Before I went to AnimeNYC to chase interviews with voice actors, I spent some time browsing IMDb to see what else they’d been up to. My goal was specifically voice actors from Persona games, but they played plenty more people from my other favorite series, too. One of the titles I saw come up often was 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Like a Dragon, which is one of TheGamer’s favorite games. As soon as I got hired into my current position, I was suddenly a part of the everyday geek chatter among our staff, and my god did some of my new colleagues really like this series.

My first experience playing a Like a Dragon title was when I was invited to a Sega event last summer to preview some of their upcoming games. This was shortly before 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Man Who Erased His Name launched, and I spent a half hour running around a cargo ship off the coast of Japan, indulging in lavish luxuries and behemot🅘h brawls. It was a blast. A few journalists from other outlets loved that I loved the game and decided amongst themselves which entry I should start with if I wanted to dive in for real.

It was Yakuza 0, if you’re curious.

With a busy fall both at work and in my personal life, though, I never got around to it. Even when I began researching for AnimeNYC and saw the series appear on the IMDb pages of two of the five voice actors I’d be seeking out, I earmarked it for later as I was waist-deep in Persona 5 Tactica at the time. As a completionist, there was no way I would fit a 100+ hour RPG into my schedule anytime soon. With my own busy nature blocking my path to the series, my reignited hype for Like a Dragon again fell by the wayside. But then, as I was in the thick of guiding Persona 3 Reload for our launch weekend cov🀅erage, several of my colleagues and friends dove face-first into Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.

While I was busy scaling Tartarus, making friends at school, and eating cheeseburgers to build my Courage (somehow), plenty of the people in my life were consumed by a different world I knew so lit📖tle about. My best friend introduced me to Persona 5 in 2017, and after loving the series since its inception, to say he was sour that I got to play Reload and was under an NDA lock and key not to share anything about it with him was an understatement. Instead, as I chased my ever-nearing launch day deadline for Persona, he spent his time leisurely sending me photos and video clips of how much fun he was having without me, jokingly refusing to explain anything he sent until launch day came and went for me, when I could talk freely about Persona 3 Reload with him.

But his satirical stubbornness folded when he got Tianyou Zhao out for karaoke. Zhao is voiced by Robbie Daymond, who I’ve written about being critical in helping me find my pla💜ce as both a journalist and a gamer. When I summarized my convention experience for my best friend, I recall specifically using the term “rock star” to describe Robbie, and my friend did not forget. As soon as he finished one of the karaoke songs, he se🐻nt me a YouTube link to a clean version with the message, “You called Daymond a rock star but that was an understatement, Zhao’s karaoke, Jesus Christ (mind blown emoji).”

And so, my second exposure to Like a Dragon was half a year later, listening to Robbie Daymond dramatically of a city I didn’t recognize. Suffice it to say, I had never been more intrigued, and shared the video in⭕ our work chat to ask our die-hard fans🐓 if this was a joke. I was delighted to hear that no, it’s not.

ღThen, the final nail in the “I need to play this” coffin came when one of my colleagues covering the game sent me his own footage from karaoke, with the game’s UI and interactivity instead of just the music video that pla🎀ys behind it. Without warning, expecting something similarly melodious and well-produced, voice actor Kaiji Tang was clapping and over the performance that I had fallen in love with.

I’m a pretty big Danganronpa fan, and Yasuhiro Hagakure was in a split tie with Byakuya Togami for my favorite from Trigger Happy Havoc (I just love a well-done villain, and I loved hating Byakuya for being such a goddamn twerp the whole game). Likewise, I streamed the entirety of V3 on Twitch in 2019, and I loved Gonta Gokuhara, “my sweet buggy boy,” as myself and 30 or so people referred to him in my chat. I also watch Jujutsu Kaisen, so early-arcs Gojo was clear 🌼in my head with the sounds, too.

I was assured o🌸nce again, though, that this game was entirely serious, that Infinite Wealth saw its two protagonists facing impossible odds. But how could that be, if I was sitting there giggling at exaggerated clapping and support sounds at karaoke? I heard Robbie Daymond sing his heart out in the rain and on the rooftops, and then I watched the trailer for all the fun tourism things I could look forward to enjoying on Dondoko Island. My best friend was telling me to thank my coworkers for their guides on things like Sujimon while my boss spoke in our weekly meeting about how glad she was that the colleague who sent the karaoke video had been helping her find locker keys.

What do you mean, Tang’s character in this series is helping reformed ex-Yakuza members find jobs in the real world as they leave their life of crime behind? And the other protagonist is the one I took for a spin at that Sega preview event back in August, kicking ass and taking names, but now he’s living out his final days after receiving a terrifying health diagnosis? I was lured in with karaoke and kicking ass, and now you’re telling me I’m also probably going to have to feel things when I play Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, too?

Alright, fine, sign me up. If my emotions get the better o🤪f me and I need a good laugh, I’ll just go back to karaoke and remember the good times. Nobody would even be able to tell I’m crying in the rain during Zhao’s music video, anyway.