A Delightfully Fun Samurai Game

Like a Dragon: Ishin! is a spinoff of Sega's hugely popular Yakuza series, and while English-speaking fans may be seeing this title for the first time, Ishin is not a new game.

- Captain Grover

It is a remake of a PS3 title of the same name that was given a Japan-only release back in 2014. Like a Dragon: Ishin is set in the late 1880s, during the last days of Japan's Edo period. Gamers take on the role of Sakamoto Ryoma, a low-ranked samurai who quickly finds himself embroiled in Japan’s power and political struggles, as the country teeters on the cusp of modernisation. Within the first hour of the game, Ryoma loses his adoptive father to an assassination, is accused of the killing, and ends up on the run, taking on a false identity as Saito Hajime to avoid detection by his pursuers. Ryoma soon finds himself involved with the Shinsengumi, a group that served as a special police force for Japan’s samurai-run Bakufu government at the time.

If the names Sakamoto Royma, Saito Hajime, and the Shinsengumi do not ring a bell, you are not alone. The stories also require an in-depth understanding of Japan’s premodern history and political events to fully understand. As a bit of a Japanese history nerd (I did major in East Asian history in college after all), I was happy to play a game based on this very interesting and turbulent period of Japanese history. However, some other gamers I know, including a close friend and a cousin, found Ishin’s story hard to follow because of the many historical references used throughout the tale.