‘Like A Dragon – Ishin’ review: over-the-top excellence

Like A Dragon – Ishin is teeming with murder. A lot of it, you do yourself – it’s a third-person beat ’em up set in a chaotic period of Japanese history, and your sword is not for show. Other times, you’re only a witness to its callous assassinations and brutal backstabbings. It’s a gory affair, but it’s not all doom and gloom – we just haven’t got to the karaoke yet.

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Ishin is a violent revenge epic set in 1860s’ Japan, a period where Shogunate enforcers and the emperor’s loyalists vie for control. After witnessing the assassination of his foster father, who’s caught up in these politics, protagonist Sakamoto Ryōma takes the fall for the crime and heads to the city of Kyo to find the real killer. His only lead is the assassin’s Tennen Rishin combat style, a rare style that’s most commonly found in the ranks of the Shinsengumi: a nasty bunch of elite swordsmen who have no qualms with using intimidation, torture and assassination to uphold the Shogunate’s rule.

With each chapter, Ishin‘s story twists and writhes. As Ryōma tries to identify the killer by infiltrating the Shinsengumi, he becomes tangled up in the group’s murky politics. Though Ryōma’s investigation means he must lend his sword to the group, he opposes their ideology and methods and does everything in his power to undermine their cutthroat regime. Sometimes this means pantomiming an intense duel to help a rival swordsman escape justice. Others involve trying in vain to help a deserter leave his life of violence behind, only to watch his murder at the hands of a far less sympathetic Shinsengumi captain.

Fans of the Yakuza series will recognise many of these captains, as they have been cast with characters from the modern-day series. Ryōma is a stand-in for Kiryu, while Goro Majima’s likeness is applied to one of the Shinsengumi’s bloodiest killers. Don’t take developer Ryu Ga Gotoku‘s casting choices too seriously: yes, one of the Shinsengumi tried to hit you with a motorbike in Yakuza 0. No, they’re not the same character. While it’s a fun nod to existing Yakuza fans, don’t worry if you haven’t got the foggiest who each character resembles – it has no bearing on Ishin‘s plot, and you’ll have no trouble loving or hating them by the end.

For the player, Ryōma’s double act makes for a gripping story. While it’s highly entertaining for the player, it’s bad news for the poor rōnin as it becomes increasingly difficult for him to keep his hands clean from the Shinsengumi’s dealings, and the morality of his vengeance-chasing falls under scrutiny.

Between Ishin‘s high-stakes main story, you’re encouraged to hit the streets of Kyo in search of adventure. At times, it feels like there’s an infinite number of side stories to uncover: Kyo’s needier citizens seem to lurk on every street corner, waiting for a helpful samurai to do their bidding. Though Ryōma has no qualms with resolving conflict through violence, he’s secretly a very sweet boy: one side story sends him out of his way to save a dog from barking its way into an early grave, while another follows Ryōma’s encounters with the musical ‘Ee ja nai ka’ protests, which begin by ridiculing the movement as it descends into violence but end with a heartfelt lesson on the value of social action.

While a number of Ishin‘s tales are rooted in Japan’s real-world history, they are typically told through developer Ryu Ga Gotoku’s absurdist lens. A story examining the country’s crumbling isolationist policy is told through an absolutely hammered Brit on a tour of Kyo – there’s genuine educational merit in Ishin, but its side quests are first and foremost designed to make you chuckle.

If Ishin‘s main quests are its lifeblood, these side quests are its soul. As for Kyo itself, the city is a delight to wander. By day, Kyo is a bustling hive, with traders and restaurant owners calling out for your custom. By night, the city is softly lit with paper lanterns and far sparser, with crowds of busybodies swapped for milling drunks. To keep you busy, Kyo has been generously dotted with minigames that range from dancing and karaoke rhythm games to fishing and gambling. It’s a gorgeous setting that encourages taking your time to soak everything in – in fact, it often feels like Ishin actively fights any attempts to move through Kyo with haste. There’s always another side story to pursue, a karaoke bar to nip into, or bandits to punch up. Even nipping into one of Kyo’s many bars and restaurants to heal Ryōma with a quick meal can lead to lasting friendships with their owners. On occasion, Kyo can be busy to a fault – when you’re trying to beeline for the next big story beat, the city can feel like endless streets of petitioners and punks trying to stop Ryōma from identifying his dad’s killer.

Though the breadth of Ishin‘s minigames could say otherwise, fighting is still Ryōma’s day job. He’s damn good at it too, as combat in Ishin is fluid and frequent. Warriors and bandits won’t hesitate to jump you while exploring, and there are few quests that can be resolved without squaring up to someone. Ishin offers a combat stance for each of Ryōma’s three primary weapons – his fists, sword and pistol – along with a fourth stance, Wild Dancer, that lets you wield both pistol and sword. Each of these styles are brutally efficient, and reward using them situationally: Swordsmen and Brawler excel at getting stuck in with crowds of baddies, while Gunman works wonders for putting holes into club-wielding brutes before they can get close enough to flatten you. For Ishin‘s many boss fights, Wild Dancer – which uses both sword and revolver – feels like the strongest option, as it comes with an easy dodge and rapid attacks that make safely chipping away their health bar a breeze.

Like many of Ishin‘s side stories, there’s an inherent over-the-top silliness to combat. Each style has its own ability tree to specialise into to unlock new moves, while Ishin‘s Heat counter rewards spotless combat with brutal finishing moves that range from shooting someone and stabbing their open bullet hole, to picking someone up and spinning them like a human hammer throw. A few chapters in, and unlocking Trooper Cards (with cameos from Kenny Omega and Rahul Kohli) provide abilities that let you become a hulked-up samurai or electrocute crowds of enemies. In the best way possible, it’s ridiculous. There are some frustrations with Ishin‘s battles, though: random encounters through Kyo can become repetitive, and you need to click through a slugging inventory system to use healing items.

Instead of honing in on a couple of features, though, Ishin is best served as the sum of its parts – a balanced diet of drama, action and comedy that’s designed to pull you through Kyo like a hurricane. It’s yet another victory for Ryu Ga Gotoku, a studio that makes juggling so many tones look easy, but it’s an even bigger win for the players who get to experience it all at once. Karaoke, anyone?

Like A Dragon – Ishin launches on February 21 for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. This review was played on PC. 

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