this game is big. really really big. despite that, it never felt bloated and I found the pacing of the story overall to be much better than in 7. the sheer amount of stuff to do is wonderful, though it does result in the game forcing many long, unskippable tutorials on the various side activities and this became very frustrating over time, though these were mostly concentrated in the first half of the game.

the game's story is also "big". perhaps too big for its own good, as the game has many different plot threads at work, and while I enjoyed most of these threads individually, I don't think it all tied together all that well. yakuza 4 and 5 were like this as well though I vastly enjoyed this game's narrative more than those games. it's a gripping story that I liked overall but I also feel that there was a lot of missed or wasted potential, particularly with what was set up in 7 and gaiden.

the RPG gameplay is a massive improvement over 7 though. i absolutely hated the combat and rpg mechanics in yakuza like a dragon but I had a lot more fun in this one. its still a bit shallow and there are a couple difficulty spikes and slumps but it's a big step in the right direction.

good game. shoutouts to yutaka yamai