looking back on 5, it's definitely way too big for its own good, too many story ideas, no matter how great they are, tie its threads very messily in the finale, but i think it leads to highlighting the best and worst of the series. every playable character is easily pushed to their maximum potential (except for akiyama who sucks with bosses) that all feel like natural evolutions of their previous gameplay styles in 4. shinada easily has the best character development and most enjoyable story in the entire franchise - even outshining majima in yakuza 0 (imo) the side stories, no matter how jarring, are honestly really charming. music is some of the best, and also has the best. final boss. and ending. in the series. no question.

this might just have some of the best story and characters in the series, everyone is amazing, villains are quite odd but compelling, the gameplay fucking sucks tho, it's wayyyyy too unbalanced, and bosses near the end just turned into huge damage sponges, causing an unnecessary and annoying amount of grinding. also the new city is a great addition it looks beautiful, but there should have been a better way to navigate through the big ass place. easily could've been the best if the gameplay was enjoyable

at this point i'm not really sure if I like this more than y5, but there just hasn't been a game that's felt this good to play in ages. the only real complaint i have is the story heavily strays away from the mystery/detective elements that made the first game's story so great. final boss was still raw tho

people give this game a lot of hate but honestly I think it's really really good.
the characters, while kinda underdeveloped, are very memorable.
boss fights are also very fun, some of them being the best fights in the series
the pacing is a little off but the story is pretty good as well
the gameplay is not as bad as everyone says it is, but it does have its flaws (that are mostly only apparent in the remaster) mostly being you not dealing jackshit damage to bosses, and the quickstep being fucked up for you and buffed to oblivion for certain enemies
despite all that, it's still a great game and defo worth your time

gameplay wise it's just some more boring dragon engine stuff, but they really outdid themselves with the story and characters in this one
too bad tailing missions make the game boring

story is really disappointing and lackluster for kiryu's final brawler, but the awesome combat and coliseum (best arena in the series by far) make up for it imo. plus, they finally let us know what the children at morning glory are doing, and they brought back taichi suzuki, of course it's going to be great.

after replaying this game like 3 times this game just kinda feels like middle ground to me. it's a very good game on its own but there's just not a lot in this one that the other games haven't done better. like the combat is a great improvement over the previous games but it's messed up by the shit heat system, and the story, while interesting as it is, isn't as good as something like 7 or judgment. game's still pretty cool though.

this game looks gorgeous but the combat plays like ASS, i only found it fun because of the glitches
the story is fine but they could have tied up a lot of loose ends with older characters and not have every substory be a 0 reference
this game also has some of the best villains in the series as well
overall it's a solid entry in the series but kinda underwhelming for kiryu's last entry

side content is very very impressive, but my god the main story was unbearable.

it's just the 1st game but it tells the story worse because of the fact that they reuse every asset from other games instead of making new stuff
so it lessens the impact of literally everything
except the new nishiki scenes those were raw
gameplay is a rehash of 0 but you can instantly change styles, easily the best combat in mainline yakuza but its underwhelming

i really like this game, it does a lot of stuff right, especially in its story (and the main villain being the best of the series, second to 2's and 3's), but my GOD the gameplay was terrible
it's very raw, i love the punching sfx, but the fact that you cannot turn around while doing a combo is very aggravating, apparently 2 fixed this and if it did that makes everything a whole lot better. still need to playthrough it fully sometime
the swearing dub is funny but it diminishes most of the sincerity that was carried by the japanese voices, that would have been way better

boy what the hell boy

ehhhhhhhhhhh
akiyama is such a strong start to this game, such a charming character, great gameplay and the story really felt like it was gonna go somewhere by the end
saejima had a cool story, but his gameplay style feels way too slow
tanimura i didn't like at all, his gameplay rivals akiyama's but his actual character is just so uninteresting being a classic corrupt cop, and its where they start unveiling all the terrible plot twists and shit
kiryu wasn't even supposed to be in this game and it shows - this game also started the trend of kiryu's story parts becoming a lot less interesting - at that point i felt like he was just so on top of the world that all villains from this onwards feel so insignificant and unnecessary
speaking of the villains, they're the worst in the entire series as well. i'd say something about them but they were just so forgettable that i can't remember anything apart from rubber bullets

gameplay is just a rehash of yakuza 3 but you can quickstep, not that much of an improvement
I do like the fact that they expanded kamurocho with all the underground stuff but apart from that there wasn't a lot of interesting stuff to keep me coming back

it wasn't worth bringing ryuji back just for a bunch of zombies to make my ps3 to run at 2fps