General Game Chat Thread
May 3, 2024 16:33:45 GMT -5
Post by JDarkside on May 3, 2024 16:33:45 GMT -5
I think I've come to the conclusion that Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth...is mid.
Not for a lack of trying, though. There's a lot here and a lot to like, with some all-timer substories and new characters. That said, it does feel stretched thin at points, especially the Kiryu segments still having all of the checklists of things to do Ichiban has. Even if not at the same scale, it's still a bit much and hampers the pacing (though Kiryu's presence does work from a story perspective and it never feels like his story overshadows Ichiban's, which I was a bit worried over).
I think the big issue is the script, though, which seems to be partly the fault of the old RGG hustle causing problems, especially with the leadership shakeup at the studio. Yokoyama, the head writer, has become the head of the studio, so now a lot of the writing on this entry were regulated to Furuta and a new guy. You can tell Furuta is doing a lot of the script because his tells are all over this, from the overly long expositional tangents, to the sudden stopping for everyone to read out a wikipedia summary he read about Real Issue, to the plot being structured entirely around nobody on the hero side being able to come to any sort of clever deduction or reasoning (Ichiban gets one ploy to see if the Chinese faction know anything and that's basically it, otherwise everyone ends up getting dunked on by all the background masterminds). His good tells are also here, especially with all of Yamai's dialog and how well he understands Kiryu as a character (even 6 was generally good at this, the issues there was everything around Kiryu and where they decided to take his arc).
But, still, some weak and obvious twists paired up with some very cheap, nothing deaths for Drama, alongside so much of the early game being the characters doing Thing and hoping it actually leads to them getting a step closer to their goal and then it doesn't, feels pretty flimsy. I'm actually getting a lot of Judgment vibes here with how shakey the foundation is...except Infinite Wealth *does* have core themes it does explore pretty well. Atonement, revenge, and dehumanization are all ideas well weaved into each story line, even if Ichiban's addition to it is pretty expected. Hopefully next game focuses more on giving him something new to do separate from Arakawa clean up.
As for the gameplay, there's a ton of changes I love, especially being able to control your position to set up all sorts of wacky combos and chain reactions, but jobs got a weird sidegrade. I do not understand why basically all stat bonuses besides HP and MP are set after rank 30 - you know, the master rank, where you learn all the moves. It makes the idea of double dipping to form a build less enticing, outside grabbing a kiwami move with a unique use your job doesn't have, like healing or buffing.
Not for a lack of trying, though. There's a lot here and a lot to like, with some all-timer substories and new characters. That said, it does feel stretched thin at points, especially the Kiryu segments still having all of the checklists of things to do Ichiban has. Even if not at the same scale, it's still a bit much and hampers the pacing (though Kiryu's presence does work from a story perspective and it never feels like his story overshadows Ichiban's, which I was a bit worried over).
I think the big issue is the script, though, which seems to be partly the fault of the old RGG hustle causing problems, especially with the leadership shakeup at the studio. Yokoyama, the head writer, has become the head of the studio, so now a lot of the writing on this entry were regulated to Furuta and a new guy. You can tell Furuta is doing a lot of the script because his tells are all over this, from the overly long expositional tangents, to the sudden stopping for everyone to read out a wikipedia summary he read about Real Issue, to the plot being structured entirely around nobody on the hero side being able to come to any sort of clever deduction or reasoning (Ichiban gets one ploy to see if the Chinese faction know anything and that's basically it, otherwise everyone ends up getting dunked on by all the background masterminds). His good tells are also here, especially with all of Yamai's dialog and how well he understands Kiryu as a character (even 6 was generally good at this, the issues there was everything around Kiryu and where they decided to take his arc).
But, still, some weak and obvious twists paired up with some very cheap, nothing deaths for Drama, alongside so much of the early game being the characters doing Thing and hoping it actually leads to them getting a step closer to their goal and then it doesn't, feels pretty flimsy. I'm actually getting a lot of Judgment vibes here with how shakey the foundation is...except Infinite Wealth *does* have core themes it does explore pretty well. Atonement, revenge, and dehumanization are all ideas well weaved into each story line, even if Ichiban's addition to it is pretty expected. Hopefully next game focuses more on giving him something new to do separate from Arakawa clean up.
As for the gameplay, there's a ton of changes I love, especially being able to control your position to set up all sorts of wacky combos and chain reactions, but jobs got a weird sidegrade. I do not understand why basically all stat bonuses besides HP and MP are set after rank 30 - you know, the master rank, where you learn all the moves. It makes the idea of double dipping to form a build less enticing, outside grabbing a kiwami move with a unique use your job doesn't have, like healing or buffing.