The Yakuza series has been going on for over 15 years now, and over that time, the engine of the games has evolved. While Yakuza 4 introduced multiple protagonists and Yakuza 0 brought multiple fighting styles for the characters, Yakuza 6 brought along an entirely new engine.
This would be the Dragon Engine. The Yakuza 2 remake, Yakuza Kiwami 2, as well as Yakuza: Like A Dragon and spin-off game Judgement all utilize the new Dragon Engine. It brought on a lot of changes to the mechanics of the Yakuza series, and it's here to stay. In many ways, it's an upgrade from the original engine, with some mechanics completely fresh to it.
10 Five Different Experience Points
Previously, there was only one kind of experience you could earn. Pre-Yakuza 0, this was with Experience Orbs. In Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami, it was a shared system for every kind of upgrade.
In the Dragon Engine, however, experience points are split into five categories: Strength, Agility, Spirit, Technique, and Charm. These all correlate to specific kinds of upgrades and are earned in different ways. The split works amazingly, as it allows you to easily split your upgrades so you're not stacking just one category up. It lets you be more free in what you choose to purchase with your experience points.
9 No Loading Screens For Buildings
Originally, entering a store would require you to stop in front of it, hit A to enter a loading screen before loading into the building. With the Dragon Engine, this process was streamlined by allowing you to seamlessly enter any building without any interruption.
In addition to the lack of loading, this also allows you to fight inside of stores at any point, rather than just during scripted fights. This change makes the gameplay while walking around town much smoother, and makes it much easier to roam around the streets and explore.
8 Inventory Changes
One of the most welcomed changed in the Dragon Engine was the ability to stack items. In previous Yakuza games, if you had two of the same items, they would take two slots in your inventory. With the Dragon Engine, they stack instead and only take one slot.
Not only that, but the amount you can carry was raised as well. Thanks to stacking, it allows you to carry more items than you ever could before. This also takes away the need to constantly visit the Item Box to move things around like you tend to do late-game.
7 New Fighting Style
The Dragon Engine gave a large revamp to Kiryu's fighting style in both Yakuza 6 and Yakuza Kiwami 2. It shifted to become a mix between his Brawler and Dragon styles from Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami.
Included with his new hybrid fighting style, he gains access to Extreme Heat Mode, which will pummel a target for a ton of damage. The Heat Meter is replaced with Heat Orbs, making it easier to know how much Heat doing a Heat Action will use. He even gains access to powerful charge moves, especially useful with the combat mechanic changes.
6 Saving Anywhere
Something so simple took years to get to. Before Yakuza 6, it was required to visit a phone booth in order to save your game outside of the end of chapter save screens. Thankfully, with the Dragon Engine, phone booths, like real life, are a thing of the past.
With the Dragon Engine Yakuza games, you can easily save your game at any point simply by going to your settings where you have the option to save the game. Not only that, but you have autosaving as well, a welcome change from having to run across town just to save.
5 Enemies On The Map
Previously, the only way to determine if an enemy on the overworld was nearby was being near them. You could see a red textbox above their head that would signal that they're an enemy.
With the Dragon Engine, enemies will appear on the map itself. Since it's much harder to run away should they spot you, it's welcome in order to plan your route to get around town. This is especially helpful in Yakuza: Like A Dragon since if an enemy spots you you're practically guaranteed to put thrust into a fight.
4 Ragdolling
One of the major changes to combat in the Dragon Engine would be enemies going into a ragdoll when you knock them down. This plays into the various environments that the Dragon Engine thrusts you into.
This isn't always a good thing, as it makes it harder to perform certain Heat Actions, especially in Yakuza 6. It does make the game a bit sillier with how wild the ragdolls can wind up being. One benefit comes when you're throwing an enemy, as it makes it more likely they'll hit others while being thrown.
3 Destructible Environments
In Yakuza, taking advantage of your environment has always been around. With the Dragon Engine, however, these environments are now destructible. Furniture that you can't pick up can now be kicked towards enemies to do tons of damage.
This adds a new layer to combat not previously shown off in Yakuza games up until the Dragon Engine. It makes you think about how to take advantage of your surroundings to a whole new level, rather than just what you can and can't pick up. Even items you pick up and be combined with your environment to deal tons of damage.
2 Combat Changes
With the Dragon Engine, combat has gotten a complete overhaul. Blocking has become one of the most powerful things in the game, and that applies to both you and your opponents.
This can oftentimes be frustrating as if an opponent blocks it will stop your combo dead in its track. It makes dealing out damage much harder, as hitting finishing blows becomes incredibly difficult. It causes grabbing and use of items to become much stronger, as they often ignore these factors. Thankfully, with Yakuza: Like A Dragon's turn-based system this is avoidable, but is still present in games like Judgement.
1 Hunger Meter
Before the Dragon Engine, there was no hunger, and you could eat so long as you weren't at full health. With the Dragon Engine, there's a hunger meter that will grant you experience for eating so long as it's not full.
Since eating heals you, it's an easy way to get free experience points for little effort. You can even combine certain foods to give you even more experience and fill your stomach even more. This adds a welcome layer of depth to restaurants rather than just being healing centers.