Momotaro Dentetsu World: The Earth Spins with Hope is back at the top of the Japanese monthly charts following its launch last November.
24.01.2024 - 23:43 / gameinformer.com
By the time I saw the credits on Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, I felt like I had been through the emotional ringer. I was mentally exhausted. I think that's by design. Infinite Wealth is developer Ryu Ga Gotoku's (RGG) most ambitious project by a long shot – an epic tale told across multiple characters and continents, featuring the conclusion of some nearly 20-year-old plot threads that leave at least one character, quite literally and relatably, asleep in the streets. Some of this is the best work the developer has ever done, a new watermark for the series going forward. And some of it is some of the studio's worst. Like everything in Infinite Wealth, it's complicated.
Infinite Wealth picks up a few years after the events of Yakuza: Like a Dragon and continues the story of dual-series protagonist Ichiban Kasuga, a former yakuza who's now taken up work trying to help rehabilitate other yakuza members back into society by finding them jobs. By the laws of narrative, this goes horribly wrong, and it's not long before Ichiban and friends, who now all find themselves out of work, are back in the folds of the criminal underworld. After the dissolution of the nation's two biggest families, the Tojo Clan and the Omi Alliance, in the previous game, the Seiryu Clan reigns supreme in Yokohama's Ijincho district. The group is not only working on its own dissolution program and trying to give former yakuza work, but it also has information on Ichiban's long-lost mother, Akane. He just needs to go to Hawaii to find her.
Once in Hawaii, Ichiban quickly runs into his counterpart and former star of the show Kiryu Kazuma. Kiryu plays a much larger role in this game than in Like a Dragon before it – mainly because he's also a playable character. Ichiban and Kiryu being playable in the same game represents a passing of the torch of sorts, and I truly love the time I got to spend with Kiryu. He's an old man now with cancer and a few months to live. He's coming to terms with his life, and Infinite Wealth goes a long way in softening and humanizing him. I always felt that letting Kiryu live after the events of Yakuza 6, where he faked his death, was the wrong call. This game reckons with that idea a lot, and even if I'm not totally sold on where it ends up, I like the road it takes to get there a lot.
The dual protagonists also give the cast the chance to expand and breathe. At one point in the story, Kiryu and a small team of characters from the previous game return to Japan, leaving Ichiban with a cast of mostly new characters. The game jumps back and forth between the two, allowing tons of time to get to know everyone. I especially love newcomers Chitose and Tomizawa and never skipped a moment to learn more about
Momotaro Dentetsu World: The Earth Spins with Hope is back at the top of the Japanese monthly charts following its launch last November.
Venerable publisher SEGA has been around for a long time. It was founded, appropriately enough, in Hawaii back in 1960. In its latest game, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (which ventures to the tropical locale), SEGA couldn't help but give itself a pat on the back via a fourth-wall-breaking conversation between protagonists Ichiban Kazuga and Kazuma Kiryu.
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.
Just buying new, better weapons will get you through most of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, but if you want to cut down on grinding or take on the endgame challenges, there’s no getting around the need to upgrade and craft better gear. All those materials you’ve been scooping up off the ground and collecting from fights will get you most of the way there, but the top-tier weapons in the game will need a little bit more. Things like Squid Tentacles, for whatever reason, are one of the more rare ingredients that are somehow necessary to make these powerful weapons. There are only a few ways you can snag these slippery limbs, so rather than ruin your vacation in Hawaii by stressing, we’ll show you how to get Squid Tentacles as painlessly as possible.
Ichiban doesn’t have a lot of time to relax while abroad in Hawaii during Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. His quest will have him and his friends facing off against a new set of threats that are more dangerous than anything that came before. While you can grind for levels to try and keep up, the best way to make sure everyone on your team is dishing out as much pain as possible is to craft and upgrade better weapons. Early on, you can improve your base gear with basic ores you find littered on the streets, but once you start getting to the high-level stuff, you will need some rare (and weird) materials. Rainbow Geodes in particular can be hard to come by, but we’ve found a rich deposit for you to mine.
Poundmates are RGG’s version of summons, for the RPG system they’ve built in the recent Like a Dragon games. And one familiar face, Nancy, returns as a Poundmate summon in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth with a new pal Olivia in tow. It’s a tag-team you won’t want to miss.
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.
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.
Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth is now available to pre-load on all platforms.
Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth is already a franchise highlight, receiving the highest metascores the series has ever received.