Game feels very close to greatness, but trips itself up fairly often. Most of it crops up in the gameplay, where you're going to be spending at least 80% of your fights in tiger stance and/or flux fissuring the nearest goon. While a fast-charging, zero-cost, heat-generating hit grab is extremely funny conceptually, it very easily warps the entire combat system around it. Said combat, a bit easy to trivialize with certain skills, only exacerbates its wear on you with an excessive amount of slow-mo on a number of EX moves. Even still, it's satisfying to beat down waves on waves of goons, and Yagami's flashy moveset definitely impresses.

The the non-combat segments also felt like a bit of a slip-up, with somewhat weak side cases and friendship events compared to Yakuza sub-stories. The main collectable, dozens of QR codes hidden around the city, can also feel like a slog, even after getting the ability to track them. I won't even get into the tailing and chase missions, which felt actively antagonizing in their inclusion and lowered my opinion of the game. The definition of busywork.

When it comes to the main story, I have way fewer gripes. It was compelling, easy to follow, and played host to some of the series' better antagonists. Some of Yagami's choices definitely made me raise my eyebrow a few times, but those moments could be attributed more to the character than the writing itself.

Having not played the sequel at the time of writing, I'm looking forward to LJ as almost all my complaints were fairly easily fixable. Overall, though, I think it's worth checking out.