The most "Yakuza" Yakuza game. In its main story, side content, battle animations, etc. they have never made a game before or since that has captured this series' qualities and cranked them up to 11... for better and worse. Everything that is problematic about the series, it's here. Everything that can be tedious about the series, it's here. Everything that makes the series sick, it's here. Everything that you could say about the stories of these games, it's all here. For many reasons I now refrain from calling this "the best", or even that this series is "good" in actuality. However, I know back when I played this as my first Yakuza game, I absolutely had a blast (before and when I got back to it from a 2 year hiatus) and legitimately cried throughout the finale,whether the game actually earned that or not. If you were to play one Yakuza game (and please, for your own sake, do not play every Yakuza game), I'm not truly sure if this should be it, this is the 5th game of a long running series after all, but I do truly believe that this is the definitive Yakuza game in all of its strengths and its faults.