Yakuza 7 is coming in 2020

• New lead character, Kasuga Ichiban
• Moving from Kamurocho to Yokohama
• Turn-based combat system
• Jan 16, 2020 in Japan. Later in 2020 for US and Europe.

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I'm hyped to see the Yakuza train keeps on rolling, but I still need to play Yakuza 6 (...and all of the remastered PS3 games).

This looks really interesting, the combat especially seems cool, I hope they can keep it interesting for the 40+ hours that these games usually take. But I still have to play all the remasters and 6 and Judgement first.

So it turns out that april fools joke was real huh...

I'm of two minds with this.

On the one hand Yakuza combat was always a bit clunky and mindless but it was also pretty satisfying and fun. It pretty much existed to insert a bit of action between the lengthy story sequences and mini-games. It had it's problems though, you could abuse even the most difficult fights on the hardest difficulties if you had enough healing items, (which you use while paused) granted many games let you brute force fights this way but it took away much of the threat of defeat.

So thats the thing that might make turn based combat interesting as I assume using an item takes a turn much like it does in a JRPG. But personally speaking I find turn-based combat in JRPGs tedious as hell, and the idea of being put in these long fights on a regular basis as i'm roaming the city could be very tiresome. I know people have issues with the Dragon Engine Yakuza games but the thing that they finally nailed was seamlessly going in and out of combat with no loading, Yakuza 0 & Kiwami were half-way there but 6 finally did it. Now it feels like it could be even more laborious.

Either way it's a bold move and I dont blame a studio that's made over 10 of these (counting the spinoffs) for wanting to change things up a bit. I felt the same way with Final Fantasy when it did the opposite of this.

@boozak: It's definitely a bold move. It remains to be seen how well it will turn out, but yeah, it's hard to blame them for wanting to mix things up.

I am fascinated by this idea. It may completely flop but good on them for making a big move.

This feels so bizarre. Why wouldn't they do this in Judgment, which could have been a slow-paced, detective-oriented game? Instead, it was Yakuza with tailing missions. And then to make the next numbered entry a turn-based game, instead of trying it in a spin-off? Seems weird to me.

I still have Yakuza 3, 4, and 5 to play through so I'm in no rush to pick this up, but I can't say it's particularly exciting. Turn-based combat has almost never intrigued me. And like the poster above mentioned, it seems so strange to have finally perfected the seamless open world aspect of the game, which was one of the biggest complaints of the previous games, only to move away from it.

Also, not a huge fan of how the character looks.

Surprised they went with RGG 7 seeing as it seemingly has no connection with Kiryu like the other numbered entries so far. I thought the title was gonna be Shin Ryu Ga Gotoku / Shin Yakuza but no biggie. Had no idea they were gonna use a turn based system but I'm excited to try it, I was never a fan of the combat in 6/2 kiwami myself so I'm glad they aren't continuing that.

I've been a huge fan of Yakuza games since 3 and I'm currently in the midst of my yearly series (main numbered entries only) playthrough. I can't chuffing wait to have a fresh game to sink my teeth into and whatever they wanna try will get a healthy dose of trust and good faith from me.

Glad to see them changing things up a bit and in some smart sounding ways. Looking forward to this.

I’m into Yakuza RPG but the combat seemed to take forever? Hopefully the gameplay is representative of a boss encounter and regular fights are snappy.

It makes me way more interested for sure by changing things up.

I like beat em ups if done well too but I mean anyone trying to be outraged about this is pretty silly given how similar Judgment is.

I don't know how I feel about this. It might "mix things up" but I'm not looking forward to a bunch of turn based battles on my way to Poppo. The beat-em up combat could get tedious but it was still fun. There is a satisfaction of being a late game Kiryu/Yagami and just wrecking anything that comes near you within seconds.

These games are pretty much the only big budget beat-em ups we have out there so it's kind of sad (and I don't see what Judgement has to do with being upset). I assume they'll still make other games with their traditional combat systems. They still have about 10 years of stories they can do between Yak 0 and 1 if they ever want to go back into the old well.

Just had another thought... The recent games have had sort of JRPG combat with some of the mini-games (Majima Construction.) I hope they're a lot more polished than those is all I have to say.

I’m new to Yakuza, but love it.

Played Yakuza Zero last summer and Yakuza Kiwami this summer. I downloaded Yakuza Kiwami 2 last night, and 3-5 are all out this year...

Maybe I can get to Yakuza 7 by 2022? Maybe try to get through two a year?

I think my backlog attack is going to be every other game I play will be a Yakuza game...

The english title will be called Yakuza : Like A Dragon

The japanese title will be Ryu Ga Gotoku 7.

Kinda like Resident Evil 7: Biohazard Lol.

I'm 100% on board. I enjoy the combat in Yakuza games well enough, and I think the recent games mixed it up enough that it wasn't too stale, but after so many games I'm ready for something drastically different. I did not expect that to be turn-based RPG battles, but I fucking love a good turn-based JRPG, so if they can pull that off then I'm all in. (Since we still have Judgment on the side I should be able to get my brawler fix there anyway.)

Mostly I'm just excited someone new take stab at a modern console RPG from a wildly different background than is the norm. This could end up being something really unique and exciting for both Yakuza and RPGs.

...Or it could fall flat. I can't ignore the fact that Yakuza has dabbled in countless different genres over the years and not all of them were successful. Hopefully it's more Cabaret Club than Clan Creator.

Still, I'm all for them taking a risk like this and doing something wildly different. I'd rather see them try this and fail than just play it safe forever with mild iterations.

Switching to turn-based combat is intriguing, but I'll need to see it. My wife loves to watch the Yakuza series, but she hates menu-based games; the needless levels of minute nitpicking at every single number in Three Houses has her completely zone out. The trailer above gives me the same vibes the other Yakuza games gave me, but if the new combat system drags the action too much, I may have to play this one on my lonesome!

Lets just hope they do a better job of switching to turn based combat than they did 3rd person shooting.

Lot of weird feelings towards this move. I think they're right to give Kiryu and Kamurocho and the Tojo a break and freshen up that side of things, but the genre change doesn't evoke the same confidence in me.

@tumbell said:

Great! That's exactly what I want tbh, start a new numbering system and give us Like a Dragon 2 after this one and we finally get the good name which definitely won't cause any FFIII/VI style confusion in future :)

@teddie: whoa, is this a Binary Domain shade I see?

Well, I am not too into this right now. For one, I haven't played through 5 and 6 so not seeing Kiriyu is a bummer in of itself. But this combat system seems....long. I mean I have played of ton of turned based RPG games but that's not really what I want from a new yakuza game.

But hopefully all my doubts are proven wrong and the game is even better than the others. Also, I agree this should have been done with the judgement game first, especially since it was a different type of story that seemed more slow paced.

Yo Persona got weird.

Like on one hand I think the beat 'em up combat is lacking severly in depth and becomes stale after a while but an entire game without it will be super weird.

On the other hand, if there is one developer I would like to se go outside fo their comfort zone it's the Yakuza Team. Actually using your allys in combat will be nice for a change.

They've mentioned DQ heavily but I'm really hoping for some Persona social elements.

All in all I'm down for it.

I understand the trepidation, but the more I think about it the more potential I see in it being really cool. Yakuza's combat is simple fun but has never been great. I am worried about it making average encounters more of a slog, but I have confidence in the Yakuza team creating something with a lot of visual flair. The party system could really liven things up with crazy team attacks and so on.

I Still have to finish Kiwami and the rest of the games. so far i like what i played and seen from this game!

A Yakuza RPG but with the combat mechanics of Legend of Legaia would be incredible.

I was so bummed out for the drastic change of direction this game had that I decided to not buy it. specially since it's the only good 3d beat em up game that still get new releases!

Now, that it's on gamepass I have no excuse so I installed and it's really fun. I didn't like the fighting system though.

But man Ichiban is a loveable and managed to keep me engaged in the game story so far and I could see him as a great main Yakuza character. Although so far he looks to me as an up beat version of Kiryu.