I’m a Yakuza superfan and the new Like a Dragon game made me cry

THE YAKUZA series has been running for almost 20 years now, but its success outside of Japan has historically been mixed.

That all changed with the release of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, a turn-based JRPG heavily inspired by games like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon was so successful that publisher Sega changed the name of the series to Like a Dragon, to be more in-line with its Japanese name and to capitalise on its newfound success.

Unlike the first six games, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is a turn-based RPG.Credit: Sega

Now, a new game in the series, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, is about to be released on PS4, PS5, Xbox, and PC via Steam later this week, and we’ve been playing it for a few weeks now.

While Yakuza: Like a Dragon had some balance issues, and struggled to find its feet in turn-based JRPG combat, Infinite Wealth has perfected just about everything, making it the best game in the series.

Infinite Wealth tells the story of two former yakuza – Japanese mafia – who’ve dedicated their lives to making the world a better place.

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The first of its protagonists is Ichiban Kasuga, who was the leading man of Yakuza: Like a Dragon and spent 20 years in prison to protect his sworn brothers.

Once he was out, he found that the yakuza was on the way out, and after being betrayed by the head of his yakuza family, he went on a quest to restore his honour and become the hero of Yokohama.

The other protagonist is Kazuma Kiryu, who was the protagonist of the first six Yakuza games, its prequel and spinoffs, like Like a Dragon: Gaiden.

Kiryu has had a long and storied history, but has fallen on hard times in Infinite Wealth, having been diagnosed with a terminal disease and given just months to live.

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Kiryu and Kasuga met briefly in Yakuza: Like a Dragon, but after unusual circumstances led them both to Hawaii, the two teamed up to investigate the disappearance of Kasuga’s mother.

Infinite Wealth’s story is probably one of its strongest points, being a deep, touching story exploring the intricacies of life, death, and family.

One of the areas that developer RGG Studio excels in the most is in its nuanced portrayal of villains, and while in the past some have been almost cartoonish, Infinite Wealth takes a layered approach.

While most games would be content to call a villain a villain and call it a day, Infinite Wealth dives deep into why its villains do the things they do, and how life led them to that point

That doesn’t mean there aren’t objectively evil people in the world, though, but exploring how they became that way is Infinite Wealth’s bread and butter.

It’s bolstered by strong character work, gut-wrenching storytelling, and importantly, a sense of when to lighten things up.

Kiryu being on death’s door is sad, and we see him in a pretty poor state at some points in the game, but RGG Studio isn’t afraid to show Kiryu goofing off and having fun, too.

It’s these moments of levity between the dead-serious moments of anguish that make Infinite Wealth feel so real, and so effective in its storytelling.

From a gameplay perspective, things have massively improved from the last game, too, with a bunch of small refinements that add up to a much more coherent experience.

Positioning in battle makes a huge difference, and not only adds a layer of strategy to combat, but also opens up new options for making those battles dynamic and interesting.

The game is also filled with side quests and minigames, including a full-length Pokémon-like minigame that’s very good and an entire Animal Crossing-like life sim game.

The result is a game that can be completed in 50 hours in a pinch, or can span 100 hours for completionists, all depending on how much you want to explore and what you’re interested in.

Presentation is excellent too, with great visuals, stunning animations, and amazing voice acting and music.

There’s really nothing of note to complain about with Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, it really is as close to perfect as a Yakuza game can be.