Speaking as someone who actually didn't mind the Northern War anime, this is absolutely horrible. Honestly a genuine insult and mockery to my favorite series.

First of all it's one of the most generic auto-battler gachas I've ever seen right down to the UI. On the surface it tries to implement the same gameplay as the actual Trails games, but it does a horrible job of it and makes it extremely grind heavy to get both gacha pulls and just advance in the 'story' of the game too because of how much it inflates the attack power of even the weakest enemy. Speaking of the 'story', the 'story' of the entire game is just a retelling of the anime, right down to the 'cinematic cutscenes' being literal scenes from the anime. There's nearly nothing added here and it just makes the anime worse because the translation is literally a broken machine translation which has a ridiculous amount of grammatical errors like spelling 'Thors' as 'Tholz' and just downright mistranslating character bios and names ("Du Barry of the Iron Cavarly" instantly comes to mind).

The game also has some of the worst monetization I have ever seen in a F2P or Gacha game with 4 different individual battle passes you have to purchase and single character purchases being the same price of an actual Trails game and of course there's a PvP Arena mode so you know that's going to instantly become P2W.

Even if you're a die-hard Trails fan, there's literally no reason to ever give this game your time, let alone the egregious amounts of your money that it asks you for as well. One of the laziest and saddest excuses for a 'game' (If you can even call it that) I've ever seen.

"They say you're some legendary Yakuza, but for me, that just doesn't fit the bill. The Kiryu I know? He loves good booze and karaoke, and he throws a hell of a punch. He's also a friend like no other. You're carryin' way too much on your own. And why bother, when you've got us? Isn't that what friends are for?"

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is the 8th mainline title in the Like a Dragon (formerly known as Yakuza) series and a direct sequel to both 2020's Yakuza: Like a Dragon and 2023's Like a Dragon: Gaiden - The Man Who Erased His Name so it's strongly advised you at least play those games before Infinite Wealth, but to get the full experience I would say it's best to play all mainline Yakuza games first.

Following both Ichiban and Kiryu as co-protagonists taking place in the franchise's first ever overseas setting of Honolulu Hawaii (Which is also the series largest location to date being 3X bigger than Kamurocho) in addition to series staple locations across Japan like the Isezaki Ijincho district of Yokohama and the Kamurocho district of Tokyo in a globetrotting adventure to help Ichiban reunite with his mother while Kiryu comes to terms with his mortality and looks for a purpose and reason to keep on living. It wouldn't be incorrect to say Infinite Wealth is both the longest and most ambitious Yakuza narrative to date, but that's not without its problems.

I think at times the narrative gets a bit too over-convoluted since there are so many different plot points and narrative threads introduced and some feel less fleshed out than others by the end of the game and most of the antagonists were weaker than previous ones in the series as well, but despite all this Infinite Wealth just like Gaiden felt like a big love letter to the fans and the franchise and has some of the best and strongest moments in the whole series. Combine this massive love letter to the franchise's history with strong overarching themes of redemption, learning how to rely on your friends and not shoulder everything by yourself and finding a reason to keep on living alongside social commentary on the dangers of social media virality and the homelessness epidemic and even for its flaws you still have an incredibly strong narrative.

However where the game truly excels is the cast of characters and all their individual smaller arcs. It's not an exaggeration when I say by the time I finished Infinite Wealth this cast of characters had become one of my all time favorites among all the video games I've played. Between the walk-and-talks, the table-talks, the bingo-bond and all their individual Drink Links there are so many interactions between the characters that make them feel more realistic and the friendship they share all the more believable even just walking around town hearing them have casual conversations together and learning small details about them like how Zhao is addicted to mobile gacha games or how Tomizawa reads a Quantum Mechanics book to fall asleep because it's so boring to him. All these little details you learn about the characters really give them so much more personality and make them that much more relatable and human.

Now nicknamed the "Live Command RPG" Battle System the combat is another aspect where Infinite Wealth excels at which improved upon the foundation that Yakuza 7 built in every way imaginable. So many small quality of life improvements have made one of the best turn-based combat systems even better like being able to move your party members freely in combat without taking up a turn or how if you position your characters properly you can attack your enemies in the back for extra damage, do combo attacks with your friends and use items on the battlefield as weapons, there's also a new "Hype Meter" which lets Ichiban or Kiryu do tag team attacks with their friends alongside Ichiban's special ultimate tag team attack which is a party wide attack that expends everyone's Hype Meter. Kiryu can also use his Hype Meter to go into "Dragon Resurgence" mode and break out of the turn based combat for a few seconds allowing you to control him in a simplified version of the beat 'em up style of past Yakuza games. Combine all this alongside the in-depth job system (Which now lets you inherit more skills from different jobs easier), the Poundmates summons and all the over-the-top special moves and you have both one of the most flashy and stylish turn-based combat systems I've ever experienced in a game, but also one of the most in-depth, detailed, diverse and varied combat systems as well.

Much like its predecessor Infinite Wealth also gives Ichiban Persona-like personality stats (Style, Charisma, Confidence, Intellect etc) to upgrade by completing various in-game challenges, but this system has also been improved because now these stats also make some of Ichiban's attacks stronger as they also get stronger, the same goes for Kiryu's more simplified Soul, Body and Tech which help to strengthen his individual fighting styles so you always have incentive to increase these stats since they actively help you in combat.

What would a Yakuza game be without side content? And Infinite Wealth easily has both the most and some of the best since Yakuza 5 as well. You've got all the staples like various Sega arcade games, darts, karaoke (featuring a few new songs as well), various gambling games like Mahjong, Blackjack, Poker plus Shogi, Bingolf and many other smaller activities to keep one distracted, but there's also the Pac-Man-like Can Quest mini-game from Yakuza 7 brought back alongside a new Crazy Taxi-style fast food delivery mini-game and two massive 10+ hour long storylines tied to a wacky Animal Crossing resort building management game with Dondoko Island and a Pokemon parody (Complete with Gyms and everything) in the Sujimon League. That's not even counting all the various sub-story side quests that range from wacky and comedic to heartwarming or feely and Infinite Wealth has some of the best in the series (Special shout-out to the "Let It Snow" sub-story for making me cry). Also all of Kiryu's "Life Links" sub stories which deal with his past will really pull on your heartstrings as well especially if you've experienced Kiryu's journey since the beginning. There's certainly no shortage of meaningful side content to keep you entertained for hours upon hours even beyond the 50+ hour main story campaign, it's easy to sink 100+ hours into Infinite Wealth and still not even complete all that it has to offer. Infinite Wealth? More like Infinite Content.

While it's true that the main narrative can sometimes stumble over the weight of its own ambition and there are some plot points that don't get nearly as fleshed out as others, there's still plenty to love and appreciate in Infinite Wealth between its deep narrative themes and social commentary to its unabashed love and celebration of the franchise's history alongside one of the most diverse, fun and enjoyable turn-based combat systems developed to date, an unforgettable cast of characters and an almost near infinite amount of side content to explore makes Infinite Wealth not only one of the best games in the Yakuza/Like a Dragon franchise, but one of the best games of 2024 and an RPG that no RPG fan will want to miss out on.

Like a Dragon Gaiden is a spin-off of the mainline Yakuza/Like a Dragon series. Taking place alongside the events of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Gaiden brings back the old-school beat 'em up combat style and follows the series original protagonist Kazuma Kiryu after the events of Yakuza 6 when he disappeared from the world and signed a pact with the secret organization the "Daidoji faction". Now under the codename "Joryu" Kiryu operates as one of the Daidoji's secret agents from the shadows until a mysterious figure who seems to know Kiryu's past draws him out of hiding and into a whole new conflict.

Gaiden is the shortest Yakuza game taking me merely 30 hours (As according to the in-game time counter) to not only beat the game, but to 100% it and get the platinum trophy as well. However due to being so short it's also one of the most focused and tightly paced Yakuza games in the whole series featuring some of the best moments in the whole series including the best final boss and best antagonist as well with some great twists too.

Gaiden is also the best Kiryu has ever felt to play in the entire series running on the Dragon Engine and giving him 2 styles similar to Yagami in Judgment and feeling very fast, fluid and stylish. On top of his standard Yakuza style which incorporates many different moves from all Kiryu's past styles in previous games and serves as the heavy style to be used on one-on-one fights and bosses, Kiryu now has the Agent style which allows him to fight with advanced techniques he learned from the Daidoji based on martial arts from all over the world alongside various spy-like gadgets like a grappling gun, exploding cigarettes and even jet powered shoes the agent style is tons of fun and acts as the crowd control style Kiryu uses when up against waves of enemies.

Gaiden also brings back a fan favorite system from Yakuza 0 allowing you to purchase skills with money, but it combines that with a similar SP system that the Judgment games have as well. You earn SP by completing challenges and side missions for Sotenbori's jack-of-all-trades Akame. There's also gear and stat increases similar to Like a Dragon. In a way Gaiden acts as a jack-of-all-trades itself and combines parts of systems from all past Yakuza games. I also have to mention that I enjoy how most sub-stories have something to do with Kiryu's past.

While Gaiden may be the shortest Yakuza game it still has just as many side activities and mini-games to do like the classics such as pool, darts, karaoke, gambling, Majong, Shogi and even the return of the fan favorite...Pocket Circuit! There's also a colosseum where you can partake in both one-on-one battles and clan battles where you can fight with a group of NPC characters you recruit and the colosseum even lets you play as other characters besides Kiryu as well.

Overall Gaiden is a short, but fantastic companion piece to Yakuza 7 giving Kiryu even more development and a new side to his character as he works as a secret agent with no name while fleshing out his side of the events that happened in Yakuza 7. There are plenty of memorable sub-stories, side activities and good fan service moments for those who have experienced Kiryu's journey from the beginning and the combat is the best the mainline Yakuza series has ever felt. The antagonist and final boss, their motivations and the themes have so much depth to think about and I would easily count them among the series absolute best as well and even if we never get another Yakuza game in the classic beat 'em up style I can think of no more fitting way for it to go out than Gaiden's incredible finale.