God, do I adore this game. Replaying it has made me realize how truly brilliant the story is. It's so consistently engaging and emotional, and balances the new party cast very well. Your first four members are people you meet and then learn about, but your last two you learn about long before they join. They're all some of my favorite characters in the series, such wonderful characters. I've even grown to love the combat. I'll admit that it's pretty barebones, but I love how it still feels like Yakuza. It has the absurd brutality Yakuza is known for, a variety of animations and classes, and I like how it incorporates qtes into it. I enjoy the positioning aspect of skills, even if you can't directly position your character. I love how the game uses the combat to show how Ichiban thinks and how much different he is to Kiryu the previous protagonists. Ichiban is not afraid to like what he likes and embrace his inner child, and I think that's really beautiful in a time where adults liking anything even remotely childish is frowned upon. The final fight perfectly shows this, literally throwing the bat down and switching classes to show the desperation he and the villain have. There's definitely some dumb bullshit in the story, specifically one character, but I love how he's used so I don't mind. The last three chapters of this game are so smartly written, and they're probably some of the best planning from a Yakuza protagonist. This entire game is a treat, but the end is probably my favorite part. That's not even mentioning the fun side content and new world. A lot of the side content is about how people are drawn to Ichiban's kindness, literally shown in the business minigame(best in the series?) and Poundmates. I could honestly talk for hours about how this is the perfect continuation of mainline Yakuza. I really think that switching mainline is such a breath of fresh air, and works so well with this game. Love it.