Tokyo Game Show 2023

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth's Hawaii is Wonderfully Over-the-Top

Why limit yourself to beating up Japanese thugs and delinquents in the Like a Dragon (formerly Yakuza) video games? The 2024 Like a Dragon game, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth lets you beat up thugs and delinquents in Hawaii. And boy, is it wonderful!

Sitting right next to the Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name demo at the Tokyo Game Show 2023 was the demo for Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. It's a surreal experience as the booth staff goes from well-dressed gangster types to Hawaiian shirt-wearing brahs [insert hang loose sign]. And it is appropriate as Infinite Wealth places characters outside of Japan and in Hawaii for the first time in the franchise's history.

It's almost jarring seeing the characters from the Like a Dragon franchise outside of the gritty streets of Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya, Japan, and placed in sunny Hawaii. Yet it's very fitting at the same time as the core of the game is relatively the same: mini-games and dealing with street tuffs. But rather than the stereotypical somewhat dapper or gruff-looking Japanese gangster, we mostly see stereotypical American gangster types. Of course, as the setting is Hawaii, those gangsters are more of a brah than thugs.

You'll be encountering a lot of them thugs as well. You won't make it a whole block before a group of people wants to fight you. While it's a nice RPG element to the game, I found myself trying to avoid most fights while playing the demo. This was more so I could experience what Infinite Wealth has to offer and less because the combat is boring. Nonetheless, it's hilarious when you realize some gangs are the oddest non-playable characters. For instance, while walking the streets, a group of living statues (street performers who act as statues) attacked me.

The combat is also a pleasant and fluid experience with turn-based, action, and tactic elements. For the most part, players are limited to selecting “attack,” “block,” “items,” and, as the game calls it, “etc.” But, with the characters moving around the “battlefield,” commands such as “double team” become available when specific parameters are met. For someone like me, the combat is simple enough that a couple of core commands will suffice. Yet, it's also varied enough that people who enjoy sitting down and learning the intricacies of these systems will have a blast.

Of course, it wouldn't be a Like a Dragon game without a plethora of mini-games. After coming off romancing hostesses in The Man Who Erased His Name demo, I was ready to do the same in an American setting. Unfortunately, the mini-game options in the Infinite Wealth demo were delivering food, karaoke, going to the beach, and taking a tour. With a limited time, I tried my hand at the food delivery and karaoke. To my surprise, both games are a bit disappointing. The food delivery was awkward to control and counterintuitive. Using the shoulder buttons has you going forward or backward on the delivery bike with some button combos to perform tricks. I'm sure with some practice, it's a fun game, but the one attempt I made didn't impress me.

As for the karaoke, it felt as if I were playing Parappa the Rapper or some other rhythm game. It's a quick-time game where you press the right button at the right time and hold down a button occasionally for a high score. The frustrating part is that there are large gaps in the song where you need to press something. Granted, this probably has to do with the difficulty of the song. But because of this, it felt like an eternity playing through one karaoke mini-game. At the same time, though, I'm curious to see how the mini-game is handled once people can access the full game.

While there is a main objective in the Infinite Wealth demo, exploring this setting interested me the most. As the game is set in Hawaii, I wanted to see how much of the state is recreated for the game. Unfortunately, I'm not a native Hawaiian, nor have I ever visited, let alone lived on any of the islands. But, talking to the staff at the Tokyo Game Show 2023 booth, the team worked to create an approximation using tools such as Google Earth. So, it will be fun to hear from Hawaii locals about what is and is not actually in real-life Hawaii.

Despite my harping on some of the mini-games in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, the game's core is fun. And there's something about seeing all the brahs on the sandy beaches of Hawaii that gives the game great esthetic charm. The game may not be my cup of tea, but fans of the series will surely enjoy it.