Oh, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. You were (still are, in fact) my most anticipated and hyped game of 2024. You were also going to follow in some immense footsteps, as you were not just a sequel to the incredible Yakuza: Like a Dragon, the franchise’s first foray into turn-based combat territory, but also Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, the emotionally devastating canonical prequel to this brand new adventure. Furthermore, Yakuza games are now mainstream. The franchise isn’t exactly a niche thing anymore, like it used to be a decade ago. Fans were going to expect a lot from you, but newcomers to this whole beautiful mess of a series would want to be entertained as well. Yet somehow, Sega managed to surpass my expectations.

Is Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth the best game in the series? That is hard to say. At the end of the day, I feel like picking the best game in a franchise with more than ten entries is quite hard, and very subjective. I still hold Yakuza 0 to the highest degree, especially in the sense it was my first Yakuza experience. I expected nothing from it, and thanks to it, I’m now a fan. At the same time, its predecessor may have been more impactful in the sense of being more “innovative”. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is, without a doubt, a game that takes advantage of the foundations set by the vastly riskier Yakuza: Like a Dragon. But it took this opportunity to be bigger than any previous Yakuza title, with the possible exception of the gargantuan Yakuza 5. For better or worse.

The thing about Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is that it isn’t just a follow-up to the story kickstarted by its predecessor. It isn’t just a continuation of the saga of the lovable goofball Ichiban Kasuga. As previously unveiled in some trailers, it is also the final chapter of Kiryu’s story. We’ve been with the guy for the past eighteen years, and it’s now time for closure. In essence, it’s two stories in one, which constantly meet each other halfway. However, that also means twice as much dialogue, twice as many plot twists, and twice as many side stories. This does take a toll on the pacing, for sure, but consider it a slow burn which eventually morphs into a raging inferno of emotions, stakes, and fan service.

Fan service is an occasionally maligned term in this day and age. It is used to denote when something is just trying to appeal for one’s emotions with an easy cheap shot, be it an unnecessary cameo, or gratuitous lewdness, in the case of many games stemming from Japan. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth goes for a much rarer kind of fan service, one which is very hard to successfully pull off. It knows you’re playing the game after having enjoyed literal thousands of hours of Yakuza in the past (those games are long, remember). As a result, it wants to reward you with closure after closure, in a “you’ve been with us for more than a decade, you’ve earned the treat” kind of way. This is not unlike what Metal Gear Solid 4 has done in the past.

But again, this is Kiryu’s side of the story, and that can of worms is only opened halfway through the game. At first, there’s Ichiban’s side of the trouble, and it’s equal parts hilarious and engaging. Starting off as another tale of someone getting fire due to unfair and untrue usage of cancel culture (a recurring theme throughout the game), Ichiban decides to go to Hawaii to finally meet his estranged mom, as he has nothing else to lose or do in Yokohama. No job, no security, no money, no girl of his dreams (after a hilariously cringy date you take part on), he kick-starts the Like a Dragon franchise’s global expansion effort. Honolulu, here we come!

Yep, the game known for making everybody and their mother travel to Japan to visit a shady red light district in Tokyo is now half set in Hawaii, or a very bizarre version of it. A lot of the non-Asian locals seemingly known fluent Japanese. There is a lot of English voice acting, even when playing the game in Japanese (as you should), but it’s so horrid you can’t help but think Sega was almost trying to pay homage to the atrocious VA from the House of the Dead series. A lot of people sound like Japanese dudes struggling to say stuff in English, and it’s so corny it’s almost amusing. Plus, there’s Danny Trejo in the midst of all this mess, because why not. He’s a dude named Dwight, by the way.

But before you start thinking that the Hawaii side of the story is just meant to be goofy or absurd, well, this is just half true. Yes, it is absurd, but that’s to be expected from the franchise. At first, it’s a comedy. Then it becomes a crime thriller. At points, it flirts with horror themes, reminding me of Resident Evil 4 more than once (yep, you read that right). Drama can be seen at points. It’s schizophrenic as hell, as to be expected, but never inconsistent. It’s not like a Marvel movie cutting off a dramatic moment with a joke. The game is so ungodly long, that it gives more than enough time for each moment and emotion to breathe properly.

Honolulu is a breath of fresh air when compared to previous explorable towns in Yakuza‘s long history. It’s not just due to it not looking like a traditional Japanese urban setting, ditching concrete and neon for palm trees, sunlight, and the ocean. It’s also larger, wider, with more places to visit, more variety in said places, and more enemy variety. At the same time, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth doesn’t hold back when it comes to wanting to criticise the American way of life, which many Japanese people use Honolulu as a basis of.

This Honolulu can be beautiful when you are strolling past Waikiki Beach, but can also be utterly dangerous and shady, with drug dealers, gangs, and a backstory that is a lot seedier than any previous Yakuza game. It holds many secrets. It’s almost as if RGG Studio actually wanted to set the game in Los Angeles, but found no particularly good explanation to make a lot of American people be able to speak and understand Japanese fluently. I guess it had to be Hawaii, after all.

Sidequests are still plentiful, and they are a bit longer in general this time around. Considering how most rewards for completing them are overpowered summons, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth wants you to earn this privilege. Some of them ended up being a lot more thoughtful and well-written than what you would expect from these games. Won’t deny, one or two made me shed a tear. When you add in Kiryu’s sidequests, which are ALL based on giving him and previous characters some well-deserved closure, then you know you need to be prepared for some hardcore emotional damage.

But let’s not forget that sidequests aren’t the only extra fat featured in a Yakuza game. Every game in the franchise has a “big side mode” of sorts. Gaiden had the colosseum. Yakuza 0 had real estate management. Yakuza: Like a Dragon had the business management simulator. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth has Sujimon, Crazy Eats, and Dondoko Island.

Sujimon is, in essence, an evolution (pun intended) of the Sujidex sidequest featured in its predecessor. Whilst the previous game just wanted you to fill out a Pokédex of sorts, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth‘s version of it lets you capture them, train them, evolve them… yes, it’s Pokémon. There’s an entire god damn Pokémon game (with some Shin Megami Tensei elements to boot) inside a Yakuza game, because why the hell not. There are gyms, badges, evolutions, a literal Elite Four. RGG Studio didn’t need to go in this hard or deep, but so they did. And it’s glorious.

Crazy Eats is an arcade game with delivery elements. In essence, it’s Crazy Taxi, but instead of delivering customers from point A to point B, you deliver food to hungry people, all whilst performing tricks to increase your score and tips. It’s the kind of Crazy Taxi spiritual successor which many developers have tried to pull off in the past, only to fail miserably whilst doing so. Sega had to be the one to bring the spirit back to the limelight, with that crazy, arcade-like vibe only they are able to pull off.

Finally, there is Dondoko Island, a side mode which could have easily been a full game of its own, sold for fifty bucks, and nobody would have complained (truth be told, most of these Yakuza side modes could have been sold as full-fledged games, given their scope). In it, you have complete access to a polluted island, and your objective is to clean it up and build an entire resort of your own. You have to gather resources and build furniture and entire buildings.

In essence, it’s a survival game coupled with freaking Animal Crossing, as deep and as content-filled as one of those. Sega decided to one-up Nintendo and make an Animal Crossing of its own, and I can say they have succeeded at that, though Dondoko Island suffers from some poor controls and tacky combat sections. Thankfully, those real-time combat sections are few and far between.

Speaking of combat, let’s go back to the main critical path and talk about Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth‘s improvements to its predecessor’s turn-based combat system. At its core, it’s the same system; it’s turn-based, but with some button prompts taken from Paper Mario, which let you add some additional damage and effects to your attacks. You can hire friends via an app, and use them as summons, at a monetary cost. You have to pay attention to your position on the battlefield, as well as your enemies’, in order to perform chain attacks or AoE moves. Simple to use, hard to master, filled to the brim with jobs and combos to pull off.

The main addition comes with Kiryu also being playable in the game, meaning that his beat ’em up system, with multiple approaches and styles, had to be translated into turn-based format. I was very impressed with what RGG Studio managed to pull off, as not only is Kiryu able to swap between fast, normal and strong stances, each with pros and cons, but he is even able to momentarily swap to a real-time brawler control scheme, reminiscent of Yakuza 6 in particular, when a meter is filled up. It doesn’t last for long, and you can’t use this scheme at all times, but it’s the kind of catharsis that just makes you smile.

As for any other thing I need to point out about Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, I have to say that there are still some issues related to its performance, though nowhere near as severe as seen in trying to play its predecessor on a PS4, for instance. The Dragon Engine allows for some ludicrously detailed environments, with no transitions between building interiors and the outside world, no loading times in between battles, and so on. Although, it takes a toll on the PS5’s memory and GPU.

This was mostly seen whenever the game tried to render way too many characters at once. The Anaconda Shopping Mall, Waikiki Beach, and the main shopping areas of Yokohama at night (when all of the neon signs are up and running), were plastered with a ludicrous amount of NPCs onscreen, overloading the console’s guts with excessive information. Sure, it made for a much more realistic recreation of Hawaii and Japan, but at the cost of an inconsistent framerate at times. Thankfully, this was rare, and only during sections devoid of combat, so enduring a few hiccups here and there wasn’t egregious. Still worth mentioning, however.

I feared that my expectations towards Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth were going to balloon to a point it would be impossible for Sega and RGG Studio to not disappoint me. They did the impossible by offering closure and hope for the franchise’s future in one fell swoop. It entertains, it makes you laugh, it makes you feel emotional, it just makes you love this damn franchise even more. With more content than you can possible deal with, an addictive combat system, and what’s possibly one of the best assortments of characters ever put in a video game, with their own strengths, weaknesses, fun facts and inner demons, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is impossible to dislike. Whether you decide to call it the best Yakuza game of all time is highly subjective, but it’s easily in the franchise’s upper echelon.

 

Graphics: 9.0 Hawaii is a lot more visually appealing than Kamurocho or Yokohama, with better usage of colors and lighting effects. A few areas suffer from framerate issues, and some NPC animations are just leftovers from much older Yakuza games.	Gameplay: 9.5 An even better combat system, which impressively managed to include some of Kiryu’s action-based gameplay into its mechanics, as well as some extra bits and bobs. The only issue related to the gameplay was seen when playing the Dondoko Island side mode.
Sound: 9.0 The Japanese voice acting and soundtrack are as good as ever, but the unskippable English VA (we are in Hawaii, after all) is really bad. In some instances, it’s so bad it’s cheesy and charming, but I don’t know if this was the approach Sega was hoping for.	Fun Factor: 9.5 The overwhelming amount of content, amazing story, relatable characters, side missions, and improved combat system are only just occasionally hampered by some glacial pacing issues in specific chapters.
Final Verdict: 9.5

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

Reviewed on PS5.

A copy of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth was provided by the publisher.