I had first learned of this game back around the time I started Yakuza 6 and ever since I had hoped that one day, due to the series' popularity exploding in the west after 0, it would come over. Needless to say my excitement when this was announced was through the roof. Sadly I cannot say I enjoyed the game as much as I would have liked. Even the worst (mainline) Yakuza game is great by gaming standards so its not like it was terrible, but it just never really landed for me.
Out of the way, its combat was fun as always. I do enjoy the style systems, Wild Dancer was probably the most fun for me as Brawler just felt absurdly weak, Gun was too run around and Sword was rather stiff. However it did get old by the end but that is something every game can run into as they grow in length. I really liked how the leveling up the skills was handled. The standard "get orb upon level up for skills" remains but rather than just the standard ones you get from a standard level up, you also get on for specifically the style that you ALSO leveled up (which maxes out at 25). Those style orbs can be swapped with the generic orbs in a slot which allows you to spend that generic on on a different skill entirely.
The story meandered at times, but thats common in the series and I found the busywork before the very end to be rather stupid. Take a walk around the city and do these minigames and fights these guys again (except for one who was the only new fight). That soured it and maybe if I knew more about Japanese history I would have been more interest. I did like that I could complete all the substories without gambling or fighting Amon, so I think this is the first game I actually did do all substories. I don't even know if he's in the game but he always seems to be so he must be hiding somewhere.
My biggest issues comes from getting money. Because of how much this game relies on weapons compared to the previous games, aside from 7 and one character in 5, you need to interact with grinding resources and making weapons more than usual. They are expensive, not as expensive as I remember weapons costing in Yakuza 7 but also you do not get money anywhere near as fast in Ishin. The whole Second Life subgame was clearly intended to be the go to for money outside of gambling but its not fast enough. The crops grow in real time, and even with the max level fields and using fertilizer (which has a cool down unless you interact with the order book) the best stuff takes 20 minutes. What you need for orders and how much you get for rewards goes on a rotation and from what I saw range from 2000 gon to 1.1 ryo (which if my math is correct 1 ryo is 10k gon) and that 1.1 was strictly for ginseng. Making weapons and armor costs both money and resources and the best stuff can cost hundreads of ryo which means over a million each item. You also need to level up the blacksmith to make the better stuff and making weapons barely even increases it at low levels nevermind higher. The best way was donating so you're either spending resources making weapons to donate or you're going to the arms dealing and buying the cheap weapons in bulk to donate both which will cost you A LOT of money as weapon drops from enemies didn't happen unless they were story bosses or found in the battle dungeons which in of themselves are monotonous.
No wonder everyone says you better learn how the chicken races work. I hate gambling to the point where if a game forces me to then I usually knock the game down a half point so I initially wasn't gonna even touch them but unless I wanted to rely on my packaged in dlc weapons the whole game or use unupgraded stuff. I went in there and used the exploit (available at the time of writing this) to basically get free money since it allowed the bet to be removed but still pay you out like it was active. I never had to worry about money after that and just used the golden gun as my gun equip the whole game after that.
The trooper system was also something I did not care for or wanted to interact with much. Trooper cards are cards that allow you to activate special abilities such as shooting a big fire beam or stealing health from enemies and give you bonuses such as an HP increase passively and attack increases if they are in the commander slot. I could no be bothered to want to level them up so I just used the free dlc ones and was almost entirely for the health bonus until bosses themselves started using similar attacks to them.
TLDR: I was excited for this one but unfortunately it just didn't really land. Combat was fun until the final dungeon where it became dull, story didn't grab me, and the game has a money wall problem that would grind it to a halt if I didn't learn of the ways to mitigate it as early as I did. I don't think its the worst but it also ain't gonna be in the top 5. I like it more than 6 but probably not more than 3 (I don't hate Blockuza as much as the average Yakuza fan). Also Sega I don't care that you changed the name in the west to be the same as in Japan, I'm gonna keep calling this series Yakuza due to not only due to reflex but my own stubborness.
Out of the way, its combat was fun as always. I do enjoy the style systems, Wild Dancer was probably the most fun for me as Brawler just felt absurdly weak, Gun was too run around and Sword was rather stiff. However it did get old by the end but that is something every game can run into as they grow in length. I really liked how the leveling up the skills was handled. The standard "get orb upon level up for skills" remains but rather than just the standard ones you get from a standard level up, you also get on for specifically the style that you ALSO leveled up (which maxes out at 25). Those style orbs can be swapped with the generic orbs in a slot which allows you to spend that generic on on a different skill entirely.
The story meandered at times, but thats common in the series and I found the busywork before the very end to be rather stupid. Take a walk around the city and do these minigames and fights these guys again (except for one who was the only new fight). That soured it and maybe if I knew more about Japanese history I would have been more interest. I did like that I could complete all the substories without gambling or fighting Amon, so I think this is the first game I actually did do all substories. I don't even know if he's in the game but he always seems to be so he must be hiding somewhere.
My biggest issues comes from getting money. Because of how much this game relies on weapons compared to the previous games, aside from 7 and one character in 5, you need to interact with grinding resources and making weapons more than usual. They are expensive, not as expensive as I remember weapons costing in Yakuza 7 but also you do not get money anywhere near as fast in Ishin. The whole Second Life subgame was clearly intended to be the go to for money outside of gambling but its not fast enough. The crops grow in real time, and even with the max level fields and using fertilizer (which has a cool down unless you interact with the order book) the best stuff takes 20 minutes. What you need for orders and how much you get for rewards goes on a rotation and from what I saw range from 2000 gon to 1.1 ryo (which if my math is correct 1 ryo is 10k gon) and that 1.1 was strictly for ginseng. Making weapons and armor costs both money and resources and the best stuff can cost hundreads of ryo which means over a million each item. You also need to level up the blacksmith to make the better stuff and making weapons barely even increases it at low levels nevermind higher. The best way was donating so you're either spending resources making weapons to donate or you're going to the arms dealing and buying the cheap weapons in bulk to donate both which will cost you A LOT of money as weapon drops from enemies didn't happen unless they were story bosses or found in the battle dungeons which in of themselves are monotonous.
No wonder everyone says you better learn how the chicken races work. I hate gambling to the point where if a game forces me to then I usually knock the game down a half point so I initially wasn't gonna even touch them but unless I wanted to rely on my packaged in dlc weapons the whole game or use unupgraded stuff. I went in there and used the exploit (available at the time of writing this) to basically get free money since it allowed the bet to be removed but still pay you out like it was active. I never had to worry about money after that and just used the golden gun as my gun equip the whole game after that.
The trooper system was also something I did not care for or wanted to interact with much. Trooper cards are cards that allow you to activate special abilities such as shooting a big fire beam or stealing health from enemies and give you bonuses such as an HP increase passively and attack increases if they are in the commander slot. I could no be bothered to want to level them up so I just used the free dlc ones and was almost entirely for the health bonus until bosses themselves started using similar attacks to them.
TLDR: I was excited for this one but unfortunately it just didn't really land. Combat was fun until the final dungeon where it became dull, story didn't grab me, and the game has a money wall problem that would grind it to a halt if I didn't learn of the ways to mitigate it as early as I did. I don't think its the worst but it also ain't gonna be in the top 5. I like it more than 6 but probably not more than 3 (I don't hate Blockuza as much as the average Yakuza fan). Also Sega I don't care that you changed the name in the west to be the same as in Japan, I'm gonna keep calling this series Yakuza due to not only due to reflex but my own stubborness.