Some of you may have already experienced what the Like a Dragon series is like when you played the first games in the series, Yakuza: Like a Dragon or Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, the franchise’s first foray into turn-based combat territory, but for everyone else, listen up.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is a game that just shouldn’t exist.
It’s foolish. It’s cringeworthy. It’s ridiculous. It’s trying to be five different games. It’s, it’s. It’s also one of the absolutely best games I’ve played in a long time.
It does help to have played the first game for a few jokes here and there, but I wouldn’t say it’s necessary. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth kicks off around three years after the first game ends. The main character, Ichiban Kasuga, has made his way out of the Yakuza and hopes to help others who have also left get a foot in the door of their new gangster-less life.
Of course, nothing goes according to plan, and without ruining the story, you eventually end up befriending a taxi driver in Hawaii in search of your mother.
If you haven’t already read the four things I wish somebody had told me before I started playing Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, you should. The first chapter in this game almost had me declaring the game too awful to play and dropping it in the trash. Almost.
Just like the first season of The Office, if you can make your way through the cringe of this first section of the game, you’re in for a great time. Pro tip: Play the game with Japanese Audio enabled. It’s the only way you’ll manage to get through chapter one without having your eyeballs doing 360 degrees of eye-rolling.
Once I managed to get into the meat and potatoes of the game, though, I was spending long, late nights kicking ass and taking names. The combat is some of the most fun I’ve had in a game for a while. I’m a big fan of turn-based combat games, which Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is, but Ryu Ga Gotoku has cleverly added elements to make it feel more real-time. This mix is just perfect for people who enjoy either combat style.
The JRPG elements also feel nice and chunky, like they matter. Equipping better gear makes a huge difference in battle, and every level-up counts. Of course, this means you’ll be spending a bit of time grinding out a few fights for that delicious XP, but I found that walking from one point of a quest to another provided more than enough opportunity.
Each character also has a variety of classes to choose from, but don’t get too excited about them early on in the game. By early on, I mean in the first 20 hours or so. Each class has its range of abilities, which help form the ideal team, but I found the main characters, like Ichiban and Kiryu, played best in their default class. This doesn’t mean you can’t mix things up a little, though. Each character has ability slots that they can assign abilities to from some of their other classes. This lets you create a bit of a custom class to better fit your playstyle.
Speaking of better fitting your playstyle, Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth is not only a JRPG. If you’re more of a monster-catching, element-countering type of person, this game has some of that for you, too. Named Sujimon, this side-story game mode allows you to catch the people you defeat in battle if you absolutely destroy them.
Yup, you gain their respect by wrecking their faces. Once caught, you can form a party of six slaves, or Sujimon, and battle them against other Sujimancers. Just like that other, really popular monster-catching game, there are a few elite Sujimancers that you battle until finally reaching the top and becoming the Sujimonster champion.
Not your thing? Then why not play a bit of Resort Tycoon, where you get to build an island resort from the ground up? Manage your guests and the island shops and gather all the materials you need in a tycoon game mashup mixed with a bit of the survival gathering genre.
Still not intrigued? How about a dungeon-crawling rogue-lite where you attempt to go as deep into the dungeon as possible for some of the game’s best loot?
You get the picture.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth has an infinite wealth of games and stories within the game to keep you occupied when you get a little bored of playing along the main storyline, which in itself is a great story to follow.
The main storyline keeps you on a path to completion but without being too in-your-face. Instead, you form bonds with the characters and their stories, and then, every now and again, remember you’re actually looking for this poor soul’s mother.
If it all sounds a little confusing, that’s because it is. It’s confusing to see a game do so much, so well. It’s confusing to be thirty hours deep only to get thrown something completely new to do. It’s confusing, but it’s exhilarating.
Like I said in the beginning, a game like this just shouldn’t exist. Usually, when a game tries to be a little bit of everything, it falls short on all of them. But the dry, dad-joke style humour that Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth leans heavily into and the great characters that you’ll definitely connect with make this mashup of everything and the kitchen sink, fantastic.
