Highlights

  • Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth expands the franchise with multiple maps, side activities, and a large cast of playable characters.
  • With Kiryu's story explored in side activities, Like a Dragon 9 may struggle to handle the ever-growing party size effectively.
  • For Like a Dragon 9, tough decisions may need to be made to avoid a bloated character roster and maintain quality attention for each.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth lives up to the claim that it is the largest entry in the franchise, with multiple expansive maps to explore, tons of side activities, and a wide cast of playable characters. As impressive as the scale of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is, it sets a concerning precedent that the next mainline game will have to grapple with. It will be tough for Like a Dragon 9 to surpass Infinite Wealth's scale, especially when it comes to the growing cast of available party members.

The Like a Dragon franchise is set up for a bright future after the success of Infinite Wealth, with developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio already teasing upcoming projects. While it's unclear if their next game will be a remake of a game like Yakuza 3 or Like a Dragon: Kenzan, another entry in the Judgment series, or another Like a Dragon Gaiden game, it's clear that Like a Dragon 9 will be happening at some point in the future. When the time comes for Kasuga to set out on his next adventure, a tough decision will have to be made about how to deal with an ever-growing party size.

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Like a Dragon’s Cast of Party Members is Getting Too Big

There are a total of 10 playable characters that players can include in their party spread across two different parties headed separately by Kiryu and Kasuga. Building on the previous title, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Infinite Wealth adds three new party members in Tomizawa, Chitose, and Seonhee, along with Kiryu who is playable for the first time since the series' change to turn-based combat. The only playable character removed from Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth was Eri, who was an optional party member in the previous game, but Like a Dragon 9 might have to make more cuts.

The reason Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth could get away with including so many new playable characters was due to having two separate parties, one headed by Kasuga in Hawaii and the other led by Kiryu in Japan. With Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth likely being Kiryu's last appearance in the series, it's unlikely that Like a Dragon 9 will follow a split-party system like this game. With this design in mind, Like a Dragon 9 is going to have to make some tough decisions about whom to keep and who to cut out of Kasuga's playable party.

How Like a Dragon 9 Could Solve its Potential Party Size Problem

Without making any cuts to the party roster, the number of potential playable characters in Like a Dragon 9 could end up being too big to be manageable. There will probably be new additions to the game that will become party members, similar to Tomizawa and Chitose in Infinite Wealth, as well as a past character who becomes playable for the first time, like what happened with Seonhee. Too many playable party members might make the cast feel bloated and lessen the amount of attention each one is given, with all characters suffering as a result.

To avoid this issue, Like a Dragon 9 is going to have to make some cuts to the current roster of party members, potentially running the risk of cutting some players' favorites. It would be unfortunate for Tomizawa and Chitose to only appear in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, but they seem like more likely cuts than established characters like Adachi, Nanba, and Saeko. The most likely playable characters to be cut are Zhao and Joongi Han, since they both have other important things going on separately from Kasuga's antics and are kind of afterthoughts in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, joining the party as late in the game as they do.