Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - Ultimate Edition

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is a turn-based JRPG following Ichiban Kasuga, a lovable disaster of a man, and Kazuma Kiryu, a living legend working through some very heavy personal business. Developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and released in January 2024, it builds on the job-class system introduced in Like a Dragon (2020) and expands it significantly. New jobs, positional mechanics, summon-style Bond attacks, and environmental interaction add real strategic texture to what could have been a straightforward sequel. This is not a short game. Budget 60-plus hours for the main story alone and considerably more if you intend to clear the side quests, the Palekana cult storyline threads, or the Sujimon monster-collector system that is somehow both a parody of Pokemon and a functional endgame grind loop. The dual-protagonist structure is where the writing earns its keep. Ichiban's story is about identity, family, and why a man raised on Dragon Quest still believes wholeheartedly in people who keep letting him down. Kiryu's parallel arc is quieter and more devastating, touching on legacy, mortality, and what it means to have spent your entire life being the most dangerous person in the room. The two storylines eventually converge, and when they do the game is not shy about making you sit with difficult emotions. Choices within the story carry some weight, and the Bond system, which levels up your relationships with party members through conversations and activities, pays off in combat through unlockable abilities and in cutscenes through earned character moments rather than cheap sentiment. Hawaii as a setting is a genuine surprise. The Honolulu-inspired Kalani Ki district is dense with activities, visual detail, and incidental writing that rewards wandering. Japan sections return series veterans to familiar ground. Neither location feels like filler geography. That said, the mid-game pacing stumbles in a few places where the main plot slows to a crawl while the game pushes optional systems at you. The Palekana storyline in particular drags before it finds its footing. If you are the kind of player who starts filler-detecting around hour 35, you will notice the seams. The Sujimon system is charming but clearly structured to pad playtime for completionists. On the mechanical side, the job system remains one of the best reasons to play the Like a Dragon RPGs. Each character can swap between multiple jobs, each with distinct skill trees, and multi-classing lets you carry abilities across roles. Ichiban's Hero job hits hard narratively and mechanically. Kiryu's Dragon of Dojima job, which plays differently from Ichiban's party-based toolkit, adds welcome variety. Build experimentation is viable and encouraged past the early hours. The difficulty options are generous enough that both JRPG newcomers and genre veterans can tune the experience to their preference, though the optional Classy difficulty post-game content will test anyone who underestimates it. The Ultimate Edition includes the main game plus DLC job packs, story expansions, and additional character content. Whether the extra content justifies the premium over the base game depends entirely on how deep you plan to go. The DLC jobs add mechanical variety but are not essential for the main story. If you care about character writing in RPGs, about stories that treat their protagonists as fully realized people rather than wish-fulfillment vessels, and about turn-based combat that rewards actual system engagement rather than button mashing, this is one of the better examples the genre produced in 2024. It has rough edges and a tendency to overstay its welcome in specific chapters, but the peaks are high enough to make the slower valleys worth pushing through. Monika, Scout Team