Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsDon't hate it, but far from love it.
Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2024
Some background. I didn't play most of the Yakuza games, primarily due to the fighting system. I am just bad at the action-y, brawler style. But when Yakuza Like a Dragon came out, I was all over it. I love a good, turn-based RPG. Yakuza: Like a Dragon was my favorite game of 2020, 2021, and 2022. Got the Platinum on the PS4, and then again on the PS5. Told all of my friends to play it. A 10/10 for me.
Possible Spoiler Warning:
Now, for Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. Comparing it to it's predecessor, I would only give it a 6/10. It feels like two games crammed into one. There is Kasuga's story, the main one, and Kiryu's story secondary, and partially overlaps with Kasuga's. It really slowed the pace of both stories down. There is one dungeon for Kasuga and another for Kiryu, neither of which are that fun to explore. The Sujimon collecting and fighting mini-game is interesting, but once the substory is over, you still have Sujimon appearing everywhere, which got tiring. The Dodoko island mini game is interesting at first, but doesn't offer much considering how long it takes to complete, and even longer to get the trophy for it. There is a dating app mini game that doesn't add anything to the story and is required for 100%, and it's also super cringe. The weapon customization is too expensive and requires too many materials to make it worth upgrading anything, which made me focus only on the default job for each character. They changed the way the job skills work, so the benefit of maxing out all jobs isn't worth the effort. You can swim now, which adds nothing to the game other than a reason to put petite Asian women in bikinis. Throughout the game, there are too many small tasks you can do, like collecting trash on the beach, picking up ocean trash, collecting "fortunes", fishing, which are a waste of time. The side missions are not really worth the effort. I think the game, overall, suffers from just being too big.
