Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is the series at its very best

It’s easy to get breathless talking about Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.

There’s so much going on in the eighth mainline entry in the series formerly known as Yakuza. Infinite Wealth would be a generation-best RPG if we were here to discuss the excellent turn-based gameplay, the huge array of different jobs and skills that characters can take on, and the compelling sun-soaked adventure.

But it’s so much more than that. Sega‘s RPG is incredibly mechanically rich, has so much side content that you could literally spend 100+ hours strolling around Hawaii and not see everything, and it’s also simply one of the weirdest games we’ve ever played.  And even after all of that, it’s the way it pays tribute to the Like a Dragon/Yakuza series as a whole that makes Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth such a victory lap, and a can’t-miss RPG.

Infinite Wealth is a turn-based RPG. Following the genre change with Yakuza: Like a Dragon and now a total series title change into Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, we’re firmly in a new era for Kamurocho’s finest. Speaking of, our hero is still Ichiban Kasuga, a happy-go-lucky former Yakuza who turned his back on the world of organized crime, no matter how often it threatens to draw him back in.

We meet back up with Kasuga following the events of the previous game, now attempting to put his life and the lives of former Yakuza members back together. After a short spell in Japan, the plot sends Kasuga to Hawaii, a brand new destination for the series, which serves as the game’s main hub world.  However, when Kasuga arrives, he realizes that the tendrils of the Yakuza can stretch across the Pacific, and he’s soon back to throwing people through tables and smashing them over the head with a barbed-wire bat.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth’s turned-based combat allows players to move their character around set areas to gain advantages in battle. For example, if you attack an enemy from the back, they’ll take more damage. Similarly, you can attack an enemy,