8 Best Games Similar To Like A Dragon: Ishin

Like a Dragon: Ishin! is a mix of Yakuza and samurai. Fans of Sega’s game should try these other games.

When Ryu Ga Gotoku: Ishin! came out in 2014, the world for Yakuza fans in the West wasn’t so great. Yakuza 5 wouldn’t come out until 2012, and it would only be available digitally. Ishin, on the other hand, would only be available in Japan. Sega didn’t think a samurai game with a lot of Japanese history would do well outside of Japan.

Then, at the end of the 2010s, the series took off, with Yakuza: Like a Dragon, the Judgment games, and re-releases of the older games selling much better. Enough for Sega to re-release it as Like a Dragon: Ishin. New looks, new minigames, and the same fun with swords! But what can players do when this long-awaited game is over? If they liked Ishin, they should like these suggestions as well.

Yakuza 0

The game takes place about 150 years after Ishin, in the 1980s, when feudalism was much less common. But this book is the reason why the series went from being a cult favorite to a classic. The open-world gameplay in Yakuza 0 was mostly perfected. There were a lot of fun minigames, and the mix of drama and comedy was handled with a lot of charm. It seems like people talk too much about how popular it is, but the Ishin remaster is proof of that.

Characters from the first game were given new looks and voices by characters from the games that came after it. The most famous are the Japanese actors Hitoshi Ozawa, Riki Takeuchi, and Hideo Nakano, who have all played bad guys before, including Kuze, Awano, and Shibusawa. The excitement is real, and their shows are a big part of it.

Ghost of Tsushima

Ishin left Japan in part so he could make a lot of money with Yakuza 0. Ghost of Tsushima, a game by Sucker Punch Productions about a samurai defending Tsushima Island from the Mongols, may also have helped. It stands out because it is a samurai game made in the West that feels real. Or at least its characters and setting were real enough to impress Toshihiro Nagoshi, who made Yakuza.

The game is also open-world, but it’s more like Assassin’s Creed because it has bigger areas and a mix of direct attacks and “Ghost” mode attacks that are sneakier. The side quests aren’t as strange as Kiryu’s, but the main story, which is about revenge and honor, is a fun adventure that makes the trip worthwhile.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

If players like the setting of Ishin and Tsushima, which is feudal Japan, but want a harder game, they will know what to expect from this one. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which was made by FromSoftware, is a lot like Dark Souls with a samurai theme.

It doesn’t have multiplayer or the ability to make your own character like the Souls games. Instead, players take control of Wolf, a warrior who wants revenge for his dead master.

But the game makes up for this with a large skill tree and a lot of ways to improve your gear. Also, it has a unique way of playing where the player has to throw enemies off balance in order to kill them. After Dark Souls and Elden Ring, which were both set in the Middle Ages, Sekiro might be a nice change of pace.

Nioh 2

Team Ninja brought Ryu Hayabusa back from the NES in Dead or Alive and the Ninja Gaiden reboot. With the Nioh series, they gave the samurai a try. The first game has its fans, but the Action-RPG formula of the second game is better. The new yokai-human main character, Hide, can be changed by the player, and “Soul Cores” from enemies can be used to unlock new skills.

The story is better because Hide is trying to stop Kashin Koji and his yokai partner, Otakemaru. It’s also pretty hard, and you can buy three more campaigns as DLC. It has a lot to do and is hard enough for people who don’t want their games to be too easy.

Muramasa: The Demon Blade

This one might be a little hard to find, since it’s a 2009 Wii game with a 2013 PS Vita port that didn’t blow anyone away. Even back then, this brawler got good reviews, and it’s likely that it would do better now than when it came out. Why? Because Muramasa is a side-scrolling 2D beat ’em up. And this type of game has become popular again in the last few years.

Momohime, a princess who is possessed by a samurai, and Kisuke, an amnesiac ninja. Try to stop Tsunayoshi Tokugawa from gathering the Demon Blades. It makes things more interesting by adding RPG elements like side quests, cooking dishes to improve your stats. And a skill tree for making new, stronger weapons. If newer brawlers haven’t satisfied your need to fight, Muramasa: The Demon Blade might be worth turning on your old Wii for.

Onimusha series

Capcom really gave up on this series. Onimusha: Warlords is an HD remake of the first game for the PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Switch. But its more polished follow-ups haven’t left the PS2. The series started out as a Resident Evil game set in the Sengoku period. It is a hack-and-slash game where a swordsman fights Genma, which are demons.

Onimusha’s main characters, Samanosuke, Jubei, and Ski, have to be controlled with more care than in Devil May Cry. They have less to do with Smokin’ Sick Style combos and more to do with puzzles and careful hits. Still, they have a wide range of weapons at their disposal, from katanas to broadswords, to keep the action going. They can also get a lot of genma souls to give them a boost.

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun

Shadow Tactics: BotS is an RTS game set in the Sengoku era for people who like their action to be even more planned out. The mysterious warlord “Kage-sama” must be stopped by the samurai Oshiro Mugen, the ninja Hayato, the thief Yuki, the sharpshooter Takuma, and Mugen’s kunoichi lover.

The player has to move their units around the level while avoiding enemies to get key information, steal important documents or items, save trapped allies, and kill or capture targets. They can hide in the dark and take advantage of their surroundings. But if they aren’t careful, it can also work against them. There are birds and people who can make noise if they are startled. And any bodies (alive or dead) must be hidden so that the other guards don’t find out.

Ryu Ga Gotoku: Kenzan!

Lastly, Ryu Ga Gotoku: Kenzan! was the first game in the series to be set in Japan’s past. 8 Ball Pool was also the first HD game, as it came out before Yakuza 3 on the PS3. It showed how the famous warrior Miyamoto Musashi lived after the war, using the name “Kazumanosuke Kiryu” as a fake name. Things change when a young girl asks him to kill a man who says he is Musashi. He agrees, even if it’s just to find out why someone is pretending to be him.

Fans thought that since this game was so old, it would get a remaster before its spiritual PS4 successor. Sega could have just translated the Ishin language and left it at that. Kenzan needs a little more work to make it as good as the rest of the series, given how hard it is and how it tells a story. But if players know Japanese or have a translation guide. They can still have a lot of fun with the mix of brawling and slicing that is typical of old-school Yakuza.