If you’ve ever performed a Yakuza or Like a Dragon sport, there are particular issues you realize by now – they characteristic a number of crime households and take not less than a TV episode’s value of time for exposition earlier than you get to even contact the controller. On this regard, Infinite Wealth is the most important offender but, with the brand new location Hawaii nowhere in sight for 5 hours. As a substitute, you study lead character Ichiban’s job on the native job centre and his lack of relationship expertise.
Finally, the plot emerges. He’s to go to Hawaii and discover his delivery mom, a girl named Akane beforehand believed useless. For Ichiban, and for us as gamers, that is the primary time outdoors of Japan, which is thrilling in itself – discovering a brand new map and new points of interest feels refreshing, and as normal there’s heaps to do. Infinite Wealth instantly makes it clear that Hawaii is a paradise with a darkish underbelly, which Ichiban will get to discover with an all-new occasion, which incorporates former protagonist Kazuma Kiryu. The streets are stuffed with encounters, and the place earlier than, Ichiban’s creativeness remodeled random gangsters into unhappy variations of JRPG monsters, this time round, enemies principally depict the type of annoyance you possibly can supposedly count on within the massive metropolis: surfer bros who assault you with beer showers, random hooligans attempting out their capoeira on you. It’s a big step again for enemy design.
The story’s precise antagonists, too, appear quite flat and hardly memorable. The one exception is Yamai, a sneering, oily-haired menace who’s perpetually chilly and all the time seems on the most inconvenient occasions. However whereas Infinite Wealth exhibits you Hawaiian slums and literal underground operations, it appears so enamoured with the concept of a vacation that between purchasing journeys and having fun with seashore sunsets, the story by no means manages to construct any rigidity. It clearly tries to promote the picture that Hawaii is way worse than Japan, the place even the crime is well mannered, organised and environment friendly, it’s simply not clear to what level it makes the excellence. Issues choose off on the midway level, which helps you to take management of Kiryu, who till this level appears to conveniently open doorways and in any other case poses an unusually dramatic determine – at the same time as a fan of Ichiban, I can’t assist however assume Infinite Wealth does Kiryu soiled, even because the sequence can’t appear to let him go.
The turn-based fight from the earlier sport hasn’t modified considerably, however the few tweaks it did obtain make it an extremely clean, enjoyable expertise. It’s now simpler to intentionally choose up gadgets throughout a struggle and use them, for instance, and assaults can not be interrupted by random enemies. Infinite Wealth has additionally improved the system to hit a number of enemies with one assault and provoke follow-ups, which makes strategising a lot simpler and the fights shorter general. Nevertheless, on the default problem, fight nonetheless feels slightly straightforward – as in LAD, I nearly by no means noticed the necessity to use the Poundmates summoning system, and the truth that it’s a little bit of a slog to make massive sums of cash in Hawaii is an extra deterrent.
The job system is launched so late that by the point you get round to attempting out new preventing types such because the aquanaut together with his surfboard or the hula dancer, they simply appear to exist to supply a little bit of selection. By solely letting you turn jobs at particular locations, Infinite Wealth makes the job system much more unattractive, which is a disgrace, as a result of witnessing your occasion assault enemies with a large frozen tuna is certainly worthwhile.
I haven’t favored a set of substories as a lot as I did this one since Yakuza 6. Not all of them inevitably finish in a struggle (there’s a very cool one the place Ichiban dodges vehicles on a freeway on foot), and also you get some good previous heartstring tuggers in addition to layered tales that ship you everywhere in the metropolis. This time round, it feels as in the event that they make it easier to perceive Ichiban higher as a personality – earlier than, he would mainly settle for each mission as a result of that’s what the “hero” is meant to do, now he actually bonds with the individuals he meets. The identical is true for his bonds together with his occasion. The town is stuffed with character-specific conversations you possibly can set off to study extra about your new buddies, who actually grew on me because of this. LAD might have launched Ichiban, however Infinite Wealth actually helps him come into his personal.
The mini-games, too, are as soon as once more unbelievable. This time round, the sport doesn’t linger too lengthy on the karaoke or the emulated Sega arcade video games which can be after all a part of the expertise as normal – as a substitute you possibly can earn your preserve as a supply driver who will get suggestions for stunts, attempt your hand at a relationship app, make criminals struggle one another like Pokémon or spend hours enjoying a riff of Animal Crossing: New Horizons that allows you to adorn an island with rusty bicycles and cabaret golf equipment.
after publication promotion
Infinite Wealth takes a couple of curious steps backward, however it will get a lot proper and as soon as once more dedicates itself to goofiness with such aplomb that it’s inconceivable to not get swept up in it – a real trip from the darkness and drama of yakuza life.
