Sega Details Yakuza 7 Party System, Drink Links in New Gameplay

The first day of IGN’s Summer of Gaming Expo brought us a new look at Yakuza 7, aka Yakuza: Like A Dragon. Though it was still tantalizingly brief, we did get a glimpse at the Yakuza 7 party system and some quirky mini-games, amongst other info.

Yakuza 7‘s city is Yokohama, which is a whopping three times the size of Kamurocho from previous Yakuza games. There are nine districts to explore in total, like Korea Town and the port district. And each district has its own threat level that forces you to strategize differently depending on which area you happen to wander into.

As we mentioned before, Yakuza 7 focuses on a new protagonist, Ichiban Kasuga. In a big new twist, it’s a turn-based RPG, and Sega says the reason for the change is because Ichiban’s story revolves around his friends as much as himself.

The dev team wanted players to experience stories of Ichiban’s friends as well, so they’re playable as party members too. Ichiban has “Drink Links” with characters, much like Persona‘s Confidants, and they relate to his social stats and impact battle.

The whole system is a nod to retro gaming, a particular passion of Ichiban, recognizing properties like Dragon Quest and Ichiban’s overall gaming obsessions. But it remains true to Yakuza‘s action core and includes cameos from other Yakuza characters.

In keeping with traditional RPGs, you can have four characters in your party at once, with two in reserve. There’s a robust class system of 19 different job classes spanning real-life job types too. Each job has a custom outfit and a few variations for how its specific costumes look — not that we got to see any of them today, though.

Yakuza 7 will go all out with the series’ characteristically bizarre mini-games. One of them is Dragon Kart, a kart-racing mini-game complete with missiles and satellites. Then there’s a garbage collecting mini-game, and the fan-favorite business management mode makes a return as well.

Yakuza 7 will launch on all current-gen systems, the Xbox Series family of consoles, and PC on November 10. It will release on PS5 “later.” Stay tuned to GameSkinny for more Yakuza 7 news as it develops.