I find myself at a loss to understand where the fan love of the series comes from for this latest installment of the Yakuza/Like a Dragon saga. The game starts out strong with incredibly topical themes such as a return to a life of honesty for former criminals and reaction Youtubers who are listened to and believed without asking too many questions. Alas, the plot, once in vast (perhaps TOO vast Honolulu), takes on a diluted feel, though, with entire chapters devoted to repeating one of these things:
-Reaching a long on the other side of the map while the bad guys attack us in the streets.
-Going to investigate a place we've already investigated, hoping to find new clues
-Believing we have a lead, realizing the lead is a dead end, and finding ourselves again not knowing what to do (until, literally from the sky, a new clue or hint about where to investigate comes along).
You can clearly see that the Hawaiian plot is very diluted because, once you turn to Mechagodzilla, its missions flow smoothly and excitingly. A washout to my ducks almost the entire Ichiban storyline, from his found mother to his final boss.
Dondoko Island is boring and hard to handle like it's The Sims because of the size of the island and the real lack of things to do. Dondoko Island's ending terrible.
Sujimon well done and fun!
Tinder-style minigame pretty sad when you think he's lying to a lot of women.
The old guard trio arrives, stays busy for 1 hour fighting 6 thugs, and comes back at the end like they defeated most of the enemies.
Nice bar talk and bingo to find out more about your comrades.
Easy and at times boring combat.
By now the same six faces used for the yakuza are beginning to reek of gone bad, can we have more?
Kiryu goes from being about to die any minute to taking 30 floors of stairs with ease.
Unmemorable side stories.
Appreciated the new character Tomizawa, maybe they could have added a couple more.

In short, I find myself not loving this chapter. When the studio tries to do something too big the game suffers in my honest opinion. Let's go back to smaller stories in smaller locations but full of love please.

Reviewed on Apr 06, 2024


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