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

[Ike]

Mine doesn't either.

Looks like there's dust trapped inside mine. Looks like it's between the cover and the cover plastic bit... thing.

[Hero-of-Time]

None on Ebay UK to check but headed over to Ebay Italy and found this.

Link

Same on Ebay France.

Link

Be a bit weird in the UK version doesn't have the Sony seal. I can't recall ever seeing a game without one unless it has been resealed.

I'm calling shenanigans.

Edited March 25, 2024 by Hero-of-Time

[Happenstance]

This is the video I checked, none of the PS5, PS4 or Xbox versions have it.

[Hero-of-Time]

5 minutes ago, Happenstance said:

This is the video I checked, none of the PS5, PS4 or Xbox versions have it.

Those are US versions. Their games don't have the PlayStation seal on them.

[Happenstance]

4 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Those are US versions. Their games don't have the PlayStation seal on them.

But then Ike's doesn't either 🤷‍♂️

[Hero-of-Time]

5 minutes ago, Happenstance said:

But then Ike's doesn't either 🤷‍♂️

Indeed. 

Gonn send mine back for refund until I know what's what. Got plenty of other stuff to keep me busy.

Shame there are no videos for the UK version or any for sale on ebay to check.

[Happenstance]

4 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Indeed. 

Gonn send mine back for refund until I know what's what. Got plenty of other stuff to keep me busy.

Shame there are no videos for the UK version or any for sale on ebay to check.

Yeah I was hoping to see a photo on Instagram but it's hard to tell where people are from.

[Hero-of-Time]

Unboxing of the UK edition (back of game is all in English) and it has the PlayStation seal. 

[Hero-of-Time]

I think this is the most activity the forum has had all day and it's all down to whether a game is sealed properly or not. Ultimately it's getting opened anyway. Hilarious.

[Ike]

Pretty scummy of Amazon in that case, selling as new. Not that bothered about Persona 3 (I’ll check that the disk works later tonight) but it’s the last time buying games from them.

The Game Collection are selling it for £35 if anyone wants an alternative.

[Dcubed]

Are you sure it’s not a mainland Europe copy? It’s not uncommon for places like Amazon or The Game Collection to procure EU copies from outside the UK and sell them within the UK.  It you buy Nintendo games, it’s really obvious when this happens because they denote the intended region of sale using coloured triangles on the boxes.

Do mainland EU or Scandinavian copies of PS4/PS5 games have the same PS seal?

[Hero-of-Time]

10 hours ago, Dcubed said:

Are you sure it’s not a mainland Europe copy? It’s not uncommon for places like Amazon or The Game Collection to procure EU copies from outside the UK and sell them within the UK.  It you buy Nintendo games, it’s really obvious when this happens because they denote the intended region of sale using coloured triangles on the boxes.

Do mainland EU or Scandinavian copies of PS4/PS5 games have the same PS seal?

Pretty sure all EU games feature the PS seal. For example, here's a copy of Wonder Boy Collection that is the EU version.

LINK

 

Edited March 26, 2024 by Hero-of-Time

[Hero-of-Time]

Ended up asking for a replacement and it arrived today.

That's better. 

So, yeah, clearly it had been used and resealed.

[Happenstance]

Hope P3R is the first game you play from your pile after all of this!

[Hero-of-Time]

1 hour ago, Happenstance said:

Hope P3R is the first game you play from your pile after all of this!

Nah, I started Prince of Persia.

[Hero-of-Time]

The year of the JRPG continues...

Yeah, I dunno what more I can say about these developers that I havent said already. I find it amazing how they can not only keep knocking these games out at such a fast rate but also keep the game quality at such a high level.

I really enjoyed the Pokemon style part of the game. Capturing random team members when fighting on the street and them using them in battle was great, especially given some of the colourful characters that were on offer.

One aspect I didn't care for was the Animal Crossing style island. I dabbled with it for a while and then sacked it off, leaving it until post game to mop up the trophies. It was okay but didn't really add to my experience. Good time waster for those who want a break from the main game though.

As for the narrative, amazing stuff, as always. 

Spoiler

It was interesting that fake news took a lot of the spotlight at the beginning of the game. It really highlights just how our society can be so easily swayed by media. How they tied it all in with Bleach Japan and the waste island was very well done, with the two protagonists and their respective groups playing great alongside each other. One took care of Hawaii and the other took care of Japan. Sorted.

 

Spoiler

Kiryu having cancer was a massive gut punch for me. If people read my journey when playing God of War Ragnarok they would know that my dad got diagnosed with terminal cancer last year. Seeing Kiryu go through it and how he was dealing with what he thinks are his last moments really hit me hard. I was in tears at the end when you see him in the wheel chair getting treatment and looking so deteriorated. This is something I've had to watch my dad go through as well. Sad/hard times.

On a brighter note, it was awesome to see Date back and trying his best to get Kiryu to see his old friends before he passes. I was heartbroken when he went to see Haruka, only for him to hear her say she didn't really want to see him. Gutted.

The cast are once again top tier and the new characters mix well with the old ones. I  Chitose. She was such a fantastic character and she remained in my party all throughout the game.

It wouldn't be a Yakuza game without some epic moments and one of my favourites came when...

Spoiler

You track down your old friends, ask them for help, only for them to refuse and instead fight against you. 

Absolutely epic fight that was a bit of a difficulty spike, much like Majima was in Like a Dragon.

Amazing game and certainly my GOTY so far. FFVII Rebirth was a bit of a bust and so I wasn't going to give it the honour of a platinum milestone. However, this hit all the right notes and delivered on everything and so the platinum milestone of 750 goes to Infinite Wealth.

 

[RedShell]

I finally started playing this last week.

At first it wasn't grabbing me quite like previous games in the series, the pace is unbelievably slow (even by Yakuza standards) and the writing seemed a bit off too. Fast forward a few hours though and I'm loving it of course.

The part with Ichiban getting dating advice from the boys was the turning point, absolutely hilarious!

Then the main story stuff really started getting good.

Then I got hooked on the Sujimon aspect.

I'm currently on Chapter 6, but I've hit such a massive brick wall that it might actually prevent me from being able to ever finish the game!
And that brick wall is...

Dondoko Island! 🏝️

Now I always knew from the initial reveal trailer this would be something that I'd really love and get way too invested in, but even so, my expectations have been well and truly surpassed. I mean it's literally an entire game, a glorious Yakuza infused version of Animal Crossing. Absolutely loving it!

I haven't had the slightest urge to return to the main story since arriving at Dondoko Island, and I don't think I will for a very long time.

Seriously, the dolphin they got waiting to take Ichiban back to the main island is probably going to die of old age at this rate. 

Send help!

BTW, it's interesting how many little cues there are to the upcoming Majima Pirate game in this.

[Julius]

I'm not going to go super in-depth on it yet, but I've been chipping away at this since the end of Jan/start of Feb. I'm like 40 hours in and roaming around in Chapter 10? Really trying to savour it. 

So, this game's incredible. There's a point in Chapter 8 where they just decide to throw fan service moments at you nonstop and if you've played earlier games by RGG - I'm talking Yakuza and Judgment here - you are in for a freaking treat. My mind has been constantly blown by it all. 

If I were rushing through the game to get a review it, yeah, maybe there is a little too much, and I think some of the pacing issues would be a bit more glaring played that way. I actually really liked the slow-paced start this time around for how it served as a check-in for what's happened with everyone between LAD and IW, whereas in other Yakuza games it's the typical 2-4 hours of exposition before getting into the thick of it. I felt like I kept on top of news for this game yet had no idea it had its own version of Pokémon Snap, or about the dating app, and a bunch of other things – again, there's SO MUCH game here! Loved the exploration side of things too, and how the Friend Bingo Cards you complete through exploring then improve friendships which lead to great Drink Link stuff to help fill in the gaps on character backgrounds, it's just awesome. 

I did look up if there was anything to pay special attention to going in, like the Foreman job in LAD not being telegraphed as being nearly as important as it was for dungeon explosion, and the only thing mentioned was to opt in for a moment of reflection super early on in the game. The game sets it up like it's a recap of previous events, when it's just a minute or so of Kasuga monologuing about some of the events and close characters in LAD – but most importantly, it tells you what happens to one of the key antagonists set up at the end of the game between LAD and IW. I can't believe that's optional, and as far as I can remember, it hasn't come up in the 10 chapters I've played of the game so far. 

I think the big stumbling block for me so far, and why this game is taking me a while to get through (keep in mind I put in like 20 hours in a 3-day weekend to start out at the end of Jan/start of Feb) is that Dondoko Island being such a massive time investment is kind of looming over the entire playthrough. I know I'm going for less Plats and if it's not something I enjoy then I probably shouldn't go super deep into it, but yeah, it's just there. I feel similarly about the two dungeons which are basically Tartarus/Mementos knockoffs, except much more visually boring and serve no other purpose than to literally just keep you at a high enough level for the story content – just like it was in LAD. 

Because of this, my last session with the game was just spent doing all the side stuff now that I'm back in Yokohama that I could. I enjoyed it, obviously, but the two things I mentioned above are things I think I just need to get around to tackling to get them out of the way – I don't even think Dondoko is particularly bad, but when it's effectively the replacement for the business mini-game in LAD (both in time investment and monetary rewards), I do think it's a noticeable step down from what I've played so far. 

Main point of praise has to be the turn-based combat, because holy hell did they take notes on what people had issues with in LAD here. It's freaking incredible. The simple addition of being able to move around in a certain radius to position yourself somewhat Xenoblade-style and line up what are effectively tennis rallies with enemies by hitting them into your other party members adds such nuance to battles, it feels like it moves at a much faster clip than it did in LAD, the way grabbing items is signalled to you in order to bash enemies with doesn't feel as randomised and is awesome (though I will say – a bit of a pain if you're stuck in a certain spot and just want to deliver a standard Attack to set something up either with elemental weaknesses or whatever and they grab the item and bash them with that instead! Makes sense for Beast-style but virtually no-one else), love Kiryu's ability to swap between styles too.

I will say that I've just kept everyone in their default class and the game has been fairly breezy so far, sometimes I'll wander into an enemy I'm too low a level to face in the open world and that can be an issue (game again doesn't tell you that to run away you need to ensure the path is clear, levels don't really factor in!), think I'll just stick with everyone being their defaults until I hit Rank 30 (for the trophy but also I remember from LAD most if not all of the important/interesting moves are typically learned by that point) before figuring out where I want people to go. Think I've got an item on Chitose (bestest girl, btw) which allows her to heal when a stat is buffed, which happens all the time because of my team set-up and the moves, equipment and weapons she had to hand. 

Oh, and I completed all the Sujimon stuff. That was awesome. Better than any Pokémon game I've played in a good while with its battle pacing and story, and all delivered in like 5-8 hours, too! 

Pretty happy I didn't play this last year because, uh, yeah, this is a genuine retroactive 2024 GOTY contender for me and it would have made the already impossible task even more difficult. Looking forward to getting back to it! 

Okay so maybe I did end up going pretty in-depth on it... 

Edited 3 hours ago by Julius

[Hero-of-Time]

10 minutes ago, Julius said:

I think the big stumbling block for me so far, and why this game is taking me a while to get through (keep in mind I put in like 20 hours in a 3-day weekend to start out at the end of Jan/start of Feb) is that Dondoko Island being such a massive time investment is kind of looming over the entire playthrough. I know I'm going for less Plats and if it's not something I enjoy then I probably shouldn't go super deep into it, but yeah, it's just there. I feel similarly about the two dungeons which are basically Tartarus/Mementos knockoffs, except much more visually boring and serve no other purpose than to literally just keep you at a high enough level for the story content – just like it was in LAD. 

Yeah, Dondoko Island wasn't that great and I didn't really care for it much. I think it was the last thing I done for the platinum. I put it off as far as much as I could and then just bit the bullet and got through it.

11 minutes ago, Julius said:

I think I'll just stick with everyone being their defaults until I hit Rank 30 (for the trophy but also I remember from LAD most if not all of the important/interesting moves are typically learned by that point) before figuring out where I want people to go. 

This is generally the best way to go and then you can always switch back if need be. The grind here isn't nearly half as bad as it was for Yakuza: LAD.

12 minutes ago, Julius said:

Think I've got an item on Chitose (bestest girl, btw) which allows her to heal when a stat is buffed, which happens all the time because of my team set-up and the moves, equipment and weapons she had to hand. 

Truth.

13 minutes ago, Julius said:

Oh, and I completed all the Sujimon stuff. That was awesome. Better than any Pokémon game I've played in a good while with its battle pacing and story, and all delivered in like 5-8 hours, too! 

Also truth.