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Sega put a whole Animal Crossing into the new Yakuza game

Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth has its own island full of villagers

Michael McWhertor is a journalist with more than 17 years of experience covering video games, technology, movies, TV, and entertainment.

Sega’s Like A Dragon series — formerly known as Yakuza — is well known for its variety. In between street brawls and gangster melodrama, you can sing karaoke, play table tennis, gamble, visit hostess clubs, golf, manage real estate, race go-karts, and much, much more. For Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, the eighth mainline game in the Yakuza series, you can also live a cozy island lifestyle. It’s basically Animal Crossing on a deserted, trash-strewn Hawaiian island.

Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth’s Dondoko Island is accessible by dolphin. Once there, players can craft DIY furniture, build a house, catch bugs, go fishing, and enjoy other Animal Crossing gameplay staples. The debut trailer for Dondoko Island shows protagonist Ichiban Kasuga smashing rocks to get raw materials and picking up trash to turn into treasure as part of his “dailies.” As Ichiban builds out his island, he turns his sad male living space into a lavish beachside home.

Unlike in Animal Crossing, however, local toughs occasionally interfere with your idyllic island lifestyle. Apparently they become cross when you regift their presents? Roald would never. Also, wild boars appear to be a problem on Dondoko Island — they’re not out here selling turnips, folks!

The rest of Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth seems equally bizarre and ambitious, letting players fight Danny Trejo, play a spiritual sequel to Crazy Taxi, battle a giant shark, and ride a Segway in the year 2024.

Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth is headed to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X on Jan. 26, 2024. It will be preceded by the upcoming spinoff Like A Dragon: The Man Who Erased His Name on Nov. 8, a game which does not appear to let you catch butterflies.

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