A fun short arcade style romp with a ton of replay value. It's very forgiving and plays almost like a cross between Max Payne and God Hand. The aesthetics are peak mid ps2 era vibes. I wouldn't be surprised if someone made a handful of breakcore songs based off the soundtrack either.
I was surprised at how well they pulled off stylish third person shooting without copying Max Payne. The only complaint I have is the one healing boss and the absolutely atrocious camera angles, but ps2 games are required by law to have terrible camera angles.

Platinumed it after ~110 hours, and it was really good even if it got really grindy and almost required buying at least a little DLC to reach level 70 as Ichiban.
The thing I appreciated the most is that it felt like a celebration of the games before it, and Kiryu in particular. This game started us on the path of closure and signified in one step towards Kiryu finally being allowed to be happy, without going into spoiler territory. I also appreciated how they treated the villains' endings, not falling into the same pitfalls as the rest of the series.
The gameplay was far improved from Yakuza 7, with the combat being almost reminiscent of Chrono Trigger. My only complaint was that the animations still take way too long to finish, which ends up wearing thin after so many hours of playing the game. The gear system also leaves much to be desired. Overall, a great game.