Story, characters, and writing are a bit rough, especially compared to Yakuza 0 which had one of the best translations I've ever seen (in terms of the writing; I don't know how accurate it is). I do like the political themes though. Minor annoyances: when you exit the Sotenbori arena it tells you that you can return to the 1st floor or the checkpoint. Why not say which floor is the checkpoint? It makes me terrified to leave and lose progress. Also the menu sound effect is extremely annoying so I have to turn sound effects down quite a bit, but of course this also turns down many other sounds that are important to hear. Positioning the character to interact with things is bizarrely difficult. Another little thing: I don't like minimaps. I wish the itinerary and icons were on the world so I didn't have to keep looking down at the minimap. It gets to the point in some games where I'm hardly looking at the world at all. Are there any games that get this right?
A few more things: I wish when you auto-battle you could point to the enemy you want the characters to attack. I wish when you have an area attack it would show you the range of the area. I wish you could change jobs anywhere because having to go back to Hello Work all the time means I just don't bother most of the time. I wish pressing left or right in inventory screens would scroll a page up and down. I wish when you get a new item that there was a way to know easily what kind of item it is so I'm not scrolling endlessly through different kinds of items trying to find it. Like either a new items tab or it should just say what kind of item it is when you get it. Or both. Or how about ways to sort item in the inventory.
The job system is good and rewarding and overall the characters are probably better written than most games. But it's a bit of a let down after Yakuza 0. I actually like the grinding they introduce in chapter 12 in the arena because it is another reference to Dragon Quest games which are notoriously grindy. In this game they just make the grind explicit in the form of a battle arena which is extremely rewarding (in terms of exp and gear) and not very difficult. I wish they had stuck more to the sort of meta narrative of Kasuga hitting rock bottom and subsequently reverting to playing life like a Dragon Quest game as a homeless guy. It kind of abandons that early on and becomes a more standard crime/political story which is also disappointing.
The confection business minigame, sort of the equivalent of the cabaret club or the real estate royale in Yakuza 0, is unfortunately not as engaging as either of those. The only real task in it is to put the right employees in the right positions in your stores, which can be challenging, but once you figure it out you just zoom through the business periods with only the brief board meetings after that. And those are so simple to figure out that they are nearly a waste of time. An awkward part is that I'm always finding people out in the city who I should recruit, but I've already completed the whole thing, so all those recruits are useless. They either needed to make the whole thing way harder so those recruits are necessary to complete it, or make it so you can't just grind out the minigame all at once.
On the other hand, the city is significantly more detailed and interactive than Yakuza 0 (you can enter buildings and play in first person view), which makes it more rewarding to explore rather than just looking for the next substory. Also, the core narrative of Arakawa and Kasuga is genuinely compelling. But then you try to sell me the biggest coincidence ever in order to pull a plot twist out your butt that's supposed to resonate?
Overall this game benefits a lot from its style and charm.
A few more things: I wish when you auto-battle you could point to the enemy you want the characters to attack. I wish when you have an area attack it would show you the range of the area. I wish you could change jobs anywhere because having to go back to Hello Work all the time means I just don't bother most of the time. I wish pressing left or right in inventory screens would scroll a page up and down. I wish when you get a new item that there was a way to know easily what kind of item it is so I'm not scrolling endlessly through different kinds of items trying to find it. Like either a new items tab or it should just say what kind of item it is when you get it. Or both. Or how about ways to sort item in the inventory.
The job system is good and rewarding and overall the characters are probably better written than most games. But it's a bit of a let down after Yakuza 0. I actually like the grinding they introduce in chapter 12 in the arena because it is another reference to Dragon Quest games which are notoriously grindy. In this game they just make the grind explicit in the form of a battle arena which is extremely rewarding (in terms of exp and gear) and not very difficult. I wish they had stuck more to the sort of meta narrative of Kasuga hitting rock bottom and subsequently reverting to playing life like a Dragon Quest game as a homeless guy. It kind of abandons that early on and becomes a more standard crime/political story which is also disappointing.
The confection business minigame, sort of the equivalent of the cabaret club or the real estate royale in Yakuza 0, is unfortunately not as engaging as either of those. The only real task in it is to put the right employees in the right positions in your stores, which can be challenging, but once you figure it out you just zoom through the business periods with only the brief board meetings after that. And those are so simple to figure out that they are nearly a waste of time. An awkward part is that I'm always finding people out in the city who I should recruit, but I've already completed the whole thing, so all those recruits are useless. They either needed to make the whole thing way harder so those recruits are necessary to complete it, or make it so you can't just grind out the minigame all at once.
On the other hand, the city is significantly more detailed and interactive than Yakuza 0 (you can enter buildings and play in first person view), which makes it more rewarding to explore rather than just looking for the next substory. Also, the core narrative of Arakawa and Kasuga is genuinely compelling. But then you try to sell me the biggest coincidence ever in order to pull a plot twist out your butt that's supposed to resonate?
Overall this game benefits a lot from its style and charm.