The 12 months has gotten off to a roaring begin for followers of sprawling, intricate role-playing video games. And one in every of our agency favorites is Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, the ninth mainline installment of Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios’ long-running collection. In it, the sentient meme manufacturing facility Kazuma Kiryu groups up with the relentlessly upbeat Ichiban Kasuga to unravel a globe-spanning conspiracy that unites a Hawaiian cult, Ichiban’s long-lost mom, a vindictive V-Tuber, and the fractured remnants of Japan’s felony underworld.
Now that Infinite Wealth’s been out for a short time, Kotaku checked in with Chief Producer Hiroyuki Sakamoto to search out out extra about some preliminary ideas that didn’t make the ultimate sport, the method of constructing an in-depth sim inside an RPG, and what’s subsequent for the collection as an entire.
![Kasuga wears a wetsuit and uses water attacks while fighting as a surfer](https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fit,q_60,w_645/75f8af5048b65b6e6b188863b2f64ae8.jpg)
Working class heroes
As was the case with 2020’s Yakuza: Like A Dragon, Infinite Wealth’s job system manages to be each hilarious and strategically rewarding. However regardless that Ichiban is a hardcore Dragon Quest fanboy, your get together members don’t tackle conventional fantasy archetypes. As an alternative of knights and mages, Infinite Wealth’s jobs are largely pulled from the actual world—assume surfer, chef, or dominatrix. However like Dragon Quest, these courses have distinctive strengths and weaknesses: pop idols dole out therapeutic and buffs, whereas surfers wield their longboards for crowd management and water-elemental injury. Swapping jobs can fully alter a personality’s fight model, and every has distinctive animations and movesets. Every one of many 27 (!!!) distinctive job varieties ooze character at each second, and it’s abundantly clear that an entire lot of labor went into creating each single one in every of them. Imagine it or not, there have been plans for a number of extra jobs that didn’t make the ultimate minimize.
“I’ve to say, there are lots of! Basketball gamers, couriers, and pest exterminators had been within the preliminary idea, however we’ve omitted them in mild of the range on this work,” Sakamoto tells Kotaku. “The enemies are additionally fairly distinctive characters with many particulars and distinctive ideas, which was an enormous problem.”
With three intricate city environments to discover (Honolulu, Yokohama, and Kamurocho), you’ll by no means be in need of choices for issues to do in Infinite Wealth. However some of the compelling actions within the sport is definitely getting away from all of it. It wouldn’t be a Like A Dragon sport with no massive, marquee minigame that you would be able to dump a dozen hours into, like managing a cabaret membership or changing into a real-estate tycoon. Infinite Wealth’s reply to that’s the Animal Crossing-inspired resort builder, Dondoko Island (dondoko means “all-time low” in Japanese). However as a substitute of cutesy-poo dollhouses straight out of Sylvanian Households or Sanrio, you’re constructing karaoke bars, noodle retailers, and soaplands.
For Sakamoto and the remainder of the RGG group, there was no room for half-measures or a dumbed-down expertise. The result’s a grippy-yet-chill resort administration sim that allows you to rework a dump right into a dream vacation spot, and its alluring siren tune will name to you even after you’ve rolled credit on the principle story.
“We determined to go all out with Dondoko Island with out making any reductions to the idea of resort island builder and simulator. We really spent loads of time tuning it throughout its creation similar to including and subtracting parts, adjusting the stability, and so forth,” says Sakamoto. “By way of the quantity of labor that went into it, I personally assume it’s the better of the aspect video games in your entire collection.”
![Ichiban crafts a coffee machine on his DIY workbench in the Dondoko Island minigame](https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fit,q_60,w_645/d96858fceb29d0a2c0b508873a01b3fa.jpg)
Older and wiser
When you’re prepared to depart Dondoko and head again to civilization, you’ll discover a story with extra twists than a bucket of curly fries and loads of poignant moments. On the middle of all of it is Kiryu, the stoic protagonist of Yakuza 0-6, who finds himself at a serious crossroads. Not solely is he combating most cancers, however all his family members assume he’s lifeless, due to a Faustian cut price he made with a shadowy group generally known as the Daidoji Faction on the finish of Yakuza 6. Years later, he’s discovering he wants his family and friends simply as a lot as they wanted him. A lot of Infinite Wealth exhibits Kiryu studying to simply accept assist—and ultimately, asking for it.
“In Yakuza 6, Kiryu made the momentous choice to vanish from the general public eye as an agent. Up till now, Kiryu had chosen a lifestyle through which he was prepared to sacrifice himself for the sake of his household and mates. Nonetheless, he keenly realized that regardless that he had chosen such a lifestyle, his household and mates had at all times been his emotional assist,” Sakamoto elaborates. “Being sick throughout Yakuza: Like a Dragon induced Kiryu to re-examine his life with out placing others earlier than him for the very first time, which in flip induced him to vary his angle to really face his household and mates otherwise.”
Towards the tip of Infinite Wealth, Kiryu says to one in every of his outdated adversaries, “Even when I’m not as sturdy as I as soon as was, I’m nonetheless me. And I’m beginning to assume that’s not so unhealthy.” It’s a turning level for the character and the collection as an entire—he’s embracing a distinct type of future, reasonably than working from it. However on the similar time, he’s additionally passing the torch to Ichiban. So what does that imply for the inevitable subsequent installment of Like A Dragon? Sakamoto’s holding that data near the chest for now, however it does appear sure that Ichiban will proceed to be the blissful warrior, it doesn’t matter what comes his approach.
“I consider that Ichiban has taken the teachings he realized from his newest quest and continues to assist folks he meets within the ways in which he can,” says Sakamoto. “As for the Like a Dragon collection, we hope to proceed to shock and entertain you, so please keep tuned for what’s in retailer!”
Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth is out now on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.