Fresh from the finale of Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name and from the tears shed for a truly emotional ending (here you can read our review), I threw myself headlong into trying the special demo of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth to tell you a preview of what awaits us next January 26th.
For those who don’t know yet, this is the upcoming title November 9thand contains within it a trial version of the eighth numbered chapter (even if, unlike Japan in the West, we abandoned the numbering with the seventh episode), however accessible only after the completion of the main campaign “The Man Who Erased His Name”. The demo consists of two distinct sections: History And Hawaii. In the first, as it is easy to imagine, we will play a portion of the story of the main game, in the second we will instead be able to explore the paradisiacal Honolulu in the company of a brand new party for ours Ichiban.
The demo History it will start right where Like a Dragon Gaiden he left us after the closing credits. In the initial phase of the demo we will impersonate Kiryuon a mission on behalf of the Daidoji in Hawaii, who will gather information on his target through a series of informants, eventually running into Kasuga. As we saw in the first trailer of the game, Ichiban he will end up on the beaches of the Pacific Ocean completely naked, causing panic and ending up being irremediably arrested.
Kiryu will be the one to save his skin after Ichiban has escaped from the police and takes him to safety. In these first moments of the game, which most likely we will not find exactly the same in the final version of the game, we will be able to control both Ichiban and the Dojima Dragon, we will experience his unique class in the improved turn-based battle system introduced in the seventh chapter. Kiryu will be able to count on the job that will allow him to change fighting style via the directional cross, choosing between three different variants:
- Wrestler: the default style, the most balanced one;
- Assault: the intermediate style, more aggressive and which allows you to attack twice in succession during the same turn;
- Beast: as already seen in previous chapters, it is the relentless style capable of breaking the guard and attacking with devastating force, while sacrificing speed.
The biggest change compared to Yakuza: Like a Dragon lies in the fact that we will be able to move our characters during their turn to get as close as possible to the enemy, even if the latter will do the same by trying to get away or not be caught from behind. Around the character we will find a circle, which symbolizes the attack range in which our shots will be most effective. But it is not necessary for the enemy to re-enter the circle to be hit, the effectiveness will simply vary.
Kiryu’s class, Dojima Dragonhas the particularity, already seen in the trailer, of break the turn-based rules for a short time and transform into the action battle system which we also saw in the same Gaiden. To do this, simply fill in the appropriate indicator and press R2, and we will be able to unleash our combos in the direction of the poor unfortunates. This mode is called “Dragon Rebirth”.
In this first part of the demo Kiryu will accompany Ichiban to his house Akane, the woman who claims to be his mother and who sent him a letter asking to see him. After spending time together on the island, the two will run into Eric Tomizawa (default jobs: taxi driver), the first of the new characters in the cast, and together they will face a boss battle against a fearsome opponent, who is also looking for Akane. The second, although it has been properly assembled to introduce Ichiban to the Hawaiian Islands, begins when we have already formed a party of four characters. Together with Kasuga, Kiryu and Tomizawa we will find Chitose Fujinomiyaa beautiful girl who as her default class will have “Heiress” and who will be our guide around the city. By speaking with her, in fact, we will be able to instantly teleport to one of the points of interest available in this free-roaming portion of the demo.
We can wander aroundAloha Beach and greet citizens with the appropriate button to make new friends, deal with the few side stories included in the demo, but also take a swim in the ocean to collect waste which we will be able to exchange for some valuable objects such as the inevitable precious metal plates. The demo also features the karaoke with three songs: Hell Stew, Judgment and, when we also have Chitose in the party, the unreleased one Honolulu City Lights — which will somehow reveal the girl’s role in the story.
The map of Honolulualthough well delimited in many of the areas that are not available in the demo, will be quite vast and to move around the streets we will have the segway already seen in the trailers, lo Street Surfer. The means of transport will be equipped with a battery that can be recharged at the appropriate station, which will also allow us to customize it in the livery and colors of the wheels, and will allow us to move automatically in the direction of the marker that we will point to on the map via the automatic driving. Too bad it isn’t able to avoid obstacles, sometimes we will have to do it manually and resume automatic driving with the button R2.
The demo also allows us to experiment with two brand new and truly fun minigames. The first of them is Crazy Deliveryevolution of the can recovery game of the previous title clearly inspired by Crazy Taxi and to the least famous Radikal Bikers. In the role of a rider, Ichiban will have to run and perform tricks on a bicycle to collect and deliver burgers, chips, sushi and anything else trying to get the best score. And occasionally she will even be able to run vertically up walls.
The other game to look at is yet another mockery of the saga Pokémon: after the dei minigame Sujimon (which in the full version will allow us to make them fight each other, not just collect them), we find Crazy Shotparody of Pokemon Snap. Once you get on the Trolleythe tourist bus that goes around the streets of the city, we will be given a camera with the aim of immortalizing some muscular perverts in masks and skimpy costumes who show off some embarrassing poses to say the least. According to the game rules, such photos will be sent to the police in exchange for money, so that the police can clean up the streets.
The second part of the demo will also culminate with a boss battle, against the corrupt policeman who put Ichiban behind bars without hearing reasons. After the battle, however, we will be able to continue wandering around Hawaii and dissect the demo in every other aspect made available to us until the time available to us runs out. For example, experimenting in battle with the new classes that we can assign to the characters, such as Samurai, Geoballerina And Aquanautwhich we can change at theAlo-Happy Tours.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth it will be available next time January 26, 2024 on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC. The new iteration of the series seems really exhilarating and full of new plot ideas, but what struck me most is the renewed turn-based battle system with new classes and improved in every way. We just need to see if they Hawaii will be able to convince completely as the main setting, even if at first glance it would seem so. Below I leave you with a gallery of images from the demo.
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