I don't know if I like the story better than the first Judgment, but I thought the story was pretty good and had one of the best villains in the series easily ranking up there to Judgment,Yakuza 7 and Yakuza 3's antagonist for me. the gameplay however is the best out of the entire series, as so much content was added and the amount of activities is more than any of the other games. with even new additions like skateboarding (which you can use to traverse the world faster as well),boxing and even bike racing, and the combat is the most refined it's ever been as each fighting style Yagami uses is extremely fun and each has it's own use. you'll be constantly switching fighting styles often, they also added a new fighting style called Snake that is similar to Tanimura's fighting style from Yakuza 4 but this fighting style is way more fun to use and the parrying mechanic is more refined. overall it's one of the best games Ryu Ga Gotoku studio has made and if you're a fan of the series it's easily worth your time