The combat is a step above Kiwami 2, and the story gets really good at the end. I especially like the idea of a corrupt pharma company that operates in immoral ways, with cooperation from the government, all driven by a scientist mad with power. I like how it touches upon the ways in which society looks down upon gang members from the supposed "dregs" of society, and the ways in which governments will do anything to chase success on the global scale. All while being a pretty compelling detective story.

And the combat is fast, frantic, and mostly pretty well balanced. Definitely one of the speedier games in the series. The perma-damage mechanic is super bullshit though, never hard to deal with but just annoying. I'd purposefully die on certain fights after getting hit to not have to waste a health pack on one afterwards.

My main issue with this game, though, is that basically everything it does to make it stand out from the Yakuza games in terms of gameplay is for the worse. Bad forced stealth sections, some late in the game had downright confusing map layouts. Investigation sequences that might as well be cutscenes with how easy the player interaction is. More chase sequences which are basically just QTEfests. Drones are....mostly okay but don't really feel like they add anything. A more trimmed down and combat-focused version of this would have been an all-timer and an easy second favorite in the series, as is it's middle of the road.