Developers - Ryu Ga Gotoku creative team studio
Publisher - Sega
Release Date - February 22, 2014
Platform - PS3 and PS4
Game Size - 22.2 GB
Genre - An open world, action adventure styled beat 'em up with rpg elements
Rating - CERO - D (Gamers ages 17 and up)
Availability - Downloadable on JP PSN or retail disc(Import only at the moment)
Extra #1 - Playstation Vita companion app that not only allows cross play it also allows you to your save between devices to import levels, money, items, farming, do battle dungeons and other mini games.
Extra #2 - The PS4 version is 1080p and runs at 60fps, while the PS3 version is 720p and runs at 30fps.
Official Website
Ryu Ga Gotoku(Like a dragon) or Yakuza as it is known in the west, is a popular series created by Toshihiro Nagoshi, that features rich story telling, compelling and well liked characters who, are often the forefront of the series' driving point along with its over the top combat, its take on the Yakuza and the Japanese underworld, it is wildly popular in Japan and has also made lots of fans in the west. While normally the series focuses on Kazuma Kiryu and takes place in modern day Japan, this game is one of the many spin off titles that goes back to ancient Japan and takes ques from another spin off before it, Ryu Ga Gotoku: Kenzan.
Here the story takes place during the Bakumatsu period with characters from the Yakuza series in the parts of the historical figures from this time. The title "Ishin" mean restoration and this was a major turning point in Japanese history and a subject of many books, plays and movies.
The historical figure Sakamoto Ryoma, who attempted to overthrow the Shogunate at the end of the Edo Era. His goal is to destroy the swordsman who killed his father and the honored teacher Yoshida Toyo before his eyes. After sleuthing for a year and finding that all riddles begin and end with the Shinsengumi, Ryoma disguises himself as Shinsengumi captain Saito Hajime and heads for this assassins group.
New to the series, are the four new styles that Ryoma(Kiryu) can switch between at anytime:
The two handed style allows him use the full power of melee weapons, it is also needed for weapons that require strength to use such as great swords/long swords, hammers other large weapons.
The gun style allows him to not only use various firearms to attack from a range but allows him to grapple enemies and get up close and personal to shoot them and fire powerup shots that use special ammo.
A familiar style to those who, know the series. The bare handed style allows you to melee foes with your fists, pick up items from your surroundings to use as weapons, throw and bash your enemies into walls, the floor, railings and other places but also new to the style(and for Kiryu's character in general) is the ability to counter attacks with parries allowing you to negate attacks directed at you.
And finally the dual-wield style, as the name implies you can use both a gun and sword in tandem to attack, giving you both the abilities to attack from far away or melee up close, the style gives you more flexibility in attacking though certain weapon types would be unusable as they would need both hands to use.
Weapon and Armor crafting:
A staple of the series, here weapon crafting has evolved where you can influence the stats and attributes of the items you create.
The weapon and armor training system has the biggest volume of the series.
Not only is there the katana and pistol, there are also special weapons including the spear, long sword, and cannon.
Furthermore you can equip armor on your head, arms, and chest, resulting in endless combinations.
Test your weapons at the blacksmith.
You can create and strengthen your armor at the blacksmith. By working, your blacksmithing skills will improve.
Creating and strengthening weapons requires raw materials, of which there are over 100 kinds.
These materials can be found in various ways, including when you defeat enemies and pick up the items they drop, when you break jars during battle, when you help people, and when you cultivate vegetables. You can collect them in various ways.
The rewards you get from clearing the battle dungeon also make for an effective way to collect materials.
At the blacksmith, by adding materials to your base weapon you can make new weapons.
Of the weapons you can make, aside from the attack and defense parameters there are also special abilities like cladding yourself in flame or making enemy defense easy to pull down.
It is also possible to make special flame and lightning bullets.
There are three ways to strengthen your weapons and armor: tempering, status elevation, and synthesis.
Tempering: By forging and fixing weapons and armor, your basic attack, defense power, and abilities will level up. There is an upper limit to the numerical values, but raising the status of a weapon or armor will yield even more possibilities with tempering.
Status Elevation: All weapons and armor without exception will be dull immediately after being made. With status elevation you can strengthen each high weapon or armor, such as by making a sharp sword into a first-rate sword. By promoting your weapons and armor, the upper limits of tempering will not only be thrown open, competition with enemies will become advantageous components that control the state of the war.
Synthesis: Cross breed weapons or armor. The abilities of the arms that you make into raw materials are marked into base arms. Weapons that feature the abilities of both can be made. The number of marks differs depending on the weapon or armor.
Levels and Grades:
Of the components of growth for the main character Sakamoto Ryoma there are levels (max 99) and four types of grades (max 25).
With each gradation you will obtain a spirit globe, and by injecting these you will acquire more abilities.
The main characters level will go up with the experience points accumulated by defeating enemies and clearing goals, and can be raised up to 99. When you level up, your physical strength and hand-to-hand attack power will rise.
By using and fighting with the four types of unique grades, sword, pistol, boisterous dance, and hand-to-hand combat, you can rise to 25.
Leveling up and raising grades will allow you to obtain a spirit globe. Inject these into techniques in the ability enhance screen and you will be able to make use of them in battle.
Ability enhance items are divided into types, and the training spirit globe you acquire by leveling up can be put inserted in each slide. But the spirit globes acquired by grading up are colored and can only be injected into with abilities of the same type.
How far the grade of each type can be raised, and where you inject spirit globes, will greatly influence your fighting style.
Records & War Record:
The battle evaluation system war record has been added. Answering to the main characters fighting style in each battle, records will be decided, and experience points and rewards will increase and decrease.
In battle, how well you perform combo attacks and if you decided on counter techniques or hit actionanswering to these actions, valuation will be added and you can raise your records grade by grade.
When the grade of each record is raised, experience points you gain from that battle onward will increase, and will be added to the collective war record that is calculated when you finish a battle.
When battles finish, the entire valuation will be displayed as the collective war record. Sum up the valuations at the end of battle, and depending on the variation of the techniques you used and their difficulty, the valuation will be determined. As valuations rise, you will receive wrapped offerings of money and added experience points.
Substories, other actives and minigames:
Just like in previous titles you can do substories, which are side quests and also can have fun playing the loads of minigames the series is known for, also many of them are actually beneficial now as you can cook fish you catch which gives you stats and attribute boosts when consumed as food.
Q: I heard this series is a GTA clone, I'm angry that it is! Or alternatively I'm angry because its not!
A: Well that's been a long standing stigma that's plagued the series since the start. The series has never be like GTA ever, it was just a bad marketing ploy in the west and one that has hurt the series even to this day.
Q: Yo why are you calling this Ryu Ga Gotoku?? Say Yakuza: Ishin in the title!
A: Well because only the Japanese version has been released and there hasn't been any talk about this game being localized so using the Japanese name.
Q: Hey guy, since the game is in Japanese, would I have a hard time understanding what is going on from what I normally do even when its in English and on the screen for me to read?
A: Yeah these games are very text heavy and would be very hard to understand what's going on unless you have some basic knowledge of Japanese but if you wanna jump in, then go ahead as there are people working hard on translated guides for everyone(Like KHH subs, please show your love when you can)
Q: Gwar! Yakuza 4!
A: Don't start, lol
Q: Hey hey! Any word on when this is coming to the west???!
A:
Screenshots:
Gif action:
