Never have I felt so conflicted over a game more than this one. On one hand, when you solely focus on the gameplay aspect, it's fantastic. The combat is fun and the side content is enjoyable. You can easily make the argument that this is a game-of-the-year contender. On the other hand, the story is horrible and easily bogs down an otherwise great game.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth vastly improved its combat system over its predecessor's, Yakuza: Like a Dragon. While it was fine for a first attempt in the last game, it was rough around the edges. This game smooths over the edges and adds some nice additions to the combat. You can move the characters around in combat, strategically placing them so you can deal extra damage to enemies, do combo attacks with party members, and use the weapons that are lying around. All in all, it's a great system. There is only one thing I can complain about. Admittedly, this is mostly a nitpick but characters still have some pathfinding issues during combat sections. It's an improvement over the previous installment, but characters getting stuck behind objects happened often enough to be annoying.
The side content was fantastic in this game. There is so much to do here that one can easily get overwhelmed by it. The new mini-games they introduced were great. I especially liked the Dondoko Island game. The substories were thoroughly enjoyable here. The karaoke selection was also amazing. Bringing back fan favorites and introducing some new (and great) songs easily makes this the best karaoke selection in the series to date. I did have some problems with Kiryu's bucket list side quest, but I'll discuss that later.
I must say, I enjoyed the Hawaii map they introduced. Admittedly, I was skeptical about having the game set in America (mainly because I wanted them to explore other Asian countries before coming to the US) but they handled it well. Hawaii would have been my first choice for the series to take place in America and the Honolulu map was great. The atmosphere was so cheerful despite some plot points.
While I did enjoy all of those things, there's no dodging the game's story. It's a huge mess. Many plot points were seemingly forgotten, only to be brought back up again at the last minute. There were so many odd decisions/plot holes in this story. While I admit there were moments that I enjoyed, they mainly involved Kiryu. It feels like Ichiban got sidelined in his own game. Perhaps the reasoning behind that was the game was trying to be two things at once: a grand, emotional adventure for Ichiban while simultaneously being an epic sendoff for Kiryu. One was going to overshadow the other. Maybe handling the dual protagonists similarly to Yakuza 0, where you switch between the two near the start, could have helped prevent that since Ichiban and Kiryu don't split off until the midpoint of the game. Then again, other plot points in this game left me scratching my head. Were they making stuff as they went along the writing process (which wouldn't be the first time RGG did something similar) or were there a lot of script rewires? Either way, it's not a good look.
As I mentioned, one thing that bugged me was Kiryu's bucket list. I love the concept of it but the execution was so odd to me. It wouldn't bother me that much if most of them happened before a certain plot point in the game, but they happen after it. It's such an odd decision since these moments feel so disassociated from the plot because of their placement. I don't get it.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth certainly is a game. It has some fantastic gameplay and side content, but the story left a lot to be desired.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth vastly improved its combat system over its predecessor's, Yakuza: Like a Dragon. While it was fine for a first attempt in the last game, it was rough around the edges. This game smooths over the edges and adds some nice additions to the combat. You can move the characters around in combat, strategically placing them so you can deal extra damage to enemies, do combo attacks with party members, and use the weapons that are lying around. All in all, it's a great system. There is only one thing I can complain about. Admittedly, this is mostly a nitpick but characters still have some pathfinding issues during combat sections. It's an improvement over the previous installment, but characters getting stuck behind objects happened often enough to be annoying.
The side content was fantastic in this game. There is so much to do here that one can easily get overwhelmed by it. The new mini-games they introduced were great. I especially liked the Dondoko Island game. The substories were thoroughly enjoyable here. The karaoke selection was also amazing. Bringing back fan favorites and introducing some new (and great) songs easily makes this the best karaoke selection in the series to date. I did have some problems with Kiryu's bucket list side quest, but I'll discuss that later.
I must say, I enjoyed the Hawaii map they introduced. Admittedly, I was skeptical about having the game set in America (mainly because I wanted them to explore other Asian countries before coming to the US) but they handled it well. Hawaii would have been my first choice for the series to take place in America and the Honolulu map was great. The atmosphere was so cheerful despite some plot points.
While I did enjoy all of those things, there's no dodging the game's story. It's a huge mess. Many plot points were seemingly forgotten, only to be brought back up again at the last minute. There were so many odd decisions/plot holes in this story. While I admit there were moments that I enjoyed, they mainly involved Kiryu. It feels like Ichiban got sidelined in his own game. Perhaps the reasoning behind that was the game was trying to be two things at once: a grand, emotional adventure for Ichiban while simultaneously being an epic sendoff for Kiryu. One was going to overshadow the other. Maybe handling the dual protagonists similarly to Yakuza 0, where you switch between the two near the start, could have helped prevent that since Ichiban and Kiryu don't split off until the midpoint of the game. Then again, other plot points in this game left me scratching my head. Were they making stuff as they went along the writing process (which wouldn't be the first time RGG did something similar) or were there a lot of script rewires? Either way, it's not a good look.
As I mentioned, one thing that bugged me was Kiryu's bucket list. I love the concept of it but the execution was so odd to me. It wouldn't bother me that much if most of them happened before a certain plot point in the game, but they happen after it. It's such an odd decision since these moments feel so disassociated from the plot because of their placement. I don't get it.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth certainly is a game. It has some fantastic gameplay and side content, but the story left a lot to be desired.