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In its eighth chapter, the series formerly known as Yakuza made another major change: it moved from the red light districts of major Japanese cities to the paradisiacal world of Hawaii!
Aloha!
The article contains spoilers about the twists and turns of previous episodes of Yakuza and Like a Dragon!
Few games deal with the consequences of victory. We killed the dragon, freed the princess and saved the kingdom; We blew up the spaceship, taught the aliens customs, and stopped the planet from burning. We found the bomb, uncovered the conspiracy and caught the terrorist. There may be relief, joy, the cast list – and of course at the end, with cliched frequency, one or two new dangers flash on the horizon, which can be dealt with in the next part. The pace of most action games is so overwhelming that you don’t have time to enjoy the victory – or at least think about how exactly our campaign, which has cut a bloody path through the world, has changed the world beyond the protagonists. And while the previous Yakuzas and the more recent Like a Dragons performed above average in this area, there are still dozens of unstitched threads behind the dust cloud that accompanies many wrestling matches. “Infinite Wealth” finally takes advantage of the radical change of the environment and not only tells the next chapter in the lives of the two iconic protagonists, very rich in action and betrayal, but also summarizes previously abandoned storylines.
In addition to these long-recovered narrative elements, Infinite Wealth builds primarily on the stories of three previous episodes: Yakuza 6, which concluded the first era of the series, is one of them, which told what appears to be the last great adventure of the legendary Kazuma Kiryu. At the end of this game, the warrior who played a crucial role in the modern history of the Yakuza staged his own death in defense of his loved ones and from then on continued to work as an agent of the mysterious organization under a pseudonym called Daidoji. His story was continued in the recently published book Gaiden, in which the impossible happened: the leaders of the Omi Alliance and the Tojo Clan joined forces and disbanded these two dominant Yakuza groups, causing the entire system to collapse with 30,000 Yakuza suddenly homeless become. Of course, Kiryu is not left out of this important event, but even his final, triumphant moments could not make us forget that our hero’s days are numbered: his body was ravaged by cancer, and the threat of imminent death made him even more emotional Reveal side of the otherwise stoic character.
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Of course, Kiryu is not alone: the seventh episode, which brought so many changes, also featured a new main character. The hay-haired Ichiban Kasuga became an instant audience favorite – it’s simply impossible not to like this Mafla character, who spent his best years, almost half of his life, behind bars for a murder he didn’t commit, but was released not experienced with bitterness, but with endless optimism in the heart. In Ichiban’s first game, he found himself in Yokohama after a betrayal and a near-fatal shot in the chest and, starting from a homeless camp, had to face corrupt politicians and criminal groups from at least three countries and perhaps most of the series’ obscure side missions.
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In “Infinite Wealth,” which will be released in a few days, these threads finally come together: The increasingly ill Kiryu comes to Honolulu on behalf of Daidoji and Ichiban because the noose around him in Japan is slowly getting tighter. Ichiban, who spends his days improving the lives of yakuza who have suddenly lost their jobs and lack civil skills or even good manners, is fired from his job after a Vtuber’s manipulatively commented video. He also sends him to Hawaii. His case is much more personal than Kiryu’s job as an agent: as it turns out, his mother, who doesn’t know Ichiban and has an extremely complex past, lives on the tropical island according to Sawashiro, and it’s about time they met.
For those familiar with the series, it may be normal that the events taking place in the background form a much more complex network than we perceive at the beginning of the game – or, say, in the thirtieth hour of the game. On a yakuza level, for example, it’s completely natural that Ichiban, arriving in Honolulu in a vacation mood, is first tried to be robbed by his taxi driver (who surprisingly devours the envelope containing the address), then drugged by a pretty woman is left naked on the beach in Waikiki – but then more and more questions arise about the whereabouts of the wanted lady Akane. Even more interesting is why the island’s criminal gang, Barracuda, run by local forces, or the mini-yakuza group of a fierce-looking Japanese woman named Yamai, who is attracted to warm cloth jackets and crowbars, are looking for him. But while we’re at it: Why is Kiryu’s mysterious mission also aimed at finding Akane?
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Of course, I won’t reveal more specific events in the story, but it’s definitely worth mentioning that Infinite Wealth also uses solutions that haven’t been used in the series before. It works great, for example, because the events take place on both sides of the ocean – the events there draw us back to Yokohama and even later to Tokyo because of the fall of the Yakuza who have suddenly lost their jobs and have little ability to adapt to civilian life integrating will not only be an important topic in our characters’ speaking hours. Another noticeable change is that the dour seriousness of the main story is no longer separated from the stream of nonsense (in a good sense) of the side quests. The central story of Ichiban and Kiryu also has some hilarious parts – Ichiban’s courtship attempts, for example, lead to colossal scenes. And although it is undeniable that the side quests and other side activities again involve a lot of animalistic aspects, there are now also chapters in which there are more serious things to say.
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