As of Day 2 of E3 2021, the main series of Yakuza games is now on Xbox Game Pass, including Yakuza: Like a Dragon. While the news of Yakuza: Like a Dragon coming to Game Pass leaked slightly before it was formally announced at the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase, the official reveal still packed a hard-hitting new trailer.
This 1-minute trailer does an excellent job of cramming the appeal of the Yakuza games, particularly Yakuza: Like a Dragon, into a short run-time. From the over-the-top violent combat to the equally over-the-top JRPG aesthetic to the sight of hardened career criminals getting up to surprisingly comedic shenanigans, this game has a lot to bring to Xbox Game Pass. Yakuza: Like a Dragon was also one of Metacritic's top 10 JRPGs for 2020, which is impressive, as it's the first game in the mainline Yakuza franchise to stray into the JRPG genre.
The whole game is a humorous send-up of both JRPG tropes and imagery and the Yakuza series itself, but that hasn't kept it from being well received. Yakuza: Like a Dragon is full of funny side stories, flashy combat, and an intricate story of corruption, redemption, and coping with the stresses of life through video games. It's no wonder that Microsoft opted to bring it over to Xbox Game Pass today.
Some fans have argued that the rest of the Yakuza series should follow in the path of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, leaving its past as a beat 'em up series and continue forward as a series of turn-based RPGs. Yakuza: Like a Dragon was certainly one of the strangest and most effective JRPGs of 2020. If the series does go in a turn-based RPG direction, there's precedent for it to be good. New protagonist Ichiban Kasuga's personal connection to JRPGs gives the mechanic change some thematic weight as well. However, it may be difficult for the franchise as a whole to leave behind its combo-based roots.
The future of the Yakuza series is currently in question, but the simultaneous release of Lost Judgement may say something about how Yakuza 8 will be launched. Lost Judgement is the second installment of a new Yakuza spin-off series and it received a simultaneous worldwide release, meaning that western fans didn't have to worry about avoiding spoilers before they even had a chance to play. Yakuza: Like a Dragon released in English a full 10 months after its original Japanese release. A simultaneous release for Yakuza 8 may please fans regardless of where they stand on the beat 'em up vs turn-based combat debate.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.