LIKE A DRAGON GAIDEN: THE MAN WHO THUGGED IT OUT.

Is the game predicated on a plot misstep and everyone in it standing firmly on buffoon business of the Clark Kent variety? Yes. Is it pure bait for suckers like me who eat up nonsense mixed in their GAR plate like peas? Absolutely. But god damn it's ACES from top to bottom. All of what I love about the series is here in spades. K-...Joryu cranks the stoic cool factor all the way up, serving up that satisfying woop-ass straight out the can like its first day out all over again, helping every endearing goofball he can find along the way. Striking character Drama, piercing moments juxtaposed against way over the top set pieces, wacky distractions on every street, and goons at every turn itching to get smacked up by the goa-... sorry, a nameless agent forced to just thug it all the way out in the WORST way for reasons... you know what we don't have time, games too short to worry about all that. Click, bye bye brain I've got pure ludo to bask in. Because that's how we're built. Then we barrel headbutt-first into a knockout ending, might have the best final cinematic yet for the series. Like a cigarette in the clarity of that afterglow I'm winding back down into a 4, but man was it close to 4.5

A respectable effort from Team Ninja to broach the open world genre with another period piece. The familiarly tight and engaging combat elements have demonstrated to become par the course for TN. Regrettably I think they should focus more on shorter, tighter games, as this one started to grate toward the end in a way the Niohs never did. The elements that usually make open-world games fully engrossing have never really been their strong suit (Worldbuilding, game-long character dialogue, deep exploration, etc). So their first foray into putting more thought into those elements didn't rob from the great combat, but also didn't really serve to enhance the experience enough to make the open world choice a knock-out. Still a worthwhile Slashfest through the end of the samurai era.

Some pieces landed more than others; cautious optimism for the JRPG Style gameplay switch payed off a bit more often than it fell short. I appreciated what little of the pleasant volume of side content I managed to get to, but wasn't entirely enthralled enough to consider more time with it right after the first clear. Still, It neatly embodied lot of what I love about Yakuza games and spun in a different, very admirable way. Ichiban and his refreshingly emotive demeanor turned out to be one of my favorite elements.