Enemy's guard spam isn't that much of a problem since it only starts in the mid game and by that point you should already have tiger drop and komaki parry (which is busted in this game), unfortunately the sidequests (save for few exceptions) were rather poorly done and the random encounters were annoying.
however all of this is (mostly) saved by the godsend that is the plot, won't spoil very much but it's genuinely great and I didn't have any issues with the slow-burn almost slice of life start, on the contrary, it was one of the strongest points in the game.

SPOILERS FOR THE WHOLE GAME

When I first played the remastered version some months ago, I thought it was a pretty ok game and continued with my life. But for some reason, the game stuck in my mind for a long while, like it had something special in it that I couldn't wash off. Now, it allured me to play the original version this time.

After playing Yakuza 2 and comparing the two, you can feel how important this game was for the series. I have yet to play Kenzan, and I know it was the first step in introducing this saga to the more realistic approach using the PS3 engine. But from what I've seen from it, Kenzan walked so Y3 could run. This game reimagined the whole aesthetic. Kamurocho goes from this gritty, dark, kinda noir vibe that PS2 games had to a sharp, stylish, and more flashy design. The city is more dazzling than ever and adding that it was the one to introduce minigames (a whole lot of them) makes up for this "Sleepless Town" essence. Kamurocho is just a LOT of fun to be running around.

-- Narrative --
My main problem with the game is the overall writing of the criminal plot. Coming from Yakuza 2, which manages to maintain its mysteriousness, unwrapping little by little and keeping you engaged with meaningful events, this one was kind of a letdown. The premise is so interesting, but it could have been handled a lot better. All the enigma and threat that Joji represented as a character ends up disappearing since he's just... a good guy👍; They don't even try to give both Joji and Kiryu more time on screen, to at least poke at the wound of a living picture of the most important person in his life that passed away being there, someone that knew more of him, get that emotional side of Kiryu, no.
Also, the lack of Black Monday presence throughout the game and the way they don't really show or try to create a menacing aura around the organization makes you not really care that much about all that stuff at the end not gonna lie.
Anyway, I'm not going to expand much else into it. The ending, though... I really, really like it since it makes a certain parallel with the previous 2 games in terms of Kiryu's existential journey and makes it feel like the actual END of a trilogy. Yeah, I know it sounds crazy, but hear me out. Even if it's not intentional, when I realized this, I was kinda blown away.

Both in Yakuza 1 and 2, Kiryu's afterward moments after dealing with the "main" conflict of the plot, usually ending in tragedy, he gives up; We tend to see a very stubborn, angry Kiryu that makes his way through purely with this raw violence, not really thinking things twice and is given either a reason or another chance to live by someone else. In Yakuza 1, he loses all the most important bonds of his entire life, destroyed by the yakuza world, Reina, Shinji, Nishiki, Kazama, and Yumi. Staring silently at the void, prefers to get arrested for life since nothing is left for him out there, nothing worth living. Date reminds him of Haruka. Try living for the girl.
He decides to keep going.
In Yakuza 2, he doesn't even try to escape, in this case, Kaoru reminds him ... Haruka is waiting for you, but even so, he accepts that she will never be safe with him. After all, she has been kidnapped multiple times for his past and constant engagement with the Clan's activity, so he decides to just die, right there, while everything blows away. He knows Haruka will be safer with someone like Date by his side. Even so, Terada, the very person who betrayed him "gives" him another chance to live, one that he would not regret.

In Yakuza 3, you can feel all of this in Kiryu's character, the way he talks to people, to his children, he's full of hope and wisdom from a very rough life, and he's finally trying to live a real life, one away from the yakuza, and he tries to pour all of his knowledge, values and experiences into his kids to give them a better life, one that he never had.
The situations in Morning Glory are kinda silly, and a lot of times oddly specific; But every time, at the end of these little mundane problems, Kiryu's speeches hit you in the gut, because they are messages filled with such love and a kind of complexity that surprises you coming from him, a very flawed man. Every time Kiryu watches his kids do good, smiling, it warms my heart.
I didn't remember Rikiya's death scene being so well done, I honestly think it is one of the more memorable scenes RGG has done, even if his sacrifice is not that "well" staged. First time in the whole saga Kiryu completely breaks down as he cries and his voice cracks, yes he also cries when his father dies but, this time is so much stronger as if a channel of all his reprimed emotions hit him at that specific moment like a fucking train; I also think this moment is particularly sad since his death represents a direct consequence of his yakuza past getting up to him, he remembers he can't escape and all his loved ones can be taken away from him.
Mine acts as a "what Kiryu could have been." You could even say he's the personification of Nishiki, and he's standing in front of him, once again, but Kiryu is not the same. He has grown; now it's his time to give purpose to someone's life, and he does, resulting in what we see as Mine's ending. He thinks he's too far gone to keep living but decides to end it all with a pure reason not born from hatred.
This game has an odd connection to blood relationships and orphans. Kiryu is an orphan, Mine is an orphan, obviously, all his children are orphans. An orphan is a representation of a human being left stranded, deprived of the first connection to LOVE that a person CAN (not always) have, Mine is a representation of one possible outcome, resents others, resents relationships, and is distrustful since he was taken away of this so early in life. Kiryu on the other hand, recognizes this fact and builds bonds around him, he had the luck of always having caring people by his side. ODDLY SIMILAR TO GAARA AND NARUTO... wtf, crazy.

Kiryu is stabbed at the end; he falls on the ground as he bleeds, staring at the sky, with the possibility of just dying right there. And that's when he says, "Even in your final moments, you can still learn to believe in someone." I know this is directly related to Mine, but I think he's at peace because now he has something to live for, and he won't surrender like he has done when facing death. He smiles; he has a family waiting for him at Morning Glory. All is going to be okay.