In an interview with IGN right before todays announcement Toshihiro Nagoshi confirmed that going forward the mainline Yakuza games will be an RPG. This confirms what many already speculated that there’ll be more yakuza games and Judgment will likely live on as it’s own series past these two titles.
“The Yakuza series has been transformed into a turn-based RPG. On the other hand, over the years, Ryu ga Gotoku Studio has accumulated resources and know-how of making flashy and exhilarating action games that are effortless to enjoy. We decided that we should let our signature action gameplay live on through Lost Judgment.”
[source]
That’s really disappointing news. I skipped Yakuza 7 after thinking that I’d never miss an opportunity to play a new Yakuza game. People kept saying the turn-based combat was just a one-off thing. I guess that I’m in the minority and that most people really enjoy turn-based combat in order for it to have stuck.
I’m actually with you. I’d rather they go back to the action style. I did see a poll on GameFAQs with the majority going towards action style.
I have never missed a single western Yakuza game. But this latest Yakuza 7 RPG style puts me to sleep a bit during battles especially with the challenges that I want to complete. I’m just starting to just turn on auto battle mode. With action style, it feels more stimulating on the mind to customize my attack combos. With RPG, once you learn all the enemy weaknesses, it’s just too damn redundant.
I saw Lost Judgement and I’m more hyped for that than Yakuza 8. I’ll still get Yakuza 8 though, but man, what a bummer.
Being a hardcore fan of the series since the very first Yakuza on PS2….this is disappointing.
I never even tried Yakuza 7 since honestly, I’m not the biggest fan of RPG style games and thought this would be just a 1 off game in the series like the Zombie game…..guess not.
Judgement on the other hand is more enjoyable for me, but I also can’t seem to get into it as the past games since I still haven’t even beat the first one haha.
Anyways, I just feel like Yakuza 0-6 were so special. Kind of sucks that they don’t do any cross overs in Judgement making Kamurocho feel more familiar.