Some Info About Dragon Ishin

hey and we’re back with another episode of before you buy that show we give you some straight up gameplay and our first impressions of the latest games releasing and today we’re talking about like a dragon ishin this is a special one uh full disclosure for me I’ve been really looking forward to this I love this series I’m not a die-hard like I haven’t finished every single one of them but I just love them and I love what they do ishin is technically a remake of a 2014 PS3 PS4 spin-off Yakuza game that was only released in Japan I remember seeing it and going wait wait I want to play that one I say that specifically because it’s a kiru style Yakuza game but set in 1860s-ish Japan in Kyoto during the end of the Edo period there are guns and katanas that’s all I needed to hear to be honest so now spending time with this cleaned up rebuilt localized version I’ll say it might not be my favorite in the series but it is absolutely special and worth experiencing if you like these games it may even be a good entry point but I’ll get to that we’ve been playing a review copy so you know on PlayStation 5 that’s where this was captured and all of this footage is going to be spoiler free now I say it’s a good entry point because it’s a spin-off kind of remix game it takes the characters and faces of the franchise

and tosses them into a period drama based on actual history kid who isn’t kiddo he’s actually a totally different guy some enemies are kind of now allies some friends are a little different and uh majima is still kind of majima but that’s that’s fine if you’re a fan of the series or even just dabbled it’s fun to see who pops up but if you’re new you’re getting fresh new characters in a new story that doesn’t connect to anything so you can just hop in it has a backdrop of a period of fear and frustration in Japan over leadership and rigid class systems and the influence of foreigners coming over and a bit more but it’s mainly centered around the player character Sakamoto ryoma’s quest to find his adopted father’s killer which of course rolls into way more are involving local politics criminals new friends and your sworn brother it’s part Revenge part joining the enemy to infiltrate and part dramatic soap opera and it all works really really well characters are compelling and cool and the twists are pretty good the only big caveat here though is that it is an extremely slow start like of all the Leica dragon games I’ve experienced some of them start pretty slow but this one took quite some time to really get it it sucks in me personally first it takes a minute for the story to actually pick up and get to it and for the cool crazy stuff to happen the early hours are a lot of starts and stops walk a few’s feet another cut scene a character tells you something now this is something I recently criticized with forespoken full disclosure but the difference here is that the characters are interesting and engaging so even where there’s not too much happening in the story it may seem

at the start you still feel like you want to see where it goes and once it gets is going it really gets going with some damn memorable moments like I’m talking naked wrestling in a sauna with another dude and it’s hilarious and over the top the game throws a lot of characters at you though and some of them kind of feel wasted or just like the rown in where there’s just too many characters just for the sake of it other games in the series struggled with this a bit for me personally too but yeah if you can’t remember a character don’t worry it moves through some of them pretty quick sometimes the other thing that made it take a few hours to really get going is that the combat starts pretty limited it at first feels kind of repetitive and stiff it takes some upgrading to really get good but when it’s good it’s a good brawler you could swap on the Fly between one of four Styles there’s the brawler you know your basic like a dragon boxing combos with your fists as well as grabbing people and grabbing stuff in the environment to knock them over the head with that all never gets old then there’s the swordsman which is the classic Katana stance with sword attacks of block and parry and a block break kind of good for one-on-one within this you can also have variations like a heavier Katana then there’s the gunman which is just you have a gun and you shoot people you can shoot while moving and also take advantage of a powerful Special ammo attack with different attributes like a blasting a dude and setting them on fire and like with The Swordsman uh like with getting different katanas you can also get

and craft different guns too then there’s wild dancer the one I think everybody is gonna find the most fun it’s the most chaotic too like you can’t block but this is the fast maneuverable one and you’re using a sword and a gun at the same time spinning around blasting slashing and you get a little bit of The Best of Both Worlds with this one and uh it can sometimes work good with crowds or just certain specific bosses once you figure them out it’s really cool in action and it’s just cool as hell to see now all these Styles have heat actions you know the meter you fill up to get glowy and then you unleash more power powerful attacks and their charged attacks cool cinematic attacks contextual attacks like tossing someone into a river and it’s all Yakuza stuff you might be used to now it starts off like I said extremely simple and feels a bit stiff and limited like I said but uh through using the different styles and progressing you earn points to spend in skill trees for each specific style and you get access to more types of heat executions more attack power more Health Access to spin-off moves and different weapons within certain Styles so dump points in and you are open to way more combos running moves heat stuff and it just gets way stronger the combat feels much better and then it’s just a good old-fashioned beat em up good time it’s why I really love this series and it can be pretty challenging too like some of the bosses are no joke now get a little bit into the game you’re involved with the main fighting force of the shogunate so uh you actually can recruit and utilize some underlings in battle in

like a low-key kind of card system that gives you power massive and active things to that trigger during a fight like a stun blast or more Health it’s weird but it’s like a little bit of a collectible type thing it works and the game also lets you take these crew members and send them out on little submissions with you that like you can dictate on a menu where you’ll just go through a quick little small rendered scene and fight your way through we’ve seen this in tons of games and it’s all just kind of busy stuff but it’s a bit different here it’s got their own spin on it also one of the biggest positives uh ishin has a really good sense of place just like how the other games just take a few little city blocks and makes them dense and force you to really spend tons of time in it to get to know the streets they do it again here but it’s got such a cool different Flair to it this is not camberocho you see some beautiful Market stall line streets you see some of the seedier rundown areas the docks the countryside and all of it is beautiful in a way you don’t really see in the other games in the series too much like remember how that coastal town felt like a breath of fresh air and Yakuza seven man this Keo and the other regions here really really pop graphically it has its moments but up close it looks a little bit old

sometimes it’s an older gen game underneath after all I mean main characters look pretty damn good but random NPCs and Side characters often look like they were forgotten with some weird textures they put the work in elsewhere environments are pretty good looking the game performs smoothly the different times of day looked nice there’s some good visual effects but the cracks do tend to show every so often those streets though are filled with different businesses to take advantageof you’re eating for health you’re buying items you’re also crafting and leveling up and customizing your weapons at a blacksmith and for patronizing certain businesses you actually build relationships with vendors and chefs and sellers and you can get more dialogue and side quests and bonuses from them sub stories are of course what they call side quests they are everywhere these are for me kind of the bread and butter of these games where the charm is really hidden almost every 10 feet in the towns you stumble across someone who lost their dog or got broken up with or are getting mugged or even weirder stuff side quests are all over the place from quick and boring to extremely hilarious to pretty lengthy sometimes they even get a heartwarming message at the end these sub stories net you rewards of course but they also just paint a better picture of the world and the people that live in it a little bit more of your character Sakamoto little bits about farters the poverty within the culture and other good nuggets are in here and you can spend like 40 hours main quests and side quests bopping around

being everybody’s Helper but it’s surprisingly satisfying especially if you like reading but the game Embraces just checking things out praying at shrines talking to NPCs patronizing businesses by rewarding you with virtue that you can spend at shrines to unlock a better Sprint more inventory capacity better reputations in different districts and house upgrades oh yeah you also also have a homestead you essentially kind of take a house from a little girl whose parents died it’s you know it’s nicer than that but it’s complicated and weird anyway uh you can stop here and rest and store items and eventually get animals and then there’s also a farming system where you can grow crops and sell them for a profit there are a lot of ingredients in this game in menus and stuff and then there’s also a cooking minigame you can take advantage of so I kind of buried the lead here but yes the game is from this studio so of course there are some funny mini games that’s honestly always a selling point for some people uh this is just really another quirky fun like a dragon game it is a serious compelling drama with fun arcade style

beat em up gameplay that sometimes dips its toes into absurdity and comedy and like many others in the series it just walks a really fun fine line between the two it starts pretty slow and some people might just prefer the modern day crime stuff but this is another good one like that’s it they also put out a demo for it which I commend them for doing that I love demos coming back now if you love this series it’s probably a no-brainer for you at some point depending on your wallet even with these flaws uh if you’re a new player I’d start with this or zero but hey that’s just me this is a before you buy you know how this works by now I give you some pros some cons and some personal opinion and now I want to hear yours down in the comments I would very much love to hear your experience with the series where do you think is a good starting point for people who’ve never gotten into it have you been looking forward to this did you somehow manage to play the Japanese version from back in the day let’s talk about anything ishin down in the comments if you enjoyed this video and maybe it helped just kind of educate your purpose you know give you some Impressions and stuff like that clicking the like button is all you got to do it really helps us thank you but I’m Jake baldino thanks for ra and see you guys next time .