Yakuza Is Dangerously Close to Becoming Too Much of a Good Thing

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is undoubtedly one of the best Yakuza games ever made, a fantastic encapsulation of the series’ brilliant fusion of wacky humor and crime drama. and Guitar Hero. Even big series like Assassin’s Creed have seen their success wane as a lack of change and innovation makes fan’s interest wane. There are plenty of other examples outside of gaming too, with the seemingly never-ending stream of Marvel and Star Wars projects, which continue to draw similar complaints. Yakuza has managed to do a great job of keeping fans invested, and drawing new ones, but you can only do the same thing for so long.

RGG Studio is unarguably a talented development team, but some of its best ideas have come from taking wildly ambitious swings, an approach that it could really use right now. Judgment took a mystery approach to storytelling and it paid off, Like a Dragon’s turn-based combat reinvigorated the series, and even the overlooked Binary Domain remains one of the most unique shooters out there.

The studio consistently maintains a degree of quality with the Yakuza series, but it’s tantalizing to think about what the studio could accomplish when given the chance to try something truly new and ambitious. Getting to work on a new idea could, in turn, lead back to improving Yakuza as a whole.

There’s a sense of finality to Infinite Wealth’s story: this seems like the last time we’ll see Kazuma Kiryu, and that’s how it should be. The torch has officially been passed to Ichiban Kasuga, which is practically a clean state for the RGG Studio to do whatever it wants. Sega now has the audience the Yakuza series needs, but innovation is the key that can keep it going.