Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth sends the eternal idealist Ichiban Kasuga from the streets of Japan all the way to Hawaii, where he searches for the mother he never knew. Alongside him, the game tells a second storyline with Kazuma Kiryu, the series' longtime face, who this time confronts his own past as well as a very personal threat. Alternating between the two perspectives gives the whole game an unusual emotional range: one half is optimistic and playful, the other bids farewell to an era players have followed for two decades.

Combat remains turn-based, as the series established in the previous installment, but has gained greater freedom of movement around the arena, which favors attacks from behind and the use of objects in the environment. Characters change jobs, which determine their abilities and appearance in combat, and combined with the bonds between party members, a surprisingly deep system emerges. As always, the main story is surrounded by a huge amount of side content: building your own island, a collectible game with strange little figures, a dating app, karaoke, arcade minigames, and dozens of street stories that mix absurd humor with unexpectedly serious themes. Combat also rewards knowledge of the surroundings, since a bicycle, a traffic cone, or a wall behind an enemy can multiply the damage dealt.

On PS5, the game runs smoothly, loading between districts is short, and Hawaii is among the most colorful settings the series has ever had. The sound relies on strong combat music and very good voice performances in both Japanese and English, with the Hawaiian sections accompanied by English-speaking characters and the game playing with how Ichiban communicates in a foreign land. Reviews received the game very well, praising especially Kiryu's story and the sheer amount of content, with occasional pacing fragmentation cited as a drawback. New players are advised to have at least a rough idea of the previous installment, since there are truly a great many callbacks to earlier events that the game relies on. But whoever is looking for a long PS5 game that alternates between laughter and heartbreak will find one of the most generous offerings here. Anyone wanting to see everything can easily spend a hundred hours with it.