Momotaro Dentetsu World: The Earth Spins with Hope is back at the top of the Japanese monthly charts following its launch last November.
25.01.2024 - 14:57 / gameranx.com
Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth is now available to pre-load on all platforms.
The eight title in the Yakuza / RGG/ Like A Dragon franchise is also the most critically acclaimed yet. Reviewers are singing their praises on how touching the game’s metanarrative is, more than ever before, as well as the deep refinement of the franchise after two decades.
This title sees you play as both the legacy lead character, Kizuma Kiryu, as well as the incoming new protagonist, Ichiban Kasuga. Both former mob members find themselves in Honolulu, Hawaii, undertaking personal quests of their own. The game will also see them returning to Yokohama, Japan, for much of the adventure.
While the Yakuza / RGG/ Like A Dragon has become better known for its creative and varied side missions and mini-games, producing multiple engaging open worlds, the storyline for this title in particular is a highlight for the franchise as well. Without getting into serious spoilers, Kiryu’s story is very much designed to tug at the heartstrings, even if you haven’t been playing the franchise for all these years.
We do feel comfortable to reveal here that many side characters from Kiryu’s and Kasuga’s past make appearances here, which is definitely going to satisfy those longtime fans. We won’t name those characters, but we can already tell you the one guy you hope is in here, is definitely in here.
Yesterday we reported on the game’s stunning metascores on MetaCritic and OpenCritic. As we had noted then, even more than the critical acclaim, there is a huge chance that this is the one title in the series that will break out into the mainstream. While Sega has historically seen industry highs with the likes of Daytona USA in the arcade and Sonic the Hedgehog in the console space, elevating Yakuza / RGG/ Like A Dragon to potentially the same level as Grand Theft Auto, would also raise Sega back up to the upper tier of video game companies.
Of course, many gamers think Yakuza / RGG/ Like A Dragon is just a Japanese version of Grand Theft Auto, and perhaps some gamers still see it as the spiritual successor to Shenmue. The real fans know that the series has long established its own identity. When it hits the top tier of industry AAAs, no one will have that misconception about it any longer.
Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth will be released on January 26, 2024, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows via Steam.
Momotaro Dentetsu World: The Earth Spins with Hope is back at the top of the Japanese monthly charts following its launch last November.
Honk-Honk NPCs are scattered all across map locations of Hawaii and Japan in and trade character buffs for money. Inspired by Puff-Puff side quests from the series, tracking down these people can make you stronger. However, it can be hard to find some Honk-Honk characters since they spawn randomly on your map.
Kuwaki is the first boss of and he serves as a tutorial challenge to ensure that you understand the fundamentals of battle. Trying to fight him head on can be dangerous, but use of various combat systems can make him manageable.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth has become the series' most successful launch on Steam over its launch weekend.
In the lead-up to Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth’s launch, developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio made it abundantly clear that the RPG was going to be its biggest, most ambitious game to date, and in the immediate aftermath of its release, it looks like the game is enjoying the sort of success the developer would have hoped for. In addition to receiving widespread acclaim from critics, Infinite Wealth also broke the series’ peak concurrent user count record on Steam upon launch, and as per Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, was generating similar interest in leading up to its release as well.
Gaming has had its fair share of moments when a new title would ostensibly be released at just the right time. The most recent example is Animal Crossing: New Horizons dropping in 2020 when the world needed a means to safely connect during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. And in 2024, for me — and maybe a lot of gamers out there — another of these games could be Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth.
Dondoko Island is a significant part of 's appeal, but how and when the experience can be accessed in-game isn't immediately obvious. The series, formerly published as in the west, has long been known for featuring memorable and unique side content and mini-games to accompany its more dramatic main stories. promises an even longer and more robust experience than any of the past games have ever delivered, and Dondoko Island might be the selling point that jumps out the most.
The Like a Dragon (née Yakuza) franchise is known and beloved for its idiosyncratic tone, lovable characters, and complete devotion to minigames. You get fishing minigames! Dating minigames! Cabaret club management minigames! Movie minigames! And they often come with a surprising amount of depth and replayability.
continues the saga of Ichiban Kasuga, heading up his second installment in the series formerly known as. Following up on Ichiban's introduction in and original series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu's brilliant reintroduction in , focuses on the dual heroes as they travel to Honolulu separately, but on the same mission: to find Ichiban's long-lost mother, Akane. The two eventually meet up and combine their efforts, discovering much more than they bargained for as they near the center of a seedy plot.
Kazuma Kiryu's bucket list side story in Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth features callbacks and references to several of the series' spinoffs, including Dead Souls, Kenzan, and Ishin.
Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s Like a Dragon franchise (formerly known as Yakuza) has been growing in popularity with each new instalment over recent years, and it’s now come out with its biggest game to date. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is out now, and Sega has released a launch trailer to commemorate its release and offer another look at the massive RPG. Check it out below.
Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth is already a franchise highlight, receiving the highest metascores the series has ever received.