My review page.
Follow me on twitch![www.twitch.tv]

It's impossible to dislike the Yakuza series, they're the essential Japanese games anyone must play at least once in their lifetime and the newest in the series Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth would've been at the top of the food chain if not for some story beats that I really did not like.


👍 The good parts:
+Amazing cast of characters
+Phenomenal soundtrack
+Fantastic gameplay mechanics

👎The bad parts:
-The last few chapters and the villains of the story were pretty meh
-A bit bloated in minigames

Infinite Wealth continues where things left off from Ichiban's previous adventure, and now he's searching for his mom in Hawaii. This time around we get two protagonists, Ichi and the main man from the previous Yakuza series, Kiryu. You'll get to meet up with all your favorite companions from the previous game as well as new ones.

Having two protagonists isn't something new to the franchise, however, I think this time around, they kinda of messed up a bit by sidelining Ichiban in favor of fanservice which was a bad decision. Don't get me wrong, Ichi is still great in the game and you'll play more as him than Kiryu, however, this is in regards to the main story and the last bits of it. I cannot go into details because it would be a massive spoiler, but I will just say that the way things ended, left me with a bit of a sour mood. It's not a tragic ending or the end of things, but it's because things just ended like "whatever wait for another sequel" which is the opposite of how all Yakuza games ended.

To add more sourness to the main story, the villains were extremely uninspired especially the Hawaii one. The entire Hawaii main quest felt like a massive side quest only to be sidelined by Kiryu's main story which mostly takes place in Japan. Even the way they handled Kiryu's "issues" was pretty lame.

If it weren't for the great cast of companions you meet and some funny/moral side quests this would probably be at the lowest of all Yakuza main stories.

Story rating: 7/10

Just like the previous Like a Dragon game with Ichi, the game is turn-based in combat and features a lot of fun and not-so-fun minigames that I'll talking in a moment, looting, crafting, and everything you'd expect from a JRPG. There are a few improvements done to the combat compared to the previous game, such as more control over your actions and where you aim your skills and more companion combos. Furthermore, Kiryu's style also brings new mechanics to the turn-based combat which I'll let you discover for yourself. The only issue with this is that if you want the best of him you can't change his default class.

Speaking of classes, or jobs as the previous game called them, this time around you acquire a different class through a traveling agency. It's pretty much the same thing, a different naming convention. You'll find some of the old classes you're familiar with such as Breaker or Chef, but some new ones as well that fit well with the whole Hawaii atmosphere, such as the surfer. The new classes and their ultimate skills are just as cool and funny as the previous game, no complaints here. You'll also get access to the summons feature, which felt a bit underwhelming this time around, cinematic-wise anyway.

Crafting, exploration, and equipment also has improved a bit, but not by much. Now let's talk about the minigames. The Yakuza series are famous and infamous for their minigames, some are fun, some are average, and some are bad. Infinite Wealth has all your classical minigames from the previous game and a few new ones. The two most important minigames are the Sujimon League and the Dondoko Island.

The Sujimon League is as you probably guessed it, similar to pokemon, but instead of pokemon, you use the enemies you encountered in the game, the sujimons as Ichiban sees them. It has some depth to it, each sujimon has its own type as well as rarity, you fight against other trainers, you evolve them, and it's all pretty good. The problem with this minigame is that it won't give you many benefits in the actual game other than towards a specific class you can switch to which wasn't that great.

The other main minigame, Dondoko Island, will be your main cash cow. The problem with this one is that is ♥♥♥♥♥ boring. You arrive, forcefully, at an island, it's filled with garbage and your task is to clean it up and build it up as a resort. It's basically like Rust but a much worse version of it. You smash rocks, garbage, and trees with your bat, you collect the stuff, you craft buildings and other things and you place them on the island. However this process takes a lot of time and to fully complete it and reap the monetary benefits, it would take around 15 hours or more. Not only that, if you instantly hate it, you can't go back to the main game and you're forced to do it for the first hours or so. While you gain a lot of money from it, it was a massive tedium. I hated it. I fell asleep during it.

Gameplay rating: 8/10

As always, if you play Japanese games with English dub, I'm going to call you a mo-ron, learn to read. The Japanese cast is amazing, everyone does an incredible job voicing their characters, especially Ichi and Kiryu.

Yakuza games are also famous for their insane combat songs and oh boy does this game have some amazing bangers. The music is awesome, one of the best in the franchise, and I'll just leave it at that.

Audio rating: 9.5/10

The Dragon engine they're using is showing its age in a lot of lighting conditions, especially in the daylight. It worked well in Japan due to lots of neon lights and whatnot, but Hawaii is quite different and at times the lighting looks quite weird. It's not bad, but it needs some improvements. The character models and most effects are great though.

That being said, this engine is one of the few that runs absolutely perfect without any performance-related issues so a huge plus for optimizing such a massive game. The level design is impressive, Hawaii is massive and has a lot of back-alleys and paths you can explore. Verticality is still an issue in Yakuza games, but c'est la vie. They have at least improved the quality of the Dungeons a bit, but they're still boring to explore.

Graphics, performance and tech analysis score: 8/10

The game is big, has a lot of content, a great cast of characters, an amazing soundtrack, and fun combat and while the story is not so good this time around, do not let that dissuade you from buying Infinite Wealth regardless of its price.

[i][url=https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/curator/35145066/] My review page.[/url][/i] [i][url=https://www.twitch.tv/nightserg] Follow me on twitch![/url][/i] [h1]The gist of it:[/h1] It's impossible to dislike the Yakuza series, they're the essential Japanese games anyone must play at least once in their lifetime and the newest in the series Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth would've been at the top of the food chain if not for some story beats that I really did not like. 👍 [u]The good parts:[/u] +Amazing cast of characters +Phenomenal soundtrack +Fantastic gameplay mechanics 👎[u]The bad parts:[/u] -The last few chapters and the villains of the story were pretty meh -A bit bloated in minigames [h1]Story[/h1] Infinite Wealth continues where things left off from Ichiban's previous adventure, and now he's searching for his mom in Hawaii. This time around we get two protagonists, Ichi and the main man from the previous Yakuza series, Kiryu. You'll get to meet up with all your favorite companions from the previous game as well as new ones. Having two protagonists isn't something new to the franchise, however, I think this time around, they kinda of messed up a bit by sidelining Ichiban in favor of fanservice which was a bad decision. Don't get me wrong, Ichi is still great in the game and you'll play more as him than Kiryu, however, this is in regards to the main story and the last bits of it. I cannot go into details because it would be a massive spoiler, but I will just say that the way things ended, left me with a bit of a sour mood. It's not a tragic ending or the end of things, but it's because things just ended like "whatever wait for another sequel" which is the opposite of how all Yakuza games ended. To add more sourness to the main story, the villains were extremely uninspired especially the Hawaii one. The entire Hawaii main quest felt like a massive side quest only to be sidelined by Kiryu's main story which mostly takes place in Japan. Even the way they handled Kiryu's "issues" was pretty lame. If it weren't for the great cast of companions you meet and some funny/moral side quests this would probably be at the lowest of all Yakuza main stories. Story rating: 7/10 [h1]Gameplay[/h1] Just like the previous Like a Dragon game with Ichi, the game is turn-based in combat and features a lot of fun and not-so-fun minigames that I'll talking in a moment, looting, crafting, and everything you'd expect from a JRPG. There are a few improvements done to the combat compared to the previous game, such as more control over your actions and where you aim your skills and more companion combos. Furthermore, Kiryu's style also brings new mechanics to the turn-based combat which I'll let you discover for yourself. The only issue with this is that if you want the best of him you can't change his default class. Speaking of classes, or jobs as the previous game called them, this time around you acquire a different class through a traveling agency. It's pretty much the same thing, a different naming convention. You'll find some of the old classes you're familiar with such as Breaker or Chef, but some new ones as well that fit well with the whole Hawaii atmosphere, such as the surfer. The new classes and their ultimate skills are just as cool and funny as the previous game, no complaints here. You'll also get access to the summons feature, which felt a bit underwhelming this time around, cinematic-wise anyway. Crafting, exploration, and equipment also has improved a bit, but not by much. Now let's talk about the minigames. The Yakuza series are famous and infamous for their minigames, some are fun, some are average, and some are bad. Infinite Wealth has all your classical minigames from the previous game and a few new ones. The two most important minigames are the Sujimon League and the Dondoko Island. The Sujimon League is as you probably guessed it, similar to pokemon, but instead of pokemon, you use the enemies you encountered in the game, the sujimons as Ichiban sees them. It has some depth to it, each sujimon has its own type as well as rarity, you fight against other trainers, you evolve them, and it's all pretty good. The problem with this minigame is that it won't give you many benefits in the actual game other than towards a specific class you can switch to which wasn't that great. The other main minigame, Dondoko Island, will be your main cash cow. The problem with this one is that is fking boring. You arrive, forcefully, at an island, it's filled with garbage and your task is to clean it up and build it up as a resort. It's basically like Rust but a much worse version of it. You smash rocks, garbage, and trees with your bat, you collect the stuff, you craft buildings and other things and you place them on the island. However this process takes a lot of time and to fully complete it and reap the monetary benefits, it would take around 15 hours or more. Not only that, if you instantly hate it, you can't go back to the main game and you're forced to do it for the first hours or so. While you gain a lot of money from it, it was a massive tedium. I hated it. I fell asleep during it. Gameplay rating: 8/10 [h1]Audio[/h1] As always, if you play Japanese games with English dub, I'm going to call you a mo-ron, learn to read. The Japanese cast is amazing, everyone does an incredible job voicing their characters, especially Ichi and Kiryu. Yakuza games are also famous for their insane combat songs and oh boy does this game have some amazing bangers. The music is awesome, one of the best in the franchise, and I'll just leave it at that. Audio rating: 9.5/10 [h1]Graphics, performance and tech analysis[/h1] The Dragon engine they're using is showing its age in a lot of lighting conditions, especially in the daylight. It worked well in Japan due to lots of neon lights and whatnot, but Hawaii is quite different and at times the lighting looks quite weird. It's not bad, but it needs some improvements. The character models and most effects are great though. That being said, this engine is one of the few that runs absolutely perfect without any performance-related issues so a huge plus for optimizing such a massive game. The level design is impressive, Hawaii is massive and has a lot of back-alleys and paths you can explore. Verticality is still an issue in Yakuza games, but c'est la vie. They have at least improved the quality of the Dungeons a bit, but they're still boring to explore. Graphics, performance and tech analysis score: 8/10 [h1]Conclusion[/h1] The game is big, has a lot of content, a great cast of characters, an amazing soundtrack, and fun combat and while the story is not so good this time around, do not let that dissuade you from buying Infinite Wealth regardless of its price. [h1]Final score: 8.1/10[/h1]