Yakuza Like a Dragon shifts the series' focus to a new hero, Ichiban Kasuga, and reinvents combat as a turn-based RPG system inspired by his love of old-school JRPGs.

After years in prison for a crime he didn't commit, Ichiban rebuilds a life and a found family in Yokohama while battling enemies who appear to him as literal RPG monsters. The series' signature substories and minigames return in full force alongside the new turn-based battles.