This review contains spoilers
Yakuza 6 ends with Kiryu refusing the Daidoji's hush money instead promising them he'll disappear completely and "die" for them so that the orphanage can finally live in peace.
Cool, great ending.
This game starts with Kiryu being a Daidoji agent who is held prisoner by the faction with them actively threatening to murder the orphanage at every turn... How did we get here? None of this was mentioned at the end of 6. Why do the Daidoji have him walking around town when he is supposed to be dead? What does the supposedly super powerful shadow government even get from having Kiryu as an agent when he obviously doesn't wanna corporate?
The Daidoji faction suffers the same fate as many other Yakuza/LaD antagonists where they're presented as super intelligent and cunning but in reality are just dumb as shit.
The rest of the story is just Yakuza 7 dlc that tries to explain how Kiryu was able to show up in that game. At only 5 chapters long the game is quite short but the issue is that those 5 chapters are padded to hell and back with uninteresting, fetch quest level tier content.
The Akame network and to a lesser extent the Castle are complete inconsequential slop that is just there to stretch out ~2 hours of content to ~15. Even in universe Kiryu just helps out with the Akame network because he has nothing better to do while waiting for her to bring him to the Castle. You could remove both of them and Nishitani and the narrative would not be impacted.
The Watase family buys Kiryu's freedom -> They welcome Watase -> Shishido betrays you etc.
On that note, Shishido's betrayal as a whole feels so flat. His introduction is cool and instantly paints him as a big player in the story but for the rest of the game leading up to the betrayal he is just a minor character that even Kiryu doesn't care about. Him representing the old yakuza who don't want to/can't move on from the life also feels redundant because it's stuff 7 already touched upon which again further cements Gaiden's lack of identity or originality.
His fight is pretty sick tho.
At the end both him and Nishitani are taken in by the Daidoji to become agents (again not sure why they do this shit) probably never be to be seen again. At this point I'm hoping the Daidoji faction as a whole just magically disappears from the series.
It's never explained how Kiryu was able to show up in the later part of 7 wearing his iconic red-white suit and fight Kasuga at the Geomijul hideout. Not surprising because clearly none of this was planned and it makes 0 sense.
The combat is certainly better than Yakuza 6/Kiwami 2 but the Dragon Engine is still as janky as ever. It's hard to really put into words but everything from hitbox/hurtboxes to attack interactions just feels so insanely inconsistent. Every time I revisit the older titles I am instantly reminded how much more functional the combat used to feel.
The new Agent style's main gimmick are the 4 gadgets which were cool at first but you quickly realize just how useless they are.
Both drones and firefly don't synergize with Kiryu's gameplay whatsoever and straight up just suck. What even is the intended gameplay pattern with them? Am I meant to run in circles and spam drones for mosquito damage? How do I prevent the enemies from just walking outside the firefly blast range? They're fun ideas but poorly thought out.
I straight up forgot the rocketboots or whatever they're called even existed.
This only leaves the spider, which you'd think would really come in clutch with how much the enemies love to block but uh oh it doesn't work on bosses, elite enemies and bigger enemies (not sure what the exact rules are) and the spider's AOE capabilities are outshined by Extreme Heat Mode making all 4 gadget essentially useless.
While the ending scene is really well done and it alongside Kiryu's and Hanawa's bond are the highlights of the game, it in no shape or form justifies a 50$ price tag.
Gaiden's existence and Kiryu's inclusion in 7 just spit on Yakuza 6's ending and show RGG's inability to close out the "Kiryu saga" and move on.
After playing Infinite Wealth I can say that Gaiden is completely pointless and Yokoyama is incapable of planning anything.
Cool, great ending.
This game starts with Kiryu being a Daidoji agent who is held prisoner by the faction with them actively threatening to murder the orphanage at every turn... How did we get here? None of this was mentioned at the end of 6. Why do the Daidoji have him walking around town when he is supposed to be dead? What does the supposedly super powerful shadow government even get from having Kiryu as an agent when he obviously doesn't wanna corporate?
The Daidoji faction suffers the same fate as many other Yakuza/LaD antagonists where they're presented as super intelligent and cunning but in reality are just dumb as shit.
The rest of the story is just Yakuza 7 dlc that tries to explain how Kiryu was able to show up in that game. At only 5 chapters long the game is quite short but the issue is that those 5 chapters are padded to hell and back with uninteresting, fetch quest level tier content.
The Akame network and to a lesser extent the Castle are complete inconsequential slop that is just there to stretch out ~2 hours of content to ~15. Even in universe Kiryu just helps out with the Akame network because he has nothing better to do while waiting for her to bring him to the Castle. You could remove both of them and Nishitani and the narrative would not be impacted.
The Watase family buys Kiryu's freedom -> They welcome Watase -> Shishido betrays you etc.
On that note, Shishido's betrayal as a whole feels so flat. His introduction is cool and instantly paints him as a big player in the story but for the rest of the game leading up to the betrayal he is just a minor character that even Kiryu doesn't care about. Him representing the old yakuza who don't want to/can't move on from the life also feels redundant because it's stuff 7 already touched upon which again further cements Gaiden's lack of identity or originality.
His fight is pretty sick tho.
At the end both him and Nishitani are taken in by the Daidoji to become agents (again not sure why they do this shit) probably never be to be seen again. At this point I'm hoping the Daidoji faction as a whole just magically disappears from the series.
It's never explained how Kiryu was able to show up in the later part of 7 wearing his iconic red-white suit and fight Kasuga at the Geomijul hideout. Not surprising because clearly none of this was planned and it makes 0 sense.
The combat is certainly better than Yakuza 6/Kiwami 2 but the Dragon Engine is still as janky as ever. It's hard to really put into words but everything from hitbox/hurtboxes to attack interactions just feels so insanely inconsistent. Every time I revisit the older titles I am instantly reminded how much more functional the combat used to feel.
The new Agent style's main gimmick are the 4 gadgets which were cool at first but you quickly realize just how useless they are.
Both drones and firefly don't synergize with Kiryu's gameplay whatsoever and straight up just suck. What even is the intended gameplay pattern with them? Am I meant to run in circles and spam drones for mosquito damage? How do I prevent the enemies from just walking outside the firefly blast range? They're fun ideas but poorly thought out.
I straight up forgot the rocketboots or whatever they're called even existed.
This only leaves the spider, which you'd think would really come in clutch with how much the enemies love to block but uh oh it doesn't work on bosses, elite enemies and bigger enemies (not sure what the exact rules are) and the spider's AOE capabilities are outshined by Extreme Heat Mode making all 4 gadget essentially useless.
While the ending scene is really well done and it alongside Kiryu's and Hanawa's bond are the highlights of the game, it in no shape or form justifies a 50$ price tag.
Gaiden's existence and Kiryu's inclusion in 7 just spit on Yakuza 6's ending and show RGG's inability to close out the "Kiryu saga" and move on.
After playing Infinite Wealth I can say that Gaiden is completely pointless and Yokoyama is incapable of planning anything.