Yakuza: Like a Dragon Gets More Combat Details

by Alex Fuller · Published November 22, 2019 · Updated November 22, 2019

Sega released more information and images for Yakuza: Like a Dragon focusing on the game’s new turn-based combat system. First up are introductions to two jobs in the game: Bodyguard and Host. The Bodyguard is an attack-based job and wields a katana. Its attacks have a chance of inflicting the bleeding status, which causes ongoing damage. Meanwhile, the Host wields a sake bottle and is good at inflicting status ailments. Their abilities include using the sake bottle to inflict the cold status and cause ongoing damage, supporting party members, and charming enemies to stop them attacking.

In addition to standard attacks, Yakuza: Like a Dragon features Kiwami Skills. These require MP (mental points) to perform and offer stronger attacks or other effects such as healing. Many of these skills come with a “Just Action”, which are the equivalent to “Heat Action” skills from previous entries, requiring button inputs to inflict additional damage. Players can also reduce damage received by pressing X just an attack is about to hit.

Sega gave some examples of Kiwami Skills. Permanent Part-Timer, Ichiban’s starting job, has the Full-Strength Punch skill, which can knock an enemy to the floor. Meanwhile, the Hero job has the Mega Swing bat-based skill, which affects a range of enemies. Namba’s exclusive Homeless job has the Mystery Joujutsu skill and Adachi’s Detective job has the Reckless Strikes skill, which both do consecutive attacks. Finally, Seiko’s Junior Mama job uses a handbag, which is spun around in the Handbag Wind skill to hit multiple surrounding enemies.

Sega also provided details on how players can use the changing environment in combat. The engulf attack technique sees players using Kiwami Skills to blow enemies into other enemies, causing additional damage. Meanwhile, in combat near roads, players can try and push enemies into the road, where they may get hit by a car for large amounts of damage.

Finally, the company detailed some enemy types and summon skills. Players will come across gangster and military enemy types in regular battles, which come in tiers of strength. The two lowest gangster enemies use their fists, while the higher two use guns. Military enemies wield both a kukri and crossbow, letting them attack at both melee and ranged distances. To help combat these, players can pay in-game money to summon support characters with deliveries. Kiyoe Shirakawa provides a bowl of pork miso soup that restores party MP, while Striking Falcon is the leader of a bike gang who shows up to mow down all enemies, potentially dealing ongoing heat damage.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon is the newest title in the series and is known as Yakuza 7 in Japan. The game stars a new protagonist, Ichiban Kasuga, and features the new area of Isezaki Ijincho in the city of Yokohama. It is set to be released for PlayStation 4 in Japan on January 16, 2020, with a western release coming sometime later in 2020. A demo is currently available in Japan.