Like my Gaiden review from last year, I will be keeping this as spoiler-free as possible. However, unlike Gaiden, there will be some areas where the spoilers will be impossible to avoid. Spoiler warnings will be given in advance for those who may want to play this game blind. Now without further ado, sit down, strap in and get ready for a journey that’s as long as Ichiban’s flight to Hawaii.  

Hawaiian Roller-coaster Ride

It’s funny, had you told me a year ago that I would be sitting here talking about a game series that quickly shot to my top five, I would have laughed at you. I even would have told you there’s never a chance you’d see me doing reviews. Yet here we are, two Like A Dragon games later and I have no intention of stopping now. Like A Dragon is love, Like A Dragon is life.

Before even starting Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth, I knew it was going to be a long and stacked play-through. But I didn’t care! We had Kazuma Kiryu back as a protagonist alongside Kasuga Ichiban. I knew it was going to be a rollercoaster of emotions. Little did I know how emotional it would get. Given RGG’s past works I shouldn’t have been surprised.  

For both long-time fans of the series and those who may have just jumped in around the time of Like A Dragon’s release, this game is fundamentally more of the same but with some absolutely fantastic QOL changes. For long-time fans, it’s a perfect send-off for Kiryu and the many fan-favourite characters that make appearances throughout the game.

To all the dragons I liked before

As much as I want to gush about Infinite Wealth’s story and the twists and turns it’s taken, I don’t want to get too into spoiler territory. I will say this though, the story up until Chapter 12 is fantastic and the plot points kept me guessing at times where they were planning on going with it(well except for one or two of the bigger twists, GamEir’s Horror Queen got theories on those only a couple of hours into the game, and the bigger of the two sadly ended up being correct).

Once chapter 12 hits the story starts to speed up a bit and not in a good way. Again without going too much into spoiler territory, all I will say is that the last two bosses and quite a portion of the ending felt rushed. Honestly, it felt like a slap to the face with the build-up that came before it, especially Kiryu’s bucket list. There were also some insanely late-game moments shown in trailers which disappointed me as well, with the Shark Boss not appearing until the final chapter and even part of the ending being shown. 

Saying that about the last few chapters though there were some fantastic moments. The main highlights include the boss for Chapter 12( the best boss theme in Yakuza, not just Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth in my opinion) to a moment in the final chapter. I won’t spoil what the moment was obviously, but it was good to hear Receive You play even if the moment itself was short-lived, luckily, we get to hear it even more in a remix during the final boss build-up/labyrinth.

Tonight Ichiban, we party like dragons! 

For the first time, I took part in none of the gambling mini-games. Be it Poker, Blackjack, oicho-kabu, Koi Koi etc. Now saying that, typically, I would hold on until I either had some cheat items or until I had the money necessary to grind out the completion points. Though like the previous LAD none of them are needed outside of 100% completion.  

“Fun” Minigames: 

With a lot of the smaller minigames that have been staples in the series since its inception it has always been good to see that “Club Sega” sign and know that you were either going to be tearing your hair out in the next five minutes because you’re like Squidward with the UFO catchers or you were going to be dominating AI in the likes of Virtua fighter. That’s been changed in Infinite Wealth to mirror the real-life rebranding with them now being called Club GiGo.

Just know, as soon as you walk in to give the new minigames a try, you’re going to be there for a while. The new mini-games added to Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth are some of the most awkward and painful added to the series. Well, next to boxcelios anyway. They actually left me longing for Mahjong. Luckily, these games do not need to be completed for the platinum trophy. But God, I wish I had known that before-hand.  

Aloha Madness

There are also new additions, such as the Crazy Taxi-esque Crazy Eats which sees Ichiban delivering food as fast and as stylishly as possible. Then there’s Sicko Snap which, well I’m sure you can imagine just what THAT entails. Both serve a similar role as can collectors from LAD and so follow a pattern of having course-based difficulties.

Club MeGo Gaga

Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth is the first time we see new UFO catchers. These ones are different, in the sense that they are a box sitting between two parallel bars. And let me tell you, it took me over an hour just to get two of the three pocket circuit racing cars available through the machine. That said, I didn’t need them for anything. I wanted them for completionist’s sake. The old UFO catchers still exist though and luckily, they’ve been made easier to win. Well, that or I’ve just had a lot of practice over nine games.  

Regarding the other minigames you’re going to find in Club GiGO, they are all new ones! Making their first appearances in a Yakuza/LAD game we have:

• Virtua Fighter 3TB
• SpikeOut
• Sega Bass Fishing

Honestly, I completed each of these on easy (they aren’t) and still struggled for at least an hour on each one. To only then find out that none of them were needed for anything beyond some completion points. I will admit, while I was not too happy about that I was a lot happier knowing that these weren’t old enough to make an appearance in the likes of Yakuza 0 with its 100% completion list.  

Clubs, Bats and Balls take flight!

If arcades and arcade-style games aren’t your thing though there is also:

• Baseball
• Darts
• Golf

Honestly, Darts and Golf feel just as good as they did in Gaiden. Once again, I found myself going back to some of the minigames in this far more often than others. Golf and Darts ended up being personal favourites though. Baseball is another returning mini-game to Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth. On one hand, I am glad to see it make a return as the newer variation of baseball is quite a bit better than the original. On the other, the original baseball mechanics combined with the equally insane completion points (hello there Yakuza 3) have turned me off/burned me out on baseball. 

Karaoke has returned in Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth: 

Once again, I will say karaoke is the greatest mini-game in the entirety of the Yakuza/LAD series. This is a hill I will once again die on. The gameplay is the same rhythm-style gameplay you’ve come to know and love. And now there’s an even bigger selection of songs/characters to sing this time. Unlike the last few LAD games though I found myself putting off karaoke quite late into my playthrough. You know what they say, if you’re not Kiryu are you truly the dame da ne-est of them all?

Admittedly, I found this to be one of the weaker entries in regard to the karaoke mini-game. It’s not due to song choice, though. Rather, the mixing on the non-singing characters that you do back-up for seems to be skewed more towards the backup sound effects being louder than the singing voice. This hurt most during Judgment-Shinpan, as we finally had a return to the Nishiki/Kiryu duo that was originally in Yakuza 0. I will admit I still teared up as soon as they started singing together though. 

Now if you’re looking for a whole slew of new songs, I’m sorry to say that isn’t the case. Well, for the most part anyway. If you’re happy with some repeats from older games like Machine Gun Kiss or Baka Mitai you’re in for a treat. If you’re looking for something new, you’ll be in for a treat there too! We have a few new songs to choose from depending on the character. My personal favourite going to Kiryu’s Baka Darou. I would also like to give a shout-out to Seonhee’s version of Like A Butterfly. While not as good as Akame’s from Gaiden, in my opinion, it’s still close to it. 

Darwin’s Cockfighting 

Ahh Sujimon. Never did I think I’d see a Pokémon spin-off in a LAD game. But here we are. Creeps, pervs and thugs acting and being used like Pokémon albeit on a less grand scale. Honestly, I don’t know where to start with the madness that is Sujimon without giving the entire storyline away. I will say that they leaned hard to the idea/aspect of Pokémon. While I didn’t spend a huge amount of time at it thanks to the ultimate edition boosters, and an insanely lucky early game Sujimon Gacha draw dropping me a legendary Sujimon it became a cakewalk very early, very fast.

Whatever you do though, don’t make the mistake I did and continue the storyline once you hit the champion. The jump in levels is a bit bigger than expected. Given all of that though it made for a welcome change of pace to the standard coliseum I’ve come to know from the series. I cannot wait to see where they go with this heading forward. Especially given how it’s tied into the enemy system of the game similar to how it was in Yakuza: LAD.  

Ballroom Blitz 

Ever since the original trailer for Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth dropped, I’ve been curious as to how they’d implement Kiryu’s combat style to Ichiban JRPG gameplay. And they have done it perfectly. For those who know Ichiban’s reasoning for fighting enemies in a turn-based fashion, you possibly had the same worry as me. Thankfully, there’s no reason to worry. While Kiryu himself does take part in the turn-based action, the Dragon of Dojima himself has a skill that allows him to break typical JRPG rules. This allows you to beat enemies up with combat like in previous games, being very similar to the extreme heat mode that made an appearance in Kiwami 2 and 6.  

That isn’t the biggest change they’ve made to the combat in Infinite Wealth. The bigger changes come in the new QOL changes and other implementations. Such as being able to move your party members within a certain range on the battlefield. While that may sound rudimentary change it can often mean the difference between surviving a big attack and seeing the game over screen. Or even taking down a boss with no issues thanks to the new proximity attacks.

The new combat system looks at distance from the enemy as well as the layout of your party. For the most damage, you want to be as close as possible before choosing to attack for a proximity bonus. Depending on the party member you’re playing as, that can mean the difference between a hit combo or a wide-sweeping move hitting multiple enemies in a singular attack. Like proximity bonuses, there are also back attacks which work in the same fashion. These have a higher damage roll and higher crit chance (possibly) but that could be just me seeing things.  

Quit your jibber jobber

Jobs have returned in Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth, but this time with a couple of new ones based on Hawaiian culture. like the Pyro-dancer/Geo-dancer and Western culture like the Desperado and Aquanaut. Now that’s not to say the new jobs aren’t the only jobs available in the game no, far from it. Any fans of the previous LAD will be happy to see the return of most of the jobs in Infinite Wealth. The only ones not returning are the Enforcer and DLC jobs. Personally, I cannot comment on the other jobs outside of the standard job each character starts off with. However, changing jobs doesn’t appear until Chapter 5. If you’re anything like me at that point you’ll easily be close to 50 hours in from doing everything.  

Saying that even unlocking the jobs can be tricky at first. This is due to the pricing on each course for the point in the game at which you can finally change jobs. It is a good idea to swap to each of the jobs when you finally unlock them. This allows you to unlock more skills for use with your main job, through the new skill inheritance system.

Anyone who’s played Yakuza LAD will have a basic idea as to what the skill inheritance mechanic is. Unlike its predecessor, any skills unlocked can be combined with any job through skill inheritance. This gives you more freedom to build the perfect team. The only downside to this new system is it depends heavily on the returning bond system. The entire inheritance tree is locked behind certain bond thresholds, with the final slot being opened at bond level 100.  

Dragons Crossing Infinite Horizons

Before starting up Dondoko Island, I had never really played an Animal Crossing-style game. The closest I ever really got is Viva Pinata but that’s a different topic of a game altogether. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t excited to hit Dondoko at first though. Sadly the excitement wasn’t to last (not totally at least). Dondoko Island doesn’t come into play until Chapter 6. This isn’t surprising, however. The rest of the series was also skewed towards having the money-making minigames/side content be at the mid-point of the game. Prime examples are the cabaret and real estate businesses from Yakuza 0.

Now, there is a story about Dondoko Island. You must get the resort to the highest rank possible In this game, that’s 5 stars. Thankfully, it is a lot easier than it sounds, especially if you have the Ultimate Edition (thanks again RGG/Sega!). For those who’ve played Animal Crossing, you already know how this part of the game goes. For those who haven’t, here’s a quick run-down.

Dondoko Island is an island resort that is currently being used as a dump. It’s up to you to return it to its former glory by cleaning, farming, building, and looking after guests. You must also take on a local pirate crew, who are the ones responsible for all the dumping, causing Dondokos issues and ultimately the main plot point of the side story.  

Dondoko is never done-doko

Before starting off at Dondoko I thought it would probably take a few hours at least to complete. Little did I know, I’d still be there 44 in-game days later. Each day equates to 15 minutes in real life. Eventually, I decided to leave to continue the main story. At that point, an entire fifth of my playtime(about 12/13 hours) with the game had been sucked in with the multitude of things to do on Dondoko. This was all while trying to make the best resort I could.

I sadly didn’t end up doing much with Dondoko after leaving it to continue the main story, outside of cleaning up my island a little bit more to make it more appealing, and a little bit of online so I could get the Seonhee Simp tag(Seonhee is best girl in Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth, fight me). I did return once more after finishing the story but that was simply for a trophy I didn’t get during my original time with it, maybe on one of my NG+ play-throughs I’ll get properly hooked who knows?

An Infinite End, maybe?

While Kiryu doesn’t have a money-making scheme like Ichiban with Dondoko Island what he does have is his Bucket List. This is headed up by another character. I won’t say who but if you’re a longtime fan of the series it should be obvious who it is. I won’t get into too much detail about the bucket list, but I will say that RGG’s writing is some of its strongest here. The choices for returning characters, for the most part, were obvious. This is thanks to how close some people were with Kiryu. Especially due to his near-constant protection of Kamurocho and some other places he’s lived over the saga that is Yakuza.

The memories and feelings that these people share with the character heading up the Bucket List and the fact that none of them believe Kiryu to be dead, drove home the idea that Kiryu is more than just a man. The legacy he has left behind has touched far more people than he realised, which is shown a few times with his reactions to some of the things the returning characters say about him. While some characters had some fantastic life links like Akiyama and Kaoru, the other characters who appear that weren’t revealed in a prior trailer were where the writing for the Bucket List was truly at its best.

Conclusion

Overall, Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth is easily one of the most packed Yakuza/Like A Dragon games and with good reason! RGG have once again outdone themselves with the over-the-top madness I’ve come to expect. Between the absolutely absurd minigames and the rollercoaster that were the sub-stories,I am even more excited to see where Ichibans story is brought in the future. Especially when RGG’s writing just seems to get better with every game. Even with the issues I personally had with some of Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth’s plot points.

The fall of Yakuza’s past and the rise of the dragon’s future

Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth is a fantastic love letter and send-off (I hope) to Kiryu Kazama and the “past” of the Yakuza, while also passing the torch on to Ichiban and the new status quo for the Like A Dragon series going forward in the West. And I for one welcome it. GIVE ME ALL THE TURN BASED JRPG Like A Dragon!

Similarly, to Like A Dragon Gaiden, I do think that Takaya Kuroda is criminally underrated as a VA. He deserves a lot more praise than what he gets. It’s hard to say whether we’ll see him in the series again as Kiryu. But I would not be angry if we don’t see him as a playable character/main protagonist/integral character in a mainline Like A Dragon game again. He deserves rest and happiness, even though after finishing the game it doesn’t feel like that will necessarily happen.

A not so perfect send-off

Overall, Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth is not a perfect outing from RGG, but still one of the better games in the Yakuza/Like A Dragon from a content/minigame standpoint. The story begins to weaken late game and feels almost rushed. Especially when compared to some of the fantastically written sub-stories. Let It Snow is a personal favourite. That’s not to say that I’m not looking forward to the next game in the series though. I’m excited to see where the series goes in the future, and I can’t wait to laugh, cry, scream and shout my way through whatever RGG might plan. Maybe I’ll just go back to Dead Souls to tide me over for a little while, remake/remaster when RGG?  

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