Like a Dragon Ishin! thrusts players into the tumultuous world of 19th-century Japan with its blend of historical drama and thrilling gameplay. As a spin-off of the acclaimed "Yakuza" series, this game delivers the same addictive mix of action, humor, and heartfelt storytelling, set against the backdrop of the Bakumatsu period. With its engaging combat, memorable characters, and attention to detail, Like a Dragon Ishin! offers an unforgettable journey through samurai-era Japan that will delight fans of the series and newcomers alike.

For context, I'm a long-time RGG fan. I've played & finished all of their games except Infinite Wealth, and I'm half way through this one.

This game is excellent. I seriously cannot stress that enough. This may be RGG's strongest writing. The story seemed a little "meh" initially, with a very thin plot about revenge. But it quickly turns into a story of shady politics, backstabbings, and all with fantastic characters that makes the story all the more gripping. Seriously, the characters in this game are some of RGG's best, both in terms of the character themselves, but also their writing, depth, and expression.

All of this extends to the substories, which for the most part, are very, very good. While RGG titles are known for good side quests, there's always a handful of kinda 'meh' substories in most of their games. Ishin is an exception to this, having great substories across the board for the most part. The writing and the depth of these substories is exceptional, with many of them leading to direct consequences you'll see in other parts of the game.

How about the combat? Well, not only is it great in signature RGG fashion, it also has a ton of variety that is lacking from their other titles. There's 4 styles - a fist fighting 'brawler' style, a quick-step focused gun + 1 handed blade 'wild dancer' style, a pure gun style, and of course, there's the 'swordsman' style. All of these lend themselves to quick switching during combat, making for some of the most fun and engaging combat I've experienced in a while.

The graphics are the typical RGG fair, nothing to write home about, but still gorgeous as you'd expect from Like a Dragon.

Overall, this is an amazing game, and I really, really hope we see another spinoff like this.

It's fun.
A lot of fun. Look at my play time.
I think the story is well written and is capivating. There are many hype moments, which I honestly didn't expect.
I expected the minigames among other things to suck, however I was happily surprised

The combat system is great!
The game is actually quite hard at times, because you just encountered a new enemy type. It feel amazing to learn how to deal with these enemies. I would highly recommend playing the Arena after you think you got the hang of it.

The only down sides I can think of:
If you want to 100% it, good luck. There is a big grind for that.

Nitpick, enemy types. After a while you will get big enemies which kinda pulled me out of the story a few times. Not only that but interesting enemy types mostly appear in side missions and not really in the main story. However are you really playing a yakuza game without doing some side missions?
Again a nitpick. Even these big enemies are well thought out.

It's a great game.