Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Accomplishes Rare Feat

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth has been a major hit for developer RGG Studio and publisher SEGA to start the year. In our review, we called it “a vacation that you never want to end” and gave it a 5/5 score. We aren’t the only ones to score RGG’s latest that high though. The game currently holds an 89 on Metacritic, making it an early contender for Game of the Year. It’s too early to predict where end-of-the-year awards will take us, but Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth has achieved a rare feat, putting it up there with the likes of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Street Fighter 6 as one of the few games to score a 40/40 with Famitsu.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Becomes Famitsu’s Twenty-Ninth Game To Score 40/40

While it’s great to see high scores almost across the board for Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, the Famitsu score is notable because of how rare the 40/40 score has been. The Japanese magazine was first published in 1986 and didn’t give out a “perfect score” until 1998’s The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Since then, only 29 games have been given the same award, putting Infinite Wealth in rare air.

In fact, this is only the third time since 2021 that Famitsu has given out the score. The aforementioned Tears of the Kingdom and Street Fighter 6 are the other two recipients, while hit games like Elden Ring were only able to grab a 39/40. Of course, longtime Like a Dragon (formerly Yakuza) fans will remember that this isn’t the first time RGG Studio has received a 40/40. Yakuza 5 also received the “perfect score” back in 2012. 

With that, RGG is one of the only non-console manufacturing developers to grab more than one 40/40 award from Famitsu. The studio has joined the likes of Capcom, Kojima Productions, and Square Enix as one of the few to get the award more than once. That’s a rare achievement and speaks to how RGG has mastered its craft over the years with the franchise.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Reviews

As mentioned, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth has been reviewed well at almost every outlet. In fact, the game has comfortably become the best-rated game in the franchise’s long history, surpassing Yakuza 0 and Yakuza: Like a Dragon. At this point, there’s no chance of it dropping any further, so it’s safe to say this is going to go down as the best-reviewed game until the studio can top itself in the future.

That said, the user scores aren’t nearly as high because many are upset about SEGA locking New Game+ mode behind a paywall. As you’d expect, that hasn’t been well-received by fans, but the publisher hasn’t backed down from the stance. Hopefully, that’s something that can change in the coming weeks, but players might have to wait for a sale to pick up the mode relatively cheaply.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is available now on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC platforms.