It’s stylish, it’s mental, and it has enough scripted cutscenes within it to make Hideo Kojima think about joining Sega: I freakin’ love the Yakuza games. They’re fantastic slices of action and story, but even I have to admit that Sega’s underworld series about gangsters getting into trouble isn’t exactly for everyone.
Heck, even the latest Yakuza game may not be for longtime fans, due to it taking a Streets of Mage approach to the established combat of the series. Yakuza games do have an audience though, and now that Yakuza: Like a Dragon has been out on the streets for a while, the lifetime sales for the game series are looking very healthy.
According to the house of Sonic, the lifetime sales of the Yakuza series is now at 14 million copies sold across all titles. The last two years have been particularly impressive, with a 20% growth after the release of Yakuza 6: The Song of Life that saw the series hit the 11 million sales mark back in 2018. Sega reckons that the Japanese flavour of the Yakuza series has been a big draw, especially with western audiences looking for some digital touring of the land of the rising sun according to PC Gamer.
Moving forward, nothing seems to be changing regarding how the game is distributed outside of Japan: Multiple platforms, multiple services, and plenty of digital distribution.
“Ichiban Kasuga and his pals are an entertaining lot, the game has plenty of style, and even though the combat devolves into an ungodly grind, it’s a flashy new start to one of Sega’s best franchises,” one devilishly handsome reviewer whose name rhymes with ‘Sharon’ said in his review.
If we have an award this year for the best dude in gaming, I think Ichi’s a lock to win it.
Last Updated: November 30, 2020
MechMachine
November 30, 2020 at 10:48
I was watching a little game-play here and there as you do. It’s such a bonkers game. Not for me, especially the turn based stuff. But it’s a cool game. So wacky. The dance fighting was really funny to see.