Sega has released a music video of the theme song for its new game Yakuza: Like a Dragon. The Yakuza franchise first began back in 2005 when the first game released in Japan. The first game was received very positively, despite it having some clunky mechanics, and the game went on to sell over one million copies. Overall the series has done well both in Japan and Western markets, having currently sold over 12 million copies.

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The Yakuza franchise has inspired several sequels, remakes, spin-offs, other media franchises. For the most part the series has followed main character Kazuma Kiryu who works for the Yakuza's Tojo clan. Kiryu spends a lot of time working with the Tojo clan in differing capacities, but as the series progresses he begins trying to find a life outside of the Yakuza. In Yakuza 4 and 5 the game introduced several playable protagonists in addition to Kiryu. There have also been several spin-offs that focused on other characters in the series.

The music video for Yakuza: Like a Dragon's theme song was posted on YouTube on January 9th. The song is performed by Japanese reggae band Shōnan no Kaze and DJ Nakata Yasutaka. Even more interesting though is that the video was rendered in the game's engine including the musicians. The song has been titled Ichiban Uta, which translated into English means "The Best Song". Fans seem to have responded very well, as the video already has over 200,000 views.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon seems like it will be quite a bit different from the rest of the series. Most of the games follow the same beat 'em up style combat, but the new title will instead feature a turn based RPG combat system. Another large difference is that this game will not be set in Tokyo, but rather the city of Yokohama. This will be the first main title Yakuza game where Kiryu is not a playable character. The game instead features new main character Ichiban Kasuga who has been described by Sega as much more emotive and outspoken than his predecessor.

The Yakuza games have been a consistent amount of enjoyment and insanity for years now. Kiryu was a noble and fun character that made the games interesting to follow for all this time. It may be very sad for some fans to hear that he will not be the main character of this new game, but after 15 years it may be time for Kiryu to pass the torch onto Ichiban Kasuga. This may be the perfect time to get into the series as well considering all of the remakes and the fact that the games are finally coming to Xbox. Frankly if the game is anything like the music video, Yakuza: Like a Dragon is going to be great.

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Yakuza: Like a Dragon releases on January 16th for PS4 in Japan and worldwide later this year.

Source: Universal Music Japan/YouTube