5 ms·

Surprised Like A Dragon sales are lower than others. Been gaming since a kid in the 90s, and it easily ranked in my top 10. It's an instant classic.

pacifika 1y ago
They renamed it from Yakuza, so it lost name recognition, not surprisingly.
- m4rtink 1y ago
  Isn't it the other way around, woth "like a dragon" being the actual japanese name of those games ?
  - shinymark 1y ago
    You’re right but it was called Yakuza in the west for many years. I don’t know if they made the right decision or not renaming it but it is interesting to consider if it made an impact in one way or another on sales.
3eb7988a1663 1y ago
I have enjoyed a couple in the series, but they are a bit hard to recommend. All of the story lines are anime-ridiculous, have a mixture of fun and grindy minigames (the business development loses its luster pretty quickly), and a lot of trapsing around the map doing fetch quests for the lost soul du jour. If you want a great story, it is weak. Looking for a great tactics game, it is weak. The combination of gameplay styles is a ridiculous ride, but I can see how the genre mashup has limited appeal.
- npinsker 1y ago
  The fantasy being sold (playing as a ragtag crew of 45yo, relatively normal, down-on-their-luck men) probably doesn’t help either.
  - throwaway743 1y ago
    That's part of what makes it hilarious and charming.
extraduder_ire 1y ago
That whole series is pretty niche in the grand scale of things. Still does decently for a game that releases a sequel every year or two.
- throwaway743 1y ago
  The series is niche but like a dragon is way different than the rest of the series. The fact it's a turn based jrpg alone would make one think it'd be more appealing but guess that it gets glossed over because of assumptions people might have due to the style of the rest of the series
marginalia_nu 1y ago
I think the west has been sleeping on the series a bit. Infinite Wealth (although arguably a weaker entry) seems to be selling better, plausibly an effect Like A Dragon being a bit of a sleeper hit that managed to penetrate the western markets a bit. Was probably strategically smart to reboot the series a bit with Kasuga. Makes it a bit more approachable.
propter_hoc 1y ago
Speaking personally as a JRPG fanatic, I've taken a look at the series a bunch of times on Steam, and there are so many obstacles to getting into it: - where do I start? There's a dozen titles and no clear entry point - supposedly the series' genre changed over time? So if you like it in one game it might be a different game in a sequel - it looks weirdly unserious? Like much of the advertising focuses on doing bizarre side activities rather than any actual plot-driven message - all this on top of having a very non-traditional environment for an RPG which already is a bit of a hurdle in messaging what the game will be like It's just very unclear from the outside how to get started with this series, and what I'll get if I do pick one to try.
- 3eb7988a1663 1y ago
  I think your read is right on the money. There is an overall plot to the games, but the reason to play is in all of the ridiculous side quests, which are decidedly not serious: "Help this naked guy who forgot his clothes", "Help this guy make baby formula", "Stop the roomba gone rogue", etc The games are a mashup of genres, but it is only the latest one which leans so heavily into the RPG aspects. Prior installments are more "fist fight dudes" core gameplay.
- zerocrates 1y ago
  Just speaking of genres and starting points: if you're looking at the series from the perspective of wanting a JRPG (and here I'm assuming you mean that you want something turn-based), then you'd want to start with Yakuza: Like a Dragon, which is the first turn-based game in the series and one that introduces a new protagonist. The sequel, Infinite Wealth, is the same style of game. Pretty much any other Yakuza game you're going to see will be more action-focused and have real-time battles, but still with RPG elements. Yakuza 0 is a commonly-suggested starting point for the action-based entries or the series as a whole; it's a prequel but one that still works well as a place to start.
- throwaway743 1y ago
  Like a dragon is different than the rest of the series. It's turn based, focused on Ichiban, and it's meant to be ridiculous. The main character essentially hallucinates that he's a character in dragon quest and the bad guys you encounter at first look normal but transform into "sujimon"/monsters during encounters. The core gameplay is really fun, the writing is top notch (first like a dragon > infinite wealth tho), character classes/"jobs" picked out at an unemployment center are fun/funny, your "mage" is a homeless guy who summons pigeons to attack and uses a bottle of alcohol which he spews into a lighter to cast flames, and the mini games are just there if you want to play them and many are fun.
tmjwid 1y ago
It's always on GamePass as well, I'm not sure if this counts as a sale in these figures. Although I don't think Infinite Wealth was though so not sure.

pacifika 1y ago

They renamed it from Yakuza, so it lost name recognition, not surprisingly.

m4rtink 1y ago
Isn't it the other way around, woth "like a dragon" being the actual japanese name of those games ?
- shinymark 1y ago
  You’re right but it was called Yakuza in the west for many years. I don’t know if they made the right decision or not renaming it but it is interesting to consider if it made an impact in one way or another on sales.

3eb7988a1663 1y ago

I have enjoyed a couple in the series, but they are a bit hard to recommend. All of the story lines are anime-ridiculous, have a mixture of fun and grindy minigames (the business development loses its luster pretty quickly), and a lot of trapsing around the map doing fetch quests for the lost soul du jour. If you want a great story, it is weak. Looking for a great tactics game, it is weak. The combination of gameplay styles is a ridiculous ride, but I can see how the genre mashup has limited appeal.

npinsker 1y ago
The fantasy being sold (playing as a ragtag crew of 45yo, relatively normal, down-on-their-luck men) probably doesn’t help either.
- throwaway743 1y ago
  That's part of what makes it hilarious and charming.

extraduder_ire 1y ago

That whole series is pretty niche in the grand scale of things. Still does decently for a game that releases a sequel every year or two.

throwaway743 1y ago
The series is niche but like a dragon is way different than the rest of the series. The fact it's a turn based jrpg alone would make one think it'd be more appealing but guess that it gets glossed over because of assumptions people might have due to the style of the rest of the series

marginalia_nu 1y ago

I think the west has been sleeping on the series a bit. Infinite Wealth (although arguably a weaker entry) seems to be selling better, plausibly an effect Like A Dragon being a bit of a sleeper hit that managed to penetrate the western markets a bit. Was probably strategically smart to reboot the series a bit with Kasuga. Makes it a bit more approachable.

propter_hoc 1y ago

Speaking personally as a JRPG fanatic, I've taken a look at the series a bunch of times on Steam, and there are so many obstacles to getting into it: - where do I start? There's a dozen titles and no clear entry point - supposedly the series' genre changed over time? So if you like it in one game it might be a different game in a sequel - it looks weirdly unserious? Like much of the advertising focuses on doing bizarre side activities rather than any actual plot-driven message - all this on top of having a very non-traditional environment for an RPG which already is a bit of a hurdle in messaging what the game will be like It's just very unclear from the outside how to get started with this series, and what I'll get if I do pick one to try.

3eb7988a1663 1y ago
I think your read is right on the money. There is an overall plot to the games, but the reason to play is in all of the ridiculous side quests, which are decidedly not serious: "Help this naked guy who forgot his clothes", "Help this guy make baby formula", "Stop the roomba gone rogue", etc The games are a mashup of genres, but it is only the latest one which leans so heavily into the RPG aspects. Prior installments are more "fist fight dudes" core gameplay.
zerocrates 1y ago
Just speaking of genres and starting points: if you're looking at the series from the perspective of wanting a JRPG (and here I'm assuming you mean that you want something turn-based), then you'd want to start with Yakuza: Like a Dragon, which is the first turn-based game in the series and one that introduces a new protagonist. The sequel, Infinite Wealth, is the same style of game. Pretty much any other Yakuza game you're going to see will be more action-focused and have real-time battles, but still with RPG elements. Yakuza 0 is a commonly-suggested starting point for the action-based entries or the series as a whole; it's a prequel but one that still works well as a place to start.
throwaway743 1y ago
Like a dragon is different than the rest of the series. It's turn based, focused on Ichiban, and it's meant to be ridiculous. The main character essentially hallucinates that he's a character in dragon quest and the bad guys you encounter at first look normal but transform into "sujimon"/monsters during encounters. The core gameplay is really fun, the writing is top notch (first like a dragon > infinite wealth tho), character classes/"jobs" picked out at an unemployment center are fun/funny, your "mage" is a homeless guy who summons pigeons to attack and uses a bottle of alcohol which he spews into a lighter to cast flames, and the mini games are just there if you want to play them and many are fun.

tmjwid 1y ago

It's always on GamePass as well, I'm not sure if this counts as a sale in these figures. Although I don't think Infinite Wealth was though so not sure.