Like a Dragon: Ishin release date revealed alongside new characters

Like a Dragon: Ishin launches on February 21, 2023, and introduces a whole new cast of characters.

Earlier today at the RGG Summit, developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio revealed Like a Dragon: Ishin's release date, pencilling it in for a February 21 launch next year. You can check out the new trailer for the remake just below, starring historical figure Sakamoto Ryoma with the face of Kiryu Kazuma.

Additionally, the new trailer revealed a slate of new characters for the remake. The likes of Like a Dragon's Zhou will have role in Ishin's remake, for example, and there's also Yakuza 0's infamous Kuze in a brand new role, introducing brand new characters that were never present in the original Ishin.

It's worth noting, however, that previous Yakuza characters did appear in Ishin when it originally launched in 2014 at the time. Characters from the original Yakuza, all the way to Yakuza 5, all popped up in the game in various supporting roles, as these were the only Yakuza games to have actually launched at the time.

Since then though, we've had the likes of Yakuza 0, Yakuza 6: The Song of Life, and Yakuza: Like a Dragon. As such, the new remake of Ishin is specifically going back to include characters from every Yakuza game made and released since 2014. That's quite the heroic effort from RGG Studio to update the game since it first launched for a brand new audience.

Elsewhere, we're getting a new Yakuza spin-off game following Kiryu, telling his story between Yakuza 6 and the upcoming Like a Dragon 8.