Yakuza: Like a Dragon PS4 Demo Released; Features JRPG Gameplay, Minigames, and More

Today Sega released a demo of Ryu ga Gotoku 7: Whereabouts of Light and Darkness, also-known-as Yakuza: Like a Dragon in the west.

The demo is available now on the Japanese PlayStation Store. It weighs a whopping 12.18 gigabytes.

Of course, it’s only in Japanese for now and you need a Japanese PSN account to download and install it, but after you’re done with that, you can play it on accounts of any region, as usual.

The demo includes the the new turn-based JRPG-style battle mechanics, a bit of the story, and some of the play spot and minigames in the new Yokohama-based location Isezaki Ichinjo.

It’s worth mentioning, in case you’re planning to buy the game in Japanese, that your save game from the demo won’t transfer to the full release.

If you’re on the fence about the new JRPG gameplay mechanics, this is your chance to try them out and see if you enjoy them. Having played a similar demo at Tokyo Game Show, I encoruage you to approach this one with an open mind.

If you’d like to see more about the game, you can check out the latest trailer that revealed iconic hero Kazuma Kiryu, a batch of screenshots introducing the men of the Seiryukai, and more showing the Omi Union crew.

We also have plenty of gameplay from a few days ago and the previous screenshot reveal, which, combined another, shows how the Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio appears to be taking a page from Persona’s book.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon will launch in Japan on January 16, 2020, exclusively for PS4. It’ll also come west later next year.

It’s worth mentioning that given Sega’s track record, we can probably expect the demo to come in English next year as well.