Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth Mini-Review
This isn’t so much an actual formal review of Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, rather just a few quick thoughts about things I liked, or didn’t like about the game after spending just over 100 hours with it.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Things I Liked:
Kiryu’s Chapters were really rewarding for someone who has been with the series since the beginning. I loved seeing him reconnect with old friends, bring up random memories, and also it was just a fun time seeing Kiryu cut loose a bit and have some fun with new friends.
All of the party members are great. I loved actually being able to hang out with Seonhee because she was a favorite of mine from 7. Chitose and Tomizawa are also really great new members to the crew. I thought the Drink Links, Bond Bingo, and random conversations were all really good. And I just loved spending time with these characters.
I was a little mixed on the changes to combat for most of the game, and while I still don’t love the proximity based nature of some abilities, particularly heals — I did end up really enjoying the refinements to combat. Being able to pick up makeshift weapons. Having more freedom to set up AoE abilities and follow-ups. Also being able to instantly end battles against weak enemies is a blessing.
I REALLY loved Kiryu’s ability to break out of the turn-based combat. Not only is it insanely powerful, and looks badass. But it’s so good from a lore/meta perspective.
Dondoko Island is a legitimately fun and addictive addition to the game. I actually really liked the Senbei Management from 7, but Dondoko is much better. I really enjoyed my time with it.
Yamai and Eiji are both incredible villains for entirely different reasons. Yamai takes after the Majima archetype in that he’s actually not a bad guy, and eventually becomes an ally. He was an interesting and likable character right off the bat, and his storyline is one of the best parts about the game.
Eiji on the other hand is an example of a really well executed twist that I just did not see coming. And he channels that Kume/Bleach Japan vibe so much that you really want to smash this guy’s face in with a bat. But I can always appreciate good villains like that.
Things I Didn’t Like:
Ichiban’s side of the story. Don’t get me wrong, I think Hawaii is a cool setting, and I already talked about how I liked characters like Chitose, Tomizawa, Yamai, and Eiji. But the problem is that I just did not care about what was happening in this part of the game most of the time.
I like the premise of Ichiban going to Hawaii to reunite with and actually meet his mom for the first time. But…
Palekana fucking sucks. I usually don’t like religious cult shit unless it’s done particularly well and it’s no different here. I think Bryce fucking sucks. I didn’t give a shit about Lani. And I thought the whole Nuclear Waste plot point was stupid.
Unfortunately most of the Hawaii parts of the game have to do with Palekana. Whether that’s spending an agonizing amount of time in the beginning of the game going around and helping them out. Or being chased… three? Four? times across the entire city by Palekana goons with the encounter rate set to like MAX? And I just thought they were dumb, overly edgy, and just poorly executed.
As a result of this I can’t help but think Yakuza / Like A Dragon 8 is a worse game than 7 which had such an amazingly told, tight, riveting story. Considering half of this game’s story sucks.
Sujimon also sucks. I like the concept of Sujimon as the enemies that Ichiban and Kiryu see, but that’s the same idea as Yakuza 7. No, I’m talking about the Sujimon mini-game / side quest. The whole thing blows. The story is lame. The actual Sujimon battles are dull and repetitive. The announcer that commentates on some of the Sujimon matches is insufferable with the same three or so lines repeated ad nauseam.
The side quests / sub-stories in this game also kind of suck…? Like I know some of the 52 are made up of stuff from Kiryu’s Chapters and I think those are all mostly good. But the Hawaii ones are pretty rotten. There’s maybe four or five of them that I liked. And I can’t even remember most of the other ones.
The Ending:
So I wrote the rest of this article up before I had finished Kiryu’s final dungeon and thus hadn’t seen the ending of the game. So I actually have even more mixed feelings now after seeing all that? I’ll explain a little bit what I mean, and as I said before, it bears repeating:
SPOILERS FOR THE ENDING AHEAD!!!
I’m not thrilled with how this game ended, and it kind of puts a sour taste in my mouth at the end of this journey. I’m not going to say that Kiryu should have died at the end of this game. But I was expecting it. Now maybe I’m just being too optimistic, and giving them the benefit of the doubt, but:
What I’d ideally like to come from this ending is the acknowledgement that Kiryu is done. I like to think the ending implies that Kiryu found the determination to fight back against cancer, and try to change things he regretted. And since we see him going by his actual name again — it’s my belief his dealings with the Daidoji are over and he’s able to live out the rest of the years with his loved ones.
I do not want to see Kiryu miraculously get better and jump back into things again. I want that man to rest. I even considered the possibility that Like A Dragon / Yakuza 9 could start with Kiryu’s funeral and the characters gathered together to pay their respects after Kiryu fought for a few more years to live in peace.
Even with all that said… the ending is deeply upsetting. Yakuza 6, 7, and Gaiden all made me cry during their endings, but at the end of it all those games ended on a positive note. Infinite Wealth however ends with an awful scene where Ichiban is abused and beaten up while he’s trying to take Eiji to turn himself in and it was honestly hard to watch that amount of cruelty.
And then the final thing we see in the game is an extremely sick looking Kiryu who is dying from cancer. Why would you show that as the very last image in the game? It’s horrible!
I’m sure people will disagree with me about those two things in particular. But they didn’t sit right with me and kind of just made me depressed about the whole game. We’ll see if that changes with time though.
END OF SPOILERS!!!
Final Thoughts:
I think that about sums it up. Overall I did enjoy the game, and for now at least it sits at the top of my GOTY list for 2024. But the year is still young and I have like a dozen other games to play already and/or soon. If I had to rank the RGG games it would be like this:
7 > Judgment > 0 > Lost Judgment > 6 > Kiwami 1 > 8 > 3 > 4 > 5 > OG 2 > Kiwami 2 > OG 1 > Ishin! > Dead Souls
I feel very similar about LaD 8 as I do about Lost Judgment. The majority of people seem to think both of those games are better than their predecessors. But largely due to story reasons I liked both of these games less than the previous games.
It’s unfortunate after waiting so long for it, but I’d still say it’s a good game. And I’m curious to see what RGG does next. Hopefully another Judgment game though, if you were to ask me.
