After seeing a fair bit of the promo materials for Infinite Wealth, and especially after playing 'The Man Who Erased His Name', I had a single great fear going into this one. Yakuza: Like a Dragon had claimed the title of my favourite RGG studios game due in no small part to the new protagonist, Ichiban Kasuga. It is no exaggeration for me to say he is my favourite all-time RPG protagonist, and with how things were shaping up my fear was that he would have to relinquish that spotlight back to the long-time series favourite, Kazuma Kiryu. I am more than happy to report that these fears were unfounded and Infinite Wealth simply allows both these protagonists to breathe by simply jamming two massive games together in one.
To elaborate further, the scope of this game is insane. I have that same feeling I did when I first played Yakuza 5. A whole new map to explore in Hawaii on top of Yokohama and Kamurocho, and there are a massive amount of minigames (and even a proper ass game in Dondoko Island) to go with it. Want to play a Pokemon Snap-like where you take pictures of perverts wreaking havock across Hawaii? There's Sicko Snap at three of the bus stops around town. How about a dating app where you build Kasuga's profile and do rhythm game-like inputs to score a funny date? There's Miss Match. How about straight-up Crazy Taxi x Uber Eats where you race around picking up food, doing tricks, and stopping by citizens? There's Crazy Eats. All of these are pretty fun and have a respectable amount of content and incentive to replay them, and there are plenty of other reasons to manually explore around town like Aloha Links, the Photo Rally, and the Sujimon League rather than just fast travelling from destination to destination. Having a dedicated button to wave to the people you meet, a playlist full of collectible SEGA songs, and a segway really make it comfy to explore.
Diving further in, Dondoko Island is the new 'main' minigame in Infinite Wealth as the counterpart to the Company Management in Like a Dragon. Essentially Animal Crossing, you clear out trash on your island to make room for all sorts of buildings and decorations of your own creation as you invite various people to come stay for a few days and enjoy what you've built. Once you have the requisite resources and recipes (which you gain both actively and passively), you can build it right there on the spot and place it and move it around as you see fit. Create your own paths around each area to fit the style you want, and even redecorating isn't much of a hassle. A day on Dondoko Island takes about thirty minutes or so, and each day has daily tasks to help you rake in the Dokobucks which can be used to purchase upgrades, buy special decorations, or even just convert into straight cash. It was very addicting to push my island rank all the way up to 5 stars and I ended up putting the plot on hold for a long time just for how fun it was.
Now back to talking about the real game itself, there are a handful of improvements to the combat system. The big one here is the expanded movement during battle. You have a circle which you can freely move around in, and many of the moves and attacks for each job allow you to knock enemies into each other for extra damage. It becomes a fun little game on each turn of battle how to take best advantage of the positioning of your team. There are also new tag team attacks with each party member as you level up your bonds. There are still follow-up attacks and the ability to tag-out when you have more than 4 party members, as well as new Poundmates to summon in battle. Of course, there are also a whole host of creative new jobs in addition to many of the previous ones, which you can use to customize your playstyle and team composition. It's not a dramatic change over the previous game, but it is just enough to make the combat even more enjoyable. If the level difference is high enough, you can also just start a fight with a beatdown to skip the battle for slightly less exp gains. Doing absolutely everything I could, I felt like I outpaced the plot's enemies around the halfway mark, but managed to be on par for the finale which is the important thing. Unfortunately (and maybe this is my fault for hitting too many bad guys), there weren't really any battles that felt like a stiff challenge. The previous game had (IMO) two notorious fights that hit like a truck and one of which was especially awesome for it - but there has been no such equivalent in this game. Still, the combat and job customization has been fun enough for me to really care too much about that.
As I mentioned, the story is really doing both Ichiban and Kiryu justice. They both have a personal stake in the plot, and my attachment to both characters could not be greater. I won't sugar coat it, there are a LOT of cutscenes. This is not the game for you if you thought MGS4 was excessive, because you will often (especially in the first few chapters) just be sitting your ass down to watch a movie; but god damn if it isn't an engrossing one most of the time. In fact, one other thing I noticed is that the first and last scenes of all substories are also fully voiced. There are also a ton of conversations out while wandering the world that are also fully voiced. In general, there is a lot of audio dialogue in this game! Maybe more than I have ever heard in an RPG before! Unfortunately, the overarching plot and central conflict is also the weakest aspect of the game. It feels a little bit unfocused and even occasionally just sloppy with all the key players and motivations and many feeling under-utilized, and if I were to make a comparison it actually reminds me a lot of FFXIV: Stormblood in this regard. It isn't like it's terrible, there are genuinely wonderful character moments and the themes of reflecting on your past, regrets, atonement, and forgiveness are well established and executed. I also like that they are continuing to blend fantasy elements (such as boss fights) into the """""realism""""" of the RGG series. Just overall I would not rate it amongst the highs of the series like 0 and 7.
Qualms about the central conflict aside, it's a tremendously impactful and relatable journey. Even a certain collectible that unlocks about halfway through the game moved me with each one I picked up. There are certainly a number of over-the-top ridiculous moments in the plot, but such is par for the course with RGG. At its core, you can tell a lot of love and care was put into this game, the quality and amount of content is staggering. Only time will tell if this is the recency bias talking, but I strongly feel this is one of the best turn-based RPGs ever made, and I could not be happier with how they have pulled it off. My completion time was just shy of 100 hours, and I certainly want to go back and polish off the few things I did not get to. As always, RGG fans will not want to miss this entry and it still stands among the best. I really look forward to how they will continue this series (and go back to Waikiki, because it'd be a waste to use that city after only one game!).
To elaborate further, the scope of this game is insane. I have that same feeling I did when I first played Yakuza 5. A whole new map to explore in Hawaii on top of Yokohama and Kamurocho, and there are a massive amount of minigames (and even a proper ass game in Dondoko Island) to go with it. Want to play a Pokemon Snap-like where you take pictures of perverts wreaking havock across Hawaii? There's Sicko Snap at three of the bus stops around town. How about a dating app where you build Kasuga's profile and do rhythm game-like inputs to score a funny date? There's Miss Match. How about straight-up Crazy Taxi x Uber Eats where you race around picking up food, doing tricks, and stopping by citizens? There's Crazy Eats. All of these are pretty fun and have a respectable amount of content and incentive to replay them, and there are plenty of other reasons to manually explore around town like Aloha Links, the Photo Rally, and the Sujimon League rather than just fast travelling from destination to destination. Having a dedicated button to wave to the people you meet, a playlist full of collectible SEGA songs, and a segway really make it comfy to explore.
Diving further in, Dondoko Island is the new 'main' minigame in Infinite Wealth as the counterpart to the Company Management in Like a Dragon. Essentially Animal Crossing, you clear out trash on your island to make room for all sorts of buildings and decorations of your own creation as you invite various people to come stay for a few days and enjoy what you've built. Once you have the requisite resources and recipes (which you gain both actively and passively), you can build it right there on the spot and place it and move it around as you see fit. Create your own paths around each area to fit the style you want, and even redecorating isn't much of a hassle. A day on Dondoko Island takes about thirty minutes or so, and each day has daily tasks to help you rake in the Dokobucks which can be used to purchase upgrades, buy special decorations, or even just convert into straight cash. It was very addicting to push my island rank all the way up to 5 stars and I ended up putting the plot on hold for a long time just for how fun it was.
Now back to talking about the real game itself, there are a handful of improvements to the combat system. The big one here is the expanded movement during battle. You have a circle which you can freely move around in, and many of the moves and attacks for each job allow you to knock enemies into each other for extra damage. It becomes a fun little game on each turn of battle how to take best advantage of the positioning of your team. There are also new tag team attacks with each party member as you level up your bonds. There are still follow-up attacks and the ability to tag-out when you have more than 4 party members, as well as new Poundmates to summon in battle. Of course, there are also a whole host of creative new jobs in addition to many of the previous ones, which you can use to customize your playstyle and team composition. It's not a dramatic change over the previous game, but it is just enough to make the combat even more enjoyable. If the level difference is high enough, you can also just start a fight with a beatdown to skip the battle for slightly less exp gains. Doing absolutely everything I could, I felt like I outpaced the plot's enemies around the halfway mark, but managed to be on par for the finale which is the important thing. Unfortunately (and maybe this is my fault for hitting too many bad guys), there weren't really any battles that felt like a stiff challenge. The previous game had (IMO) two notorious fights that hit like a truck and one of which was especially awesome for it - but there has been no such equivalent in this game. Still, the combat and job customization has been fun enough for me to really care too much about that.
As I mentioned, the story is really doing both Ichiban and Kiryu justice. They both have a personal stake in the plot, and my attachment to both characters could not be greater. I won't sugar coat it, there are a LOT of cutscenes. This is not the game for you if you thought MGS4 was excessive, because you will often (especially in the first few chapters) just be sitting your ass down to watch a movie; but god damn if it isn't an engrossing one most of the time. In fact, one other thing I noticed is that the first and last scenes of all substories are also fully voiced. There are also a ton of conversations out while wandering the world that are also fully voiced. In general, there is a lot of audio dialogue in this game! Maybe more than I have ever heard in an RPG before! Unfortunately, the overarching plot and central conflict is also the weakest aspect of the game. It feels a little bit unfocused and even occasionally just sloppy with all the key players and motivations and many feeling under-utilized, and if I were to make a comparison it actually reminds me a lot of FFXIV: Stormblood in this regard. It isn't like it's terrible, there are genuinely wonderful character moments and the themes of reflecting on your past, regrets, atonement, and forgiveness are well established and executed. I also like that they are continuing to blend fantasy elements (such as boss fights) into the """""realism""""" of the RGG series. Just overall I would not rate it amongst the highs of the series like 0 and 7.
Qualms about the central conflict aside, it's a tremendously impactful and relatable journey. Even a certain collectible that unlocks about halfway through the game moved me with each one I picked up. There are certainly a number of over-the-top ridiculous moments in the plot, but such is par for the course with RGG. At its core, you can tell a lot of love and care was put into this game, the quality and amount of content is staggering. Only time will tell if this is the recency bias talking, but I strongly feel this is one of the best turn-based RPGs ever made, and I could not be happier with how they have pulled it off. My completion time was just shy of 100 hours, and I certainly want to go back and polish off the few things I did not get to. As always, RGG fans will not want to miss this entry and it still stands among the best. I really look forward to how they will continue this series (and go back to Waikiki, because it'd be a waste to use that city after only one game!).