SEGA team RGG Studio has said in a new interview that Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is the largest game in the series so far. It's a fact that studio head Masayoshi Yokoyama is very conscious about, feeling the need to get fans sufficiently excited so they'll want to stick through the whole experience.
Speaking to Game Watch (translated by Automaton Media), Yokoyama describes creating a "festival" atmosphere around the game prior to launch, making something of an event of Infinite Wealth, to get everyone hyped to play through such a long game. He describes the upcoming RPG as "a monster-class game longer than anything we’ve made so far".
Yokoyama continues: "If you go at it continuously, you’ll get sick, and it won’t end with just one or two all-nighters." He acknowledges that the long runtime may make some people "hesitate to play the game or will end up having it wait on their shelves". His solution has been to "get everyone hyped up enough to play it".
Indeed, there has been a lot of pre-release gameplay and trailers for Infinite Wealth, highlighting the title's, er, wealth of content. As well as videos focusing on the core story, we've seen footage of various side activies, like the hostess club, arcade games, and an entire island resort management game. "I’ve thought this way for the past year or two – for a game like Infinite Wealth, we have to get a festival going on. It would feel kind of rude to just drop such a long game and be done with it," Yokoyama says.
So, we're in for a lengthy adventure with Infinite Wealth, then. Are you pleased or concerned about this news? Are you prepared to play through the longest Like a Dragon game yet? Ride a dolphin into the comments section below.
[source automaton-media.com, via gamesradar.com]
Comments 38
A Ubisoft Original
Having finished Like A Dragon Gaiden: TMWEHN last night; i’m pretty hyped for this. I hope it’s as good as Like A Dragon (2020).
But I hope it’s not too long it stops me playing…that said, if you power through the stories they aren’t all actually that long.
I love this series, but I really wish they wouldn't hype up how "long" the game is. Length isn't what makes this series great. Quality and depth is.
Hyping up length as a major selling point doesn't usually end well.
The Yakuza games are already really long, so this sounds like this might be excessive. It won’t be so bad if it has novel gameplay content, but the series is known for recycling ideas. What would a Yakuza game be without hostess club, management sim, and arcade side games. Also karaoke. Dollars to donuts it has karaoke.
I really liked the atmosphere in Okinawa, in Yakuza 3, so i´m really hyped to play in Hawaii. But being too long is a con for me, as my time is very limited. This is a 3 month game for me, easy - short plays at night while the twins sleep - haha.
That's great. As always you can play only history and finish the game in quite a few hours, if you get bored. But I love that they are gonna give us a lot of content.
Just please.... no more mahjong!
I just don’t understand this. People who play games want games that respect their time, developers want to make games that don’t force them to work overtime, and publishers want games that don’t cost too much to develop and yet they keep giving us MOOOOOOORRRRRRREEEEEE!!!!!!!!
Really on the fence after man with no name. I've played every Yakuza game and spin off since the first one on PS2 and despite being a much shorter game wasn't feeling it at all, the combat was really off and the delivery of the side missions was just a checklist.
I'm just worried that RGG lost all it's talent after Nagoshi and Sato left.
Like a dragon was great ,so this pleases me
@Nekomichu I agree
I don't have any problem with long games. I usually play at least 5 games concurrently, so I don't feel burnout with any of them, and eventually I complete all. Sometimes it takes months, but the future games will be there waiting anyway. Incidentally, I'm foing a full playthrough of Like a Dragon, right now I'm in Yakuza K2. Perseverance is the way.
It's a JRPG. So hearing it's a long journey is hardly a surprise. I'm very excited for it!
No worries on my end Yokoyama, I'll stick with it no matter how long it takes. If anything, the thought of another Yakuza 0/5-sized game makes me excited.
So I guess it was a bad time to get sucked into Final Fantasy 14… well at least I’m on Heavensward!
Around 200hrs to get the Yakuza 5 plat, and could have kept playing that forever. Glad this is long. For some games the longer the better!
No thanks. Happy for everyone else who loves this series and see this as good news, but I really need a break from all of these 60-100-200+ hour games. It's hard enough to make room for everything I want to play already.
This was hard enough before a career/kids/house/etc. but these days it's impossible; hearing a dev boast about how long a game is just tells me it's not for me (e.g., Starfield).
Between this and Rebirth I'm gonna be well saturated with JRPG goodness for quite a while.
Let’s be real… Like a Dragon and Persona are life choices, not games
Longer than 5?? Longer than Like a Dragon??
Oh boy...
I admire those who have it in them to play a game this long. In the Yakuza universe, no less. These games are too samey and far too long for me (and I like Persona). I got bored of Yakuza by the end of Kiwami 2. Kudos to the fans of the series for being so persistent.
@Ravix difference is the side stuff is actually fun on these games 😂
@Nekomichu ahh it's not a Yakuza/LAD game without being annoyed by Mahjong 😂
I'm sold from the article pic alone.
I couldn't care about a game's length as long as it's not one or two sitting short. I prefer a good <30 hours one to 50+ hours borefests.
I don't think bigger is better alway for this series. I got really burnt out on the franchise after beating 2 and haven't managed to get into one since Like a Dragon, recently. I really enjoy the new direction, but I'm hopeful they don't beat this direction into ground like they did Kiryu's titles.
Does that mean more tedious side missions? I like Yakuza but I don't think I can stomach another slog through meaningless content. Arcade stuff is good, minigames are good, but I imagine that's not what they were referring to here.
Ideal time for me is maybe 20 to 40 hours. At least for core content. It also doesn't help that some of my favourite games of all time are less than eight hours in length.
@Andy22385 And chances are if this was also as popular as a Ubisoft game, you'd be calling the side stuff boring.
Big fan of the series but it'll come down to main mission playtime. If it's off the charts vs other Yakuza titles, I'll let it sit for now until I'm jonesing for the series again.
@Gbarsotini I hear you, parents like us probably shouldn't play JRPGs 😂
My first playthrough of Elden Ring where I explored every inch of that world lasted 470 hours. Let’s see if it can top that. I’m ready.
@Korgon you know typical JRPGs aren’t long games
The last one was pure joy...feel sorry for Playstation 5 owners these Playstation 4 games keep getting pumped out..guess it makes sense financially...anyhows the way things are going it will be another 2 years before we have any proper next gen exclusives by then the Paystation 6 rumour mill will have reared its ugly head so glad I did not buy the PlayStation 5 by all accounts its been a laughing stock..back to my Quiet non condescending PS4.
@TheArt not really sure what popularity has to do with enjoying a game. I mean I've been with this series since it was incredibly niche and now its popular I still am.
You can go on the back of Dolphins now?
"If you go at it continuously, you’ll get sick." Way to sell your game.
The Longer the better for me means spending more time with kiryu for the last ever time lol
You know what? I'll buy it anyway. I think the content is so varied it wont feel like one giant game. Perhaps this will be the kind of game I pick up from time to time and don't just finish it to never boot it up again.
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