Every Yakuza Game Ranked From Worst To Best
Yakuza, Judgment, Like A Dragon and more.
The Yakuza games is a franchise that was always considered niche in the West, until more recently, it reached mainstream popularity. With the perfect blend of serious melodrama, over-the-top action and goofy minigames, the series has finally grabbed the hearts of players worldwide.
A key factor to this is Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's commitment to releasing titles at a steady pace, whilst maintaining a high level of quality. The result has led to each entry building upon the previous one; perfecting what worked while fixing what didn't. Of course, another big appeal is the franchise's unabashed look at Japanese culture, which feels like a digital travelogue for international gamers.
2023 is a big year for the franchise. Just recently, Like A Dragon: Ishin was remastered and ported to modern consoles, while two new entries, Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name and Like A Dragon 8 are also coming soon.
It's fitting then, that the time has come to rank each entry in the series from worst to best. These will consist of the mainline console games, the period-specific spin offs, and the Judgment series.
15. Yakuza: Dead Souls (2011)
By the early 2010s, the zombie shooter craze was in full effect with titles like Left 4 Dead and Dead Island on the market. RGG Studio attempted to capitalize on this with the release of Yakuza: Dead Souls in 2011.
A big problem here is that the Yakuza franchise is known for its beat-em-up fighting mechanics, and Dead Souls makes the big mistake of abandoning it for a third-person shooter instead. Though this addition is fitting due to the change of pace, shooting itself is poorly implemented as combat feels clunky and imprecise.
And while combat takes the brunt of the criticism surrounding Dead Souls, that's not the end of it, as enemy encounters also feel tedious, due to players having to monotonously fight waves of zombies. Finally, Dead Souls has fewer amounts of side-content and substories which have been a staple in the Yakuza games since day one.
Yakuza: Dead Souls unfortunately has the dishonour of being the rare misstep in an otherwise consistent franchise. Though its attempt at trying something new is admirable, the execution was sorely lacking.