Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealthgot stellar reviews when it launched last month. With an 89 onMetacritic, it’s the best received game in the franchise’s history. But unlike some of the other best received games in the franchise,Yakuza 0(85) andYakuza: Like a Dragon(84),it isn’t a good place to start playing. Yakuza 0 was a prequel, set seven years before the earliest events of the first Yakuza game, and Yakuza: Like A Dragon introduced a new lead character. So, despite Infinite Wealth being the best game in the series (at least in aggregate), new players are being warned off starting with it.
That’s because beginning here would be a little like entering theMCUwith Avengers: Infinity War. Infinite Wealth is the second piece of Ichiban Kasuga’s story, following 2020’s Yakuza: Like a Dragon, which already makes it a sequel and a slightly awkward entry point. But it also marks the first return of longtime series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu as a playable character in a mainline game since 2018’s Yakuza 6: The Song of Life, though I have to use the caveat “mainline” because the game is also a sequel to the spin-off storyLike a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name. All of that adds up to make a game that I’m hearing great things about and a game that I, someone who hasn’t played those other games, probably shouldn’t play.
The problem is that I bought it. For some reason, Infinite Wealth got a major discount at Best Buy, with the price knocked down from the usual $70 to $30. Who knows why, it might have been human error. What I did know was that I would eventually want to play it so I took advantage of the huge discount.
Spending that money seems to have unlocked something for me. I’ve considered getting into the series in the past. I own physical copies of Yakuza Kiwami, Yakuza 0, and Judgment from Christmases and Black Fridays past. But, I had always played an hour or two, had a great time, then moved on to something else because I didn’t have the time to commit. But Infinite Wealth being so well received seems like a great excuse to finally rip the Band-Aid off and Beast Style my way through the whole series.
As a commitment to that, I started Yakuza Kiwami last week. It is neither a required game to play Infinite Wealth nor one of the best reviewed games in the series, which is my way of giving myself permission to actually do the thing: to waste some time and play the whole series front to back.
And really, it is a need for permission more than a need for desire. Everytime I pick up the series, I’m impressed by the quality of the storytelling and presentation. Starting Kiwami was no different. I was instantly drawn in by Kiryu’s gentle stoicism; by his commitment early on in the game to doing something immensely kind and sacrificial for a friend who doesn’t seem to deserve it. It seems great, and it makes me extremely excited to get to Infinite Wealth… roughly 220 hours from now, give or take.
