How long to beat Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth? We investigate
The impressive volume of content in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth has been a big talking point since before the game even launched, with the series’ executive producer Masayoshi Yokoyama hyping it up as “monster-class game longer than anything the studio has made so far.” But how long does Infinite Wealth really take to clear when playing normally? Does it actually provide over 100 hours of content? How much playtime do the various aspects of the game account for? I set out find out.
Does Infinite Wealth take 100 hours to clear?
Upon completing my run of Infinite Wealth, my play time was 99 hours and 59 minutes, according to in-game save data (the proximity to exactly 100 hours is purely coincidental), and 112.7 hours according to Steam. I’m not sure where the 13-hour game gap comes from, but there are likely some scenes that the game does not count as play time. The time I personally recorded was 113 hours, and I consider this to be my total play time as it aligns with what Steam told me. Please note that I played the game “normally” for the whole run, i.e. without speedrunning or skipping voice lines. Also, as an RPG enthusiast who takes pleasure in leveling-up, I took a number of battle-related detours, which have all been included in the total time.
Infinite Wealth’s main story accounts for about 36% of total play time
The pie chart above roughly breaks down what went into my 113-hour run of Infinite Wealth. The main story accounted for most of the time, taking about 40 hours to complete. This includes all event scenes and battles. Since I devoted a lot of time to leveling up my characters, I went through the boss battles quite swiftly, but despite that, the main story’s length and volume were formidable.
Leveling up accounted for about 21.5 hours of play time, a little more than half of the time it took me to clear the main story. When I completed the game, my Kasuga was at level 57, and Kiryu was at level 58, so the final boss battle went quite smoothly. Also, I spent about 10 hours in the dungeon prior to the final boss battle ranking up their jobs, so by the end of the game, Kasuga had 7 jobs at rank 30 while Kiryu had 5.
A whole lot of detours
I spent a good 18 hours in Infinite Wealth taking detours, i.e. doing substories, Bond Bingo and Drink Links. I was focused on the bonding elements in particular, as completing Drink Links allows characters to grow stronger and learn skills like tag team attacks. I tried to complete each character’s Bond Bingo and Drink Links as soon as they were available. I also devoted a lot of time to Kasuga’s Personality Challenge – completing 90/120 adventures (actions such as eating at restaurants and talking to locals), 106/158 battles, and 25/106 minigames. My Kasuga also had 195 out of 200 Aloha Link friends by the end of the game, so I can safely say I spent a lot of time travelling around Hawaii.
Bucket List is no less impressive
The Bucket List section of Infinite Wealth, in which Kiryu goes through the things he has left to do in his life, accounted for another 18 hours of play time. The main contents of this section are “Memoirs of a Dragon,” in which Kiryu looks back on various recollections, and the “Ending Drama,” in which he catches up with old friends through Date’s arrangement. I completed both of these before the final boss battle, although I must mention that the time I spent exploring the field in Memoirs of a Dragon is accounted for under “detours.” Also, I was only able to complete about 48% of the missions in “Unfinished Business” that are needed for Kiryu’s Awakening. Although they were fun and engaging, their sheer volume made it impossible to even attempt doing 100%.
Dondoko Island makes you forget about the concept of time
To summarize, I spent 40 hours on the main story of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, 18 hours on sub-stories/bonds and another 18 hours on Bucket List, coming to a total of 76 hours. This is a formidable play time on its own, but what got me to 113 hours? The answer is Dondoko Island. As rumored, this play spot really makes the time fly. As soon as I unlocked Dondoko Island, I became so engrossed that I only played that part of the game until I completed the whole island. As a result, this gave me another 15.5 hours in Infinite Wealth. According to the in-game day count, I completed Dondoko Island on the 28th day.
Also, as I was focused mainly on raising my resort rank and clearing the section, my resort ended up being, well, not much of a resort. So, if you’re particular about design and layout, and want to achieve the goal of having 100 guests, you will be putting in a lot more time into Dondoko Island.
To conclude, not only did I get more than 100 hours of play time out of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, but I was also left with a lot more to do even after clearing it. Not to mention that I still haven’t dipped my toes into side content such as Sujimon Battles, Crazy Delivery and Sicko Snap, which I plan to take my time with next. I think that the best part of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is that, while packed to the brim with content, it allows players significant freedom to choose what and how much they want to play.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is available for the PC (Windows/Steam), Xbox Series X|S/Xbox One and PS4/PS5.
Written by. Amber V based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2024-03-09 12:20 JST)
