Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth

It's more or less the same as the last game with the main differences being that half of the game takes place on a brand new map in Hawaii and besides cancer Kiryu also gets schizophrenia. It's not a bad game by any means, I just expected more and bringing back Kiryu as the second protagonist didn't sit right with me, ffs let the man rest in peace. His whole arc felt like the developers tried to extend the playtime. The story itself isn't great either, there are so many filler scenes in between that make the game unnecessarily long. With new map come new mini-games and substories, none of which I particularly enjoyed. Otherwise, I would need a magnifying glass to tell the game apart from the previous entry. 7/10

One of the best Yakuza games. Amazing story. Incredible narrative. Emotional lines. Expect heavy punches to your heart, man. But all without comedy and absurdism would not be what Yakuza is. Gameplay is fluid and engaging, although a bit different than all other Yakuzas (excluding Like a Dragon / Yakuza 7) it being turn based. World is quite complete, has its quirks and its own charm to explore. Will keep you busy and entertained for a while if you so desire to fully explore its areas. Heavily recommended for newcomers to the Yakuza world, to those who played a little bit, and those who have 100%-ed every other Yakuza. No regrets. +bonus+ helped me through rough times, message conveyed hit just right, would go as far as saying it might have changed my life and its course. Cried for the entire ending, and even went further than it; and at points within the main course of the story itself. Gives it extra points from my part

This game is definitely an improvement as far as gameplay from the original Yakuza: Like a Dragon. However, there are a few cons - namely, Denuvo. The previous game has it too. Blah blah blah it's stupid DRM, et cetera. However, with that aside, pluses: - THREE locations, again, and a really large mockup of central Honolulu. - The weapons and general gameplay is *better* I think. - If you're invested in RGG's Yakuza storyline, this is a natural progression from the last game. - The "infinite wealth" does come later in the game. - You are rewarded in boss battles if you level up a lot in the dungeons, it's much easier that way - Actually less grindy than the original LAD - The characters are very well designed and there's a lot of interactions with the other characters. They're alive. - Weapon upgrades make slightly earlier game gear viable if you like what the weapons do. - Extra jobs are easy to level and and keeping the select, really good skills is easy to do. Issues: - The "infinite wealth" comes a lot later in the game. You start off comically poor - even worse than the original LAD IMO. - Consumables are much more difficult, e.g., recipes. - The graphics, even for the year of, is still mid at best and it still uses the old Dragon engine. - I will continue to list this into the future on these turn-based games: being turn-based should be a CHOICE, not required. This is coming from having played from Y:0 onwards. It was jarring, and it still is. - Some of the gameplay-cutscene cycle runtimes are ridiculous, in the multiple hours, and you can't take a break. This is typical of the Yakuza series, however. Big one here, though, that's still irritating: - The English dubs are SO CRINGE, holy crap, they ought to not exist at all. - The big boss (not named as it's a spoiler)'s English voice is the same VA when you use the original JP audio, but it sounds so jarring. It doesn't fit the face at all. - Many interactions or dialog are missing voiceovers, as usual. - This game required infinite wealth to purchase for the longest time, and usually does. Overall, if it's on sale, YES, buy it. This game is the sequel to Yakuza: Like A Dragon.