Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth (PS5) Review

A tale of two dragons.

 

 One of the biggest surprises I've played was 2020's Yakuza: Like A Dragon, which was a monumental shift for Sega's Yakuza series as it introduced a completely new character and switched genres from beat 'em up to role-playing game. I didn't think the genre shift to turn-based RPG was gonna turn out well, but was I wrong when it ended up being a fantastic experience-- and that's coming from a huge fan RPGs. Infinite Wealth takes Like A Dragon's foundations and improves upon it all while adding a slew of exciting new features to the mix. So, is it another over-the-top adventure? Let's find out.

 Four years have passed since Ichiban Kasuga's debut outing and he's living a quiet life trying to rehabilitate former yakuza grunts back into society. Things are well until a viral fake video costs him both his job and reputation. Now down on his luck, he finds himself going to Hawaii for a vacation and to search for his long-lost mother. At the same time, undercover agent Kazuma Kiryu is sent to locate a person-of-interest in Hawaii while facing his greatest threat yet. Both of our heroes' stories intertwine into yet another captivating narrative that's full of mystery and twists. There's tons of catching up to reach up to this point in the series, so it's by no means an entry for newcomers.

Our heroes are in for a dangerous vacation.

 Kasuga's in for a wild trip in Hawaii as he'll meet (and get in trouble) with a whole bunch of shady characters and natives alike. Some of the new faces include Tomizawa, a shady taxi driver and Chitose, a street-smart girl with a secret. In contrast, Kiryu's journey is a somber one as he goes on a final assignment and this time, it might be his last. Regret is a central theme of the story as characters will often reminiscing about their past events and must come to terms with them. With all that said, the ending did feel abrupt as things end pretty quickly as I expected a more in-depth fanfare.

 Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth is a turn-based RPG where you control Kasuga and Kiryu as they explore both Hawaii and Yokohama, beating up a wide range of enemies, partaking in wacky substories, levelling up, and dabbling in the game's side content. You can upgraede your gear by crafting or improving them by collecting materials and summon "Poundmates" to help you out in battles. In short, much of the combat remains unchanged, though a few additions are welcome. To start, the combat gets minor refinements as you can now move (albeit slightly) during combat to position characters and attack enemies more accurately. This alone makes the combat feel a lot less clunky than it did previously and battles quickly went in my favor once I perfectly lined up the characters and executed their attacks. 

The gameplay remains fun to play and is now more refined.

 New jobs are here like the Samurai, Kunoichi, Geodancer, Pyrodancer, Housekeeper, Desperado, Sujimon Trainer, and Action Star. Kasuga his own "Hero" job with his trusty bat while Kiryu has his exclusive "Dragon of Dojima" job, which combines all his past move-sets into a single job. There's a new "Tag Team" meter where characters can deliver strong attacks along with Kasuga, which ended up being a huge help on many tough encounters. As Kasuga increases his bonds with his team, he can perform regular combo attacks with them as well.

 Littered throughout Hawaii and Yokohama are tons of activities to indulge in like an arcade where you can play classic Sega games, singing in karaoke joints, shopping for gear and items in stores, eating at restaurants to replenish your health and gain stat boosts, and fight tougher goons to increase your levels. Since Hawaii's map is large, you now how a hoverboard to make traversal faster and you get to customize its look as well as charge it when its battery gets low. Kiryu has his own unique substories that go over his life over the years and it's a must to complete them all to get that much-needed closure for him. 

In typical series fashion, the mini-games are a lot!

 Some of the substantial mini-games include the Pokemon-inspired "Sujimon", where you capture sujimon (which are basic enemy types out in the streets) and recruit them to your team and face-off against other trainers. "Crazy Eats", a homage to Crazy Taxi where you ride a bike and deliver food before time runs out. Moreover, there's Dodonko Island, a life-simulator kinda like Animal Crossing or Rune Factory where you spend each day tending to your island by crafting materials to decorate your house, clean up the trash, expand to progress its storyline. You can easily sink a lot if hours here without knowing. Other smaller mini-games include an online dating one and Pokemon Snap-like one where you travel around town snapping pics of perverts so that the cops can catch them. 

 Visually, Infinite Wealth is near-identical to its predecessor, except that the game's filled with a lot more color and bright scenery to indulge in thanks to the Hawaii setting. Character models and many of the backgrounds were impressive and look amazing in nighttime. Sadly, the animations still give-off that PS3 era and I would've appreciated if we got new ones. Fortunately, the skill animations are unique with them being wild and often hilarious to watch. It ran well on PS5 with no issues in the way. The Japanese voicework is awesome as one would expect (there's an English dub too) and soundtrack was great as well. 

You'll be facing some weird and unusual enemies throughout the game.

 Overall, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth was yet another great adventure for Kiryu and Kasuga, full of excitement and emotion. The new additions like the sunny setting and gameplay refinements were so good that they made it hard to go back and replay its predecessor. Also, the massive amount of side-content will last you a while and I beat the game at nearly 70 hours, though I didn't fully dive into the Dodonko and Sujimon storylines. Overall, fans of the series and those looking for a solid RPG (and don't mind catching up on years of Yakuza lore), shouldn't miss out on Infinite Wealth.