Yakuza 7 is replacing beat 'em up action with turn-based combat

The Yakuza games are ever so slowly making their way to PC, with Sega stating in June that it now considers the series to be a multi-platform one. So it's worth getting a bit excited about Yakuza 7, which was unveiled during a Sega press conference on Thursday. It's exciting for three reasons: 1) it's a new Yakuza game, 2) it'll be the first mainline game without Kazuma Kiryu as protagonist, and 3) it'll have turn-based combat.

Still, I should caveat all this: it's currently a PS4-only game, and neither Yakuza 6 or the series spin-off Judgment have been announced for PC yet. Still, one can safely assume they'll make the jump eventually, though one thing seems certain: Yakuza 7 is definitely a long way off for PC. It'll arrive in the west for PS4 in 2020.

With that out of the way, here are some of the other details revealed during the presentation. As was hinted at last month, Yakuza Online protagonist Ichiban Kasuga will be the main protagonist of Yakuza 7. The game will take place in the city of Yokohama (so not Kamarucho again, then), and, as I mentioned above, it'll replace the game's long-running and constantly evolving action gameplay with turn-based combat. Yakuza fans may remember Sega teasing this earlier in the year, with most considering it a joke. Who's laughing now?

There's some off-screen footage of the combat embedded in the Tweet below. The game will be known as Yakuza 7: Whereabouts of Light and Darkness in Japan, and Yakuza 7: Like A Dragon in the west.