This game is really bad. The combat feels horrendous, its clear they rushed this game out with the new dragon engine, several parts of Kamurocho are under construction and inaccessible to the player for the entire game, the game's combat is incredibly simple, (just use extreme heat mode and spam buttons) and for some good awful reason, this game has no way of hitting enemies when they're down. There is no downed enemy heat actions. I can overlook the boring combat though, what pisses me off is how awful this game's story is.

Kiryu is cute, I like the idea of him showcasing his fatherly side again, seeing as the last time we really see him taking care of the orphans was back in Yakuza 3, if you don't count the short time we are at the orphanage in Yakuza 4. However, that is it. There is only two good new characters in this game and that is Someya and Joon-gi Han. Every other character is lame as fuck and not interesting.

My first problem are the Hirose Family, they are so lame. Nagumo is obviously trying to tug at the player's heart strings the same way Rikiya is, but he is somehow even more bummy than Rikiya and not as likable as him. Even worse is Yuta, I was fine with him for the most part but the game stretches him so thin, he is the heir to the Saio Triad and the man Haruka had a son with and both reveals to this information are incredibly fucking stupid. The rest of them are just completely nothing characters outside of their loyalty to Hirose.

Secondly, the treatment of these legacy characters in the game is also awful. I don't mind a Yakuza game focusing on solely new characters, but when you start the game with that sequence that informs you of every important character up to that point, Daigo, Majima, Saejima, Date, Akiyama, etc.. you'd expect the game to give them any sort of screentime at all instead of just completely sidelining them until the end. What pisses me off the most is how Haruka is portrayed in this game, it feels like they had no idea what to do with her after Yakuza 5 so they do some bullshit like this in order to create some stupid central issue for the game's plot. The Haruka we have grown to know and learn as the game goes on is a person who does not care what anyone thinks about her, she threw away her dream of being an idol just to tell the world how much she loves her family, and you expect me to believe she'd vanish from them for some stupid reason like "Me being here might hamper your ability to succeed in the future." ?? The straw that broke the camel's back is Mitsuo's scholarship, however, he was already scouted by the people offering the scholarship to him and says that if he doesn't get in, the only reason he'd fail is because he wasn't good enough, not because Haruka is an ex-idol with a tainted past or that the legendary Dragon of Dojima is his father. Unless these scouters really hate orphans or something. Haruka plays a nothing role, she is completely incapicitated for the entirety of the game up until the very end, which is understandable considering her situation in this game, but the way that the game is portrayed it'd make you believe she was a much more important character instead of her role just being the mother of this mystery child for the entire game.

It just feels like an incredible slap in the face to the people that have grown to love these characters that have made the series what it is by this point, and the way the game is built up, you'd expect this to be the last time you'd ever see some of these characters (assuming you knew nothing about 7, Gaiden or IW.) so them having little importance to the game's story and characters like Haruka being completely sidelined and doing weird shit it'd feel like she'd never do makes me upset. I choose to believe this game does not exist in the case of her development because she is so good in Yakuza 5 and was my favorite character up to that point, but this game simply drags her down for me, a lot.

If boring characters and boring combat wasn't enough to put you off, the story is even worse. It is this overly convuluted, stretched, boring, slog from start to finish. The only interesting parts of this game are the initial reveal of Haruto and the final post-credits sequence. I find the reveal of the secret of Onomichi to be interesting but it feels like the game never really showcases the importance of that secret or the ramifications of it being revealed, the government simply covers it up and the only thing it does is get Hirose killed, it barely serves a purpose in the story when it's one of the central conflicts. I could appreciate a villain who is just nothing but spiteful towards the world because of the way he was raised and just wants to be evil, I don't think characters need a redemption arc, but Iwami is just so fucking boring. His only explanation for being the way he is is because he wanted to be a Yakuza but his dad didn't let him, such a lame excuse for the final boss of Kiryu's story. He is fittingly evil, the final cutscene with him taking cheap shots at Kiryu at the threat of Haruka and Haruto being killed is the only interesting thing he ever does.

God, this game sucks so much it makes me genuinely upset to think about. At the very least, the Dragon Engine is beautiful. The seamless entering and exiting of stores after having to watch a loading screen everytime up to that is genuinely amazing, Onomichi is one of my favorite Yakuza towns just because of how small and tight-knit it feels, I'm a sucker for small towns and I think Onomichi does it very well, and of course, it is a beautiful town day, dusk, or night. The soundtrack for this game is incredible, just listen to DESTINY or Town Bully, one of my favorite soundtracks in the series for sure. I also find that the letter that Kiryu is writing being revealed to be for Daigo instead of Haruka to be very charming, I enjoy seeing the gradual shift of Kiryu's attitude toward the position he put Daigo in change, from his firm belief that it was the best decision and that everything will be fine, to understanding that it was cruel to strip a man who had almost rid himself of the criminal underworld and force him back into the Yakuza even if it was the best decision for everyone, how he failed Daigo not only as a friend, but as a father figure, pushing him into that position, forcing him into a world of crime only to attempt to run from the Tojo and live the peaceful life he's always wanted. It is nice to see Kiryu finally realize some of his mistakes and to rectify or solve them before his (expected) untimely end and that letter to Daigo is the closest I had come to crying before Gaiden, it is excellent. The same cannot be said for the rest of that post-credit sequence, the lame cop-out death for Kiyomi that does nothing for anyone other than to soften the blow and for the game to pull its punches, that moment almost ruined the post-credits sequence for me.

Essentially, this game is bad, the story is bad, the characters are bad, the combat is bad, and the OST, credits and visuals are the only good parts of it.