This review contains spoilers
I have mixed feelings on Infinite Wealth.
On the one hand, RGG genuinely put forward a massive effort into making all the game's systems better, in crafting, in combat, in leveling, in social relationships with your teammates, and even some of the bossfights create insane scenarios that happily remind me of the bossfight against a goddamn crane in LaD 7.
On the other hand, the narrative is blurry, confused about where it wants to go; despite its thematic coherence, switching between Kiryu's and Ichiban's story doesn't help the feeling of disjointment I had. On the other hand, battles are still repetitive, the job grinding system is ever-present in disincentivizing you from trying new classes, lest you want to grind even more in the dungeons which are still samey and repetitive.
Even though I didn't experience what many other people felt when they brought back Kiryu for 6 and 7 (and, arguably, 3, 4 and 5), I did take issue this time. For me, 6 and LaD Gaiden were meaningful additions to his story, while his participation in this one just feels like RGG doesn't trust in their ability to have Ichiban perform by himself for a full-length title, which is insane considering how well LaD7 did!
Then, not only did they have a pre-established protagonist steal the new one's thunder, they give Ichiban little to do, and then went on to flanderize him by turning him into one of the dumbest characters I've ever seen. Yes, he wasn't the brightest tool in the shed, but he had street smarts in spite of his unwavering belief in people. The little video he did on the beach at the beginning of the game was the only light I had of LaD7's Ichiban, which is a shame.
Further damaging my connection to this story are the companions; I don't even think they're bad, but I can't avoid comparing them to LaD 7's relationships, which I felt a much stronger connection to.
My connection to the narrative also felt much weaker than in the previous game, where Ichiban fights to understand what's going on with the people he trusted the most, and I felt genuine sorrow over Masumi and Masato Arakawa; here, I have very little reason to care about Akane, even less Lani, other than Ichiban wants to meet his mom.
Worsening the comparison, not only were Ryo Aoki, Sawashiro and the new henchman fantastic personalities and bosses, here you might find some of the most uninteresting and uninvolved bosses in recent memory, which sucks, because I just didn't care about defeating Ebina and Bryce.
Then comes the voice-acting debacle: I did not hate Yong Yea's performance, but it is simply not possible to succeed when you're voicing a character that has not only been established but had the same beloved, fantastic VA for the past 20 years. So, despite my love for the english cast in LaD7, I played this one in Japanese... but Tomizawa, Chitose, and everyone else except for Kiryu and Ichiban (honorable mention to Yamai, VA'd by Dio Brando himself) just sounds so emotionless and uninspired in Japanese. Even worse is the awful english of Tomizawa and Bryce's JAP VA's, who not only have fantastic VA's in english, but manage to convey a sense of an every-day man and an immortal menace, respectively.
So I stuck with Japanese, despite these flaws, and despite my love for Kanji Tang's performance which made me absolutely bawl my eyes out in 7.
I absolutely despise that I just wrote 4 paragraphs bashing this game, because I want to love it, I desperately wanted this to be my favourite Yakuza title, but I just can't. Call it my over-inflated expectations after the narrative masterpiece of the previous game, but I'm so eager to see them do better with Ichiban that I'd buy LaD9 if it came out today. I love this series, and I've seen what RGG did with titles like Y0, Y:LaD and Judgment but, similar to Lost Judgment, LaD:IW is one where despite the vastly improved systems, the bar was simply set too high by the previous title.
In the end, I did have fun with the combat, with Sujimon, with Dondoko Island (although it's a little undercooked and bland) and with several sidequests, but I'm hoping for a stronger narrative on Ichiban's side, for a more inventive boss system where combat doens't feel as grindy, and a more refined way to have the job system give you incentives to try them out.
On the one hand, RGG genuinely put forward a massive effort into making all the game's systems better, in crafting, in combat, in leveling, in social relationships with your teammates, and even some of the bossfights create insane scenarios that happily remind me of the bossfight against a goddamn crane in LaD 7.
On the other hand, the narrative is blurry, confused about where it wants to go; despite its thematic coherence, switching between Kiryu's and Ichiban's story doesn't help the feeling of disjointment I had. On the other hand, battles are still repetitive, the job grinding system is ever-present in disincentivizing you from trying new classes, lest you want to grind even more in the dungeons which are still samey and repetitive.
Even though I didn't experience what many other people felt when they brought back Kiryu for 6 and 7 (and, arguably, 3, 4 and 5), I did take issue this time. For me, 6 and LaD Gaiden were meaningful additions to his story, while his participation in this one just feels like RGG doesn't trust in their ability to have Ichiban perform by himself for a full-length title, which is insane considering how well LaD7 did!
Then, not only did they have a pre-established protagonist steal the new one's thunder, they give Ichiban little to do, and then went on to flanderize him by turning him into one of the dumbest characters I've ever seen. Yes, he wasn't the brightest tool in the shed, but he had street smarts in spite of his unwavering belief in people. The little video he did on the beach at the beginning of the game was the only light I had of LaD7's Ichiban, which is a shame.
Further damaging my connection to this story are the companions; I don't even think they're bad, but I can't avoid comparing them to LaD 7's relationships, which I felt a much stronger connection to.
My connection to the narrative also felt much weaker than in the previous game, where Ichiban fights to understand what's going on with the people he trusted the most, and I felt genuine sorrow over Masumi and Masato Arakawa; here, I have very little reason to care about Akane, even less Lani, other than Ichiban wants to meet his mom.
Worsening the comparison, not only were Ryo Aoki, Sawashiro and the new henchman fantastic personalities and bosses, here you might find some of the most uninteresting and uninvolved bosses in recent memory, which sucks, because I just didn't care about defeating Ebina and Bryce.
Then comes the voice-acting debacle: I did not hate Yong Yea's performance, but it is simply not possible to succeed when you're voicing a character that has not only been established but had the same beloved, fantastic VA for the past 20 years. So, despite my love for the english cast in LaD7, I played this one in Japanese... but Tomizawa, Chitose, and everyone else except for Kiryu and Ichiban (honorable mention to Yamai, VA'd by Dio Brando himself) just sounds so emotionless and uninspired in Japanese. Even worse is the awful english of Tomizawa and Bryce's JAP VA's, who not only have fantastic VA's in english, but manage to convey a sense of an every-day man and an immortal menace, respectively.
So I stuck with Japanese, despite these flaws, and despite my love for Kanji Tang's performance which made me absolutely bawl my eyes out in 7.
I absolutely despise that I just wrote 4 paragraphs bashing this game, because I want to love it, I desperately wanted this to be my favourite Yakuza title, but I just can't. Call it my over-inflated expectations after the narrative masterpiece of the previous game, but I'm so eager to see them do better with Ichiban that I'd buy LaD9 if it came out today. I love this series, and I've seen what RGG did with titles like Y0, Y:LaD and Judgment but, similar to Lost Judgment, LaD:IW is one where despite the vastly improved systems, the bar was simply set too high by the previous title.
In the end, I did have fun with the combat, with Sujimon, with Dondoko Island (although it's a little undercooked and bland) and with several sidequests, but I'm hoping for a stronger narrative on Ichiban's side, for a more inventive boss system where combat doens't feel as grindy, and a more refined way to have the job system give you incentives to try them out.