the best RGG game, and I genuinely mean that.
like a dragon: infinite wealth follows on from yakuza: like a dragon (and, to a lesser extent, gaiden: the man who erased his name) and follows dual protagonists Ichiban Kasuga and Kazuma Kiryu, the Dragon of Dojima, on their journey to uncover a mystery that spans decades and continents, from japan to hawaii. as the story progresses, the characters deal with some pretty rough issues, such as coming to terms with Kiryu’s cancer diagnosis and his fight with his own health and reputation in an effort to help Ichiban achieve his dream of giving the yakuza a real future, all the while fighting wave after wave of nameless thugs, local hawaiian gangs, an ancient cult and even danny fucking trejo. while this sounds stupid (which is pretty typical for an RGG game), this story can REALLY get to you emotionally (again, typical for an RGG game) and I caught myself crying multiple times. this game especially doesn’t hold back on the emotional bits too, it being Kiryu’s final game of course, and it even features a side-quest called the ‘Bucket List’ separate from the main story that will leave you unreasonably upset and nostalgic for the series’ past. essentially, Kiryu wants to make amends for everything he’s done, and what better way of doing that then travelling Japan and reminiscing on events from previous games and meeting up with friends from his past. it’s a great addition to the game, and really has its moments where you’ll be soypointing at the screen or sobbing at your desk. of course, to counter the waves of tears that Kiryu’s side-story will inevitably flood any player’s room, Ichiban is given a fucking animal crossing minigame. and it’s really fucking good too. Dondoko Island is a silly little side-story / minigame / fully-developed-island-management-game-with-its-own-story-that-both-stays-separate-from-the-main-game-while-tying-into-the-shitty-pokemon-knockoff-minigame-which-I-didn’t-do-because-it-sucked-sorry. it’s incredibly fun, and really satisfying to see your own island come together as you progress to larger areas, craft more attractions and invite more people to take a vacation on your island. as of writing, I still haven’t completed dondoko island in it’s entirety, but I’ll 100% be coming back for more since finishing the game.
as for the gameplay, oh my god I will never be able to go back to yakuza 7. the improvements that infinite wealth makes to the turn-based combat are immense, even if they’re completely normal things for other turn-based RPG franchises (but I’ll give RGG a pass since 7 was their first experience with turn-based). new additions include, the ability to move in combat, situational attacks depending on a character’s placement such as proximity and back attacks that do extra damage and combos when next to other characters who’ve had their relationship bond levelled high enough. again, this might seem like the bare minimum for a turn-based RPG, but it is a vast improvement from 7’s combat and its tendency to reward players for spamming the same couple skills each fight (looking at you, head trauma). in addition to this, infinite wealth adds new job classes which really spice up the gameplay by giving the player entirely new playstyles by mixing and matching classes to suit their own preferences, like having each character specialise in a certain elemental damage or having some characters be heavy hitters with support characters that heal and give stat buffs. also, this game has a skill inheritance system which allows you to use any skill from any job as long as you’re a high enough level on that job, which can lead to some very… broken combos.
overall, like a dragon: infinite wealth is a fantastic game, with some of the best writing the series has seen yet topped off with great turn-based combat and several other various minigames to spend hours on.
also yutaka yamai thank you for being the character in the series I love you babygirl
like a dragon: infinite wealth follows on from yakuza: like a dragon (and, to a lesser extent, gaiden: the man who erased his name) and follows dual protagonists Ichiban Kasuga and Kazuma Kiryu, the Dragon of Dojima, on their journey to uncover a mystery that spans decades and continents, from japan to hawaii. as the story progresses, the characters deal with some pretty rough issues, such as coming to terms with Kiryu’s cancer diagnosis and his fight with his own health and reputation in an effort to help Ichiban achieve his dream of giving the yakuza a real future, all the while fighting wave after wave of nameless thugs, local hawaiian gangs, an ancient cult and even danny fucking trejo. while this sounds stupid (which is pretty typical for an RGG game), this story can REALLY get to you emotionally (again, typical for an RGG game) and I caught myself crying multiple times. this game especially doesn’t hold back on the emotional bits too, it being Kiryu’s final game of course, and it even features a side-quest called the ‘Bucket List’ separate from the main story that will leave you unreasonably upset and nostalgic for the series’ past. essentially, Kiryu wants to make amends for everything he’s done, and what better way of doing that then travelling Japan and reminiscing on events from previous games and meeting up with friends from his past. it’s a great addition to the game, and really has its moments where you’ll be soypointing at the screen or sobbing at your desk. of course, to counter the waves of tears that Kiryu’s side-story will inevitably flood any player’s room, Ichiban is given a fucking animal crossing minigame. and it’s really fucking good too. Dondoko Island is a silly little side-story / minigame / fully-developed-island-management-game-with-its-own-story-that-both-stays-separate-from-the-main-game-while-tying-into-the-shitty-pokemon-knockoff-minigame-which-I-didn’t-do-because-it-sucked-sorry. it’s incredibly fun, and really satisfying to see your own island come together as you progress to larger areas, craft more attractions and invite more people to take a vacation on your island. as of writing, I still haven’t completed dondoko island in it’s entirety, but I’ll 100% be coming back for more since finishing the game.
as for the gameplay, oh my god I will never be able to go back to yakuza 7. the improvements that infinite wealth makes to the turn-based combat are immense, even if they’re completely normal things for other turn-based RPG franchises (but I’ll give RGG a pass since 7 was their first experience with turn-based). new additions include, the ability to move in combat, situational attacks depending on a character’s placement such as proximity and back attacks that do extra damage and combos when next to other characters who’ve had their relationship bond levelled high enough. again, this might seem like the bare minimum for a turn-based RPG, but it is a vast improvement from 7’s combat and its tendency to reward players for spamming the same couple skills each fight (looking at you, head trauma). in addition to this, infinite wealth adds new job classes which really spice up the gameplay by giving the player entirely new playstyles by mixing and matching classes to suit their own preferences, like having each character specialise in a certain elemental damage or having some characters be heavy hitters with support characters that heal and give stat buffs. also, this game has a skill inheritance system which allows you to use any skill from any job as long as you’re a high enough level on that job, which can lead to some very… broken combos.
overall, like a dragon: infinite wealth is a fantastic game, with some of the best writing the series has seen yet topped off with great turn-based combat and several other various minigames to spend hours on.
also yutaka yamai thank you for being the character in the series I love you babygirl