If there’s one thing the Like a Dragon series is known for, it’s the sheer amount of content crammed into every title despite their relatively short development times. Each one can easily eat up dozens or even hundreds of hours with their engaging mix of hardboiled Yakuza drama and increasingly zany side activities.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, however, has repeatedly been promised to be the biggest entry in the series by far, finally dethroning 2012’s Yakuza 5 in scale and length—but exactly how long is it? Wonder no more. Having actually beaten Infinite Wealth, I can tell you with authority precisely how long of a haul you’re in for with Ichiban Kasuga’s latest adventure.
How long is Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth?
RGG Studio’s director, Masayoshi Yokoyama, previously said the main story of Infinite Wealth alone takes “three or four days without sleep” to beat. This has proven to be a little bit of a marketing exaggeration, albeit not one entirely divorced from reality. My playthrough of Infinite Wealth, focusing solely on the main story, took almost exactly 40 hours before I saw the credits roll. Assuming you don’t run into any major roadblocks (Ichiban’s penultimate boss is definitely going to stump a few players), a normal main story playthrough will likely take about the same amount of time.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth has 13 chapters and a non-numbered finale for a grand total of 14. Yakuza: Like a Dragon, for reference, had 15 total chapters, while the previous longest game in the series, Yakuza 5, boasted a whopping 21.
If you’re a longtime fan of the series, you likely already know the drill here: Chapters are gameplay and story segments usually bookended by climactic boss fights. It’s also important to note that the length of an individual chapter varies between games and even between chapters in the same game. For example, Yakuza 5’s main story weighs in at about 30 hours despite having seven more chapters than Infinite Wealth.
What’s more, those 40 hours will likely inflate to an even higher number with DLC like the pre-order bonuses and side content taken into account, and even more so if you decide to go for the platinum. If you aim to tackle the game’s massive offering of substories and activities, to say nothing of the side modes like Dondoko Island, expect Infinite Wealth to consume your life for quite a while, just as any good vacation should. Luckily, you can make sure you hit the ground running by preloading this hefty game.
