Like A Dragon's Emotions Are Next Gen

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When we talk about innovation in video games, we usually mean it in one of two ways. It's either a game that offers a form of gameplay never seen before, either through a new genre, mechanic, or method of exploration, or it pushes the boundaries of technology into places we have never seen before with a deft prowess of physics. 168ꦯ澳洲幸运5开奖网:The 🐻Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a rare game that does both. And 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is an even rarer game that does neither, and yet feels ꦑlik🧜e an innovation nonetheless.

There is little in Infinite Wealth that we haven't seen before. It's wacky, sure, with its 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:crustaceans falling in love and giant squids to punch, but gameplay-wise we've done this before, and not just in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Like a Dragon (or Yakuza) games. You wander around a decently sized but not overwhelming mapꦰ, getting into random fights or checking out shops, always with a clear stop for the main qu𒊎est. You uncover side quests on the way, and gradually unlock an array of video games, then beat people up.

Kasuga and Nancy in Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth.

Its turn-based fighting is an improvement on the sometimes clunky Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and a break from the action combat the series was known for before it picked up the Like a Dragon moniker in the West, but it's nothing new. For as long as we have had RPGs, we have had turn-based battles where different party members fulfil different roles. Just because the roles here include housemaid, chef, and surfer does not offer much innovation on white mage, rogue, and fighter.

The graphics are standard fare too. They're good, and look realistic (however much you value that), but they can't match games like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Last of Us Part 2, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Hellblade 2, or 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:1943: Rise of Hydra in that regard - 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:although they may be stronger for it. Not every game needs to innovate. It's enough for Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth to be good... 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:5/5 good... GOTY frontrunner good. But it's not just good. In its own way, it is an innovation.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is an innovation in feeling, and maybe that's less empirical than redefining the open world genre, inventing the strand game, or having a rope that looks more like a rope than any video game rope in the history of video game rope. But it still matters. While there is a mighty stink being made right now about woke politics in video games (which seems to stem more from a live-service based alienation t🅰🅺han any true wrongdoing), games are still as violent as they always were and m🌟ight still makes right.

Even when the characters leading video games feel quite sad about killing people, they still kill people. The sadness is a narrative conceit. 'I am stronger than you therefore I win' is still the law of the pixelated jungle. In a way, you can apply this to Infinite Wealth too - Ichiban and Kiryu both beat up their enemies until they surrender. But far more emphasis is placed on changing hearts and minds than breaking wills. It is rare to simply win a fight and then that is the end of it, you're in charge now. It's often the spirit displayed, the passion for the cause, that is the most effective blow struck.

For all the game's positivity, it must be acknowledged that paywalling New Game Plus was highly typical of the depressing nature of modern games, and worse than the microtransactions Dragon's Dogma 2 has gotten flak for.

As others at TheGamer have written, there is a kindness in Like a Dragon you don't see in other games. We have good heroes who protect the weak across gaming, but uncomplicated, vulnerable kindness? It's a rarity. Yet it’s everywhere in Like a Dragon. The timing of Infinite Wealth and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:its connection to my grandfather means no game will ever make me feel like this again, but the reason the connection resonated deeper than the su♑rface level of cancer and Elvis Presley is because of the lessons of positive masculinity Like a Dragon has to offer.

It is through these teachings that Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth offers its innovations. Maybe it can't be measured, but that doesn't matter. It is innovative to have the hero not be the strongest character, or the smartest, but the kindest. In a world where the themes of most video games are about betrayals or avenging violent deaths or following a dark destiny, it feels unique that Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is simply about doing the right thing. I hope that proves to be as influential as a fresh take on open world mechanics.