Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth Demo Impressions

Here are our impressions of the Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth Demo.

Is it too much to say that a Demo is the best game I've played all year?

This might be way too much praise and I'm anything if not biased towards the Like A Dragon franchise. But the Infinite Wealth Demo already convinced me that even in the absence of series creator Toshihiro Nagoshi RGG Studio just doesn't miss.

I spent around 3 hours in the demo which will take most people maybe 30 minutes to complete. But I simply had to see what the streets of Honolulu City have to offer and now I can't wait until the full release in January. So here's a little appetizer for what you can expect in Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth.

Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth Demo Impressions

I simply can not state enough how much I loved what little time I could spend with Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth. Most likely because it is the first time since 2020 that we got to fill the shoes of loveable idiot Ichiban Kasuga. He just brings an energy to every single frame he is in that no other character in gaming can compare to.

Be it strolling through the streets of Honolulu City and greeting random people with a cheerful Aloha, or laying the smackdown on the local perverts, Ichiban is just THAT guy that I want to hang out and have wacky adventures with and wacky adventures we had.

An attempt to take a ride with a trolly led to a conversation with an enthusiastic old dude who tried to get Ichiban into his hobby. What hobby you ask? Taking photographs of local degenerates in a manner oddly familiar to fans of the Pokemon Snap games.  Another random conversation started a minigame that had Ichiban work as a door dash delivery driver, flipping over cars via bicycle while collecting and dishing out dishes to hungry customers.

It was that moment when Ichiban cheered fronted by the scoreboard that a single tear of joy ran down my cheek. We're so back.

Combat is a stark improvement from Like A Dragon 7. While it remains the same at its core, you now have a general idea of how much ground your attacks cover and if there's a knockback attack. Movement might be limited in your turns but you can still line up an opponent to knock them into an ally for an extra beatdown.

And then there is Kiryu's ultimate attack which allows you to ditch the turn-based combat temporarily for a simplified version of his classic brawler gameplay. Tag Team attacks are also possible now which makes your crew feel more like a unit laying down beatdowns on whoever stands in their way.

Thanks to the power of mods, we even got a sneak peek at some of the other jobs that haven't been announced yet. I won't spoil anything here but seeing legendary badass Kiryu Kazuma embrace the wacky combat born from Ichiban's delusions is a sight to behold.

So if you can't tell, I'm over the moon when it comes to Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth. The story trailer linked above gave us some insights into what we can expect from Infinite Wealth, coming off the ending of Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name I get the feeling this might be the last time we get to hang out with the Dragon of Dojima.

But when the developers claimed that this would be the biggest game they've ever made, Infinite Wealth is setting up to be a completionist heaven. If you want to check out the demo for yourself, you only have to play through the entirety of Like A Dragon Gaiden to unlock it.. We're excited and you can look out for more on Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth here on ESTNN