Sega’s new Yakuza game, Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, looks bonkers

Sega’s next game in the Like A Dragon franchise, formerly known in the West as Yakuza, is coming in January. Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth sends the franchise to Hawaii, where protagonist Ichiban Kasuga travels in search of his mother, only to wind up penniless and at rock bottom. Former Yakuza hero Kazuma Kiryu is also playable in Infinite Wealth, and based on Sega’s first gameplay trailer for the next Like A Dragon game, everything the duo will do is beyond ridiculous.

Here’s what that includes, according to Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth’s first gameplay trailer.

Fighting a giant shark

At one point, Ichiban and friends will battle a Megalodon. Ichiban will also come face to face with a giant squid. These two moments somehow feel related.

Summoning a fire-breathing dragon

The Like A Dragon games are now turn-based RPGs, and Ichiban and pals can basically do magic, summoning friends and fighters for hire with the Poundmates app. But now, Ichiban can also just whip out a giant dragon to smoke his foes. (Yakuza: Like A Dragon let you call upon Kiryu, who could use the Essence of the Dragon God, but Ichiban’s dragon powers are less metaphorical.)

A Crazy Taxi spiritual successor

A new minigame called Crazy Eats is a reimagining of Sega’s classic arcade game Crazy Taxi, but this time, you’re on a bike. Crazy Eats is a new spin on the gig economy, where players will gather and deliver food to hungry Hawaiians. (Curiously, Uber Eats signage appears in Infinite Wealth, but that licensing deal does not seem to extend to its gig-economy minigame.)

Fighting Danny Trejo

In Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, actor Danny Trejo plays a counterfeiter and the head of a local gang known as the Barracudas. Naturally, he’s armed with a couple of machetes. Actor Daniel Dae Kim of Lost and Hawaii Five-0 fame will also appear in the game, as the voice of Masataka Ebina, a captain of a local yakuza syndicate.

New classes, like Housekeeper

Similar to Yakuza: Like A Dragon, Infinite Wealth will feature a variety of jobs that your party can take on. New ones include Samurai, Desperado, Geodancer, Pyrodancer, Action Star, and Housekeeper, where a teammate can blow away enemies with a power washer or suck them up with a vacuum cleaner.

Literally breaking the turn-based combat rules

While Ichiban and friends are bound by the relatively new turn-based combat direction for mainline Like A Dragon games, Kiryu has always been a real-time action guy. In Infinite Wealth, Kiryu has the power to literally smash the S-E-G-A menu command buttons (Skill, Etc., Guard, Attack) into dust and go full brawler mode. Real-time brawling is back! Sort of!

Riding a Segway

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Visiting a Dean & Deluca

Once a New York institution, the upscale grocery chain shut down its U.S. operations in 2019 amid crushing debt, but you can still find a Dean & Deluca in Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth. In the real world, two Dean & Deluca stores are still going concerns in Oahu, and Ichiban and friends will be able to get their posh refreshments there.

Befriending a chicken

Ichiban will form bonds with the residents of Hawaii, including this chicken. It is unclear whether this bird can manage a real estate venture, similar to Nugget from Yakuza 0.

But these unknowns will become known when Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is released on Jan. 26, 2024, on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.