5/5 ★ – Lord_Hazenberg's review of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.

It was a very bold move of RGG studios to release the GOTY only 1 month into the year, so now it’ll be 11 more months of games competing for second place. The amount of effort & money that went into Infinite Wealth (which I might refer to at times as IW or LaD 8) puts it almost into a category all its own among the Yakuza/Like A Dragon series just for sheer technical quality. Buckle up for the long haul, because there’s a lot to talk about here. I played this on the PS5 and it took me around 90 hours to do most of the side content & finish the main story. Another 10 or so hours of postgame activities and I achieved the platinum trophy. Infinite Wealth’s combat is a notable improvement over 7’s in every possible way. Being able to move your characters allows for more strategic usage of special moves, bonus damage to attacks the closer you are, and tag team attacks with nearby allies are all welcome additions. Some jobs (classes) return from 7 like the ever useful Idol & Host, while the rest are all new such as the tanky samurai or extremely fun desperado. Reworking the inherited skills from other jobs is yet another improvement over 7. Now you get to pick up to 5 skills to carry over between classes instead of having to grind up levels to get the 2 designated skills per job. Weapon crafting is also much better in IW as almost every weapon you find can be upgraded to a second form and that’s it. No more scrounging to find a specific level 1 weapon then upgrading it 50 times to get the strongest form. Hawaii is a gorgeous new location, and a huge breath of fresh air with every other location in the series taking place in downtown Japanese cities besides Okinawa in 3. Yokohama & Kamurocho are present as well, but the majority of content is found in Hawaii. Rogue like style dungeons, side stories, and even Yakuza versions of animal crossing & Pokémon can be found in Hawaii alone. Chihiro Aoki once again leads the charge as music director after LaD 7 & Lost Judgment. Yakuza soundtracks are always exceptional and while not as immediate as its predecessors, IW has some great tracks; the end of denial, impersonation, impregnable triangle, the four, & this games receive you reprise, “receive and believe you.” ***Story Spoilers Ahead*** While not as strong as its direct predecessor in Like a Dragon 7, Infinite Wealth has a very good story. It takes a while to get going as the search for a macguffin takes over half of the game’s chapters. The latter chapters where you swap between playing as Kiryu & Ichiban go by very quickly if you don’t engage in any side content. The new characters are all mostly great with 1 exception, 1 of the 4 new party members Tomizawa. He’s not awful but it felt 3 straight chapters of the early game were dedicated to this guy regurgitating the same crap in every single cutscene. He’s supposed to be getting over the fear of being used by criminal organizations, but even after that his attitude comes across as a whiny douchebag and not in the lovable sense. Chitose is much better with a lot more story relevance. It also helps that she’s very attractive. The big reveal of her being one half of the vtuber channel that ruined Ichiban & co’s lives alongside her arc of no longer running away from responsibilities was much more successful in its execution than Tomizawa’s. As for the main plot macguffins, Akane & Lani aren’t super deep characters nor do they need to be. They mirror Kiryu & Haruka’s relationship from Yakuza 1, as well as allow Ichiban to get some closure on his parentage. Yamai was a big surprise as well. Makes me wish he was in the party instead of Tomizawa. His story was one of the more interesting plots in the whole game. The main villains being; Dwight, Eiji, Bryce, & Ebina were all well done. Dwight being the persistent underling, Eiji being the other half of the vtuber channel as a vindictive puppet master, Bryce as the charismatic cult leader, & Ebina as Ichiban’s darker reflection gives the game a great variety of evil doers. A Hawaiian cult of brainwashing has also got to be the most unique villain premise in the franchise after so many being evil Yakuza members or corrupt cops. Ichiban continues to be possibly the greatest legacy protagonist in recent video games. So many other series have failed to pass the baton or move onto a new generation, and had to resort to reboots & remakes. But in just 2 games, Ichiban stands as one of the most lovable & genuine characters in years. Always able to see the good in others, including those who helped ruin his life, and inspiring everyone around him to be their best self. Which leads me to Kiryu’s arc in this game. I was extremely hesitant of Kiryu’s return after 7 felt like the torch had already been passed to Ichiban. His character was in the best place possible at the time, and I didn’t want that changed with a new creative lead coming in after series creator Nagoshi left RGG Studios after Lost Judgment. But now after Gaiden & Infinite Wealth, I am so glad that 7 wasn’t his last appearance. His bucket list is a love letter to fans of this wonderful franchise as well as a swan song to his character. Kiryu struggled with depression as far back as Yakuza 5. Losing his name & old life because of what he knew in Yakuza 6 & then getting diagnosed with a terminal illness marks the absolute lowest point of this man’s life. He can no longer see his adopted daughter & grandson or any of his orphanage kids grow up now because of a shadow organization pulling his strings. Instead of the tired old routine of old characters getting ruined to prop up new characters, IW allows the new cast of Ichiban’s group to show Kiryu that his new life is not worth giving up on because it could always change. “You can’t change anything if you’re dead,” sums up Kiryu’s arc perfectly and his ending in this game is infinitely better than what it would have been had they left him alone after 7. *** End of Story Spoilers*** As for any complaints, most of them stem from the English side. There were notable instances of mistranslation with the big perpetrator being Ichiban’s proposal in chapter 1. “She’s a big strong woman who doesn’t need a man to solve her problems,” was not in the original Japanese. But this is a growing problem across a lot of Japanese media not just LaD with localizers inserting their personal beliefs into places where they don’t belong. Then there’s the unfortunate souls who play these games English dubbed, because they most likely went deaf after hearing Yong Yea as Kiryu for 60 hours. The new creative director Yokoyama has an odd obsession with YouTubers & streamers as they’ve been present in all of his games since he took over. But to cast someone who’s that bad at voice acting especially when you brought back Kiryu’s original English actor in 7 is mind boggling. Lastly, a very big problems that I’m not sure if it’s a developer or publisher issue. Hiding NG+ and the endgame dungeon behind a $20 paywall is insulting. The DLC is only a 3 mb download as well so the content is already installed with the base game. You just have to pay $20 for the file to access it. Trophy/achievement hunters be warned, because for Ichiban to hit level 70 a massive grind awaits if you didn’t pay for the endgame dungeon. The max enemy level in the base game is 54, so you’re looking at average of 30-40 fights just to level up 1 time in the post game. But don’t worry, the scumbags at SEGA will sell you level ups in the store! There are 7 level up drinks available through minigames, so my advice is save those for when you hit level 63 then chug up to pop the level 70 trophy. TLDR: 18 paragraphs later, I think it’s safe to say I love this game. Infinite Wealth was the make or break moment for the new creative team and they passed with flying colors. I started my journey through this series during Covid, and it remains one of my favorite gaming experiences of my life. Seeing Kiryu’s 35 year story finally conclude will stick with me for a long time. All hail the Fourth Chairman, the Dragon of Dojima, the Legendary Yakuza, Kazuma Kiryu.