Few franchises manage to successfully reinvent themselves by completely changing their core gameplay mechanics. From the moment Like a Dragon debuted as Yakuza in 2005, the series quickly became associated with fast-paced, beat-em-up style gameplay. Over the course of six more installments, including a prequel and five sequels, the series tweaked and honed its combat system while keeping the fundamental mechanics the same. Then Like a Dragon 7 was released, featuring a brand-new protagonist and, more surprisingly, a brand-new turn-based combat system. This move proved a hit with fans of the series, and the next installment is confirmed to follow suit, with players eager to see how the system can be built upon further.
The Persona franchise's popularity has grown exponentially with each installment, climaxing in its most recent mainline entry, Persona 5, which is widely regarded as one of the greatest turn-based RPG's ever made. As well as its engaging story and wealth of content, the game's combat system was praised for being suitably nuanced while still maintaining a user-friendly UI. With Persona and Like a Dragon's developers, Atlus and Ryu Ga Gotoku respectively, both being subsidiaries of Sega, there is a great opportunity here for the two to swap notes.
Like a Dragon's Turn-Based Combat Still Has Room For Improvement
Despite this being Ryu Ga Gotoku's first foray into the world of turn-based combat, the developer did a remarkable job of completely overhauling Like a Dragon's combat system while still keeping it as engaging and fast-paced as it previously was. The player's party will freely move around in real-time throughout the battle, as will the enemy party, with the player simply selecting from a number of desired actions on each turn. Though this seems like a subtle decision, it's actually a very important one, as the real-time movement of characters helps to keep the player engaged in the battle.
Persona takes a different and slightly more traditional approach, with both parties static on the field of battle and each character only moving when it is their turn to perform an action. Despite this being seen as a relatively old battle system, it still has its merits, with players able to take a measured approach to each turn. The game ensures this does not disrupt the flow of battles either. Persona's protagonist Joker and his friends usually call upon 'Personas' to fight on their behalf, which are actually monsters of varying abilities and strengths. These Personas' move sets increase as they are trained and leveled up, ensuring the player's offensive options are plentiful.
The closest thing Like a Dragon 7 has when it comes to summoning allies to fight for protagonist Ichiban Kasuga and his party is the Poundmates system. This allows Ichiban to pay in-game money to summon an ally into battle, who will unleash a special offensive or defensive move before retreating. Unlike personas, they only stay active for one turn, and some of the 19 available poundmates can cost large sums of money. While this is a fun and quirky system, truthfully the poundmates that can really make a difference are often simply too expensive to afford, so this mechanic in particular could do with an overhaul in the upcoming sequel.
Removing the need for the player to use cash to summon allies, or even expanding the system so that these poundmates can fight alongside the party instead of retreating immediately after one turn, would add a new layer of strategy to Like a Dragon 8's combat. With Persona 6 not yet confirmed but heavily rumored, and other RPG giants like Final Fantasy moving away from turn-based combat, the onus is on Like a Dragon to continue its forward momentum with the next mainline release.
Like a Dragon 8 will launch in 2024 for the PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.