This is a hard game to talk about for me. Because there is a lot of things I love and also hate.
Combat
We have 4 styles now(+dlc) and every style kicks ass. I can't believe I am saying this but combat is somehow beats yakuza 0 for me, it's that damn good.
Also they really fixed the problems from the previous judgment game. Crane is pretty good now with a lot of new upgrades! Tiger is nerfed a little so you don't kill bosses in 3 combos and with tiger fissure!(at least not in hard mod). They at least returned to yakuza 6 style ex gauge(you can take damage but you can't get killed). I still dislike it, but at least it's better than previous one. Also tanimura's style returned and made even better with making the moveset more group control friendly! Also with dlc, we have boxing back! Compared to the other styles it doesn't have flashy moves or varied moveset, but have really fast movement and dodges so it makes my prefered style when it comes to bosses.
Not just that, every style have it's bonus buff, for example if you dodge with crane you get speed boost, if you do a combo with tiger you get damage boost, if you counter with snake you get unstunnable, if you use boxing you fill heat faster. With this upgrades game becomes almost dmc like and I damn liked that.
Also mortal system removed, it still have the red attacks, but it's there to indicate for heavy attacks you can counter and nothing more. I kinda wish it still exist tho for the legend mod at least
The things I didn't like is, some mini bosses or big bosses have instant grab moves that punished you hard and felt cheap to me. Also for some reason you can get pretty easily stunned in this game, I found myself spamming x to get out of stun multiple times and tbh it bothered me a bit.
Btw there is new qte system and it's a combination of button presses, problem is timing is pretty tight, except og y2 I never had problem with qtes but in this game, also with og2 unfortunately I am a bit torn upon this.
But other than dragon engine's classic stupid physics still I have to say combat S tier, it's that damn good.
Side content
It's meh for me. If we look up the number I think this game have bigger content than 5 but unlike 5 I don't think they tested the side content enough. I can safely say I only liked boxing and dancing. Rest of it get on my nerves how grindy and unbalanced they are. But At least sidequests are miles better than og judgment so that's something...
Also amon fight in this game... Damn so awesome. He really puts you to the test and really forces you to be good at stunning and dodging. Since kenzan and og2, I never thought they would do an another pure challenge boss rather than gimmick or unbalanced garbage amon bosses.
Story
This is the part I am a bit torn. For me first half of the game was so boring and monotonous that I thought it was gonna be another y5 syndrome for me. Fortunately it's not, because the rival and antagonists of this game is soo well written, I think rgg outdone themselves. They have understandable motives and good conflict with the main character I damn liked that.
The problem is one character becomes really important for yagami but they really use that person wrong in my opinion. Why? Because intention with that character is player to care about him. But when you make your own character too stubborn and doesn't trust to the main character, you can't connect to that character unfortunately. Also that character used wrong in my opinion, they use that character for Yagami to prove a point yet there is too many other ways to go around it? To be honest this decision alone kinda gives the feeling of Yagami on the wrong side one because his own argument kinda sucks and his argument should be the other way around with how a devastating hate destroys "everyone" eventually, "not just one single person". There. I made your argument for you Yagami.
Not just that, game expects you to care about bully kids that you met in the first chapter without showing us their good side or spending quality time with connecting them to yagami. I can't say they did a good job with that. Because of that I really find first half of the story really badly told, at times game made me sleepy even. Yet second half is soo good for me with how they build antagonist's side of the story, but also there is an another problem with getting too big for it's own good tho even in the second half. Because of that I am conflicted.
But I can't say story is garbage or anything still, because story saves itself with the rival character, it's that good, since y2 I never excited about the rival character that much. But this game did this feeling for me again.
Oh also I have some nitpicks too about the game unfortunately
Nitpicks
-Long battles not energic and actually can be even boring with all those climbing
-You still fight with bosses twice or thrice
-For some reason dpad left and right buttons are unused. Why? Just let me assign styles or items into that please.
-Kamurocho and Ijincho is barren as heck. Even the conversation areas are barren, max 6-7 npc's are on the screen. For some reason all the development spent for the school. Somehow school feels lively than Kamurocho and Ijincho itself... Why? They just went 2 steps back compared to the judgment's excellent atmosphere and vibes and not a fan of this!
-Also this is my first time seeing Ijincho but it's unfortunately doesn't look flashy as kamurocho, it looks graphically looks inferior even.
-Btw why the heck almost every substory or minigame story requires you to go back to school? It's really annoying because you fast travel, watch loading, talk in the school, exit the school, watch loading, fast travel back to substory or minigame, watch loading, skate back to the marked place and repeat this 70 times. It's really grating.
So yeah, highs are high a lot, but negatives are not small either. But even with that it managed me to satisfy me in the end so I am happy, but for the next game I would rather have a more personal and more focused story that interpolates our gang and side characters into itself much more strongly like the first game.
Combat
We have 4 styles now(+dlc) and every style kicks ass. I can't believe I am saying this but combat is somehow beats yakuza 0 for me, it's that damn good.
Also they really fixed the problems from the previous judgment game. Crane is pretty good now with a lot of new upgrades! Tiger is nerfed a little so you don't kill bosses in 3 combos and with tiger fissure!(at least not in hard mod). They at least returned to yakuza 6 style ex gauge(you can take damage but you can't get killed). I still dislike it, but at least it's better than previous one. Also tanimura's style returned and made even better with making the moveset more group control friendly! Also with dlc, we have boxing back! Compared to the other styles it doesn't have flashy moves or varied moveset, but have really fast movement and dodges so it makes my prefered style when it comes to bosses.
Not just that, every style have it's bonus buff, for example if you dodge with crane you get speed boost, if you do a combo with tiger you get damage boost, if you counter with snake you get unstunnable, if you use boxing you fill heat faster. With this upgrades game becomes almost dmc like and I damn liked that.
Also mortal system removed, it still have the red attacks, but it's there to indicate for heavy attacks you can counter and nothing more. I kinda wish it still exist tho for the legend mod at least
The things I didn't like is, some mini bosses or big bosses have instant grab moves that punished you hard and felt cheap to me. Also for some reason you can get pretty easily stunned in this game, I found myself spamming x to get out of stun multiple times and tbh it bothered me a bit.
Btw there is new qte system and it's a combination of button presses, problem is timing is pretty tight, except og y2 I never had problem with qtes but in this game, also with og2 unfortunately I am a bit torn upon this.
But other than dragon engine's classic stupid physics still I have to say combat S tier, it's that damn good.
Side content
It's meh for me. If we look up the number I think this game have bigger content than 5 but unlike 5 I don't think they tested the side content enough. I can safely say I only liked boxing and dancing. Rest of it get on my nerves how grindy and unbalanced they are. But At least sidequests are miles better than og judgment so that's something...
Also amon fight in this game... Damn so awesome. He really puts you to the test and really forces you to be good at stunning and dodging. Since kenzan and og2, I never thought they would do an another pure challenge boss rather than gimmick or unbalanced garbage amon bosses.
Story
This is the part I am a bit torn. For me first half of the game was so boring and monotonous that I thought it was gonna be another y5 syndrome for me. Fortunately it's not, because the rival and antagonists of this game is soo well written, I think rgg outdone themselves. They have understandable motives and good conflict with the main character I damn liked that.
The problem is one character becomes really important for yagami but they really use that person wrong in my opinion. Why? Because intention with that character is player to care about him. But when you make your own character too stubborn and doesn't trust to the main character, you can't connect to that character unfortunately. Also that character used wrong in my opinion, they use that character for Yagami to prove a point yet there is too many other ways to go around it? To be honest this decision alone kinda gives the feeling of Yagami on the wrong side one because his own argument kinda sucks and his argument should be the other way around with how a devastating hate destroys "everyone" eventually, "not just one single person". There. I made your argument for you Yagami.
Not just that, game expects you to care about bully kids that you met in the first chapter without showing us their good side or spending quality time with connecting them to yagami. I can't say they did a good job with that. Because of that I really find first half of the story really badly told, at times game made me sleepy even. Yet second half is soo good for me with how they build antagonist's side of the story, but also there is an another problem with getting too big for it's own good tho even in the second half. Because of that I am conflicted.
But I can't say story is garbage or anything still, because story saves itself with the rival character, it's that good, since y2 I never excited about the rival character that much. But this game did this feeling for me again.
Oh also I have some nitpicks too about the game unfortunately
Nitpicks
-Long battles not energic and actually can be even boring with all those climbing
-You still fight with bosses twice or thrice
-For some reason dpad left and right buttons are unused. Why? Just let me assign styles or items into that please.
-Kamurocho and Ijincho is barren as heck. Even the conversation areas are barren, max 6-7 npc's are on the screen. For some reason all the development spent for the school. Somehow school feels lively than Kamurocho and Ijincho itself... Why? They just went 2 steps back compared to the judgment's excellent atmosphere and vibes and not a fan of this!
-Also this is my first time seeing Ijincho but it's unfortunately doesn't look flashy as kamurocho, it looks graphically looks inferior even.
-Btw why the heck almost every substory or minigame story requires you to go back to school? It's really annoying because you fast travel, watch loading, talk in the school, exit the school, watch loading, fast travel back to substory or minigame, watch loading, skate back to the marked place and repeat this 70 times. It's really grating.
So yeah, highs are high a lot, but negatives are not small either. But even with that it managed me to satisfy me in the end so I am happy, but for the next game I would rather have a more personal and more focused story that interpolates our gang and side characters into itself much more strongly like the first game.