I loved this game a lot okay I finished it like an hour ago im so sad thats its over and sad becuase WHAT WAS THAT ENDING??

Anyways, my brother and I were super super hyped to play this game ever since we added it to our 'to-play' list. We have a super complex system to how we play our games together which I wont be getting into here becuase its a lot but the gist is we play one game at a time. When we acquired yakuza, we were already playing a very shit game + my brother has played this before and loved it, and our excitement got to such a point that after weeks of saying 'ugh can we just get to yakuza already' we ended up abandoning the shit game and starting up yakuza, which we have never done before.

Good decision!

So, by that backstory I just gave you, you can tell that our excitement levels were through the roof and boy this did not disappoint! I really can't think of any flaws in this game, besides the decently annoying hoodlums that constantly try to square up to you ("Oi!").

I've never played any sort of game or consumed any sort of media in general that has to do with any country's criminal underworld, so this was very new to me, and I loved every second of it! So much drama and fighting, it made me really sad and angry at times but god I loved it.

Fight music is also pretty cool lol, so is one of the tracks that plays when you're just wandering around the city.

The storyline was also incredibly enjoyable, even if I didn't quite grasp some aspects of it (its not on the game, its on me).

The most important part of any story to me is the characters and it was also the case here.

Kiryu! Kazuma. Kiryu-chan. I love that guy, like a lot. He's just so fucking edgy sometimes and stupid and overpowered and grumpy (99% of the time) and I love him for that. Cool hair, kinda looks like a rooster if you look at it from the right angle. My favorite character, as expected.

Next, Haruka, who I also absolutely adore. She's just so fucking adorable and cute and she should not have went through all that she did at 9 years old, poor thing. Very mature for her age, too. Absolute cutie.

Nishiki, or Nishikiyama if you want to be fancy. Despite all that he did I still really like him as a character. I wish he got a redemption arc haha. Oh well. Cool guy, like his hair a lot. His koi tattoo is also sick. He should not have blown himself up there were others ways to make up for what he did god fucking dammit how can he be so stupid did he not hear Kiryu screaming for fuck's sake??? Come on dude. :(((

I feel really bad for Reina considering she did everything in her power to get Nishiki to like her (and it was sad that he never did. Like come on I know you like Yumi but. But bro :(( ). She didn't deserve to die.

And Yumi, who looked a lot better before her transformation but oh well. I didnt really care about her much throughout most of the game (as im sure was the intention of the game developers since we know nearly nothing about her until the very end) but once the end rolled around I felt really really bad for her and all that she went through becuase of the whole memory loss thing (Can we talk about how she kept Kiryu's picture in the pendant and still remembered him and that he was a good person, despite not even remembering his name??? That's so sick like genuinely that is awesome human brains are cool sometimes) and then the whole thing with Haruka (their reunion was really sweet, by the way. And when she was shot? "I got to hear you call me 'Mom' " oh god that was sad). Thats just a lot of weight for someone to bear you know. :(

I love the character dynamics between the good guys a lot. I love the brotherly dynamic between Nishiki and Kiryu a lot, I wish they remained that way. I also love the found-family trope/dynamic between Haruka and Kiryu (found-family is my favorite trope in any media in general), they were so sweet, espechially with how grumpy Kiryu is and how more smiley and bubbly Haruka is. They were the perfect duo, and when in the end Yumi came along as well they made a perfect trio. I loved Haruka's and Kiryu's reunion with her a lot, espechially the group hug after the fight with Nishiki. Didn't last long but, oh well. I'm still really sad about that. In my own alternate world of this game no one dies and everyone lives happily ever after, okay?

So, yeah. I loved this game a lot and I'm so so happy that I discovered this series becuase this first game was truly amazing. Such a good game!