Early days of "Infinite Wealth"

 1.27

Infinite Wealth: Day 1

A few days ago it occurred to me that, if it was a teenage pitcher, Infinite Wealth would be about six and a half feet tall, 220 lbs, with smooth mechanics and a fastball that rested at, uh, whatever is real damn fast for a teenage fastball; they would have had a couple relatives make the majors and their dad would be a college pitching coach, or something. 

You don’t start designing the plaque for Cooperstown. You don’t even fit him for the big league jersey. NOTHING is guaranteed. It is still probably more likely that the kid will be out of baseball in five years than on an all-star team. BUT if you wanted to imagine the perfect pitcher, that’s about where you’d start. 

After one day with Infinite Wealth, the kid is getting TommyJohn surgery. 

On some level, nothing has changed. The things we liked, the build, the lineage, are all still there; they could still win 300 games*** But this is NOT the start we had been hoping for

*** assuming that MLB adds two new teams, the level of talent craters, and winning 300 games somehow becomes possible. 

What’s a little more bothersome about “Infinite Wealth” is how much many problems seem self inflicted. I’ve been noodeling around a lot, but after a DAY of playing it, there are at least two major components (the resort and the “pokemon leauge”) that I haven't gotten to at all.

And a thing is that they seem really dug into a deeply unpleasant story about a possible romance between Seiko and Ichiban. It’s not only bad, but it takes up a lot of time. Ichiban proposes to her after one date and that is TOO DUMB AND AWKWARD FOR ICHIBAN – which just, dammit, the point of the character is that he IS AWKWARD but they took it too far. It might be the worst character development moment in RGG, really the only time I can think of where, on just an emotional level, that guy would NOT have done THAT. 

Sieko...I mean, just dammit. She is likable as a person, somehow, and there is something human and ambitious in how she interacts with the group but mostly she is an awful character. Just awful. She’s the first woman you fight as, but, good lord do they not really use that as an opportunity to be anything other than crummy and reductionist. 

Also, Kassuga’s being so hung up on her is silly. In his last game he had a pretty nice excessive floral arrangements for ambiguous sexual favors thing going with several women in Yokohama, many of whom seemed like also fine people to be with, possibly more chill than Sieko. 

1.28

Find myself seriously bummed by the Kiryu has cancer development. Seriously bummed. I think it speaks to a commitment to him dying? You can’t assume anything, but it seems like they gonna kill the guy off. And it is making me REALLY sad. I don’t even consider myself that big of a *Kiryu* fan, but I DO want the guy to be out there. Making me sad. 

1.28

After 2 days:

legacy/inheretence is a theme, and Kiryu might die

You see this with the Chitose character (verdict=mixed) wrestling with the things imposed on her by being an heiress. Her storyline is a little lazy, or there might be more to it. Her relationship with her family is more about giving her a reason to be places in a videogame, so far, than it is about strictly making sense-- like she does some kind of illogical, but helpfully advancing the plot + giving you a party member (about damn time!**) stuff, because: FAMILY, not especially developed reasons.

Kasuga wants to know what his legacy/family is.

And Akane, has to be important because of her family, has to be in some kind of Chitose-like situation, I think. Bc it seems pretty clear that bt giving birth to Kasuga and arriving in Hawaii she hasn’t done anything other than work for this cult-orphanage (orphans!), not done anything to get on the shitlist of all these international power brokers/small time hoods. OR there is more to the orphanage than meets the eye (probably, but PROBABLY not related to why Akane is on the lam…) BUT if her family were the x factor than that could 1) explain why people are after her and 2) add more details to why the romance with Arakawa went so bad back in the day-- which, fittingly for a sequence of events that reverberates FOREVER across the yakuza-verse-- is essentially incoherent. And not even in a ‘seriusly were there any coin lockers that DIDN’T have babies’ way, like the events don’t make sense-- that’s fine--, but everyone’s motivation is silly. Like, the one yakuza decides to tear the world apart bc he wanted Arakawa to marry HIS daughter? Inefficient use of manpower in a criminal org, imo, not a recipe for longterm success. How long would you listen to a guy telling you to do crimes bc he was upset about his daughter’s love life? Potentially quite a while, but not for cheap. It does not all exactly add up, so if there was an x factor, like Akane’s family were rich or powerful and also possessed of silly motivations, it would def fit. 

Akane and Chitose could actually be from the SAME super wealthy not exactly coherently motivated family. 

** we could use more party members in this sucker, man. And, technically, I’ve had five (six, w Ichiban). But you spend a lot of time wondering around w two dudes. At some point they switch up the dudes, but you want more characters more quickly, imo. I guess their thing is introducing them one by one, getting to know them better, but I think you want a bit more variety more quickly. In this game and in general. If there was a “more party members in RPGs” political party I might join. 

1.29

The game pulls you forward and holds you back, for the same reasons, at the same time. Bc of the Kiryu has cancer thing you kind of want to propel forward, reach closure. Yet also you want to drag this out, make it last as long as you can.

You want to move forward to get more party members. You want to do all the things to see if that ulocks more party members.