This was originally going to be a much different and longer review but looking back on it I don't think that it represents what I feel about this game anymore after sitting on it for a few weeks.

I don't like this game, I find it to be disgusting, malicious and most criminally boring. LAD8's story is repugnant and fundamentally betrays everything I love about the series' writing.
Memoirs of a Dragon and the Bucket List are one of the most evil and shameless game design choices I've ever seen, trying to actively pay homage to the prior entries while actively doing it way worse than it already had previously, I'm not much fond of Yakuza 0 either but that game actually put effort into celebrating the series and Kiryu's past.

I had my share of problems with Like A Dragon 7 as well, but for everything that game did wrong the writing remained top notch, having some of the best narrative and emotional highs of any game I've played prior. The majestic voice work of Kazuhiro Nakaya helping to create a perfect scene during the finale.
But LAD8 never reaches these heights, aside from Yamai and Tomizawa every character arc either feels completely rushed or filled with plot twists that lead nowhere.

However, there's still a lot to love about the game, some of the side content arguably being the series' best. Dondoko Island being a pastiche of Animal Crossing with the goal of building a Natural Paradise, a Legendary resort for people to fall back in love with nature! Yet the ultimate punchline is that the most effective way of going about this is by essentially rebuilding Kamurocho... Oops! There's also Miss Match, a natural evolution of the Chaturbate minigame from Yakuza 6, showcasing the gamification of human contract and relationships.
Even with all that aside, the reworked gameplay and job system has breathed a whole new life into the turn-based combat, actively promoting experimentation and to grow your bond with your party members, almost perfecting the system that was introduced with LAD7.
And to go along with the new and improved combat is the phenomenal OST which may possibly be one of RGG's very best, fiiled with tons of memorable tracks like Slugfest, BodyBag, Kooky, Barracuda, etc.

This review is probably more negative than I intended but It's just really unfortunate that for everything this game does right, I just can't bring myself to like it because of how much I despise the writing, some of Kiryu's best and coolest character moments are buried deep within this game yet I still don't feel like either this game or Gaiden justified not making Yakuza 6 Kiryu's final chapter when the series actively tries to fake Kiryu's death in every single entry.