Judgment is better. With that out of the way, I loved this game for the most part. Since I suck at explaining why I liked something besides "yeah shit's lit", I'll mostly be whining about the shit I didn't like, because I'm also a born whiner.
The story took a bit to really interest me, the first 5 or so chapters were kinda eh. Especially the parts about that one soapland ownder that the characters care a lot about despite knowing him for like 10 minutes, or how the characters just guess what shady shit is going on in one place instantly despite barely looking into it. I honestly was rolling my eyes at some shit in the early game, despite liking the characters a lot. It all pays off in the later half though, which is peak. Chapters 12 up to the Finale are fantastic, in particular. Ichiban is a perfect protagonist and I love the cast of characters, though I wish some of them got more time to shine instead of just kinda... being there. Especially Zhao, he's easily one of my favorites but he doesn't do much.
Gameplay-wise, I like a lot of the new minigames. Can Quest and Dragon Kart are particularly fun, but the movie theater is boring as shit. I know the whole thing is Ichiban fighting off sleep, but I shouldn't have to try to stay awake too through that boring ass minigame.
The combat's really fun, but pretty simple and mostly easy. Which fits, considering "fun, simple, and easy" are how I would describe the beat-em-up combat of the other games, for the most part.
I personally prefer the beat-em-up combat, though, especially because Yakuza is like the only modern 3D beat-em-up with decent production values and a budget higher than two peanuts. I would also say that people who are happy about the change "because the games got stale" can go suck a fat nut; if the series was stale just go play another series. Especially considering, like I said, there's nothing quite like Yakuza out there. But I gotta say, I personally really like the current state of the series. Having both beat-em-ups and turn-based JRPGs is perfect for me.
That rant aside, I do greatly enjoy the combat in this game, for the most part. However, 90% of the bosses fucking suck ASS. Pretty much all of them just require you to spam the same move and heal. One of the most important bosses in the story has four distinct phases that all actually behave the damn same because his affinities don't change so you just keep spamming the same move until he dies. Motherfucker can take quite a punishment too, so it's just a goddamn slog. Doesn't help that elemental attacks are very limited in comparison to the gazillion blunt physical attacks (which he resists), so you really end up having only one move that works at all.
It's not the only boss that's like that, the majority of them are the same. A few here or there have a nice twist or gimmick, but most of them just have lots of HP, a single weakness, and can deal good damage. Boring as fuck.
Non-boss fights are just as simple, but you usually get much more freedom to use the hundreds of skills at your disposal, on top of status ailments and what not, so they end up being much more fun and are where the game is at its most enjoyable to me. I also love the chaotic feeling with how character shuffle around and positioning is important, plus some environmental stuff like cars hitting people and kicking/grabbing shit laying around... but the game sadly underutilizes this greatly, which is a massive fucking shame that its sequel already seems to correct somewhat.
Dungeons are also a mixed bag to me. The main story ones are fucking awesome and I love them. These are, for the most part, made more like the long-battles of the older games. The first three or so are excellent.
But then, there's some sewer dungeons thrown in too. One of them is in the story and it takes like a fucking hour just to get through, it looks boring, and the music's lame. Please don't fucking put another goddamn sewer dungeon in 8, all the goddamn rooms look the exact same!!!! At least the last one (and its two post-game variations) are awesome too, though.
As a mentally-ill 100%-achiever, though, I also gotta kinda complain about how much goddamn grinding there is in this game. Almost every minigame requires you to play it waaaaaaay too much for completion metrics, such as having to win 50 Dragon Kart races and 30 time trials. Also 3000 sheep, 100 home runs (or was it 200?), playing closest-to-pin golf 20 times (I like it, but I beat every course and Bingo Golf within 6 plays)... it's like they got inspired by the baseball, Clan Creator, and Spearfishing grinds of 6.
Then, of course, doing the final post-game dungeon requires you to do a fuckton of grinding to get your characters' main job rank to lv99, though you ideally want to get at least 30 on jobs you aren't maining as well (for skills and stats).
But at the same time, this grind is chill as fuck and relaxing to me in a way. I just mute the game, pin YouTube to a corner of my screen, and grind away while watching shit. So basically, I'm saying it's relaxing as fuck and I enjoyed it but also it's a pointless unengaging grind that I would not have done if I couldn't multitask watching shit.
Another complaint from me is that your party is completely absent during substories. Sure, it's great that Ichiban gets some alone time, but I seriously wish there were more with the party member to give us more stupid interactions with them. I guess Drink Links/Party Talk/Table Talk are meant to serve that purpose, and I love those, but I still wish they showed up in at least a few substories here and there. I mean, one of the Party Talks had Ichiban telling Adachi about some guys he fought in a Substory. It felt bizarre, because Adachi was there in my party fighting the guys for me!!! At least the substories are great for the most part, though.
Graphically, this game looks good but it just... doesn't compare at all to its other DE contemporanies. I'm not gonna compared to Judgment because I played the remaster, so it's unfair, but 6 and K2 have way better environments in particular. Ijincho looks like it belongs more in the 5/0 engine than in DE. Cutscenes look fantastic, though.
So anyway, with all my complaints out of the way you might wonder "did this motherfucker like ANYTHING?". Yeah I did, it was peak, it's just easier to whine like I said.
The story took a bit to really interest me, the first 5 or so chapters were kinda eh. Especially the parts about that one soapland ownder that the characters care a lot about despite knowing him for like 10 minutes, or how the characters just guess what shady shit is going on in one place instantly despite barely looking into it. I honestly was rolling my eyes at some shit in the early game, despite liking the characters a lot. It all pays off in the later half though, which is peak. Chapters 12 up to the Finale are fantastic, in particular. Ichiban is a perfect protagonist and I love the cast of characters, though I wish some of them got more time to shine instead of just kinda... being there. Especially Zhao, he's easily one of my favorites but he doesn't do much.
Gameplay-wise, I like a lot of the new minigames. Can Quest and Dragon Kart are particularly fun, but the movie theater is boring as shit. I know the whole thing is Ichiban fighting off sleep, but I shouldn't have to try to stay awake too through that boring ass minigame.
The combat's really fun, but pretty simple and mostly easy. Which fits, considering "fun, simple, and easy" are how I would describe the beat-em-up combat of the other games, for the most part.
I personally prefer the beat-em-up combat, though, especially because Yakuza is like the only modern 3D beat-em-up with decent production values and a budget higher than two peanuts. I would also say that people who are happy about the change "because the games got stale" can go suck a fat nut; if the series was stale just go play another series. Especially considering, like I said, there's nothing quite like Yakuza out there. But I gotta say, I personally really like the current state of the series. Having both beat-em-ups and turn-based JRPGs is perfect for me.
That rant aside, I do greatly enjoy the combat in this game, for the most part. However, 90% of the bosses fucking suck ASS. Pretty much all of them just require you to spam the same move and heal. One of the most important bosses in the story has four distinct phases that all actually behave the damn same because his affinities don't change so you just keep spamming the same move until he dies. Motherfucker can take quite a punishment too, so it's just a goddamn slog. Doesn't help that elemental attacks are very limited in comparison to the gazillion blunt physical attacks (which he resists), so you really end up having only one move that works at all.
It's not the only boss that's like that, the majority of them are the same. A few here or there have a nice twist or gimmick, but most of them just have lots of HP, a single weakness, and can deal good damage. Boring as fuck.
Non-boss fights are just as simple, but you usually get much more freedom to use the hundreds of skills at your disposal, on top of status ailments and what not, so they end up being much more fun and are where the game is at its most enjoyable to me. I also love the chaotic feeling with how character shuffle around and positioning is important, plus some environmental stuff like cars hitting people and kicking/grabbing shit laying around... but the game sadly underutilizes this greatly, which is a massive fucking shame that its sequel already seems to correct somewhat.
Dungeons are also a mixed bag to me. The main story ones are fucking awesome and I love them. These are, for the most part, made more like the long-battles of the older games. The first three or so are excellent.
But then, there's some sewer dungeons thrown in too. One of them is in the story and it takes like a fucking hour just to get through, it looks boring, and the music's lame. Please don't fucking put another goddamn sewer dungeon in 8, all the goddamn rooms look the exact same!!!! At least the last one (and its two post-game variations) are awesome too, though.
As a mentally-ill 100%-achiever, though, I also gotta kinda complain about how much goddamn grinding there is in this game. Almost every minigame requires you to play it waaaaaaay too much for completion metrics, such as having to win 50 Dragon Kart races and 30 time trials. Also 3000 sheep, 100 home runs (or was it 200?), playing closest-to-pin golf 20 times (I like it, but I beat every course and Bingo Golf within 6 plays)... it's like they got inspired by the baseball, Clan Creator, and Spearfishing grinds of 6.
Then, of course, doing the final post-game dungeon requires you to do a fuckton of grinding to get your characters' main job rank to lv99, though you ideally want to get at least 30 on jobs you aren't maining as well (for skills and stats).
But at the same time, this grind is chill as fuck and relaxing to me in a way. I just mute the game, pin YouTube to a corner of my screen, and grind away while watching shit. So basically, I'm saying it's relaxing as fuck and I enjoyed it but also it's a pointless unengaging grind that I would not have done if I couldn't multitask watching shit.
Another complaint from me is that your party is completely absent during substories. Sure, it's great that Ichiban gets some alone time, but I seriously wish there were more with the party member to give us more stupid interactions with them. I guess Drink Links/Party Talk/Table Talk are meant to serve that purpose, and I love those, but I still wish they showed up in at least a few substories here and there. I mean, one of the Party Talks had Ichiban telling Adachi about some guys he fought in a Substory. It felt bizarre, because Adachi was there in my party fighting the guys for me!!! At least the substories are great for the most part, though.
Graphically, this game looks good but it just... doesn't compare at all to its other DE contemporanies. I'm not gonna compared to Judgment because I played the remaster, so it's unfair, but 6 and K2 have way better environments in particular. Ijincho looks like it belongs more in the 5/0 engine than in DE. Cutscenes look fantastic, though.
So anyway, with all my complaints out of the way you might wonder "did this motherfucker like ANYTHING?". Yeah I did, it was peak, it's just easier to whine like I said.