Yakuza 7 Gets First Details on Story, Characters, Turn-Based RPG Battle System, Cast

On August 29, Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio held a press conference,where the first trailer,the release date and many details on the nextYakuzaPS4 game, now officially titledYakuza 7, were revealed. Here’s a summary of everything we learned onYakuza 7.Yakuza 7got first announced as “Shin Ryu Ga Gotoku” back in August 2017, and finally got fully revealed.Yakuza 7’s concept is “living an adventure and growing as a person with your friends”, and is the main reason why the staff decided to adopt a turn-based RPG battle system for the game, inspiring itself from traditional JRPGs likeDragon Quest.Yakuza 7’s story is set in Yokohama, in the city of Isezaki Ijin. The story’s protagonist is Ichiban Kasuga, a yakuza part of the Arakawa clan. Following an incident on June 29, 2025, Ichiban turns himself to the police to protect one of his bosses. He is only freed 18 years later.Yakuza 7’s story will depict these two eras: what happened to Ichiban in 2000 and the details of the incident, and what will happen to Ichiban 18 years later in 2019.Along with Ichiban, three other characters go their profiles and real-life actors revealed. Let’s take a look at each one of them.

Ichiban Kasuga, played by Kazuhiro Nakaya. Ex-yakuza of the Arakawa Clan affiliated with the Tojo clan.

Ichiban was charged with murder and served a prison sentence in place of Masumi Arakawa, the person he considers his father and the boss of the Arakawa Clan. 18 years later when Ichiban is released, all of the Tojo Clan disappeared, and the Omi Alliance, a yakuza organization from Osaka, took over Kamuro. Ichiban then hears a shocking truth: his father-figure Masumi Arakawa allied himself and all of the Arakawa Clan to the Omi Alliance, and he’s the mastermind behind everything. Yearning to see the truth for his own eyes, Ichiban marches on to reunite with his “father”.

Joe Sawashiro, played by Shinichi Tsutsumi. 8th generation section chief of the Arakawa Clan affiliated with the Omi Alliance.

Joe is a martial arts practitioner who’s been with Masumi Arakawa since their days in the Tojo Clan. Joe always loathed Ichiban. Despite his past as part of the Tojo Clan, he’s been fully accepted by the Omi Alliance and he’s currently holding as much power as any other executive class member of the Omi Alliance.

Nanba, played by Ken Yasuda. A homeless man who used to work as a nurse.

Nanba was caught stealing and reselling drugs from the hospital he was working at, so he got fired and his nurse license was revoked. He ended up becoming homeless in Isezaki Ijincho in Yokohama, a city nicknamed “the bottom of the barrel”. After Ichiban got shot by Masumi, Nanba patched him up, saving his life, so now they stick together.

Masumi Arakawa, played by Kiichi Nakai. 8th generation boss of the Arakawa Clan, now affiliated with the Omi Alliance.

Masumi joined the Omi Alliance and leaked information about the Tojo clan to the police, resulting in the Tojo Clan’s annihilation. Following this huge achievement, Masumi is now considered the number 2 of the Omi alliance.

Multiple seiyuu were also confirmed to be voicing characters inYakuza 7.Confirmed so far are Sumire Uesaka, Akio Otsuka, Nobuhiko Okamoto, Yuichi Nakamura, and Kosuke Toriumi.

Now that we introduced the characters, let’s take a closer look at the battle system. Sega describedYakuza 7as a “Dramatic RPG” and calls the battle system “Live Command RPG Battle”.Yakuza 7uses a real-time turn-based battle system. Each character needs to wait before executing actions, but all characters in battle keep moving at all time. It’s basically a mix between ATB and action RPG.

Some footage of the battle system was shown during the event. See the video above courtesy of our Japanese comrades at Game Watch. The game uses a one-button one-action type of battle UI, which is similar to older works such asValkyrie ProfileandXenogears, or recent works such asPersona 5andTrails of Cold Steel. We can also see the turn order bar at the bottom left. The footage most notably shows the currently unnamed character played by Eri Kamataki,the winner of theYakuza 7actress audition.

During the event, they most notably mentioned distance is one of the most important elements inYakuza 7’s battle system, and the actions each one of your party members can do depend on the distance between themselves and their enemies. The actions also vary depending on the environment where you’re fighting.

During the event, it was also revealed thatYakuza 7’s protagonist Ichiban is a hugeDragon Questfan, explaining the scene in the trailer where he goes “I wish I get a big happy end like inDraque”. Sega mentioned they properly asked Square Enix and Horii Yuji for permission to useDragon Quest’s name inYakuza 7.

Lastly, Sega announced first print copies ofYakuza 7in Japan will include exclusive DLC items and equipment for the party members. The first-print copies physical version ofYakuza 7will also include lottery tickets to win goods from brands collaborating with the game.

You can find below the first key visual and screenshots forYakuza 7.

PS4 exclusiveYakuza 7will be launching on July 07, 2025, in Japan, asRyu Ga Gotoku 7 Hikari to Yami no Yukue. The game is coming west later on in 2020.