If you’ve played Yakuza: Like A Dragon, you should be familiar with Sujimon. These are “dangerous individuals” which protagonist Ichiban Kasuga and his party has to fight in random battles.
And if you thought the silly joke of meeting Sujimon Sensei, picking a starter Sujimon and then having the bestiary of enemy info labelled as a Sujidex was the end of it, developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio is instead doubling down on what is essentially a parody of Pokemon in Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth.
A slew of new details have been revealed by publisher Sega on how Sujimon works in the upcoming RPG.
Not only will Kasuga reunite with Sujimon Sensei in his new adventure in Hawaii, he’ll also visit the Sujimon Stadium and witness a tournament called the Suji League. The league, previously a “wholesome competition”, is now plagued with illegal gambling, and Kasuga is now on a mission to be a Sujimon Trainer himself and aims to confront the current mastermind that has corrupted the Suji League.
Sujimon can be snagged after every battle in Hawaii. There’s a chance to recruit an enemy, a Sujimon, to your cause. You can also offer Suji Gifts to increase the chances of recruitment.
There are Sujimon Battles, where Kasuga can enter. These are 3V3 battles where you have a roster of three Sujimons plus three more substitutes which can be switched into the mainline mid-battle. Sujimon has five different types (which type is weak to which is part of the Sujimon Battle interface) and different affinities, opening up for various team compositions.
And it doesn’t stop there. Sujimons can be trained. You can Awaken a Sujimon by feeding another Sujimon of the same species. Awaken them enough times and they will evolve.
The Sujimon collection isn’t just for the Sujimon Battles. You can also summon them in battle via the Sujimancer job. This is a Kasuga-only job where its strength grows based on how strong your Sujimon are. So there are incentives to involve yourself with the Sujimon snagging, training and battling activities.
And not only that, your Sujimon (the plural for Sujimon is Sujimon) are also beneficial for restoring Dondoko Island. Sujimon are trained there, and they also can do tasks like building furniture. Pests like wild boars and bears can damage your crops, and you can enter a Sujimon Battle to fend them off.
As if an Animal Crossing-style life sim as a mini-game wasn’t big enough, Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth has a Pokemon-style RPG inside an RPG about the Japanese criminal underworld. This is going to be a wild ride with plenty of activities to distract you should you need a break from what’s likely going to be an emotional story.
Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth will be out on January 26, 2024 for the PS4, PS5, PC (Steam, Microsoft Store), Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. The PS4 and PS5 versions will have a physical release in Asia.