Review of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth – A Group of Forty-Year-Olds in Hawaii

Baldur’s Gate 3 set a new bar for the RPG genre, and rightfully so, some competing developers were concerned about it. There won’t be many developers and companies in the world who can afford to reach such a level in the coming years, for example in the area of ​​audiovisual processing, especially with character models and animation. However, we already had one worthy “successor” last year (Phantom Liberty), and now a second is on the way, this time from Japan. Infinite Wealth is a game so huge, so elaborate, so impressive, with a story and characters so bizarre and original, that it will make you rethink the entire genre.

• Platform: PS5 (review) PS4, X1, XSX|S, PC
• Release date: 01.26.2024
• Manufacturer: Studio Ryu Ga Gotoku (Japan)
• Genre: Japanese role-playing game
• Czech localization: No
• Multiplayer: yes (only mini-games, for two)
• Data for download: 82 GB
• Play time: 60+ hours
• Price: 1739 Crown (Steam)

Exciting adventure

The initial plot itself is quite grandiose, with the creators themselves calling the game their “Opus Magnum,” or “so big that it spans both sides of the Pacific Ocean.” However, it is true that you can dare to play the game without any knowledge of the previous games in the series. At the beginning, the game gives you a brief summary of the key events of the past, and in fact, the story is relatively easy to understand even if you still don’t know its characters or their journey. Both protagonists are former members of the yakuza: one from Japan went to Hawaii to find his biological mother after many years of separation, while the other protagonist slowly but surely has to come to terms with the fact that he is in an advanced stage of cancer.

As is typical in great RPG adventures, the heroes meet new friends and allies along the way, and also encounter several different groups of enemies… and before you know it, they are embroiled in a brutal war of mafia gangs. Japanese and American, old and new. By far the most unique and remarkable feature of the entire game is how it combines relatively traditional RPG adventure elements with the completely mundane props of our current real world. Because of this, just like in an RPG, the characters in your party are not mages and warriors, but barmaids, cleaners, or homeless people. Since they are mostly over 40 years old, this is one of the more mature stories with characters that are actually easy for adult players to relate to.

The most remarkable feature of the game is how it combines role-playing adventures with the mundane props of our modern world.

However, this unique contrast of setting and genre, together with the Japanese DNA of the game, also leads to a rather sharp contrast of individual parts of the story. Some passages are mesmerizing in their absolute realism and humanity, while others, on the contrary, are absurdly theatrical. At the same time, unfortunately, it seems to me that the creators got a little carried away with the overall dynamics of the game, and especially towards the end, it got a little out of their hands, because the story changes direction several times during the last chapters and some of its turns are either too absurd or, on the contrary, surprisingly flat. But this does not change the fact that, as many times in the past series, this time too, the game will offer you some absolutely unforgettable scenes that will disarm and touch you thanks to the script and acting.

Honest JRPG (with a pinch of GTA)

The fact that this mafia drama is set in the US for the first time (although there are parts of the game that are traditionally set in Japan) and that it is graphically a bit more advanced than previous entries led me to some interesting associations while playing. So, when you walk through the tourist center of Honolulu City with all its shops, tourists in Hawaiian shirts and other props, there is a noticeably different atmosphere than what we are used to in Yakuza. I am not sure if the screenshots do it justice, but while playing I often had the feeling that I was walking through one of the GTA cities and not a continuation of the Like a Dragon series. Of course, this impression immediately disappears as soon as the fight begins.

The combat does take place in turns, but as has unfortunately become increasingly common in JRPGs in recent years, the creators were apparently afraid to remove the “action” entirely and have two standing groups of fighters wait until you give them instructions. Similar to Final Fantasy VII Remake, the combat system is a sort of hybrid of real-time action and turn-based, where all the characters wait for you to select a specific action, but during this you can constantly change the position of your character; fighters and enemies are also constantly moving. Since the combat system handles things like knocking two enemies down by hitting each other in a new way, you can never be at rest, and you have to constantly work with the position of your fighters to get the most out of the position and timing of the fight. strike.

The combat system is a mix of real-time action and turn-based systems.

What definitely deserves applause are all the other levels of RPG mechanics that make talking to your party members (to improve your relationships and unlock new combat abilities) as well as buying “armor” or crafting and upgrading weapons an absolute joy. Eventually unlocking and subsequently leveling up new professions that offer a wide range: from katana-wielding samurai to gunslingers or “surfers”. Both the Japanese and American locations will gradually offer multi-story dungeons if you want or need to “level up” additional levels and items. Just keep in mind that the story will gradually force you to change characters and locations, so sometimes you will not have freedom in this regard. But there is an endgame phase in the game where you have already unlocked and made everything available at the same time.

Animal Crossing, Pokemon and other “mini-games”

Dondoko Island is one of the biggest surprises of the entire game. From the trailers, we knew it would be a “mini-game” where you would take care of your own little island to turn it from a tropical dump into a luxury tourist resort. Despite the developers’ promises, I was still surprised by how detailed and engaging this game mode is. You can go there at almost any point during a certain chapter of the story, and it’s up to you to decide how long you spend there. When you’re on the island, time in the rest of the game world stops. On the other hand, if you’re off the island, the time is worth it. In practice, it’s a separate second game that you can jump into as much as you want. And it’s a great game, with building, fishing, taking care of tourists, and even unique combat scenes. You can also take the considerable funds you earn from it, which you can then use in the main story campaign.

This is the second game that you can play as much as you want.

An equally bottomless “minigame” is Sujimon, or the local version of Pokémon. As in the seventh part of the series, here you will also be able to “collect” all sorts of enemies to later “train” them and send them to fight against other trainers, both in smaller street fights and in larger tournaments in secret “stadiums”. Just as the island of Dondoko borrows the vast majority of elements from the Animal Crossing series, you will find here almost all the key elements of the Pokémon series. If you are hooked on such a game, you can easily spend dozens of hours in it, both on the island, in the main story or in the generated dungeons (the latter, unfortunately, is hidden in paid DLC, just for example, “New Game Plus”).

In addition to these two main attractions among the “mini-games”, Infinite Wealth is filled with countless others, albeit slightly smaller in size. Here you can find, for example, a variation of Pokémon Snap, where you will take pictures of “deviants” while riding from tourist buses. A completely separate chapter is a dating site, where you “take” real photos (not game graphics) with ladies. Of course, there is no shortage of classic content, such as karaoke songs or mini-games like mahjong, which can also be played online for two players. At the same time, the eighth part of the series looks a little better than the previous ones – whether it concerns the game environment, characters or movie fragments. On PS5, the entire game ran completely smoothly, without technical glitches, with smooth transitions between the city and interiors or lightning-fast loading during fast travel.