• The physical/special attack split is so all over the place, so many compromises to have good builds (Absol 😵‍💫)

• Norman being the Champion would have made the story a bit better. Team Aqua and Magma do stink but it makes it funnier when they realize how much they screwed up by summoning Grou and Kyo and OF COURSE I have to go call their mom to stop them from fighting

• Gardevoir and Hariyama 💓💓💓

• There's a lot of water and I regret not getting Manectric

• You destroy a sick kid's hopes and dreams right at the end goal, what did GameFreak mean by that

Yakuza/Like a Dragon has been my favorite gaming series since a few years now and naturally I've been very hyped for Infinite Wealth. So much that I didn't watch any trailer past the first 10-minute reveal of the game and muted Yakuza related keywords on social media. I usually never do this for a game, but the urge to see Kiryu's fate by myself was strong, since that's a key selling point for this entry.

The new characters are great and became some of my favorites in the series, but it was also nice to see how Infinite Wealth expanded on the previously established characters from Yakuza: Like a Dragon in meaningful ways. This is especially noticeable with Ichiban himself, since he really gets to shine in many different aspects here - whether he is serious about the things that matter the most to him or if he is just goofing around with his friends, he just feels like a great guy to be around overall. There's something about him that just feels so human and real.

I always felt like the combat in Yakuza 7 was a bit janky, but I excused it since it was RGG's first attempt at creating a turn-based game. Fortunately, Infinite Wealth follows up on the foundation that's already there and adds some tactical elements like moving during turns, guaranteed crits when attacking from behind and combo attacks with party members. It really makes a big difference and makes the combat flow a whole lot better. Balancing is also just right for the most part and the DLC classes have good basegame integration this time around. No more solo-ing bosses with the comically overpowered Head Trauma move in the previous mainline game.

Story is enjoyable for the most part. There are some plotholes and other minor nitpicks that bother me, even so it's still an enjoyable ride overall with some good supporting characters and villains along the way. Pacing is a bit wonky in a way that there are some instances where you have to follow a very linear route across half the map to get to your destination while avoiding random encounters left and right. This makes sense with the narrative context in those situations, but it's rather dull from a gameplay perspective, considering you just have to beeline from A to B without being able to do anything else for that time (without prior warning). It's not a major flaw, since it only occurs a few time in the game, but what's really bugging me is that the narrative unfortunately has a lot of wasted potential, keeping it from being one of the best ones in the series. Some seemingly "major" characters are especially undercooked, which is a shame given their assigned roles in the story.

Now for some positivity again, one of the biggest highlights in Infinite Wealth for me is Kiryu's involvement. Having to come to terms with his own mortality, he decides to seek out friends and locations from the past one more time. It's really cool to see so many returning characters from the Kiryu games and what they're up to now; the little flashbacks to past Yakuza games you can see at various points scattered across the cities are also neat fanservice. While this aspect falls pretty flat for those who got into the series with Yakuza: Like a Dragon, it feels like a nice reward for all long-term fans and might even motivate some of the newer fans to go back to the Kiryu saga!

Overall, Infinite Wealth feels like a big step up from Like a Dragon into the right direction and is worth your time. It's not just a good game for Yakuza fans, but for JRPG fans in general with the amount of effort put into this game. Now onto Persona 3 Reload, another game I've been looking forward to a long time!

Thanks for reading.

"Hakuno Kishinami was someone who treasured herself and the things she loved. The things I insist I want to protect are only those I see before me.
That's the sort of shallow, greedy person Hakuno Kishinami was."






The third game in the Niino psp trilogy, the most "beloved" one and by far the entry I have the most complex feelings towards.

I kinda went through a character arc with this game. Upon finishing it I was very lukewarm. Niino pulls a gimmicky true ending on 2nd playthrough schtick that he first tried with his Black Rock Shooter game and I am not a fan of that design choice in both cases. Unlike a Taro game where the story diverges during certain plot beats (which I also still really don't like), his method is essentially ripping out a chunk of the script, usually regarding a specific character (Nana and Sakura for BRS and CCC respectively) with a specific plot beat that revolves around them, saving that for the 2nd playthrough. It's a pretty lame thing to do because it lowkey robs the impact of the first go in both cases since you're essentially witnessing a purposefuly unsatisfying finale which is unnecessary and dumb and if both games didn't have that design choice I'd appreciate them WAAAY more than I already do.

With that out of the way tho, this is an amazing sequel.
It builds upon so many things from the original Extra while standing as its own beast.

If Extra is a tale of self discovery with Hakuno Kishinami learning who they are, CCC is a story about self acceptance where they learn WHY they are. In that same vein, Hakuno's journey in Extra revolves around the meaning of being human, while in CCC, Hakuno's new story revolves around the meaning of love. Much like each chapter in the original had an exploration on a particular aspect of humanity, each CCC chapters explores a form of expressing love, with its many twisted possibilities, culminating in a perfect synergy between the game's main theme and what Hakuno learns in it.

It is such a clever contrast that fully solidifies CCC as a fantastic sequel (The only Extra sequel that had the balls to actually be its own thing instead of lazily rehashing Hakuno's original character arc but that's a whole other can of worms I'm not opening rn).

So many of the side characters get much appreciated expansion, having them on your side consantly bantering is an absolute blast. Shinji is great, Julius is incredible, Gatou out of nowhere becomes one of the best characters ever, it's wild.

Every single new character is a banger which was amazing to see. BB easily the most relatable character in all of fiction (I too want to fuck the shit out of Hakuno Kishinami).

The OST is really really good, it doesn't have the jazz but the tunes still go off.

Gilgamesh is a welcome surprise, easily him at his best. Has an incredible chemistry with Hakuno while also sporting some shockingly touching character development.

The gameplay is p much unchanged outside of the fact it's REALLY easy now lmao. Like some of the fights can still be tough but the retry option in every single battle combined with fountains around the dungeons where you can save and other touches like that make this game a cakewalk overall. HAKUNO CAN JUMP NOW THO LETS GOOOOOOOOOOO

It looks great much like the original, has a lot of very striking imagery.

This game to me above all suffers from not being nearly as tied up and polished as Extra. I mentioned how none of the themes in that feel wasted with each chapter properly fleshing them out and well... CCC has a problem with that. Rin and Rani chapters are really weak thematically and they meander so much that they end up feeling meaningless with what they're exploring by the end, they're funny tho I guess. Passionlip's is also not nearly as strong as the ones that follow but it's still good.

Essentially my big problem is that this is the sequel to my favorite thing ever so the bar is on another dimension but even with all that hype to live up to it still manages to be a banger, fantastic game.