other way.
Though Kyo is a physically large city, it's these events that breathe a genuine feeling of life towards the place. Because it’s impossible to you know what you’re going to get from Ryu Ga Gotoku’s zany side stories, they serve as irresistible rabbit holes designed to keep poor Ryoma from getting anywhere. Some are hilarious – like Ryoma sternly lecturing a man concerning the ridiculous beauty standards he was imposing on women – yet others are remarkably touching, particularly one story that tasked Ryoma with teaching two children to say goodbye to each other, as one is getting away.
Likewise, a lot of smaller features in Ishin increase its colour. You can recover health by nipping into local restaurants and seated for any meal – pop into certain ones several times, and you’ll make friendships that kick off whole new side stories. There’s also an abundance of minigames to experience throughout Ishin and inside a several hours Ryoma had become an all-singing, all-dancing samurai having a penchant for chicken racing. The rhythm-based challenges of Ishin‘s karaoke and dancing minigames are a pleasure to score-chase in, while fishing is a welcome switch to all of those other game’s fast-paced thrills.
When Ryoma isn't helping townfolk solve their quibbles, he's putting his extensive samurai training to the test. Ambushes in Kyo are frequent – gangs of outlaws loitering on street corners will jump Ryoma often and foolishly. Against poorly-trained fodder, Ishin's third-person hack-and-slash combat is bloody and frenetic. Ryoma has three weapons to choose from – his fists, sword and revolver – along with a combat style for every, plus a fourth style that uses both blade and gun.
Each style has its own group of strengths and downsides, so dabbling throughout them feel worthwhile, but my personal favourite was Wild Dancer, the design and style that uses Ryoma's katana and revolver simultaneously. Though Wild Dancer lacks the punch of Swordsman and the long-range devastation of Gunman, it is a flexible middle ground – it almost seems like cheating to weave out of a swordfight to take a potshot at your opponent's head. A sprawling ability system means you may expect these styles being even more intricate in later chapters, including one ludicrously silly Brawler move that allows you to make fresh orange juice with an opponent’s jaw if you have an orange inside your inventory. Yep.
Against Ishin's longer-form boss fights, combat only improves. When Ryoma finally reached Fushimi’s barracks, his first opportunity for an effective clash came into being. Ryoma is in search from the assassin who killed his adoptive father, and believes he’ll identify the killer’s identity through his rare combat style. Ryoma’s search has led him to become listed on the Shinsengumi, an innovative death squad whose captain is trained in that style – the Tennen Rishin.
However, signing up with the Shinsengumi means besting one of its captains in combat – enter Nagakura Shinpachi. Nagakura is faster and stronger than the lackeys that Ishin's third chapter throws at you, and being caught in almost any of his attacks usually means having to weather the remainder of a crippling combo. Because of this, fighting assumes a far more tactical flow: you have to show a little bit of restraint while you chip down his health bar, as staying on the offensive too long opens Ryoma up to and including nasty counterattack. After cutting through nameless bandits without breaking a sweat, it’s a welcome challenge that presses you to definitely the back foot.
After beating him, there is a plot twist. Though Ryoma's mystery assassin used a rare combat style, many of the Shinsengumi's leading figures happen to be trained in the same arts. The suspect list for Ryoma's quest for vengeance grows, and the chapter’s final boss fight having a mysterious Man In White provides you with an idea from the bloody politicking that Ryoma’s wading into.
Sadly, that was where our preview ended – but because someone that hasn’t played the 2023 release of Ishin, it was with great reluctance which i place it down. With a healthy mixture of absurdist shenanigans and good old-fashioned brawling, it feels like you will see plenty to keep players – and by extension, poor Ryoma – busy when Ishin launches the following month.
Like A Dragon: Ishin launches last month 21 for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.
