Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth

[AndyKurosaki]

Ok, so I’m 2 hours into this. I’m an absolutely massive Yakuza/LAD fan. In over 40 years of gaming, this is by far my favourite franchise. The reviews for this have been universally high. 
 

Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way first: charging separately for the New Game+ mode, sucks. There’s an entire dungeon, and trophies/achievements locked away behind that. That’s pissed some people off, and I think understandably so. There’s also multiple Micro transactions, ranging in price from £5 for instant level up boosts, to £12/£15 for other stuff. I won’t be bothering with any of that, and so far, the game hasn’t been obnoxiously highlighting them. 
 

Right. I’m 2 hours in, and it’s pretty much just been cut scenes. Which is pretty typical for a LAD game. That being said, I’ve already noticed two improvements that have been made to the combat system. You can manually control the movement of each character before making a move, making it much easier to pick up items to hit enemies with. One of the more annoying elements of the previous game, was that if you bumped into another enemy in the middle of your attack, their was a good chance they’d hit you, and cancel your move. That’s been scrapped entirely, thank god.

 

There’s no difficulty options. When I watched the IGN video review, they specifically mentioned how annoying the difficulty spikes became about halfway through LAD. That was what made me eventually give up on my PS4 playthrough, and I found challenging to get through when I eventually finished it on PS5 last December. The reviewer said that there’s none of that difficultly spike nonsense in IW. Hopefully, he’s right…

 

In terms of story, there’s no “Previously on LAD” to catch up newcomers to the story. Most games in the series have optional “movies” to watch, which explain what’s happened before. There’s none of that here. So if IW is your first time to the series, I’d suggest watching a video of at least what happened in the last LAD game. 
 

I won’t spoil what’s happened so far. But, I will say, it’s been an absolute joy seeing Ichiban and his friends again. Kiryu is my favourite character in all of gaming, but Ichiban is quickly becoming a firm favourite too. He’s likeable, charismatic, and amusing.

 

Whereas in LAD: Gaiden, you had to wait a few weeks for the English dub to become available, here it’s available right from the start. I played LAD in English, and had no issue with doing so. So, I’ve chosen the English dub for this. There’s been a lot of hate thrown at Jong Jea, the YouTuber chosen to portray Kiryu. I’ll reserve judgement for his full performance. The footage of Kiryu doing karaoke that leaked a few weeks ago was legitimately awful, autotuned to buggery. But, I’ll give him a fair chance. What I can say though, is I’m very dubious about his ability to pull it off. Kiryu is a legend approaching the end of his “career”. From the lines leaked previously, he sounds far too young. Still, I won’t write him off just yet. 
 

Im away on holiday for a week after today, so won’t get to play much more. But once I’m back, this will be getting my full attention.

[DisturbedSwan]

I could not personally bear to play this dubbed, but I’m subs over dubs in general really. Hearing the performance that Kiryu’s long time JP voice actor gives in Gaiden, particularly towards the end of that game and then thinking about Yong Yea the gamer gater doing them makes me shudder in all honesty.

 

I’m about 5-6 hours in and haven’t long got to the destination seen in the trailers. It’s been very cutscene heavy as Andy has said and even though you can explore Yokohama in the early chapters, there isn’t really anything of note to do aside from the usual mini games and eateries, no real side stuff that isn’t tied to the main storyline.

 

So yeah, so far so good, the first chapter feels like an epilogue really, showing where all the party from LaD 7 are now then the following chapters this game and the mysteries behind it start in earnest.

 

Not been let off the leash in Hawaii yet but very different vibes to Yokohama so far as expected really. Ichiban & co are as likeable as ever, love spending time with them.

[AndyKurosaki]

To be honest, I’m usually subs over dubs myself. But having played LAD with the English dub, I like Ichiban’s English voice, it’s done really well, as are the voices of his crew. Plus, Danny Treyo voices a character in this, and that’s only in the English dub. 
 

Im definitely dreading to hear Yong’s performance as Kiryu. If it was possible to have him in Japanese, and the rest of the cast in English, I definitely would. The English voice they used for Kiryu in LAD was perfectly fine. Yong’s, from what I’ve heard in preview footage, is completely wrong. He basically uses his normal speaking voice. Which sounds utterly ridiculous considering Kiryu’s age. 
Maybe it’s not so bad in the full game. But I kinda doubt it.

[DANGERMAN]

I played a bit of the included demo when I beat Gaiden, and he sounds like a Final Fantasy team mate. It's not good 

[AndyKurosaki]

The worst I’ve seen is Yong’s Kareoke as Kiryu, in footage leaked a few weeks back. It’s legitimately awful. Almost as bad, is how Yong decided that the best way to react to criticism of his performance, was to immediately block people doing that. 
Bit of a dickhead move, to be honest.

[mfnick]

I’ve already put 10 hours into this and immediately dropped AW2, BG3 and PoP Lost Crown for it. It’s a sickness.

 

Loving it. So many amazing moments already - Nancy, the whole dating bit, Kiryu’s beautifully stupid Superman/Clark Kent reveal BS carrying on from Gaiden, Sicko Snap, making wind from being sexy. I could go on… Ah, just all so good. Wish the “thing” regarding Kiryu hadn’t been spoiled for me but it was still a strong moment. 
 

i know it’s hit and miss with people but as someone who dislikes the brawler combat on previous games, going turn based again is just fucking brill for me. I’m hearing the small changes they’ve made are sitting better with fans of the old games combat too? Particularly the positioning - what an excellent tweak. 
 

These are genuinely the funniest games in existence too. No other game has ever managed to make me laugh like these do. & nowhere near as often. 
 

My one gripe so far is actually language related too. I wish this one had a hybrid language setting - as in the characters speak in they native tongues as and when required and makes sense. With it being set in Hawaii, English actually seems the correct choice but they constantly refer to not being able to speak it. Ichi even has a part where he’s trying to speak English and they convey that by showing it in brackets in the subtitles. I think it would be a lot better if the Japanese characters stuck to Japanese with some broken English when right and Americans English. Unfortunately that isn’t an option. 

I’ve ended up on English since it just makes more sense for the setting. Plus Ichi’s English VA is really damn good and portraying him. Kiryu’s isn’t great & does stand out but it’s not actually hurting the experience. 

[AndyKurosaki]

Really sorry if it was me that spoiled Kiryu’s situation. I mistakenly thought it was common knowledge, with it being mentioned in the lead up to release. A fuck up on my part there. 
 

Having played Gaiden, I do still prefer the “classic” combat style. That being said, i enjoy turn based games, and although I’ve only reached Chapter 2 so far, I’ve already seen two major improvements:

 

-Being able to position your character before attacking. It doesn’t seem like much, but it’s actually a huge difference. You can try to attack an enemy’s back for more damage. It shows where your attack will send them, making for easier combo moves, and it’s much easier to grab items to twat enemies with. It’s already improved combat dramatically, for me at least.

 

-Enemies can’t interrupt your attack anymore. This was VERY annoying in LAD. You’d select an attack, your character would run in to carry it out. But, if you bumped into another enemy on the way, and there was no way of actually knowing that, there was a very good chance they’d hit you, and cancel out your entire move. Bullshit. And thankfully, they’ve scrapped that entirely for IW. Yay! 
 

Here’s something I don’t know though, and was a further annoyance about LAD. In the previous game, if Ichiban died in combat, that was an instant game over. Didn’t matter if the rest of your party was still standing, if he went down, game over. That SUCKED, especially towards the end of that game, with the ludicrously difficult bosses. I haven’t heard anyone say if that’s still the case for IW. I certainly hope not….

 

Ichiban’s English VA is genuinely brilliant, which is why I’m sticking with that version. Jong may be crap, and completely unsuitable for Kiryu. But, Ichiban is just so damn likeable.

 

I definitely agree about it being consistently funny, even from what little I’ve played of this so far. It’s put a massive smile on my face, and I don’t see that leaving anytime soon.

[mfnick]

4 hours ago, AndyKurosaki said:

Really sorry if it was me that spoiled Kiryu’s situation. I mistakenly thought it was common knowledge,

No it was actually the Friends Per Second Podcast. Lucy immediately says it in her section. I didn’t even have time to skip forward - like I have been with all LAD chat on other podcasts. I’ve avoided all trailers apart from the reveal couple too so I had no idea. Can’t believe they spoiled the at in a trailer to be honest so I blame Sega more than an anyone. It would have been a huge moment. 
 

4 hours ago, AndyKurosaki said:

Enemies can’t interrupt your attack anymore

Agreed that was really annoying, glad that’s gone.

 

4 hours ago, AndyKurosaki said:

if Ichiban died in combat, that was an instant game over.

It’s the same here. I tried my luck against one of those purple star enemies and got my arse handed to me. If Ichiban dies that’s it. Luckily it drops you immediately back to where you were and you just lose a bit of money. So not terrible but I can definitely see it causing the same frustrations when doing optional bosses at the end game. 

[AndyKurosaki]

Dammit. I was worried about that. In the last game, Ichiban eventually learned a spell that was basically ‘Re-raise’, so if he got killed, he was immediately brought back with some health, preventing a game over. I was really hoping they scrapped that, as it’s bollocks. Oh well.

[mfnick]

The Sujimon side game is far better than it had any right to be. 
 

Also -Itchy Balls Kasuga. Simple and stupid but worked for me. Someone being told they look like a Create-a-wrestler is such a great diss too.

[mmmark]

I’m very very early in the game. I’ve been friend zoned and lost something. I’d say half of the time spent has been cut scenes but for once I’ve not skipped through them like I normally would. I’m not normally a fan of taking it in turns combat but I’m not minding this. It’s not as straightforward as those normally are. It’s a big thumbs up so far from me.

[AndyKurosaki]

Coming home from my holiday today, and I absolutely cannot wait to jump right back into this. 
Though my time so far with this has been predominantly cutscenes, I don’t have a problem with that at all. Ichiban is just too bloody likeable, his charm shines through. 
 

Kiryu has been my favourite character in all of gaming, for a long time now. I’d say it’s pretty certain that this will be his final role in the series (unless he turns up in a supporting role, or more likely as DLC). If you’d told me prior to LAD that Kiryu was going to be replaced, I’d have been a bit sad. But, Ichiban has already proven himself to be a worthy successor. 
 

I’m very glad that there’s been no story spoilers floating around online, none that I’ve seen at least. Part of the sheer joy of these games, is seeing the story unfold. It’s why I already love seeing Ichiban’s friends back in action, they’re just such a great team. Other than the preview footage, I’ve not seen how the new characters will perform. But, I’ve no doubt I’ll soon take a shine to them too.

 

It’s really wonderful to see the series thriving, and being enjoyed by such a large audience. They’ve always been bloody outstanding games, and I’m glad that it’s getting the recognition it so richly deserves. 

[mmmark]

Re voice acting I think the English language in this is great. There’s a proper intentional silliness to Ichibon that really matches his actions and intentions. 

[mfnick]

Danny Trejo is great in this. 
 

Spoiler

Machete!! 

 

[mfnick]

Holy shit, just wait till you reach this bit. It’s amazing.

 

 

The part that follows immediately after is gold too.

Spoiler

Turtle demon FTW. 

 

[AndyKurosaki]

Played nearly an hour of this last night, on Chapter 2. Maybe had one, or two actual fights. But I don’t care, as I love the story in these games. And Ichiban, well he’s just an utter joy. He has such bad luck, but he just keeps at it. He said something along the lines of not caring what people think of him, as he just wants to protect his friends. 
 

Yeah. He’s bloody awesome.

[mfnick]

I’ve done a bit on Dondoko Island. Reached 1 star so far… Yea I just haven’t got that part of my brain people who enjoy these types of games have. If you don’t know it’s an Animal Crossing/survival mini game thing. You have a day which is about 15-20 minutes to press X at trees, rocks, rubbish etc. to get loot from them. Then repeat the next day. Sorry but this shit is soooo boring. Why do people enjoy this? just stood at trees pressing a button? Anyway. There’s also bugs and fish to catch. You then upgrade the island and build stuff to try and get people to visit.
 

Even the mad LAD trappings aren’t helping with this bit. Unfortunately this looks like the best way to earn money so I may have to suck it up. Hopefully not though.

 

Gone back to the main island and loving it again now. 

[AndyKurosaki]

I’m at Chapter 3, and that has been hilarious so far. 
 

I’ve never played Animal Crossing, and from what I’ve read of it, it’s not really my jam. So I’m not too sure what I’ll make of Dondoku Island. I’ll give it a fair shot.

I’m just glad it’s not the business management mode of the last game, that was utterly terrible. And unfortunately, a great way to earn lots of money. So it’s why I never really afforded the good gear.

[mfnick]

I actually ended up enjoying that business mini game in the last one. Used a guide though. 

[AndyKurosaki]

I’m progressing nicely in Chapter 3. Multiple side quests have appeared, and you can bet I’ll be doing all of them before progressing the story. In some games, side quests can start getting monotonous. But in LAD, you just never know what’s going to happen. One minute you’re taking part in an online dating game, with rapidly increasing button combos to text an answer. The next minute you’re riding a bus, taking photos of pervy men in their underpants, grinding away. Or, having to remember the orders of multiple customers at a local restaurant.

 

Ichiban continues to be such a fun person to play as. His genuine, caring nature shines through.