The 10 best Like a Dragon: Ishin! mods

As you wander the streets of the Bakumatsu period in Like a Dragon: Ishin! it is easy to get swept up in how good everything looks and feels. However, good is never good enough for some people, which is where mods step in. There are already plenty of great mods for this game just waiting to enhance your experience. Here are the best Like a Dragon: Ishin! mods out there listed in alphabetical order.

The best Like a Dragon: Ishin! mods – our top 10 picks

Though Like a Dragon: Ishin! first came out in Japan in 2014 game, it wasn’t until the 2023 remake that the best mods for the game came out. As you make your way through the different chapters of the game, these mods can help improve the user interface, clean up some of the visual quirks in Like a Dragon: Ishin, or just swap out some of the localization elements that aren’t to your taste.

Related: All Like a Dragon: Ishin! Achievements and Trophies

2x Brawler Damage

Though it is still a valid way to play through the game, focusing on Brawler skills in Like a Dragon: Ishin! will put you at a disadvantage when compared to other fighting styles. That’s why the 2x Brawler Damage mod is so useful. As the title implies, it doubles the amount of damage dealt by engaging enemies in a rousing round of fisticuffs, putting it more on par with the damage output of other styles.

Better UI

The title of this mod can be slightly misleading. The Better UI mod for Like a Dragon: Ishin! doesn’t change the actual User Interface of the game. Instead, it swaps out the text in the UI to something a bit more retro. It won’t be to everyone’s taste, but it does give the game a slightly less polished look that will appeal to certain players.

Blur Begone

By default, Like a Dragon: Ishin! has a fairly limited depth of field and aggressive motion blur settings, which can be frustrating for players who don’t like that stylization. The Blur Begone mod only requires you to paste four lines into the game’s Engine.ini file on your PC and will offer a pretty substantial improvement in how the game renders distant objects or enemy katanas.

CJ as Ryoma

It’s the crossover we all knew was coming. If a game is out for PC long enough, someone is going to mod CJ from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas into it. If you’ve ever wondered how Carl Johnson would fit into the Edo era of Japanese history, here is your chance. The CJ as Ryoma mod for Like a Dragon: Ishin! allows you to find out for yourself. It only changes the visuals for the game, but honestly, that’s enough for a silly mod like this.

Dualshock Dualsense Button Labels

If you’re playing on PC, you can still use your PlayStation controller to play Like a Dragon: Ishin!, but it will default to Xbox inputs instead. To avoid confusion, you can install the Dualshock Dualsense Button Labels mod, which will swap out the prompts on the screen for the buttons on the PlayStation controllers so you don’t have to wonder if you mapped the A input to the X button in the middle of a fight.

Increased Seals Limits

The Seal Limit on weapons in Like a Dragon: Ishin! is a way to balance some of the weapons and ensure that you are always on the lookout for another sword or gun. However, balance doesn’t matter as much in a single-player game, so if you wish you could keep hold of your favorite weapon a little longer, the Increased Seals Limits mod will let you do that. You can add more Seals to an item than was originally intended, making it more useful to you for longer.

Ishin Increased Health and Damage Scale

If you’ve thought that the mobs in Like a Dragon: Ishin! go down a bit too quickly, we’ve got good news for you. This mod will increase the amount of health that enemies have and the amount of damage they deal, making the game significantly tougher. It also decreases how much health is restored by healing items and how much the Heat Gauge increases during combat. This mod is for those who want a real challenge out of the game.

Japanese Style Logo

It’s a small detail, but many people prefer the style of the original Japanese logo for Like a Dragon: Ishin! It adds a splash of color to the game’s starting menu and feels a bit more stylish than the plain black text of the Western release. This mod doesn’t change the language of the logo, but it does bring it more in line with the Japanese release.

Like a Dragon: Ishin! Shader Toggler Config

As you run around the city and battle your way through waves of enemies in Like a Dragon: Ishin, there are plenty of great visuals to take in. By default, you can only turn the HUD off by going into the settings menu, but the Shader Toggler Config allows you to do it with the touch of a button. This makes it much easier to get a more cinematic experience while still having your health and attacks available to you quickly should you need them.

Related: The best Witcher 3 mods

OG Music for Katsura and Saigo Boss Fight

Part of the remake for Like a Dragon: Ishin! was giving the music a more modern feel. However, if there is one thing gamers hate more than improvements to a classic game, it’s any changes to that same game. Turns out the original song for the fight between Katsura and Saigo is still in the game’s files but instead, the game loads a new track by Town Bully. This mod simply changes which song loads during the sequence, keeping the feel closer to the original Like a Dragon: Ishin! experience.