Like A Dragon: Ishin lets you kick back and carefully chop spring onions on a farm
Game Of The Year
I thought my love affair with Like A Dragon: Ishin's teasers had peaked, but no, my heart still swells at an alarming rate. And that's thanks to a new trailer where Kiryu/Ryoma drop (kicks) his bruising samurai lifestyle to the side for a simpler, purer existence: chopping spring onions to a rhythm in what looks to be an in-depth farming side activity. Game Of The Year.
It seems like you're able to tend to an allotment in what's been dubbed "Another Life", with Kiryu successfully harvesting 16 broad beans to a relaxing acoustic number. I spy cabbages and tomatoes there too - what a dream. Haruka, Kiryu's adoptive daughter, also makes an appearance! She seems to help run the business side of Ryoma's farming venture, letting you deliver ingredients and dishes to clients across the globe. You're also able to care for a backflipping dog and a springy cat, both of which look to inhabit your lovely little retreat.
Easily my favourite part of the tease is Ryoma slicing a spring onion in time to a rhythm, with all the ASMR goodness of his knife's pops against the chopping board. Grilling salmon couldn't get more therapeutic either, as you flip a fillet with your chopsticks as it crackles against a fire. Bliss.
The LAD series has always been known for its wildly in-depth side activities. Yakuza 0 has – among many other things – a Scalextric league where you engineer and fine tune a lil' car to overcome racing adversity. Yakuza 5 sees Kiryu become a taxi driver, steering all-manner of interesting characters through the streets of Nagasugai as safely as possible. So far, Ishin's farming sim looks set to be one of the greats.
Like A Dragon: Ishin releases on 21st February 2023 and I can't wait to both embrace the Wild Dancer combat style, then come back to my farm and deliver eels to an overseas mogul.