Highlights

  • Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth strikes a balance between wacky humor and dark crime drama, showcasing the intense criminal underworld and the brutal Barracuda gang.
  • The game features a tonal disparity, with crazier levity in mini-games and darker themes in the main plot, highlighting the extreme levels of both lightheartedness and somberness.
  • The Barracudas establish themselves as Hawaii's most infamous criminal organization, showcasing grotesque and brutal acts of violence that surpass anything seen in previous Yakuza games.

Warning: This article contains spoilers up through Chapter 4 of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. Proceed at your own risk.

While the Like a Dragon series has developed a reputation for having a wacky side that Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth heavily leans into, there is still a gritty crime drama story that balances out these more lighthearted segments. For as humorous as Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth can be at times, there are also grim reminders of the criminal underworld that Kasuga and his party find themselves entrenched in throughout the game. One of the game's antagonist factions, the Barracudas, shows just how intense the darker side of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth can be, and establishes themselves as one of the series' most brutal gangs.

Fans of the series are likely used to the balancing act the Yakuza and Like a Dragon games play, going from zany misadventures in some of their substories to dramatic and gut-wrenching scenes in their main plots. This tonal disparity is no different in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, but almost feels like it's dialed up even higher, with crazier levels of levity in mini-games like Dondoko Island and the Sujimon League, as well as darker themes in its main plot surrounding the brutality of Hawaii's criminal underworld. Players are shown these dark elements early on when introduced to the Barracudas, who act as one of Hawaii's main criminal organizations.

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Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Mirrors Yakuza 3 in a Few Key Ways

While the Like a Dragon series has changed a lot over the years, there are still some ways Infinite Wealth parallels Yakuza 3 in its themes and plot.

The Barracudas are Ruthless in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth

Even following the Great Dissolution of the Tojo Clan and Omi Alliance in Yakuza: Like a Dragon, there are still remnants of the criminal underworld in both Japan and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth's new setting of Hawaii. While the Yamai Syndicate carries the yakuza mantle across the Pacific, it's the Barracudas who establish themselves as Hawaii's most infamous criminal organization when they are introduced in Chapter 3 of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. During this introduction, Tomizawa warns Kasuga and Kiryu about the threat of the Barracudas, which they later see firsthand in one of the series' most disturbing scenes.

Some of the Barracudas’ Kills Top the Series’ Most Infamous Scenes

After witnessing a pickpocket get taken behind an alley by the Barracudas, Kasuga, Kiryu, and Tomizawa rush to his aid only to find the handiwork of the Barracudas. While nothing too disturbing is directly shown, it's implied that this man has been nailed up by his hands by the gang, who then sliced him open with a machete, their weapon of choice. This scene is clearly meant to be grotesque, even to hardened ex-yakuza like Kiryu and Kasuga, as Kiryu warns Kasuga and Tomizawa not to look at the scene, given how brutal it appears to be.

While the Like a Dragon series has had some pretty intense scenes of violence in the past, nothing has come close to the level of gore that would disturb even Kiryu. The series has shown scenes of torture in the past, like in Yakuza 0 when Majima is tortured by the villain Sagawa, or in Yakuza Kiwami where Kiryu is tortured by Lau Ka Long. Even the massacre of the Ueno Siwa hit carried out by Saejima in Yakuza 4 doesn't compare to the level of brutality perpetrated by the Barracudas in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.

The Barracudas show this brutality once again when the party infiltrates the underside of District Five in Chapter 4 and the gang kills Roman by stabbing and slicing him with a machete. While this event only seems to strengthen the party's resolve to press forward and find Chitose, it further highlights how Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth can go from lighthearted to intensely somber in an instant. Some of the intimidation of this organization is lessened after the group defeats the Barracudas' boss, Dwight, later in the chapter, but this doesn't take away the impact of the Barracudas' earlier, gruesome kills.