Yakuza: Like a Dragonrecently released for both old-gen and new-gen, though unfortunately, PlayStation 5 owners will have to wait until it releases in March of next year. Though it’s the seventhmainline titlein theYakuzafranchise, this latest title shakes things up but switching genres and presenting fans with an RPG experience instead.
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Yakuzatitles have always offered dense areas for players to explore, with plenty of humor and action to be found throughout the main story and sub-stories. The great thing about these titles is that there are plenty of things players don’t realize they can do until they stumble upon them. Check out these things you likely didn’t know you could do inLike a Dragon.
10Drunken Friendly Fire
As part of the series' transition to an RPG format,Yakuza: Like a Dragonfeaturesturn-based battles, unlike its predecessors in the franchise. There are also a host of other elements from classic RPGs that have been added, such as being able to change your job role, summons, and more.
Despite this, there are still some veryYakuza-esque elements that remain in the game, and one of those is being able to get drunk by consuming too much alcohol. However, what many players don’t realize is that by becoming inebriated, they risk attacking their own party members by accident during battles.
9Listen To Music From Other Games
A rather nice feature inLike a Dragonis that players can collect CDs from various vendors and places and then listen to them in Survive Bar, the hangout of Ichiban and his comrades. Collecting the CDs might cost you a small fortune, but there are a few Part-Time Hero quests that require collecting a certain number of CDs.
What’s interesting is that many of the CDs feature music from other popular game series, such asPersona 5, Phantasy Star Online,Sonic,NiGHTS, and more. Most of these CDs are tied tomini-gamevendors, so players might have to grind a little to get them.
8Demolish Ability
Ichiban can learn the ability “Demolish” which lets him breakthrough objects and barriers in dungeons as well as in the city, uncovering secret areas and hidden items. Unless players are particularly interested in swapping out their job roles, they might never realize this exploration ability exists as it is tied solely to the Foreman job.
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Players don’t need to get the job to acertain levelin order to unlock the ability, they just need to have a Foreman in the party to be able to use it. The Foreman role can only be assigned to male characters.
7Discover Secret Shops
There is more than one hidden shop that players can find, in particular, players will require the Demolish ability in order to unlock them. These shops sell more than just your average wares and specialize in more coveted items, such as items that boost the EXP that characters receive while using certain job roles, and more importantly - gold keys for unlocking gold safes.
It is advised that players should always have a Foreman in their party while exploring the city, and break down any barriers that they see in order to find these rather useful shops, as well as other possible secrets.
6Disable QTE for Better Battle
A tip that comes fromtom’s guide, is that players can disable the action prompts in the game’s options menu. This can then increase their odds of doing more damage, that is if the player happened to be rather poor at Quick Time Events (QTE).
By doing this, rather than the QTE’s deciding the damage/defense based on whether the QTE is successful or fails, the game instead assigns a random value.Like a Dragonseems to be a bit more generous when the QTE’s are disabled, assigning better values than a player might receive if they struggle to achieve QTE timing.
5Recruit Employees on the Street
One of the minigames inYakuza: Like a Dragonis a business management sim and it’s available from chapter five onwards. This minigame sees Ichiban helping out a family with their small confectionery store, with the potential to grow it into a business empire.
Of course, as the business grows, it’ll need new and better employees. Some of these will come naturally through the minigame itself, and others can be bought as DLC. However, players can actually find some employees on thestreets of the city, they’ll have a money icon above their heads. Some of these NPCs will require something before you can hire them, and this is generally a sign that they’re an employee worth having.
4Kick Items at Your Friends
Though the latestYakuzatitle hastaken on the RPG mantleand become turn-based, it still bears some typicalYakuzatraits. In the past, players could pick up environmental items such as crates, bikes, and other objects to attack their enemies with, the same principle remains but it’s a little different.
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Instead of choosing to pick up these items, you have to time your attack and chosen target placement well to ensure the items are between you and your opponent. That way, your character will automatically kick it at the enemy, or pick it up and attack them with it. What many don’t realize is that if an ally is also between you and the enemy, they can be damaged by accident if they are hit by the flying object.
3Discover Hidden Mini-games
Hidden shops aren’t the only interesting areas that players can discover throughout their adventure, there are also hidden gambling areas that unlockmini-gamessuch as Poker, Blackjack, and traditional Japanese card games. There are two different areas that players can find, but unlike other mini-games, they don’t have a sub-story that alerts players to their presence.
The first is a casino accessed through a hidden door in the men’s toilets at Breakwater Drive, next to Chinatown. To gain access, players must speak to the guy just outside the toilets and have Level 4 in Style. The second is a gambling hall found down a ladder on Kinka Bridge, opposite the pharmacy. The path to this area is blocked by two NPCs, but they will allow players to pass as long as they have Level 4 in Confidence.
2Romance Other Characters
As Ichiban, players are actually able to romance other characters, though regrettably not your main party members. It’s not a feature that’s widely explained in the game, if at all, so it’s largely up to players to discover who they can romance.
Examples of romanceable NPCs are Sumire from Romance Workshop, Iroha from Survive Bar, and Ririko from Hello Work. Players may have noticed that when they interact with these characters they get the option to “Chat with” them, and this is where players can begin to build their romantic relationships. Certain stat increases are required at times to further your relationship, as well as gift-giving. Entering into relationships will give Ichiban stat boosts, but if the NPC discovers he’s been cheating on them with another NPC, he’ll lose those stat boosts.
1Defeat the Secret Boss
There is a secret boss inYakuza: Like a Dragonthat can only be found once players have completed the game, as it is only then that the Final Millennium Towerdungeonis accessible. The boss is Shin Amon, a member of the Amon clan - a group of secret assassins that have featured throughout theYakuzafranchise as super bosses.
Interestingly, this isn’t Shin Amon’s first appearance, as he also appeared in the franchise’s spin-off title,Judgmentwhere he also served as a secret boss. It is likely both games have the same “Amon” character due to being close in time settings, asJudgmenttakes place in 2018, andLike a Dragonmainly takes place in 2019.
