Our Most Wanted Games of 2024 – #2 Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth

thesixthaxis.com:

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is going to big a big change for the popular Japanese crime drama series. Sure, the last mainline game already made the shift to a new lead character, new city and jumped from action adventure to tactical RPG gameplay, but Infinite Wealth will see the story take place outside of Japan for the first time, and promises to be the final chapter in Kiryu Kazuma’s story. Again.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is coming out across PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, Xbox One and PC on 26th January.

New protagonist Ichiban Kasuga and Yakuza stalwart Kazuma Kiryu will both be heading to Honolulu, Hawaii in Infinite Wealth. For Ichiban, it’s a journey to find his mother, Akane Kishida, while for the latter, he’s searching for Akane at the behest of the Daidoki faction. The two will team up, and no doubt bash a few heads in this shared quest.

Since Ichiban appeared on the scene in the last game – Yakuza: Like a Dragon – there’s been a major shift in combat style from real-time brawling to turn-based RPG battling. That will carry forward to Infinite Wealth, with a bunch of returning characters who can join your party and fight along your side against gangs of enemies. The jobs system will also return to give contrasting classes, but the stand out will be Kiryu’s “Dragon of Dojima” job. This gives him the ability to switch fighting styles, and to temporarily enter into real-time combat that calls back to the earlier games in the series.

Battling and following the central narrative will naturally be a big part of Infinite Wealth, but the series’ popularity comes in large part from the minigames that are littered through the bustling worlds that RGG create. Karaoke, Darts, and Mahjong will return, but there’s also a