Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth is already a franchise highlight, receiving the highest metascores the series has ever received.
04.01.2024 - 15:40 / thesixthaxis.com
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is going to big a big change for the popular Japanese crime drama series. Sure, the last mainline game already made the shift to a new lead character, new city and jumped from action adventure to tactical RPG gameplay, but Infinite Wealth will see the story take place outside of Japan for the first time, and promises to be the final chapter in Kiryu Kazuma’s story. Again.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is coming out across PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, Xbox One and PC on 26th January.
New protagonist Ichiban Kasuga and Yakuza stalwart Kazuma Kiryu will both be heading to Honolulu, Hawaii in Infinite Wealth. For Ichiban, it’s a journey to find his mother, Akane Kishida, while for the latter, he’s searching for Akane at the behest of the Daidoki faction. The two will team up, and no doubt bash a few heads in this shared quest.
Since Ichiban appeared on the scene in the last game – Yakuza: Like a Dragon – there’s been a major shift in combat style from real-time brawling to turn-based RPG battling. That will carry forward to Infinite Wealth, with a bunch of returning characters who can join your party and fight along your side against gangs of enemies. The jobs system will also return to give contrasting classes, but the stand out will be Kiryu’s “Dragon of Dojima” job. This gives him the ability to switch fighting styles, and to temporarily enter into real-time combat that calls back to the earlier games in the series.
Battling and following the central narrative will naturally be a big part of Infinite Wealth, but the series’ popularity comes in large part from the minigames that are littered through the bustling worlds that RGG create. Karaoke, Darts, and Mahjong will return, but there’s also a bunch of new ones including a Crazy Taxi-style Crazy Delivery, Pokémon-like Sujimon Battle and a Miss Match dating app.
There’s also the Happy Resort Dondoko, which see Ichiban grab the fin of a friendly dolphin and skim through the ocean to his very own holiday resort. This looks like a whole Animal Crossing-style world, allowing you to gather resources, craft, create ideal homes and get people to move in. You’ll then have to defend it from random raiding parties.
The Like a Dragon series has really gone from strength to strength through the last generation. Starting with the prequel Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami remake of the PS2 original, the popularity of the series has boomed in the West as more and more people savoured its quirky charms. These Western localisations and releases always lagged behind the Japanese release by over a year, but Infinite Wealth will be the first time that a main series game will have a simultaneous worldwide launch.
The irony to that time lag is that, by the
Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth is already a franchise highlight, receiving the highest metascores the series has ever received.
There’s a new way to travel in Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth. While you can still pay taxis to get around Hawaii faster, you can also use a Segway-like device called the Street Surfer. This battery-powered standing travel device lets you zip around the streets, and you can mount it at any time. There’s just one downside. The battery life is limited and gets used up, so you’ll need to recharge at stations located all over the city. Using the Street Surfer is very simple and it can be summoned (or put away) at any time. You can even purchase higher capacity batteries from Hawaii Pawn Shops. The Street Surfer isn’t just limited to Hawaii either, you can use it when you travel back to Yokohama.
The best healing items in Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth can be acquired right at the start of the game — the tricky part is just farming all the materials you’re going to need to make them. As soon as you arrive in Revolve bar in Little Japan, you’ll be able to bring ingredients to the owner to mix drinks and other healing items. These are by far the best healing items in the game, able to heal your entire party or heal both HP and MP at the same time.
Jobs are back in Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth and they’re even more ridiculous. Instead of dressing up like Hosts and Idols your party can become fire dancers, hula girls or gun-wielding desperados. Some of the jobs are truly ridiculous, including a surfer that swings his board around like a club.
To craft the best gear in Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, you’ll need rare materials called Geodes and Crystals. Geodes become easier to find in the very late portions of the story, but Crystals are always hard-to-find. If you’re looking for an easier and earlier way to get Fragments, Geodes, or Crystals — there’s a hidden vendor you need to check out. Here’s what you need to know about crafting late-game weapons and getting infinite crafting materials.
There are two major side-stories in Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth — and the first you’ll find is the Sujimon League. In this extended parody of Pokemon you’ll catch various criminals, creeps and perverts and pit them against each other in pit fights. Battles are relatively simple, but the league gets harder the further you progress up the ranks. If you’re looking for a few tips to help you become Sujimon Champion, we’ve got the info you need. After completing the league, here are five details we wish we knew way earlier.
Few phrases in video games send chills down one’s spine like, “It gets good after eight hours.” With that much time, you could beat Bowser in Super Mario Bros. Wonder, watch most of The Bear, or read The Great Gatsby — twice. It should be no surprise, then, that those six cruel words hang like an albatross around the necks of countless role-playing games collecting dust in my backlog.
In Chapter 9 of Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, the Tattoo Parlor lady will demand $10,000 USD before she gives you any information you need about your missing person. That’s a lot of cash, but it isn’t impossible. Returning to Hawaii in Chapter 9, the enemies are much tougher and cash is easier to come by. There are multiple ways to earn the money you need, but there are a few ways that are extremely easy.
Prior to launch, Masayoshi Yokoyama, the head of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, made bold claims about just how much time players would spend in Like a Dragon: InfiniteWealth.Yokoyama claimed that “if you attempt to clear everything, it may never end.” Obviously, that was hyperbole, but just how much content really is in the game? The series is known for its lengthy, narratively rich main campaigns, dozens of substories, and deep mini-games such as Dondoko Island. Now that we’ve had a chance to see the conclusion to Ichiban and friends’ latest adventures through the tropical island of Hawaii, we can fill you in on how many hours you can expect to put into this title.
Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio reset its flagship series with Yakuza: Like a Dragon, an aptly named title that saw newcomer Ichiban Kasuga take the lead in RPG hero fashion. With Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, RGG returns to the role-playing formula, with one foot in the future and the other in the past.
is RGG Studio's latest entry into the formerly-known-as franchise, and it's probably the developer's most ambitious project yet. After just giving protagonist Ichiban Kasuga his start as the face of, his second adventure puts him side-by-side with the most iconic character the series has ever had — its former protagonist, Kiryu Kazuma. It's the kind of decision that could easily sink a promising hero, and to be honest, there are moments where the game threatens to do just that, barely containing the myth of Kiryu to allow Ichiban more space to grow.
As a longtime fan of the series, 2020’s Yakuza: Like a Dragon came as a bit of a shock to my system. Fun as it was, the sudden switch to stop-start, turn-based JRPG attacks was a lot to get my head around after more than a decade of enjoying the series’ signature combo-based beat ‘em up action – a bit like spending over 10 years getting really good at thumb wrestling and then being asked to play chess. Thankfully its follow-up, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, substantially retools the combat system: it’s still turn-based, but the tactical decision-making introduced by its predecessor is enhanced with more flexible movement and proximity-based attacks that better reflect the rough-and-tumble tactility of the traditional Yakuza street fights. As a result, Infinite Wealth’s brawling feels more like the best of both worlds, and its stunning new Hawaiian setting provides the perfect playground in which to unleash its superior style of smackdown.