Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth is now available to pre-load on all platforms.
The eight title in the Yakuza / RGG/ Like A Dragon franchise is also the most critically acclaimed yet. Reviewers are singing their praises on how touching the game’s metanarrative is, more than ever before, as well as the deep refinement of the franchise after two decades.
This title sees you play as both the legacy lead character, Kizuma Kiryu, as well as the incoming new protagonist, Ichiban Kasuga. Both former mob members find themselves in Honolulu, Hawaii, undertaking personal quests of their own. The game will also see them returning to Yokohama, Japan, for much of the adventure.
While the Yakuza / RGG/ Like A Dragon has become better known for its creative and varied side missions and mini-games, producing multiple engaging open worlds, the storyline for this title in particular is a highlight for the franchise as well. Without getting into serious spoilers, Kiryu’s story is very much designed to tug at the heartstrings, even if you haven’t been playing the franchise for all these years.
We do feel comfortable to reveal here that many side characters from Kiryu’s and Kasuga’s past make appearances here, which is definitely going to satisfy those longtime fans. We won’t name those characters, but we can already tell you the one guy you hope is in here, is definitely in here.
Yesterday we reported on the game’s stunning metascores on MetaCritic and OpenCritic. As we had noted then, even more than the critical acclaim, there is a huge chance that this is the one title in the series that will break out into the mainstream. While Sega has historically seen industry highs with the likes of Daytona USA in the arcade and Sonic the Hedgehog in the console space, elevating Yakuza / RGG/ Like A Dragon to potentially the same level as Grand Theft Auto, would also raise Sega back up to the upper tier of video game companies.
Of course, many gamers think Yakuza / RGG/ Like A Dragon is just a Japanese version of Grand Theft Auto, and perhaps some gamers still see it as the spiritual successor to Shenmue. The real fans know that the series has long established its own identity. When it hits the top tier of industry AAAs, no one will have that misconception about it any longer.
Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth will be released on January 26, 2024, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows via Steam.
