Yakuza 5 remains one of the most ambitious games I have ever played and deserves the spot of my favorite Yakuza game. The locations, the sheer variety of gameplay, the music as well make this the ultimate Yakuza experience for me personally with the only thing barring it from perfection is the pacing of the story and the odd twists.

A very close second and somehow manages to introduce a cast and story with some of the strongest emotional highs in the series. The gameplay is actually pretty fun here too.

This game made the series popular here for a very good reason. Brought some of the funnest side activities, fleshed out Kiryu and Majima bringing along a great narrative with the old cast we never really got a chance to interact with along with the variety of styles you can beat goons with along with living the fantasy of the huge bubble in the 80s.

A new direction for the developers that focuses on the detective fantasy instead of pure crime. Finally refined Dragon Engine action combat to a great degree with an excellent story to boot.

A huge improvement over the PlayStation 2 original with a much stronger narrative and an excellent protagonist. Not as accessible as Kiwami 2 but still pretty fun nonetheless despite the loading screens.

Despite only having Kamurocho in the fourth entry of the series, it's one of the most dense versions of it. The new character playstyles and the characters in general are very unique and was a breath of fresh air to the series along with a great finale and great music on top of that only marred by a dumb story element.

Despite liking 2 a lot, I actually think this is a great remake of the second game. It manages to pander to the fans of 0 without being as intrusive as the original Kiwami along with fun combat and bringing back the cabaret minigame which is pretty fun to do to make money. It does take away a tiny area but the story is still just as strong in this entry and looks amazing to boot.

A good finale for Kiryu but extremely janky to play around as a result of being the first engine title for them at the time. Not too much to say here other than it reminded me of 3 too much in certain moments.

Somewhat of a contentious topic but I have to be honest. The game's pacing is really boring to me despite understanding the orphanage segments are actually important to Kiryu's development but my attention span could literally not take it just doing menial stuff with the kids that I felt like it could've been cut down a bit along with the usual combat complaints that make this an extremely difficult title to come back to. That said, Yakuza 3 manages to have an amazing setting this time in Okinawa and the people there are honestly extremely great and full of charm that it doesn't go any lower for me in that regard that it's still a good game to me nonetheless and understanding of why people love this one specifically.

This and the original Yakuza are so close that it's hard to pick which one I prefer more other than Kiwami having a gameplay advantage somewhat. Now I can't say I was a huge fan of Yakuza 1 in general despite having a good story but it seems to have a curse of never getting enough effort put into these titles that they never get to truly shine. I feel like Yakuza 1 could've gotten a better remake but I still think this is a fun title.

Despite being at the bottom of the list, I still considering the original Yakuza a good experience. It's just really hard to come back to this one unless you can somehow remove the loading screens for every encounter and remove the english dub here as well despite having its charm.