Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (26th January 2024)

[Julius]

Well, out of the blue, but by no means unexpected, a first look at the game has come courtesy of fighter Mikuru Asakura.

From Famitsu:

Quote

An unreleased video of the new work "Ryu ga Gotoku 8" is shown on YouTube by fighter Mikuru Asakura. Mikuru Asakura will also appear in the game!

Before the detailed announcement of "Ryu ga Gotoku 8", the video was released in an unusual form. In the video, there are also numbers and appearances that look like Adachi-san. Kasuga lchiban is not Afro, but his hair tied behind him !?

The video from Mikuru Asakura touring the RGG offices:

 

Edited September 20, 2023 by Julius

[Hero-of-Time]

Given how stupidly hot it is, this is all excitement I can muster at the moment.

[Cube]

There's 8 of these and spin offs? I have a lot of catching up to do.

[martinist]

[Julius]

4 hours ago, Cube said:

There's 8 of these and spin offs? I have a lot of catching up to do.

I saw in the Gaming Diary thread that you've recently played Yakuza 0, so I will just suggest what I think is the best advice I think to give with these games: take your time, Persona 5 style. 

That doesn't mean you need to do everything (lord knows I still haven't learnt how to play mahjong, and I've played 8 of RGG's offerings now), but the best parts of Yakuza are definitely hidden amongst the weeds once you've got a few games in, and you get a grasp on what to expect from the main story. Things like the substories and mini-games are easily some of the best parts of these games, they're definitely worth taking the time to do! 

Edited July 19, 2022 by Julius

[Cube]

I definitely plan on taking my time, as well as not going straight from one to the next, but playing some other games in between.

[bob]

I definitely plan on taking my time, as well as not going straight from one to the next, but playing some other games in between.

Like you're going to get any time to play any games at all for next few months...

[martinist]

A while back I decided to play all the Yakuza games in timeline order starting with Yakuza Zero. I told myself the game isn't finished untill i beat Amon, then I can move onto the next one. Beat both Amons in Zero, got half way through Yakuza Kiwami and gave up. I'll just wait for 8 at this point, I kind of enjoy the Ichiban stuff better to be honnest.

[Julius]

Looks like we'll be getting something more concrete very soon: RGG are having a livestream on 8th September with a "sneak peek trailer". 

With just how close it is to TGS, I've got to imagine this is a Yakuza 8 teaser, which they can dive into the weeds a bit more on during TGS. 

I was planning on getting to Yakuza: Like A Dragon soon anyways, so that works out perfectly well for me 

Edited September 1, 2022 by Julius

[drahkon]

13 minutes ago, Julius said:

I was planning on getting to Yakuza: Like A Dragon soon anyways

And yes, gimme more Yakuza.
Played Kiwami 2 recently, gonna get to 3-6 if they're available on PS+ while I still have a Premium sub (3-5 will only be available there, not on Extra ).

Anyways, Yakuza 8 is one of my most anticipated games right now. Can't wait to see more.

Edited September 1, 2022 by drahkon

[Julius]

News of the RGG Summer Summit (16/06/23 @ 04:00 BST) has landed, which means we also get to learn the winner of the hostess contest for Gaiden and 8...and it's Kson! 

 

Massive in the Vtuber/content creation space (English and Japanese bilingual, so she's got massive reach!) and she's a huge fan of the series, so it'll be awesome to see her in the games! 

[bob]

Oh man, looks like I didn't win then. I guess there's always next time.

[Julius]

Okay, seems like it's been cleared up for the first time in the description for the trailer released on the SEGA channel: Infinite Wealth is 8. 

Quote

An unexpected chain of events sets two legendary ex-yakuza, Kasuga lchiban and Kazuma Kiryu on a larger-than-life RPG adventure.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is the previously announced eighth iteration in Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's flagship series, launching early 2024.

 

[Julius]

It has just been announced that Gaiden will include a special demo for Infinite Wealth!

You will need to beat Gaiden to unlock the demo, and there is a special scene included in the demo that won't be include in the final game. 

[bob]

Anyone else get Madonna's Like a Virgin stuck in their head every time they read the title of this game?

[Julius]

31 minutes ago, bob said:

Anyone else get Madonna's Like a Virgin stuck in their head every time they read the title of this game?

I didn't before...

...but I might do now 

[Julius]

January 26th 2024: 

Fml.

This, Granblue Fantasy Relink, Persona 3 Reload, and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth all releasing within just over a month of each other. All potentially 100+ hour JRPGs. 

We're eating good, but man am I exhausted just thinking about it! Will definitely need to put some time into thinking about which games take precedence....

Gameplay trailer:

Story trailer:

Announced during today's RGG Summit:

Q1 2024 is simply nuts. 

Edited September 20, 2023 by Julius

[drahkon]

6 hours ago, Julius said:

This, Granblue Fantasy Relink, Persona 3 Reload, and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth all releasing within just over a month of each other. All potentially 100+ hour JRPGs. 

Gonna quit my job, leave university and just fuck it all. Video games 4 lyf
Absolutely crazy line-up...it'll most likely be FFVII Rebirth first for me. The other games have to wait.

Anyways, I just checked PS+ and it seems that Yakuza 3-5 will leave the service in a month. Which means I have to play the 5th entry in the series now. Sorry 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim...priorities.

6 hours ago, Julius said:

Gameplay trailer:

Awesome Wacky as always

[Dcubed]

Spikeout confirmed!!!

Also has SEGA Bass Fishing as well (presumably the Model 3 version, rather than the usually ported Dreamcast release).

[Julius]

1 hour ago, drahkon said:

Absolutely crazy line-up...it'll most likely be FFVII Rebirth first for me. The other games have to wait.

Yeah, honestly I say it'll be a tough choice to choose, but for me, I don't think it is 

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (Jan 26th) - I always want to be a few games behind on Yakuza/Judgment/RGG projects so that I can use them as a pick-me-up when I need them. Right now that means going back to Like a Dragon (I think I got to Chapter 5 and completed the business management stuff - aka got filthy rich - last year, before dropping off due to life stuff and then other games coming along). Also got Lost Judgment and Ishin to get through, not to mention the upcoming Gaiden - I'm backed up on these games for now 

Granblue Fantasy Relink* (Feb 1st) - yeah, Day 1. I've been waiting on this game and keeping tabs on it forever, and even if it's just a case of swimming in 7s, I'm fully onboard for that. It just looks so vibrant compared to a lot of other bigger JRPGs these days, I'm really curious to see how the combat is after Platinum stepped back from the project, and I'm super curious to see what the long-term plans are for the series outside of mobile. I honestly wouldn't be shocked if this got knocked back to the summer just to avoid the trinity of JRPG big-hitters releasing around it. 

Persona 3 Reload (Feb 2nd) - the last thing I want to do with my second Persona experience is to rush through. I love taking my time and just chilling in those games. I'll wait. Hopefully next summer is quieter than this year's because that seems like the perfect time of year to get through a Persona game! 

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth* (Feb 29th) - yeah, also Day 1. I'm on the fence about replaying OG VII and Remake before this, but regardless of what I decide to do, there's no way I'm not picking up Rebirth on Day 1. Four weeks between this and Granblue seems ample time to get through Relink, too! 

We're just getting absolutely spoiled these days 

1 hour ago, drahkon said:

Anyways, I just checked PS+ and it seems that Yakuza 3-5 will leave the service in a month. Which means I have to play the 5th entry in the series now.

Loved 5! Definitely a bit longer than the other games in the series up to that point, but I also think it's one of the stronger games in the series (I'd put it behind 0 and alongside Kiwami 2 as one of my favourite entries) if you're looking to take your time and soak it all in. And, if not, I feel like the story has enough momentum/switch-ups to keep driving things forward! 

Will be looking out for your thoughts 

1 hour ago, Dcubed said:

Spikeout confirmed!!!

Also has SEGA Bass Fishing as well (presumably the Model 3 version, rather than the usually ported Dreamcast release).

Man, the RGG games are insane for what they do with stuff like this. I always love toying around with the arcade machines in these games, I think I spent a solid hour or so on Virtua Fighter 5, such a blast! 

Waiting for the day we inevitably get to buy a Dreamcast, put it in our in-game room, and boot up Shenmue  and after that it'll be OG PS2 Yakuza. Man, wouldn't that be a thing!

[Julius]

You know what we should tack onto a 60+ hour JRPG? Animal Crossing:

Well there goes my 2024 

[Dcubed]

Bloody hell! You weren't kidding! It's about as brazen a knockoff of ACNH as you can get, right down to the furniture crafting and bug catching.  Love it 

Edited October 25, 2023 by Dcubed

[Julius]

RGG have just announced that Honolulu, the main area in Infinite Wealth, will be 3x larger than Ijincho...which was already 3x larger than Kamurocho. 

Quote

Released today!
The new stage of "Ryu ga Gotoku 8" is "Honolulu City, Hawaii".
A vast new stage that is said to be more than three times the size of lsezaki ljincho. So, what kind of areas are there and what kind of adventures are waiting for them? ?

Yeah, I can understand why the game is going be noticeably longer than LAD now  just really hope this has a sizeable post-game (or third, post-game act, something like Dragon Quest XI?) which gets you to those higher levels, as I think that's the thing LAD was really lacking: you basically only had the choice of grinding out 30 to 40 levels (not to even mention Job Ranks!) to reach max level before taking on the toughest challenges in the game. 

In that way, LAD actually really reminds me of Pokémon Gold/Silver, it's poor lead-up to Red demanding a grind, and...

Spoiler

...while, yeah, you've unlocked Kamurocho, this glorious returning area from previous Yakuza games, there really ain't much you'll be doing there outside of the story climax and grinding for the Towers. It's virtually empty otherwise, despite the great number of shops, mini-games, restaurants, etc., remaining accessible. 

This game is going to be dangerously long. Honestly, the more we hear about it, the more I question if I'll be able to get it out of the way before VII Rebirth arrives. 

That being said: I'm so ready 

[Hero-of-Time]

Yeah, I'm honestly not too pleased with them going for a larger scale. The areas they've used in previous games were the perfect size. Large enough to have fun in but small enough where you can easily learn the layout of the map.

[Julius]

45 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Yeah, I'm honestly not too pleased with them going for a larger scale. The areas they've used in previous games were the perfect size. Large enough to have fun in but small enough where you can easily learn the layout of the map.

Yeah, I'm completely with you there. Ijincho is, I think, already at the absolute top end of how sprawling I'd want to see one of these maps get. 

Especially with how good the series has got with later games at curating the events meaning you'll be hitting up pretty much every corner of a map during the main story, which just makes substories, side content and the like so much easier to run into and get sidetracked by, you do end up exploring every inch of the map and feel like you know your way around. It makes sense for somewhere like Kamurocho or Sotenbori having played around in these areas so much across so many games at this point, but even with Ijincho in LAD, I played the first 60% of that game last year, took a huge break, and came back still knowing roughly where everything was that I'd already come across, and that speaks to a really good city layout and story curation (which I think might be one of the most overlooked aspects of these games, at least some of the more recent ones). 

This is definitely the first time where I've been watching the marketing for one of these games and found myself going "hmm, this seems like it could really, really easily be bloated", and to an extent that I genuinely think it would be a concern if it was any series but this one. Because it's not just the bigger map, it's then also the Animal Crossing-style stuff, the Sujimon stuff getting its own thing, we've got so many other new side content types and mini-games being added too. Every single time there's a new trailer for this game it seems to be introducing a piece of side content with the potential to be at least 10 hours long to see it through from beginning to end! 

I'm not going to let my anticipation of other titles around the release of this game get in the way of my hype for or enjoyment of it - because worst case, eh, it'd suck but the next game I play gets pushed back a little  - but man, I really just hope that with everything seemingly ballooning in size, that it continues to feel meaningful.

Yakuza/Like A Dragon is so good at building side content and substories which enhance your enjoyment of the main game, whether it be new upgrades or more money or rare items, and while I LOVED LAD, I'm gutted that they didn't come up with a better alternative to grinding in the sewers for a few hours to get to enjoy the challenging end-game content. And I'm someone who doesn't mind a grind! But especially with how two separate times it's handled pretty deftly during the main story in that game ("look, dude, we've opened a grinding spot for you!" – wink wink, nod nod, there's a spike coming up), my biggest hope for this game with it being so much larger in scale and supposedly story length is that it's more akin to Dragon Quest XI, where it's more of a case of there being a third act with engaging content which gets you through to the real ending of the game, beyond what's been advertised. A return to Ijincho, perhaps? 

Spoiler

I actually thought they were going a similar route with that ending in LAD, and that we'd get an epilogue/short third act to wipe the floor with that stain on the earth Kume, and get a healthy bump in EXP for doing so. 

Anyways, that got long, but good lord. At this point I've made peace with what I want to play from Jan to March (which is to say: this and Rebirth ), so I'm just on my hands and knees praying that Shadows of the Erdtree doesn't get announced to drop in Feb/March, because then I seriously don't know what I'd do  

Edited November 26, 2023 by Julius