Welcome to our review of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, the newest entry in the franchise and possibly one of the biggest games to drop this year.
Two larger-than-life heroes brought together by the hand of fate, or perhaps something more sinister… Ichiban Kasuga, an unstoppable underdog who’s no stranger to crawling up from rock bottom, and Kazuma Kiryu, a broken man facing down his last days.
Experience one-of-a-kind combat with dynamic, fast-paced RPG battles where the battlefield becomes your weapon, and anything goes. Adapt your party’s skills to the situation with outlandish jobs and customizations to strategically subdue enemies with over-the-top moves. Live it up in Japan and explore all that Hawaii has to offer in an adventure so big it spans the Pacific. Unforgettable moments await at every step of the journey with a unique mix of quests and activities to enjoy at your leisure.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is the successor to another amazing game and when you really think about it, the bar is set incredibly high, yet Infinite Wealth delivers in its own way. From the main story to the Animal Crossing-esque style running of an island, this game has got it all.
From weird characters to creepy-looking enemies in sleeping bags, Like a Dragon games never fail to amaze me, both storywise and entertainment level. Though it must be said, as massive as Infinite Wealth is, it does come with an overload of cutscenes and informational blurbs throughout the story. Like a really big amount of them, at times even having the game warn you there will be many. I wonder if the developers put that in as a joke or a genuine warning in regards to save points.
The game itself starts with the downfall of Ichiban Kasuga, who gets framed by a YouTube channel that outs him as being a yakuza who had someone purposely rob a store so he could buy the stolen goods and fence them. Knowing Kasuga without even playing the game, you all know he did not do this and this is basically his redemption starting.
It leads us down a weird fudge rabbit hole where the sole yakuza group is still around after the great disbanding hired his friend, the guy that supposedly stole for him. After invading the yakuza hideout, it turns out the yakuza have very little evil intentions and we learn that a former murder suspect was actually innocent and he leads Kasuga towards his mother, formerly believed to have died.
This is all in the first few hours of the game, after which you take flight towards Hawaii, where you embark on even crazier stories, the ones only happening in Like a Dragon games. From getting help in battle from a young man in a wheelchair to waking up naked without memories on the beach. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth has a very high entertainment level.
Obviously, I am not going into detail for the rest of the story, everything mentioned so far is limited up to the start of level 3. From there on, things only get crazier, and honestly, this game is truly a blast. Maybe with too many cutscenes, because honestly, some of them are really extensive.
The battle system is in line with the first game and much like the storyline, I would recommend playing that first and not starting off with Infinite Wealth, so many great moments of the first game would be lost and some of the subtle references would surely be lost.
Now, the important part, this is probably the best of all the Yakuza games I played so far and also by far the prettiest and craziest. There is just an added layer of weirdness in this game compared to the previous one. As much as I am not an ACesque game lover and the entire island maintenance is not my thing, I will say that it looks cool and is probably a massive selling point to those who love it.
In conclusion, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is probably the best game for the beginning of this year of gaming that is promising to be wild. Great and crazy battles mixed with a very strong storyline and this game may set the standard for the franchise for many years to come.
