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This review contains spoilers
Did all Dragon's Memoirs and Life Links. Did all substories too. Beat Amon in post-game dungeon.
Gosh, where do I begin with this game? While I overall enjoyed my time with this game, it is in the lower half of the yakuza games. Story pacing is real bad. Ichiban's half of the story feels a bit lacking in comparison to Kiryu's where I enjoyed every chapter of his.
The villians are fine, some of the weaker ones in the franchise. It sucks that Hanawa and Wong just get killed off, and that's it. It's nice to see Jo back, but he doesn't really do as much as I would have liked him to. Yamai stands out for being probs the best new character. Overall, I find it a much better final game for Kiryu than 6 was. Like to an almost impressive point with how much fanservice they put in here for him.
I am a big fan of Tomizawa and Chitose. They both felt rather fresh with Ichiban having to really earn them as party members. In general, the characterization in this game is great when it wants to be. All the drink links are great, and Kiryu's are really well written in the nature of just the crossover between the old party members and the legend himself. Like Saeko's I really loved in particular.
Gameplay wise, it's... good enough? I've never really understood the praise the turn-based combat gets. 7's was very mixed, and 8's here is better but largely feels just "good enough". There's still too much grinding, and switching between the 2 parties doesn't help much. Nothing about the job system particularly invited me to really check it out, and it required also too much grinding for me to really invest in it. I think locking different jobs behind the bond system was kinda lame. There's also way too many freaking sidequests that interrupt the main story.
Speaking of, the side content is like massive. There's so much to do, but tbh I don't care for most of it. I completely ignored Dondogo Island after the stupidly long mandatory tutorial for it, and Sujimon I would have also ignored if it weren't for the substories with it. Even then, I primarily just solo'd it with the Kiryu sujimon you get post-game. Kiryu's "substories" feels just enough to be satisfying, but not quite enough to feel complete. I think some more like actual substories and not just the memoirs would've been good for him. Meanwhile, Ichiban's substories are a great bunch in this game. Better and funnier than 7's. Except for the romance substories. I actually kinda liked the online dating side mode till it got boring, but the fact he just kinda gets bummed by all the girls for laughs is... extremely cringe and in poor taste. Not even with the Saeko stuff can they get rid of this stupid thing in every game.
Overall, it was enjoyable to me. Far too long, and really the first yakuza game I've ever felt burnt out on but hey when it's good it's GOOD.
Gosh, where do I begin with this game? While I overall enjoyed my time with this game, it is in the lower half of the yakuza games. Story pacing is real bad. Ichiban's half of the story feels a bit lacking in comparison to Kiryu's where I enjoyed every chapter of his.
The villians are fine, some of the weaker ones in the franchise. It sucks that Hanawa and Wong just get killed off, and that's it. It's nice to see Jo back, but he doesn't really do as much as I would have liked him to. Yamai stands out for being probs the best new character. Overall, I find it a much better final game for Kiryu than 6 was. Like to an almost impressive point with how much fanservice they put in here for him.
I am a big fan of Tomizawa and Chitose. They both felt rather fresh with Ichiban having to really earn them as party members. In general, the characterization in this game is great when it wants to be. All the drink links are great, and Kiryu's are really well written in the nature of just the crossover between the old party members and the legend himself. Like Saeko's I really loved in particular.
Gameplay wise, it's... good enough? I've never really understood the praise the turn-based combat gets. 7's was very mixed, and 8's here is better but largely feels just "good enough". There's still too much grinding, and switching between the 2 parties doesn't help much. Nothing about the job system particularly invited me to really check it out, and it required also too much grinding for me to really invest in it. I think locking different jobs behind the bond system was kinda lame. There's also way too many freaking sidequests that interrupt the main story.
Speaking of, the side content is like massive. There's so much to do, but tbh I don't care for most of it. I completely ignored Dondogo Island after the stupidly long mandatory tutorial for it, and Sujimon I would have also ignored if it weren't for the substories with it. Even then, I primarily just solo'd it with the Kiryu sujimon you get post-game. Kiryu's "substories" feels just enough to be satisfying, but not quite enough to feel complete. I think some more like actual substories and not just the memoirs would've been good for him. Meanwhile, Ichiban's substories are a great bunch in this game. Better and funnier than 7's. Except for the romance substories. I actually kinda liked the online dating side mode till it got boring, but the fact he just kinda gets bummed by all the girls for laughs is... extremely cringe and in poor taste. Not even with the Saeko stuff can they get rid of this stupid thing in every game.
Overall, it was enjoyable to me. Far too long, and really the first yakuza game I've ever felt burnt out on but hey when it's good it's GOOD.
Did all substories, beat Amon, and did all of the Cabaret Club and Clan Creator
My actual first Yakuza game that I played, which is kinda unfortunate cuz it's also one of my least faves. Still a good game, still worth a play. I just think the plot is one of the weakest in the series. I feel like the coolest thing they do is Kiryu and Kaoru and then do nothing with it at beginning of 3 onwards. Also I don't really care about the side cast in this game, which is very rare. I do like Ryuji, but I don't like him as much as other Yakuza antags.
Combat is ok, not my fave. Def better than 6, but I still prefer old engine combat. Cabaret Club was fun ig. I did get pretty darn into it iirc. I also liked the Clan Creator storyline in this, and actually found the gameplay was mostly fun. Was also cool to use a bunch of faves. Tho it overstays its welcome. Good enough game all around.
My actual first Yakuza game that I played, which is kinda unfortunate cuz it's also one of my least faves. Still a good game, still worth a play. I just think the plot is one of the weakest in the series. I feel like the coolest thing they do is Kiryu and Kaoru and then do nothing with it at beginning of 3 onwards. Also I don't really care about the side cast in this game, which is very rare. I do like Ryuji, but I don't like him as much as other Yakuza antags.
Combat is ok, not my fave. Def better than 6, but I still prefer old engine combat. Cabaret Club was fun ig. I did get pretty darn into it iirc. I also liked the Clan Creator storyline in this, and actually found the gameplay was mostly fun. Was also cool to use a bunch of faves. Tho it overstays its welcome. Good enough game all around.
Weird one to rank, but it's just a great freaking entry in the series. Not a lot of complaints about it.