Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth – this game’s silly and proud

I still can’t put into words how I feel after finishing the mega role-playing game Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. Overwhelmed is perhaps the best way to put it.

In around 70 hours of gameplay, I beat up countless Yakuza henchmen in virtual Hawaii, designed my own vacation island à la Animal Crossing and became a master trainer in a Pokémon mini-game. I had tears in my eyes at the end of the story. What a wild rollercoaster ride! What a game.

I’ve never been to Hawaii

Infinite Wealth is the eighth instalment in the Japanese game series Like a Dragon (formerly Yakuza). I step into the shoes of the ex-yakuza Ichiban Kasuga, who was already the protagonist in the seventh instalment. After wreaking havoc in Yokohama, the likeable hero with a terrible electric shock hairstyle ends up in Honolulu. There he has to free his mother, who was thought to be dead, from the hands of a Hawaiian criminal organisation.

Ichiban’s supported by his loyal friends, the same ones who accompanied him in part seven. Kazuma Kiryu, the legendary Dragon of Dojima and ex-yakuza, is new to the team. Despite being the protagonist of the first six games before Ichiban took over in the seventh, the former fighting machine no longer has that much power. Kiryu is suffering from cancer and says he only has a few months to live.

All previous Like a Dragon games were set in major Japanese cities. With Honolulu, developer studio RGG is venturing into an American setting for the first time. It’s the largest open world that the studio has implemented to date. Graphically, the game doesn’t set any new standards – partly because it’s still being released for last-gen consoles. Despite technical limitations, the game world set around famous Waikiki Beach has been created with great attention to detail. Anyone who’s been there before will recognise countless sights and stores.

It’s a shame that the virtual Honolulu doesn’t feel very American or Hawaiian, even though you can recognise it easily. One reason for this is that almost everyone Ichiban meets on his adventure is fluent in Japanese. Despite the tropical backdrop, I feel like I’m in a Japanese city from one of the previous games.

Finest JRPG action with real-time elements

On his rescue mission, Ichiban has to punch his way through countless Hawaiian gangster mobs. He and his friends are constantly mobbed and involved in fights on the streets of Honolulu. As in its predecessor, the RPG combat system in Infinite Wealth is, turn-based.

One big change is that you can now freely move party members within a certain area before an attack. This makes such a difference and gives the turn-based gameplay much more strategic depth. Kiryu even learns a special ability that allows him to move freely around the playing field for a short time and beat up enemies in real time – just like in the old Yakuza games.

With the right positioning, you can increase the attack damage, hit several enemies at the same time or use objects lying around as weapons. Devastating combination attacks with team members are also possible. With a single attack, opponents can be beaten to a pulp by follow-up attacks from the remaining team members. The static nature of the turn-based gameplay is further broken up with quick-time events in attack and defence.

I don’t have much luck when I search for classic RPG jobs such as mages, bards or warriors in Infinite Wealth. So I train my party members to become Hawaiian fire dancers, surfers or escorts instead. The job system’s flexible and encourages you to experiment – not least because levelling up and unlocking new job skills happens very quickly.

Overall, the combat system isn’t very complex, but offers enough depth and variety with the many different attacks and the free positioning of the characters. It also wins a few points for its extremely entertaining production. Because Ichiban was a huge nerd in his teens and played an excessive amount of Final Fantasy, he hallucinates during the fights. This means standard fights against Hawaiian gangsters often turn into imaginative RPG battles against supernatural monsters. On several occasions I burst out laughing because at the absurdity of some of the opponents or incredibly silly special attacks I’ve just witnessed. What a spectacle!

A bit of Pokémon and Animal Crossing on the side

Like a Dragon games are known for their wealth of crazy side missions and mini-games. Infinite Wealth sets new standards for the series.

Throughout the game, I try out a dubious dating app as a beta tester, jet through Honolulu as a fast food delivery driver in the Crazy Taxi mini-game or play a stuntman in an action movie. The side missions are impressive with their absurd humour and unexpected game mechanics. Two side quests were particularly well-done.

The Sujimon mini-game is a surprisingly complex Pokémon parody. Instead of the cute pocket monsters, Infinite Wealth has me catching muscle-bound convicts to fill my Sujidex. I put together a team of monsters convicts and compete against other trainers and arena leaders in a shady Sujimon League. Yep, you read that right. I catch people and fight with them.

For the Sujimon duels, the development studio has devised a separate turn-based 3v3 battle system reminiscent of classic Pokémon battles. Even «legendary» Sujimon and raids based on Pokémon Go have made it into the game. Unbelievable. It remains to be seen how much of the Sujimon questline corresponds to reality or how much is down to old RPG nerd Ichiban hallucinating.

The Dondoko Island mini-game is even more impressive. In this questline, you have to transform a littered island into a five-star luxury resort. In the style of Animal Crossing, Ichiban collects natural resources on the island to turn them into pieces of furniture and even entire houses in his workshop. Alternatively, you can force your captured Sujimon to mine the resources for you. The more accommodation, houses and attractions you build, the more well-paying visitors you attract to the island.

What begins as a pleasant Animal Crossing parody ends in an amusement park simulator. I’m constantly having to clear out new areas of the island, build attractions, run commercials for the resort and look after the well-being of the guests. In real-time battles I also beat up nasty pirates who store their waste on the island. Dondoko Island is an impressive game-within-a-game in which you can lose yourself completely and spend countless hours in.

It’s a shame that publisher Sega hides some content and game mechanics behind more expensive versions of the game. If you opt for the most expensive Ultimate edition, you gain access to additional items and resources. These significantly increase the speed of the mini-games which can sometimes be grind-heavy. Yes, you even have to pay more for the New Game Plus mode and some achievements. An unsightly business practice.

But wait, there’s more!

What’s impressive is that the game manages to surprise me with new ideas even after countless hours of play. About halfway through the story, an additional game world opens up in Yokohama, which I can freely explore – including a bunch of new missions and side activities. This is because Kiryu has to leave Ichiban’s troupe in Hawaii and return to Japan for health reasons.

From then on, the story is driven forward in parallel in both cities. Kiryu’s part of the story is particularly emotional. The once invincible fighting machine has to face up to his own mortality due to his fatal illness and wants to make peace with his violent yakuza past. On his farewell tour, he’s unwillingly caught up in a huge conspiracy linked to Ichiban’s rescue mission in Hawaii. It’s a very emotional and worthy ending to the story of one of the most legendary video game characters of all time.

Emotions despite silliness

This mixture of serious storylines and absolutely absurd content is what makes the Like a Dragon series so unique. Infinite Wealth isn’t afraid of being a silly video game yet still manages to tell a highly emotional and exciting story.

This is mainly down to the excellent characters. I already know some of the Infinite Wealth protagonists from the old games. I get to know others better and better over the course of the adventure in cutscenes, mini-games and casual conversations. Despite the exaggerated video game context, Ichiban, Kiryu and their friends feel like real people with hopes, fears and dreams. I root for them and am devastated when something bad happens to them.

On that note, a small warning: even though the game makes a real effort to make the countless characters and the complex story accessible to newcomers, I wouldn’t recommend Infinite Wealth as an introduction to the series. Without prior knowledge of the previous games, you’ll probably find it difficult to find your way through the flood of game mechanics, characters and storylines. Kiryu’s moving story, especially, won’t hit you as hard if you don’t know his ordeal from previous games.

Summary: a masterpiece I can’t recommend to everyone

Infinite Wealth is a chaotic masterpiece. The game celebrates its silliness and simply lets you have fun in its colourful open world. The revised combat system offers additional strategic depth and a highly entertaining, over-the-top presentation. The side activities are some of the best in the series so far. You can lose yourself completely in the captivating Sujimon and Dondoko Island mini-games in particular. It’s easy to spend countless hours in them.

Despite its silliness, Infinite Wealth manages to establish believable characters and trigger big emotions. Kiryu’s touching story in particular will bring tears to the eyes of long-time fans. Newcomers will quickly be overwhelmed by the countless characters, storylines and game mechanics. If you want to get into Like a Dragon, I recommend starting with an older game in the series and saving this wild work of art as the crowning glory.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth will be released on 26 January for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PC. The PS5 version was given to me by Plaion for testing purposes._

Header image: Sega