Like many Yakuza/Like a Dragon games, Infinite Wealth has several twists and turns - none greater than my own personal expectations of it. From the announcement, I was disappointed to learn Kiryu would be returning as a protagonist alongside Ichiban. As someone who's only dipped my toes into the series here and there prior to Yakuza 7, I've never really had much attachment to Kiryu, and what I did experience never drew me toward his character. On top of that, I felt the previous game's torch-passing moment from one series lead to another was properly done, and going back to the Kiryu Well felt like a disservice to that moment; that they were almost walking back Ichiban's well-earned place as new main character.

The first half of Infinite Wealth did a lot to assuage those feelings, as it makes clear that this is still Ichiban's journey. Kiryu served as an extension of that, another member of the party. Then, much later, it flips the script again, revealing that Kiryu actually is the co-protagonist and has a journey to go on of his own. But the weirdest thing is, when that moment arrived? I was fully on board. Kiryu's story in Infinite Wealth is extremely poignant, and the way they contextualize his place in this game and his life is wonderfully realized. The split narrative does suffer a bit jumping from place to place, and as a whole Infinite Wealth's main quest feels a bit too much like Scooby Doo running from room to room trying to find the culprits as it spins its wheels killing time. The character work here, not only with Ichiban and Kiryu but also with the new characters introduced, remains top-notch however.

While I think the overall narrative of Infinite Wealth comes up just short of its predecessor (nothing here quite packs the gut punch of learning Ichiban's origins), gameplay-wise things have been kicked up several notches. I really enjoyed the implementation of turn-based combat in Yakuza 7, and for a first effort, it was pretty outstanding. However, the developers took a harder look at what they had and realized more could be achieved here. Infinite Wealth expands its combat by allowing you to position your party members on the battlefield and use both your proximity to enemies and other characters to great effect by comboing them together for extra damage or added effects. It's super fun to get behind an enemy and hit them for extra damage in the back, before pinballing their flailing body into a waiting teammate's attack.

Infinite Wealth is also a massive game, both in scope and content, with the new Hawaii map a treat to explore and littered with little things to do all over the place. It's such a minor mechanic, but being able to wave "Aloha!" to people on the street who then get added to your in-game social media app is just the absolute perfect serotonin boost. I never got tired of it. Then you have the inclusion of the Sujimon and Dondoko Island quests, both of which act as a game-within-a-game and were a ton of fun to jump into whenever I felt like I needed a break from the main story. I still have no idea (even after beating the game) what "Infinite Wealth" is supposed to mean, but you could probably call this game Infinite Side Content instead given all it has to offer.

Despite never being a huge fan of this series before it evolved into a turn-based RPG, I always respected what the RGG team aspired to create with them, and continues to create today. There isn't anything else like these titles out there, from their gameplay to their storytelling to their trademark sense of humor. Everything about these games shouldn't work, but they do. You're constantly hit from one side with melodramatic yakuza monologuing while being assaulted on the other with the most batshit goofy sidequests and game mechanics you can imagine. The best way I can describe it is that these games have managed to achieve ludonarrative enlightenment.

While far from perfect, Infinite Wealth represents so much of what I think video games can and should aspire to be. I cannot think of higher praise than that.