Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, essentially Yakuza 8, features a classic role-playing game job system that lets players become a samurai, surfer, housekeeper, and more.
As reported by Gematsu, the Japanese Infinite Wealth website was updated to include information on new jobs that will become available to players throughout the game’s story. Classic RPGs like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy made the job system a mainstay, but while those ones stuck more to fantasy tropes with mages, knights, and so on, the Yakuza series likes to get a little weird with it.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon, which was the first Yakuza RPG, featured plenty of wacky jobs itself such as Fortuneteller, Night Queen (basically a dominatrix), Homeless Guy, and more, but Infinite Wealth is looking to expand that wild roster.
Embracing the new Hawaii setting, the surfer job, officially the Aquanaut, uses water based attacks like summoning a magical surfboard or marine creatures to damage enemies. The Geodancer job finds similar inspiration as it sees the character use hula dancing to unleash powerful elemental techniques.
The Samurai job looks straight out of historical spin-off Like a Dragon: Ishin and grants the character proficiency in using swords and bows, especially with consecutive and wide-ranging attacks. The housekeeper, on the other hand, comes equipped with brooms, mops, vacuum cleaners, and other tools of the trade to clean up the competition.
Infinite Wealth also introduces the lasso and pistol toting Desperado and ninjutsu wielding Kunoichi. Character specific jobs include Kiryu’s Dragon of Dojima, Ichiban’s Hero, Eric’s Cabbie, Chitose’s Heiress, Nanba’s Homeless Guy, Adachi’s Detective, Saeko’s Barmaid, Seonhee’s Assassin, Joongi’s Hitman, and Zhao’s Mafia.
Launching January 26, Infinite Wealth will be the longest Yakuza game to date, with developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s head Masayoshi Yokoyama warning players “if you go at it continuously, you’ll get sick”. It takes the series out of Japan for the first time, instead being set in Hawaii with players taking on dual protagonists in Ichiban Kasuga and Kiryu Kazuma.
In our preview of the game, IGN said: “[Our] time with Infinite Wealth was about as brief as Ichiban’s board shorts, but it left [us] to ponder the infinite possibilities for fun that might be hidden around its sizeable Hawaiian island expanse.”
Image Credit: Ryu Go Gotoku Studio
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.