This week saw the addition ofLike a Dragon: Ishin!toXbox Game Pass. With its initial launch back in February, it was the first of two games in the long-running series coming this year —Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Namewill hit store shelves November 9. The next mainline game,Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, which picks up after the events ofYakuza: Like a Dragon, is due out on January 26 of next year.
Infinite Wealth will be the fifth game in the series to launch since 2020, following all the games I listed above, plus detective spin-off,Lost Judgment— sixth if you count the freeware beat-em-up Streets of Kamurocho. It’s making me long for the days when I got three months off for summer vacation.
The series first showed up on my radar in 2017, when the popular ’80s-set prequelYakuza 0launched on PS4. Its early place in the story’s chronology made it easy to jump on, and the series has really taken off in the West since then.I’ve played a little Yakuza 0 and Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and both seem really good. But the rate at which these games launch is making it difficult for me to see a way that I realistically get into them.
In theory, the Like a Dragon release model is exactly what I want. I’ve written before about how much of a bummer it is to see studios like Rockstar and Naughty Dog reduce their output so drastically as technology advances. Rockstar used to put out aGrand Theft Autogame every year, and Naughty Dog was on a similar schedule in the late ’90s and early aughts, pumping out newCrash BandicootandJak and Daxtergames annually. Ryu Ga Gotoku’s schedule is a return to that era, and its games frequently reuse assets and locations to make it possible. I firmly believe in the need for “shorter games with worse graphics made by people who are paid more to work less” and, though I can’t speak to conditions behind the scenes at RGG, their games seem to embody that ethos. They aren’t cutting edge, and their legions of fans know that they don’t need to be.
The one downside is that, in 2023, I have a lot less time to play games than I did when this schedule was the norm. In 2011, I could set a weekend aside and play through Uncharted 3 because it launched over the summer and I had no responsibilities. It was easy to devote as much time as I wanted to gaming because no one was relying on me.
That isn’t the case anymore. I’m married and want and need to spend time with my wife. I have household chores that I need to ensure I get done and other hobbies and creative projects that eat into my time. I can’t take a break from life to binge a game. Or, in the case of the Yakuza series, several.
But, wouldn’t life be better if I (and you) could? Wouldn’t we be happier if we could take a few months off in the summer every year and catch up on the latest games? Wouldn’t the world be a better place if we could all take a few months to explore every inch of Kamurocho? The Hawaii-set Infinite Wealth will let Ichiban have a nice, warm vacation next year. If I’m ever going to catch up with this series, I’ll need one, too.
