Despite the Dragon Engine's first steps, I was really really into this game during the first half; the story was very engaging, especially knowing that it's supposed to be the end of Kiryu's saga, and I got very good Yakuza 3 vibes from Onomichi and it's very lovable set of characters.
Unfortunately the story lost me a bit in the middle. I think there are too many instances where you get hours of cutscenes interrupted by 10 minutes of gameplay, and dialogues never felt this long in the series. Everything being voiced is a problem to me, as I used to read non-voiced text way faster than they talk and I could have my own pacing. It feels weird doing that now that they actually talk and that it's all presented as proper cutscenes despite the janky animations, so I just listen to them and get bored fast.
I do really like the ending (and by that I mean it made me tear up) but I feel like I would have enjoyed the game more if it was solely focused on Kiryu and Haruka without necessarily another big conspiracy. All the characters are great tho.
Now about this Dragon Engine : The game looks very very pretty, that's a thing. Lights are particularly well rendered. Fighting looks very cool, very fluid and all, but it's very sloppy and gets worse when you're up against more than 10 guys, which happens a lot. Also kiryu's moveset seems to be lighter than ever, which makes combat feel very very repetitive.
Minigames and activities are still pretty fun (I was surprised by the fishing), but Clan Creator is way less interesting to play than the one in Kiwami 2, and Baseball team management has 0 tutorial somehow ?
It's a bit sad for a game that's supposed to be that important in the series to feel rushed and unpolished like that. But it still has it's great moments.
Not sure how I'll look back on this one.
I'm curious to see what's next, I hope it was worth it to do more Kiryu stuff and negate this very clear send-off haha
Unfortunately the story lost me a bit in the middle. I think there are too many instances where you get hours of cutscenes interrupted by 10 minutes of gameplay, and dialogues never felt this long in the series. Everything being voiced is a problem to me, as I used to read non-voiced text way faster than they talk and I could have my own pacing. It feels weird doing that now that they actually talk and that it's all presented as proper cutscenes despite the janky animations, so I just listen to them and get bored fast.
I do really like the ending (and by that I mean it made me tear up) but I feel like I would have enjoyed the game more if it was solely focused on Kiryu and Haruka without necessarily another big conspiracy. All the characters are great tho.
Now about this Dragon Engine : The game looks very very pretty, that's a thing. Lights are particularly well rendered. Fighting looks very cool, very fluid and all, but it's very sloppy and gets worse when you're up against more than 10 guys, which happens a lot. Also kiryu's moveset seems to be lighter than ever, which makes combat feel very very repetitive.
Minigames and activities are still pretty fun (I was surprised by the fishing), but Clan Creator is way less interesting to play than the one in Kiwami 2, and Baseball team management has 0 tutorial somehow ?
It's a bit sad for a game that's supposed to be that important in the series to feel rushed and unpolished like that. But it still has it's great moments.
Not sure how I'll look back on this one.
I'm curious to see what's next, I hope it was worth it to do more Kiryu stuff and negate this very clear send-off haha