It will get to a sure level in a long-running collection the place the most recent entries cease resembling the originals. Fortunately, that’s not a difficulty Like a Dragon has to cope with as a result of it might be virtually unimaginable to mistake it for every other franchise (moreover perhaps spin-off collection Judgement). The most recent sport has arrived, and we need to see if there’s nonetheless life left within the franchise exterior of sure Kiryu-centric facet video games. Our Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth evaluation dives in to seek out out.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Evaluation – How Did We Get Right here?
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is the eighth entry within the Yakuza franchise, also called Like a Dragon. It sees the return of Ichiban Kasuga, the fuzzy-headed job-hunter who fronted the final sport. A number of years after the tip of the final sport the world-shattering occasions have left the world, nicely, shattered, and also you’re as soon as once more known as upon to turn out to be the hero of Yokohama and JRPG trope your approach by waves of dangerous guys, sandboxes, and mini-games.
The massive gimmick this time is that, in addition to a random Japanese suburb, you’ll additionally have the ability to discover Honolulu metropolis in Hawaii, bringing some tropical, sunbleached taste to the sport. It kind of has parallels to Yakuza 3, which additionally added some beach-style shenanigans by bringing the motion to the Japanese island of Okinawa. That’s to not say that the sandboxes are comparable as a result of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth might be one of many greatest and best-filled sandboxes (or handful of sandboxes) that the collection has seen to this point.
For those who’ve performed the earlier title within the franchise you’ll know what to anticipate. Slightly than the standard beat-em-up gameplay that the unique video games favored, issues are feeling much more like a classical JRPG, all the way down to the heavy use of tropes and familiar-ish mechanics You must purchase tools, degree up your celebration, and may even swap jobs to be taught totally different skills.
JRPG Classics With Like a Dragon Fashion
There are additionally loads of motion components to gameplay, for anybody who is a little more twitchy. You may defend towards assaults by tapping blocks on the proper time, a component seen in classics just like the Mario & Luigi collection, which might genuinely flip the tide of battle if you happen to’re ok at it. You even have management of your varied characters’ place on the battlefield, which is necessary as a result of AOE assaults can hit targets in numerous areas, and it’s doable to cheese massive teams of enemies by clipping them with highly effective assaults.
In honesty, this technique could be a little janky and has often led to an impromptu sport over. Not solely is it doable to get clipped by assaults, but when your important character (normally, however not at all times Kasuga) will get knocked out then it’s a fight loss for everybody. Nonetheless, there’s not a lot room to complain because the system normally advantages you reasonably than hinders you, and realistically all you do is lose cash while you lose a combat, so it’s not precisely the tip of the world.
If fight isn’t your type then you need to in all probability choose a distinct sport, however on the very least you’ll be able to anticipate the standard Yakuza seize bag of mini-games to get pleasure from as you discover the streets of each Japan and Hawaii. There are crane video games and arcade machines, road facet Shogi and Mahjong, and quite a lot of job-based distractions that may earn you tons of additional cash to spend on enhancing your tools and therapeutic your characters between fight. It’s doable to load your self up with such highly effective stuff that you could successfully simply blitz your approach by the storyline.
A Wealth of Facet Content material
Not that you need to need to blow by the storyline. The facet content material is genuinely fascinating, and there’s an important facet system the place you’ll be able to be taught extra about your mates in varied methods, and this, in flip, earns you extra highly effective skills in fight. For instance, if you happen to take your mates out to eat and be taught all about their character, not solely do you unlock a particular transfer to carry out with them, however you too can give them the power to assault downed enemies robotically and even free combo strikes. It makes discovering out extra in regards to the characters each helpful and gratifying.
The characters are actually the most important draw right here. They’re principally fully mad, particularly the main characters, however they’ve a whole lot of coronary heart to them. It’s a superb factor too, as a result of total the storyline bears most of the hallmarks of the collection, and with out the characters to tug you into the narrative, it might in all probability really feel like a little bit of a fever dream. There’s a whole lot of melodrama, betrayals, huge reveals, and twists in all places, and it doesn’t at all times combine nicely with the zany big Roombas and pervert images facet quests.
On that word, it’s necessary to say that there’s a sure darkish undercurrent that runs all through the storyline, together with a few of the mechanics that you simply unlock within the later phases of the sport. It’s all to do with a sure character reminiscing over their historical past all through the collection, which might really feel like a pleasant send-off to the older video games however they received’t let Kazuma Kiryu simply retire already so it kind of sours the second just a little. At this stage, he might finish the sport in a actually big blender and I’d nonetheless anticipate him to come back again as a cyborg or one thing.
Last Verdict
Minor gripes apart, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is a shocking sport for each old-school followers of the collection and newcomers alike. It’s presumably the most important sport within the franchise, with extra to do in it than actually appears possible. There are extra facet tales, mini-games, and insane set-pieces than what to do with, and it’s all of the extra gratifying for not having the standard franchise downside of each boss combat being the worst factor within the franchise. Now if we might solely hold Kiryu away for 10 minutes this time then perhaps the collection can lastly transfer on.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth was reviewed on PC through Steam with a duplicate supplied by the Developer over the course of 43 hours of gameplay – all screenshots have been taken in the course of the strategy of evaluation.
