A Hawaii 5-0-hour adventure
Kazuma Kiryu, the Dragon Of Dojima, yakuza with a heart of gold, is back. Living in the shadows and presumed dead lest his adopted family come to harm, he’s tying up loose ends as he battles a late-stage cancer diagnosis. As fists fly in many desperate scraps, my Kiryu does so in a rootin’ tootin’ cowboy outfit, able to jump on top of a wild bull to send legions of goons ragdolling.
As ever, then, Like A Dragon (formerly titled Yakuza) switches between guffaw-worthy humour and dire emotional turmoil as easily as your party members change jobs. Half-set in Hawaii (Kiryu and the last game’s new starter Kasuga are dual protagonists and you bounce between their escapades), the sunny vibes do a lot to freshen up the series, including adding a bevy of ‘tourist’- inspired jobs to the career-oriented class system, such as Kiryu’s aforementioned Desperado outfit (complete with gunslinging, tossing dynamite, lassoing, and more shenanigans besides).
It’s a good thing too, as were it not for the sunny clime of the American state, much of Infinite Wealth’s retreading of the previous game’s story beats would feel a bit exhausting. As only the second game in a sort of soft reboot that rethought the series as a turn-based RPG rather than a brawler (otherwise, this is the eighth mainline entry), the fact Kasuga’s journey is so tied to what came before is disappointing, and intimidating for new players. Infinite though this wealth of combat may be, we’d still like a bit more new money.
FRESH START
But legs akimbo on top of that bull, ready to plough into enemies, you might be wondering how we got ourselves into this situation. When we reunite with Kasuga here, the yakuza’s ‘great dissolution’ that fuelled most of the last game’s conflict, intended to end the crime syndicates, hasn’t gone to plan. Now part of HelloWork, Kasuga spends most of his time helping former yakuza to find work despite the tide of legislative red tape that hinders the former criminals in finding employment, housing, or even phone contracts. If someone wants to make amends, Kasuga helps them find work that suits them, often harnessing their criminal skillset (like security consulting).
