Should I play other Yakuza/Like A Dragon games before this?

[Alfredo Jones]

I have gotten into the series recently and have only played Zero and Kiwami. I've heard that Ishin is largely disconnected from the main series, but I was wondering if it would be better to play the other games first in order to understand and appreciate any references or easter eggs.

[Capndrake (brb Japan)]

It's not necessary at all from a story perspective, but the vast majority of the main cast consists of faces you'll know from other games if you've played them - there's basically at least one character from every single game from 0 to 7. So if you want to get the most enjoyment out of seeing how they're different in this game, then yeah, it's probably best to play the others first.

[Rev]

Story is set in the history setting with real history figures (like main character is Ryoma Sakamoto, pretty noticable guy of that era. He looks like Kiryu, but...). They use models of characters from the main story, but that's all. There also shouldn't be any characters from 6 and 7, as Ishin was originaly released after 5, so even characters from 0 are... doubtful (0 was in works at the time, so they may got their hands on the models. or not as 0 was released only a year later.)

Ishin is a spin-off with references to main series here and there in the role of fanservice. So if you haven't played all games you just miss all that fanservice.

[vocab]

Originally posted by Rev:

Story is set in the history setting with real history figures (like main character is Ryoma Sakamoto, pretty noticable guy of that era. He looks like Kiryu, but...). They use models of characters from the main story, but that's all. There also shouldn't be any characters from 6 and 7, as Ishin was originaly released after 5, so even characters from 0 are... doubtful (0 was in works at the time, so they may got their hands on the models. or not as 0 was released only a year later.)

Ishin is a spin-off with references to main series here and there in the role of fanservice. So if you haven't played all games you just miss all that fanservice.

There's quite a few characters from 0 and 7 actually. Also, two from 6. A lot of the Y5 characters are out (baba, kugihara, etc). There was a y3/4 character and a y1/2 character as well that also got swapped. Ishin Kiwami story is the same, but they swapped the characters because of A) fan favorites and B) more Y7 characters because its newer.

[No_Name]

Might be a hot take but here goes. Like a Dragon is a way better and modern game. would recommend you play the older games then play like a dragon and then buy Ishin on sale.

[K2]

You don't have to play them but if you want to have that feeling of recognising characters from the previous games and seeing them brought back then it's worth it for that. I played through the whole story now and it's hype to see all the old faces once again.