Sega has revealed new information for the new Red Light Raid mode, coming to Yakuza 0 Director’s Cut for Switch 2.
This is a new mode for this Switch 2 port of Yakuza 0, with the option of online multiplayer.
Red Light Raid will be available at the start of the game. It’s a series of brawls where you take on Challenge Missions, collect money, level up characters (over 60 to choose from) and take on the boss at the final stage.
Red Light Raid has online matchmaking (Raid Online) as well as an option to only play with friends (Raid with Friends). Solo play (Raid Solo) is also available, where you will be accompanied by CPU stand-ins instead as teammates of real players.
The 60-character roster is made up of main characters of the game. Protagonists Kiryu and Majima are split into three characters, based on their three different style movesets. The screen-chewing antagonists including Homare Nishitani, Hiroki Awano, Keiji Shibusawa, and everyone’s favourite Daisaku Kuze are all here. So are competitors in the Colosseum and substory characters. Completing specific objectives and spending money will unlock new characters for Red Light Raid.
Each character has different stats and moveset. Kuze fights like a boxer while Nishitani brings out the dagger. Each character has a unique special attack by pressing A.
In addition, every character can utilise Red Light Rage Mode. Once the fist icon glows, you can activate it for boosts on attack speed and knockdown resistance.
Red Light Raid reuses stages as seen in Yakuza 0 for its brawls, so expect to see locales like the Dojima Family Headquarters and Cabaret Grand as the stage where you and three players/AI teammates fend off against the horde of jobbers to be beaten up.
From a modern lense, you can see Red Light Raid as developer RGG Studio’s little experiment. It’s their take on horde games, where you as part of a team fend off large number of enemies. But if you think about it, this is more of a throwback to the good ol’ days of arcade beat-’em-up games. Pick a character. Fight across multiple stages and beat the boss. But now with a progression system and online play.
Red Light Raid mode is one of the more substantial addition to what would have been a straight port of what first released as a PS3 and PS4 game from 2015. 10 years later, they’re still adding new content to the game that truly set the Yakuza/Like A Dragon series as a global brand.
Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut will be a Switch 2 launch game, releasing on June 5.