Summary

• Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth will build on the previous game's combat, but should skip one particular aspect.
• Late-game battles in Like a Dragon can become frustrating due to the insta-kill abilities of some enemies, constantly forcing the party to resurrect fallen and draining their resources.
• While there are ways to mitigate insta-kill attacks, such as revival items and abilities, they come with setbacks and limitations, making it difficult to effectively avoid these attacks in the game.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth can make up for the worst combat sin committed by its predecessor - and no, it's not the turn-based combat. The previous game in the series, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, served as a soft reboot for the long-running RPG franchise. It transitioned from the original English series title, Yakuza, to a direct translation of its Japanese title, Like a Dragon. It introduced a new protagonist, the shaggy-haired, Dragon Quest-loving Ichiban Kasuga. And, perhaps most divisively, it replaced the series' classic brawler combat with a turn-based system, heavily inspired by RPGs of yore.

Turn-based combat isn't everyone's cup of tea, but Like a Dragon's approach to it is undeniably innovative. It's a potpourri of the button-mashing of Super Mario RPG, the real-time enemy movement of Chrono Trigger, and the job system of Dragon Quest 3, sprinkling in a bit of over-the-top Yakuza absurdity for good measure. Mixed together, these mechanics create a combat system that's thrilling, variable, and tons of fun. That is, until players hit a certain roadblock that makes late-game battles an absolute nightmare.

Some Like A Dragon Enemies Have Annoying Insta-Kill Abilities

If there's one thing Infinite Wealth shouldn't borrow from the previous Like a Dragon, it's the frustrating, one-hit kill abilities that many of its late-game enemies can execute. These attacks immediately reduce the target's HP to zero on a successful hit, knocking them out and requiring their resurrection before they can take another turn. This can be incredibly frustrating, as some enemies can string these attacks together, wiping out the entire party before they even know what hit them.

These insta-kill abilities quickly become a distraction from everything that works about Like a Dragon's combat. Of course, in any good turn-based RPG, every character can't spend every turn bashing the boss. A dedicated healer is almost always necessary for the more difficult battles, and even if not, it's always nice to have a balance of damaging, healing, buffing, and debuffing skills.

Like a Dragon's insta-kill abilities make this impossible. The party that stay alive are constantly scrambling to block these abilities or resurrect allies who have been hit by them, and simply don't have the time to attack. Eventually, this becomes a drain on resources: resurrect a party member without enough HP, and they'll quickly die to another attack. This requires another expenditure of a resurrection item or a large chunk of MP, and by the time the whole party is fighting fit, they won't have anything left to attack with.

The worst offender in this category is Yosuke Tendo, chairman of the Omi Alliance and the game's second-to-last boss. Tendo has a nasty one-shot ability, God's Right Hand, a haymaker punch aimed directly at the target's heart in the hope of stopping it cold. The party does get a warning before God's Right Hand hits. One turn prior, Tendo winds up his shot with a move called God's Warning, but even then, the insta-kill isn't always avoidable. Not every party member is guaranteed a turn between the two moves, which means someone will almost always be left exposed.

This is especially annoying in dungeons, since they don't allow players to save the game. On a Tendo-inflicted party wipe, the player will have to start the entire dungeon from scratch. But Tendo's not the only problem. In the late game, even relatively low-level enemies in random encounters have insta-kill abilities that can wipe out the whole party in a flash. They're easier to defeat, and the player can save beforehand, so there's less risk of losing progress. But even so, if they land their attacks, that means more resurrection items used, more MP burnt up, and more money spent.

There Are Ways To Avoid Insta-Kills In LAD, But They're Flawed

There are a few ways to mitigate the risk of insta-kill attacks in Like a Dragon, but each one has its setbacks. Of course, there are the aforementioned revival items: First Aid Kits, Restorative Boluses, Revival Boluses, and Resurrection Boluses. But of course, these only work after the fact, and require someone in the party to use up a turn in order to bring back a fallen party member. Worse still, they're extremely hard to come by. The most reliable way to get them is to purchase them from Yi Xing Tang, a traditional Chinese medicine shop in Ijincho's Chinatown.

Restorative Boluses (¥10,000) revive an ally with just one point of HP, Revival Boluses (¥15,000) with half HP, and Resurrection Boluses (¥80,000) with full HP. These are prohibitively expensive and waste turns, so repeatedly buying Boluses isn't the ideal way to avoid insta-kills. Instead, they can be crafted at Survive Bar, but this requires a ton of time and rare materials, and still wastes a turn when they're finally used. While some crafting components can be found in random drops, they're mostly obtained via literal farming, which requires repeat visits to gardening plots. Plus, each item uses tons of materials.

One alternative to this is an ability called Peerless Resolve, which allows Ichiban to survive one otherwise deadly hit. However, this skill is exclusive to the Hero job, which means it's also exclusive to Ichiban. It's a useful ability even without insta-kill attacks, but it won't do any of the other party any good. Several jobs also have revival abilities, like Hero's Vigor, Soul Tether, and Essence of Spirit Bonding, but these have the same issues as revival items - they only work after the fact, and also use a ton of MP.

The other option is a pair of accessories that can prevent death: the Sacrifice Stone and the Curse Substitute. Sacrifice Stones prevent death from any cause, but are single-use only. Curse Substitutes specifically prevent instant death attacks from taking hold, but can be used repeatedly. However, both of these items are exceedingly rare, often requiring one of Like a Dragon's Gold Keys to obtain. What's more, they needlessly take up equipment slots that could easily be filled with more useful items. Ultimately, there's truly no effective, reliable way to avoid insta-kill attacks in Like a Dragon.

So, there are three routes Infinite Wealth could take to deal with this issue: limit insta-kill attacks to a one-time boss gimmick, make them easier to mitigate, or remove them from the game entirely. Their repeated inclusion doesn't add anything to the game, but they could be interesting strategically if implemented sparingly. The next game in the Yakuza series will undeniably learn from what came before it. Whatever it looks like, here's hoping Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth's combat improves on or skips its execution of insta-kill attacks.