Infinite Wealth (Y8) fixed nearly every issue I had with its predecessor, Yakuza: Like a Dragon (Y7). Combat moves quicker and is mor dynamic, and you have more agency than you ever did in Y7. Jobs feel much more balanced, and skill bloat is much less of an issue now, as you have a limited number of cross-class ability slots.

Narratively, the game gets going much quicker and caught my attention basically right out the gate. No waiting for half the game for interesting things to start happening. This game also fixes a writing issue I had with Y7 (and a lot of other JRPGs coughpersonacough) where every party member had to chime in for every single interaction. Dialogue flows much better as a result.

The new party members are all great; thought it's a shame we're likely to not get Tomizawa in Y9 onwards as he is modelled and voiced after a celebrity. Being able to play as Kiryu in both turn-based combat and brief bursts of classic brawler combat is a treat.

Still need to finish the last couple chapters, but Y8 has already risen to my all-time favorites list, and is one of few I would unashamedly rank a 10/10.

...However, there is one major sore spot for me for Y8: fuck the publishers for once again putting NG+ and fucking DIFFICULTY SELECTION behind a $20 DLC. Sure it comes with a bonus dungeon, but NG+ and difficulties should be a vanilla feature, all the time, no exceptions.
It's a ridiculous thing for Sega to lock behind a paywall. Outside of Japan we barely avoided its equivalent with Y7 baking it into the Western release, but Sega should be ashamed of themselves for pulling the same stunt twice, and doing so worldwide this time.

I was never really interested in Dragon Quest before, but something about XI caught my attention. The story and characters are great; I didn't expect this game to make me cry, but it managed to get me a few times. The gameplay is a good back-to-basics turn-based system that still feels like it has decent depth. The music is good, and it's nice we got the orchestral versions in this version (mostly); shame the composer is a terrible human being (though that's not really an issue anymore lol).

I'm still not really interested in checking out the previous entries, but I am definitely going to keep an eye out for any news about a DQ XII

The game is missing features from some previous iterations, still runs into some annoying perfrmance issues to this day, and it seems unlikely we'll get another game update in the near future. The game's main setlist is also mostly obscure bands or deeper cuts/newer songs from known bands, but I don't think it's a weak setlist. It just had a very strong legacy to live up to.

However, the game is still getting DLC every week 8 years out, and I still play it constantly. Not the best Rock Band, but the longest lasting and i think that counts for something. Glad the game is still going, even if it's at a much slower pace than the series' heyday.

The landscapes and music in this game are the only thing I'd say reach parity with the originals. It just doesn't feel nearly as good to play this as the 3DS games.

I don't know why they changed is to where you don't queue up your whole party's actions together before executing them, but it just made the game feel worse overall. Changing from random battles to pre-existing encounters I also think actually works to this game's detriment. the 3DS games let you change the encounter rate to 0, 50, 100, 150, or 200%, and it worked perfectly--200 for grinding, 0 for backtracking or if you're strapped for resources. Pre-existing counters have no way of skipping them if you're strong enough, a la Earthbound, so getting around is very tedious. It also means there's no nice way to quickly and mindlessly grind up your job xp.

I have yet to beat the game as I am hard stuck on the final asterisk holder, but eventfully when I'm in the mood I'll look up how to beat him and finish up the story. I can't see my rating changing much, though. Overall a disappointing follow-up to the 3DS games.