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With 2024 being the year of the Dragon, it seems almost too poetic that Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth releases worldwide on the 26th January 2024. Being a franchise that loves to offer new adventures and innovative experiences for both long-time fans and newcomers, Infinite Wealth is no exception, as it’s packed with an abundance of content for players to dive right in and enjoy.
With its extensive main story featuring two main protagonists with legendary statuses, Kazuma Kiryu and Ichiban Kasuga, a brand new map in the sun-drenched shores of Honolulu, Hawaii, a new cast of characters, a greatly-improved combat system, and a plethora of minigames, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth will surely keep you invested for a long time.
Aloha, Welcome to Hawaii
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth takes place a few years after the events of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, with Ichiban Kasuga being dubbed as the “Hero of Yokohama” after being responsible for everything that happened in the previous title. Turning over a new leaf, Ichiban now works as your average salaryman at Hello Work in Isezaki Ijincho, but his peaceful days are quickly diminished as his criminal past was revealed on a popular VTuber channel, which also caused his friends Koichi Adachi and Yu Nanba to lose their jobs as well.
With him being out of a job, Ichiban begins to lose any and all sense of direction until a familiar Yakuza organisation, the Seiryu Clan, contacts him about his real mother, Akane, being spotted in Hawaii. Excited by the news, Ichiban then books a flight to Honolulu to be reunited with his long-lost mother. However, his streak of bad luck followed Ichiban to Hawaii, as he goes through a series of unfortunate events yet again after arriving in Honolulu, with him being robbed and stripped of everything he had, waking up butt naked on a public beach.
Being helpless and with no one to contact for help, Ichiban goes through the same rebuilding phase he went through in the previous title, with him starting from rock bottom and having to find ways to earn money and survive as he tries to look for his long-lost mother.
Fortunately for Ichiban, he one day comes across the legendary Yakuza, Kazuma Kiryu who happens to also be in Honolulu for his own reasons and eventually assists Ichiban in his efforts. It wasn’t till long before both of them realised that not only were they looking for the same woman, Akane, but the criminal syndicates in Honolulu having the same goal. Thus, Ichiban and Kiryu work together to find Akane before the criminal syndicates in Honolulu get their hands on her.
Finishing only the main story would take around 40 to 50 hours, but that would mean “rushing” through it. But much like any other titles in the Like a Dragon franchise, players are recommended to take their time finishing the game and enjoy the substories and side content available.
The average playtime to complete Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth would take around 70 hours if you include completing the Dondoko Island Sujimon Battle standalone mini-game, as well as doing some of the substories and activities. However, if you’re looking to platinum or 100% the game, it can easily take over 100 hours, which is a clear indication how much content there is in the game, so you won’t have to worry about running out of things to do.
Honolulu, the Main Gateway to the World
Without mincing words, Honolulu is huge. It’s three times the size of Yakuza: Like a Dragon’s Yokohama, which was already more than three times the size of the iconic Kamurocho, that long-time fans are familiar with. Even after putting in about 20 hours, we had not even explored half of the map, and that is from doing the main story, substories and even some minigames.
It’s filled with tons of gorgeous sights, ambient sounds, English-speaking locals (even when playing on the Japanese dub), and plenty of trouble lurking in every corner that will make players feel immersed into the palm-fringed paradise of Hawaii, while also retaining the familiar Like a Dragon feel.
You have the beautiful ocean along Aloha Beach, where players can even dive into the ocean if you feel like going for a swim or hunting for sunken treasure. If you don’t feel like getting yourself wet, fret not, you can also head on over to Aloha Seaside to take in the breathtaking view with some coffee and sweets.
If you’re not much of a beach person and just prefer shopping, you’ll be able to find lots of stores that sell all sorts of stuff, from crepes, to tacos, to sushi in every corner of Honolulu. You even have a bar with a karaoke setup that acts as a hangout spot for Ichiban and his friends.
There’s even the Anaconda Shopping Center, which is your one-stop shop for pretty much everything you need for your adventure in Hawaii – weapons, equipment, accessories, pawn shops, you name it, they got it.
Bottom line is, whether you’re running, taking the taxi or cruising with your friends in segways, every corner of Honolulu will surely keep you interested with its treasure trove of things to see and do.
Make War, Not Love
Previously in Yakuza: Like a Dragon, one of our biggest gripes was how players were unable to move their party members, especially with how some of the skills and environmental attacks were reliant on positioning.
Infinite Wealth addresses that by making the combat system more dynamic by allowing each party member to freely move around within a radius to position themselves effectively to make the most out of their attacks and skills. It makes combat feel a lot more fluid if you take into account that you’re able to increase both your movement radius and skill radius through levelling up.
Players can now also “aim” where you want to knock your enemies, whether it be into a wall or another party member, depending on the position of your party member, this in turn will deal additional damage or perform a follow-up attack if it’s a party member.
Overall, skills and abilities in Infinite Wealth feel more balanced and well-rounded than in Yakuza: Like a Dragon, adding a layer of depth as players have to think a bit more strategically, especially as AoE skills now require you to utilise proper positioning and playing around with the radius of that skill, rather than just activating one skill and everyone in the area gets damaged or healed like it was in the previous title.
A feature from the previous title, Poundmates, makes a return in this title, which allows you to summon quirky allies, unleashing devastating attacks and support skills that can turn the tide of battle in an instant. From summoning Buster Holmes to deal damage and stun enemies to calling in an entrepreneurial deliveryman to heal your entire party, Poundmates add yet another layer of strategic chaos to every brawl.
Infinite Wealth also adds in a new combat mechanic in the form of the “Hype Meter” which is indicated by an infinity symbol gauge on the party members, which essentially allows the use of tag team and ultimate attacks from the previous titles, but instead of using MP, it consumes the Hype Meter which incentivizes players to use them more in combat especially during boss fights.
This title also takes jobs to the next level with an expanded job system that offers more diversity compared to the previous title. From a surfing Aquanaut, nunchaku-wielding Action Star, Fake Murasame-wielding Samurai, maracas-holding Geodancer, diligent Housekeeper, and even a gun-slinging Desperado, each of these jobs offer unique skills and combat styles.
One feature that we particularly liked about the new improved job system that was added in Infinite Wealth is how players can choose which skills they’d like to inherit from other jobs to the current job, instead of just farming for the permanent skills for that specific job. It further adds a strategic element during team-building, allowing players to extensively customise their brawling experience and find the perfect fighting style fit for your dragon spirit.
Take A Breather
It just wouldn’t be a Like a Dragon game without talking about the minigames. Infinite Wealth keeps you entertained with a diverse lineup of brand-new mini-games if you just want to take a quick breather away from the main story. From restoring a deserted paradise in Dondoko Island, to delivering pizza while performing sick stunts on your bike in Crazy Delivery, to battling other collectible monsters with your own collectible monsters in Sujimon Battles.
Starting off with Dondoko Island, this minigame will have Ichiban taking care of his own island, with a plethora of things to do, from hunting for local wildlife, reshaping the town on the island, to wooing the various tourists and guests with your island’s charm. This is probably going to be the most time-consuming minigame, alongside Sujimon Battle, as it has its own entire storyline that could even pass off as its own standalone game.
If you’re familiar with life-sims such as Animal Crossing, you can expect to get hooked with all the things you can do in this minigame, that ranges from decorating your island, gathering supplies, building your own furniture, catching fishes and bugs, and eliminating any threats to the island. Dondoko Island manages to give a therapeutic and relaxing experience that could get you completely hooked for hours, and completely forget that Ichiban was supposed to be looking for his long-lost mother.
Moving away from Dondoko Island, another minigame that makes its return is the Sujimon Battle, which is basically a glorified enemy index that collects enemy data like weaknesses, skills, drops and features. This time, you’re now able to collect your own Sujimon to battle against other Sujimon trainers.
Sujimon Battles are 3 versus 3 team battles where Ichiban takes command as a Sujimon Trainer, pitting his team against rivals and commanding his Sujimon to attack and use skills. Teams consist of three starting members and can have up to three substitutes, adding up to a maximum total of six Sujimon per team. Here, you’ll be battling, recruiting and training Sujimon to become the best Sujimon Trainer like no one ever was.
Last but not least of the new bunch of minigames added in Infinite Wealth is Crazy Delivery. If you’ve played the classic Crazy Taxi, Crazy Deliver is essentially Like a Dragon’s take on that gameplay, but turns it into a minigame.
Instead of being a taxi driver taking passengers to their destination, Crazy Delivering has you becoming a food delivery rider as you race through the streets of Honolulu and deliver meals to hungry customers, all while pulling off sick stuns. It’ll definitely feel very nostalgic for players who have played Crazy Taxi in their childhood as you go on your way to becoming Hawaii’s craziest delivery man in Honolulu.
Aside from the new additions, Infinite Wealth also brings back several classic minigames from previous titles such as Ounabara Vocational School where you can learn various subjects, and even the more traditional ones such as karaoke, shogi, darts, UFO catchers, there’s just about something for everyone.
Verdict
2024 is looking to be another wonderful year for games as Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth offers a wealth of content for everyone, both new and old to the franchise to enjoy. With engaging and captivating main story featuring two iconic Yakuza figures Kiryu and Ichiban, lots of new characters and returning fan favourites, an improved combat system, a huge and completely new map – all these that Infinite Wealth has to offer definitely puts the franchise even higher on the list of top JRPGs, whether they are familiar to the genre or even newcomers to the genre in general.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is more than just a vacation – it’s a vibrant experience filled with action, laughter, and heartwarming stories. So pack your luggage bags, brush up your karaoke skills, and get ready to punch your way through paradise with Ichiban and Kiryu.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth was reviewed on PC via Steam, and is set to release worldwide on 26th January 2024 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X | S, Xbox One and PC via Steam.
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The Review
PROS
- A substantial amount of content, providing players with hours pf gameplay
- Engaging and emotional main story featuring two iconic Yakuza figures
- Large and detailed map of Honolulu with plenty to explore in every corner
- Improved combat system which addresses faults of the previous title and offers more strategic approaches
- Diverse jobs system offering a wide range of unique skills and combat styles
- Innovative new minigames to play to take a break from the main story
CONS
- Potentially overwhelming content for some players who just want to play the main story
