As the sequel to one of RGG's best games, I had a lot of expectations from LJ and thankfully after spending almost a 100 hours with this story, I can happily say it met most of them.
Right off the bat, the combat is not only a huge improvement from JE but one of the best in the entire Yakuza franchise. Between four styles to choose from and how fluid switching between them is, I was constantly in awe of how fun they were able to make it because even after duking it out with street thug #25372, I never found myself bored with it.
School Stories were one of the most fun side content narratives I've had the pleasure of experiencing in an RGG game. While some of the school clubs were more fleshed out than others, it was very heartwarming to see Yagami be a mentor to the kids he encounters over the course of the story.
Although the plot dragged on in the latter half and could've done with being just little bit shorter, I did enjoy it and found it made some fascinating points which have given me more than a little food for thought.
LJ has a lineup of brilliant antagonists, Kuwana, Soma and even Akutsu were all such enjoyable characters and great additions to the cast. But as far as returning cast goes, I did find some of them out of character (Hoshino) and others underutilized (Kaito, Higashi).
I do wish the detective and court elements were better implemented in this game as they felt somewhat underused. The stealth and parkour sections weren't too offensive but they could stand to be fleshed out a bit more.
Although the main plot is just a little shy of beating JE's for me, the QoL improvements in LJ, the incredibly fun combat and the side content make up for it and then some. I really hope we get a third installment in this series someday because I'd love to go for another adventure with the Yagami Detective Agency.
Right off the bat, the combat is not only a huge improvement from JE but one of the best in the entire Yakuza franchise. Between four styles to choose from and how fluid switching between them is, I was constantly in awe of how fun they were able to make it because even after duking it out with street thug #25372, I never found myself bored with it.
School Stories were one of the most fun side content narratives I've had the pleasure of experiencing in an RGG game. While some of the school clubs were more fleshed out than others, it was very heartwarming to see Yagami be a mentor to the kids he encounters over the course of the story.
Although the plot dragged on in the latter half and could've done with being just little bit shorter, I did enjoy it and found it made some fascinating points which have given me more than a little food for thought.
LJ has a lineup of brilliant antagonists, Kuwana, Soma and even Akutsu were all such enjoyable characters and great additions to the cast. But as far as returning cast goes, I did find some of them out of character (Hoshino) and others underutilized (Kaito, Higashi).
I do wish the detective and court elements were better implemented in this game as they felt somewhat underused. The stealth and parkour sections weren't too offensive but they could stand to be fleshed out a bit more.
Although the main plot is just a little shy of beating JE's for me, the QoL improvements in LJ, the incredibly fun combat and the side content make up for it and then some. I really hope we get a third installment in this series someday because I'd love to go for another adventure with the Yagami Detective Agency.