LIKE A DRAGON: INFINITE WEALTH

Yakuza gets a beach episode

While for us it’ll have been a few months since we left Kiryu in a Hawaiian church in Like A Dragon Gaiden, it’s only seconds for him as we pick back up the series star’s thread in Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, which begins our time with the game.

Naturally, our favourite former yakuza can’t just be allowed to take a holiday. Having faked his death to protect his loved ones, he’s now under the thumb of the Daidoji, a shadowy organisation which helps him keep his secret – for a price. His trip to the sunny island has come with some caveats, as a phone call pointedly reminds him as he leaves the church: he’s got to track someone down.

It’s an important introduction more for how it sets Kiryu up as a chess piece in the complex drama unfolding in Hawaii than for the mission itself. While the hero of the first six Yakuza games (this is the eighth) made a cameo in the soft reboot that was 2020’s Yakuza: Like A Dragon, here he’s a full-on secondary protagonist, standing alongside the ever-lovable lead of that earlier game, Ichiban Kasuga.

DRAGON’S TREASURE

Given the last game made such a big deal out of introducing Kasuga as the new series star, Kiryu’s return, even to share the spotlight, is interesting. While it certainly helps that the gruff Dragon Of Dojima remains incredibly popular, that’s not all that went into the decision to bring him back; it’s about the story the team wanted to tell.