The game also has a card system allowing for special moves. It's not perfect – the camera often works against you in cramped areas, too many enemies hit you from behind when you're not looking, and one late-game setpiece level is frustratingly annoying – but when it works, Ishin's combat is greatly satisfying. And occasionally, I'd move to a gun-only stance to damage far-away targets. I'd then switch to the more deliberate swordsman fighting style for massive damage to singled-out enemies. I'd often start with the fast-paced sword and gun stance for quick damage and crowd control. You have four fighting styles, each with its strengths, weaknesses, and skill trees, and I like switching between the four continuously mid-combat. Ryoma is a master swordsman but also proficient with guns and hand-to-hand fighting. I love my little house and wish I lived there instead of in Minneapolis.Ĭombat, of course, makes up the vast majority of Ishin's gameplay, and for the most part, it's great, reverting back to the active combat of RGG games before 2020's Yakuza: Like a Dragon's turn-based gameplay. I especially enjoyed Ishin's slice-of-life minigames, where you share a house with Haruka, tending crops, learning cooking, raising animals, and so on. That's not to say the substories aren't good they are. I understand these are most people's favorite parts of the Yakuza games, but, as I always do, I found it incredibly annoying being sometimes stopped five or more times on my way to one nearby location so every side quest in the area could play out. Luckily, you only have to sit through the introductory cutscenes and not play the entire quest until you want to. Like in other RGG games, substories automatically play when you're close enough to the mission-giver – whether you want them to or not. That said, the game's never-ending supply of substories and sidequests often make those peaceful journeys a headache. I often strolled around the world in first-person, marveling at the sprawling shopping and drinking areas, quiet suburban communities, and twisting back alleys. Taking place in Kyo (modern-day Kyoto), a meticulous amount of detail brings the 1860s to life. Ishin's historical setting creates one of the best open worlds in the series. And I don't particularly like the ending, which, without spoilers, gets uncharacteristically meta with a curious message. There is a somewhat-helpful glossary, but even then, the game expects you to have at least a cursory knowledge of about 100 years of Japanese history on top of following RGG's trademark complex narratives. On the other hand, keeping track of Ishin's ever-twisting story is, at times, like trying to balance 100 spinning plates on just two hands. Takaya Kuroda's performance as Ryoma is excellent as always, and it's great seeing Riki Takeuchi ( Dead or Alive, His Motorbike, Her Island ), Hitoshi Ozawa ( Gozu, Boiling Point ), and Hideo Nakano (the Outrage series) back in an RGG game after their fantastic roles in Yakuza 0. Ishin is also one of the better-written RGG games, with impressively directed cutscenes – some of the best in the studio’s catalog – that always kept me engaged. These familiar faces helped me instantly adhere – or despise – characters, as I was already used to their personality traits I quickly became devoted to alliances, individuals, and plot threads before they even picked up steam. Ishin's cast uses the faces and personalities of Yakuza mainstay characters to represent its actual historical figures. For example, Ryoma is series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu, but there's also Goro Majima, Taiga Saejima, and even a few newer characters I won't spoil here. It's a gripping drama, if an unwieldy one at times. But of course, as these things go, Ryoma ends up in the middle of a much larger plot, impressively finding time to both seek out his revenge and effect great change to the country's entire political system – as one does. Using the fake alias Saitō Hajime, Sakamoto infiltrates the Shinsengumi, a police force organized to help control Kyoto at this time, searching for the killer of his adopted father. You play as Sakamoto Ryoma – a real-life historical figure – who, amid his own revenge scheme, finds himself embroiled in the tumultuous socio-political climate of the era. Ishin takes place in the 1860s, at the end of Japan's Edo period. And yet, despite the age of its skeleton, in some ways, the game stands out as one of the more impressive games in developer Ryu Ga Gotoku's (RGG) portfolio – even with a few noticeable weak points. It's a remake of an old game – 2014's Ryu Ga Gotoku: Ishin, released only in Japan on the PS3 and PS4.
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