The one where Ichiban Kasuga is naked on the beach

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SHOULD I PLAY LIKE A DRAGON: INFINITE WEALTH?

Play this if you’re ready for the next chapter of Ichiban Kasuga’s story, but not if you haven’t at least played 2020’s Yakuza: Like A Dragon. Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth spends some time reestablishing its setting and characters in the beginning, but only enough to jog the memories of players who are already familiar with them. While Infinite Wealth is a good time and I’m eager to see where it goes with its Hawaiian vacation theme, it relies very heavily on knowledge not only of Ichiban and his pals, but also the previous series’ protagonist Kazuma Kiryu. With that in mind, you may also want to check out Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name before diving into Infinite Wealth if you want a complete picture of what’s going on.

TIME PLAYED

I played nine hours of Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth over the weekend. In a normal game, that would be a pretty decent chunk, but it’s about how long Infinite Wealth takes to actually get going. I started out back in Ijincho, the Yokohama district where most of Yakuza: Like A Dragon takes place, and it wasn’t until seven hours later that I finally touched down in Hawaii. I’m currently in chapter three, and I’m finding that Infinite Wealth is really taking its time getting moving—up to this point, there were only a couple opportunities to really explore and goof off the way I was used to doing in other games from developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio.

WHAT’S AWESOME ABOUT LIKE A DRAGON: INFINITE WEALTH?

• Getting the gang back together. Seriously, it was great to get to spend more time with Ichiban Kasuga and his band of misfit pals from around Ijincho—I didn’t even realize how much I’d missed them! As the story picked up, Nanba and Adachi were holding down steady jobs while Kasuga was enthusiastically helping former yakuza find gainful employment through the local temp agency, Hello Work. While Infinite Wealth has a pacing that’s a bit plodding, I enjoyed having the time to settle back into Ijincho before jumping into the new areas in Hawaii.

• Combat refinements. Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth uses the turn-based JRPG-style combat system established in Yakuza: Like A Dragon, but it’s had some slick updates to make it even more fluid and adaptable. When I got into fights, I could see clear indications when one of my party members could pick up an object like a folding chair or bicycle to use as a temporary weapon, and which direction I would be sending a guy flying if I used a specific attack.

Kiryu is a great addition to the party, and he’s even able to use his multiple fighting styles: I could switch between brawler, rush, and beast modes by tapping corresponding directions on my D-pad. There were plenty of opportunities to set up multicharacter combos and chain reactions, sending enemies flying into exploding barrels or toppling each other over. If I was quick, I could even get bonus damage from launching an attack on an enemy before they had picked themselves up off the floor from the last pummeling.

• A brand new setting to explore. Hawaii is an interesting place for a Like A Dragon story: On the surface, it’s a tourist’s paradise featuring idyllic beaches, luxury hotels, and a laid-back, welcoming vibe. Kasuga quickly discovers its seamier side, however, and learns there are some unfortunate similarities between Hawaii and Yokohama. Still, it’s a new place that feels genuinely foreign and tropical, and I’m eager to fill up my Hawaiian Sujidex with the unique creeps and weirdos who live there.

WHAT SUCKS ABOUT LIKE A DRAGON: INFINITE WEALTH?

• Story pacing. I mentioned this above, but Infinite Wealth takes its time getting going. While I was glad to be spending time with Kasuga again, I was a bit frustrated in the early hours by how low-stakes everything was. Infinite Wealth doesn’t even hint at its own main story for several hours, and when that finally got going, I was locked into an entire chapter with few break points to save, explore, or even make any of my own decisions.

• I don’t feel free to goof around yet. I know this will change eventually, but even after nine hours, I was still waiting for my chance to explore on my own and dig into some of the side activities the game had introduced, like the weird dating app and Sujimon training, an entire Pokémon-inspired side mode introduced in Like A Dragon in which you collect and battle the various kinds of oddballs and freaks you encounter in your travels. Infinite Wealth introduced these mechanics at a pretty brisk clip, but I always felt like I was being railroaded into the next scripted bit of narrative drama. In a game that assumes you’ve already played more than a hundred hours of Yakuza games already, I felt this was an excessive amount of early game babysitting.

It’s weird. There’s not nearly enough stage-setting or explanation to bring a brand-new player onboard with everything they’d need to know for the story, and there’s far too much hand-holding for players who’ve played enough of this series to be up to speed on the narrative. I enjoyed the time I spent with Infinite Wealth and plan on completing it, but anyone interested in playing it should be aware that even for a Yakuza game, the initial hump in Infinite Wealth is a big one.

PLATFORM TESTED

PC via Steam.