The eighth mainline entry in the Yakuza series and the first to be developed as a turn-based RPG, it was released in Japan and Asia for PlayStation 4 on January 16, 2020.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon received positive reviews from both players and critics who enjoyed the narrative, characters, gameplay, unique take on the JRPG sub-genre, and presentation.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon is also the first main series game not to have Kazuma Kiryu (Takaya Kuroda/Darryl Kurylo) as its protagonist, though he appears in a supporting capacity.

Its lead character is Ichiban Kasuga (Kazuhiro Nakaya/Kaiji Tang), a low-ranking member of the Arakawa Family, a subsidiary of the Kanto-based Tojo Clan.

Mandatory playable characters who join Kasuga's party include Yu Nanba (Ken Yasuda/Greg Chun), a homeless ex-nurse; Koichi Adachi (Akio Otsuka/Andrew Morgado), a former police officer; Saeko Mukoda (Sumire Uesaka/Elizabeth Maxwell), a hostess bar manager; Joongi Han[c] (Yuichi Nakamura/Keong Sim), a Geomijul operative and the body double of the Jingweon Mafia leader of the same name from Yakuza 6; and Tianyou Zhao (Nobuhiko Okamoto/Robbie Daymond), leader of the Liumang.

and protégé of Aoki; Seonhee[c] (Hana Takeda/Fiona Rene), the head of the Geomijul; Ryuhei Hoshino (Tetsuo Kanao/JB Blanc), chairman of the Seiryu Clan; Akira Mabuchi (Masanori Takeda/Ed Bosco), the second-in-command of the Liumang; Reiji Ishioda (Show Hayami/Rino Romano), a lieutenant of the Osaka-based Omi Alliance; and Yosuke Tendo (Miou Tanaka/John Eric Bentley), an opportunistic Omi Alliance member and disgraced former professional boxer.

In addition to Kiryu, several characters from previous Yakuza titles also return in supporting roles: Osamu Kashiwagi (Shunsuke Sakuya/David Hayter), a former senior Tojo Clan member who survived the events of Yakuza 3 and became proprietor of the Survive bar in Ijincho; Daigo Dojima (Satoshi Tokushige/Roger Craig Smith), sixth chairman of the Tojo Clan; Goro Majima (Hidenari Ugaki/Matthew Mercer) and Taiga Saejima (Rikiya Koyama/Ron Yuan), senior Tojo Clan members who accompany Daigo; Masaru Watase (Rintarō Nishi/James C. Burns), captain of the Omi Alliance; and Makoto Date (Kazuhiro Yamaji/Bill Farmer), a Kamurochō police detective and long-time friend of Adachi.

In 2001, Masumi Arakawa persuades Ichiban Kasuga to confess to a murder that his captain, Jo Sawashiro, allegedly committed, to protect the latter's reputation.

He is picked up by police officer Koichi Adachi, who reveals that the Tojo Clan has perished, and in its place, Kamurocho has become the territory of its rival, the Omi Alliance.

Three days later, a homeless man named Yu Nanba heals Kasuga's wounds after discovering his body in Isezaki Ijincho.

Nanba sees a counterfeit bill in Kasuga's pocket and tells him that he is safe from the Omi Alliance because Ijincho is hostile territory.

Kasuga and Nanba meet Adachi, where they agree to work for soapland owner Isao Nonomiya to make extra money.

After uncovering a conspiracy plot at the city's retirement home, the gang discovers that Nonomiya is murdered, which alerts Saeko Mukoda, one of his employees.

Kasuga's party heads to the Geomijul HQ so that they can find proof of Mabuchi's guilt and convince the other Ijincho gangs to not war against each other.

Seonhee, the leader of Geomijul, reveals to everyone that Nanba pretended to be homeless so that he could investigate his brother's disappearance after the latter tried to expose the money counterfeiting scheme.

She rallies the Geomijul and the Liumang into executing Nanba, prompting him to seek refuge in the HQ of Bleach Japan, co-founded by Tokyo's governor Ryo Aoki.

Kasuga eventually deduces that Aoki is Masato, who took on a new identity and used Bleach Japan to cleanse Kamurocho of the Tojo Clan's influence.

Aoki seeks to win the support of Ijincho by undermining the Yokohama underworld by bribing Mabuchi into provoking a civil war.

Tianyou Zhao, the leader of the Liumang, enraged by Mabuchi's betrayal, vows to spare Nanba if they can save the Geomijul from the Omi.

At the advice of Seiryu Clan chairman Ryuhei Hoshino, Kasuga runs as an independent candidate to stop Aoki's plans.

Tipped off by his former oath brother Mitsuo Yasumura, Kasuga learns that Arakawa pretended to work for the Omi Alliance the entire time.

Kasuga's party stops the assassins and then returns to Kamurocho, where they arrange a hoax using incriminating evidence to lure out both Aoki and Tendo, the latter being responsible for Arakawa's murder.

Kasuga attends the funeral for Arakawa and Aoki, and decides to remain in Ijincho after turning down Daigo's job offer for a security firm staffed by ex-yakuza in Osaka.

Series creator Toshihiro Nagoshi said that the new style of logo was done to reflect Kasuga's differing personality compared to Kazuma Kiryu.

[10] Sega staff explained in a 2019 interview that they wanted to try a different style of gameplay, but that if it is badly received, they intend to return to real-time combat for future games.

[32] Jordan Devore of Destructoid disliked the long animations in combat, "Early on, I had a fun enough time watching these chaotic and slightly out-of-control scenes unfold.

"[40] In his review of the game he commended it for how "a likeable protagonist and a bit more of a lean into the usual wackiness it has successfully charmed the nurses into keeping the life support machine plugged in.