Yakuza: Like a Dragon – Combat Guide (Tips, Tricks, & Strategies)

Yakuza: Like A Dragon takes the fast-paced, violent, and hilarious world of Yakuza, updates it, and gives it a whole new combat style. While there are fans who enjoyed the action-based combat system of the previous title, the RPG turn-based combat of Like A Dragon has shown players that strategic fights can be just as aggressive and frenetic.

The combat on offer here is turn-based but isn’t quite in the realm of real-time strategy. The characters are always in motion, and players must still make quick choices to stay in control. This makes for a deeply entertaining combat system that is full of variety. Here are some tips and tricks for combat in Yakuza: Like A Dragon.

Combat Tips and Tricks in Yakuza: Like A Dragon

New players should keep in mind that combat in Like A Dragon is way more complex this time around. There is no longer the ability to just button mash through a fight, especially against the tough bosses. Every action needs to be thought out to some degree. In the early game, players’ skills will be quite limited. To counter this, players will need to rely on the joint skills of their team’s default jobs. Every character in Like A Dragon has a special set of skills and weakness that can be exploited. Paying attention to these weaknesses is vital in the early game.

There are three distinct types of physical attacks and three types of magic. Enemies can be weak to a combination of Bash, Slash, and Pierce attacks as well as Fire, Water, and Electric magic. Players should be cautious, as enemies are also highly resistant to certain attacks. It is a good idea for players to study their team and try to keep a set of characters on hand that tend to cover all the bases. This way, if an enemy is weak to a certain thing, there will always be some way to take them down.

The combat on display is uniquely challenging because timing is still important despite the turn-based combat. Characters will not sit around waiting for the player to execute an attack, not even after they have been knocked down. Players should always be ready to follow up with normal attacks on their next turn. If the player so much as waits in the command menu for too long, enemies will have an opportunity to regain their footing. Attacking downed enemies will also do critical damage as long as this is done with normal attacks. Players should use their skills to knock down enemies and then normal attacks to finish them off.

Another good tip is to use skills to attack from a distance. When players are too far away from the enemy they are attacking, attempting to perform normal attacks is usually a bad idea. Enemies are almost always being protected by their friends during a fight. Performing normal attacks leaves the player open to being interrupted in the middle of an action. Large groups of enemies can be dealt with using AOE skills. These skill attacks primarily hurt the target character, but will also affect the rest of the group.

Yakuza: Like A Dragon in available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC, Xbox Series X, and Series S.