This game was a rollercoaster for me.

The opening chapters were great, I was super into the story.
The middle chapters up until the final chapter were kind of interesting to me. The focus on this 'secret' nonsense ended up feeling like a lame pay-off, even if it has very real in-game consequences. The ending saved it for me because it had Kiryu/Haruka stuff, and more focus on the stuff I personally care about, and less on the Chinese mafia/Korean mafia/Iwami Shipyard politics going on.

Gameplay was solid throughout. Had fun with the new combat system, but every single boss played out the same for me. I miss certain heat actions but the new ones are cool.

The side stuff was a letdown, as well as the new city. It was much too small and half of it (the north half) felt off-putting to travel to for side stories. Speaking of which, there were maybe a few too many supernatural side-stories, kind of a turn-off for me.

At the end of the day, I enjoyed the first 30% and the final 5% a lot, but everything else kinda dragged it out from a 9 to around a 5 or 6 out of 10. I'm gonna go with 6/10 because I did like how the ending left me feeling and I liked the gameplay when I had to fight a ton of dudes (which thankfully happens often), but I almost wanna drop it back down to a 5/10 because of what they've done with Haruka's character post-Yakuza 5. Damn shame. Consider my score somewhere between a 5 and a 6.

I beat this game two days ago and I have been hesitant to post my review since I've been debating what score to give it: 4,5, or a 6.

Ultimately and unfortunately, I give this game a 4 out of 10.

Lemme break down my experience with the game into 5 distinct 'chapters' like the game breaks it down between the protagonists.

Part1: Where is Kiryu?
(1 hour in as Akiyama)
Ok this guy and his story is really cool, I can fuck with this.

Part 2: Wait we're switching already to a new guy? Ok this prison stuff is interesting.
(everything with Saejima after the prison part) alright this isnt interesting at all, and this guy doesn't play that well.
Note: I almost dropped the game at this part because even the Majima fight at the end felt anticlimactic.

Part 3: Lemme give this Tanimura guy a chance.
(2 hours later) OK this guy is the least likable person in this series, when is the Kiryu or Akiyama part?

Part 4: My boy Kiryu! This is sure to be great.
(2 hours later) I cant believe how disappointing this is. We have 4 protagonists and only Kamurocho to explore where Yakuza 2 and 3 had 2 areas each, and they somehow don't treat the Kiryu chapters any better than the rest of the game.

Part 5: The end of the Kiryu chapter and the entire final chapter. I'm sure if youre still here reading this, you probably have played this game. Up until now I was sort of into the story, mostly the Yasuko part and not much else, MAYBE Tanimura's father's demise and not Tanimura himself. The scene on the rooftop at the end of chapter 16 was a roller coaster. The rubber bullet nonsense is known by this point, then Yasuko becomes a magic zombie girl who ignores getting shot and then immediately dies when she kills the other guy, then more rubber bullet nonsense. I cannot stress enough how lame a concept having rubber bullets ruining the Saejima scene is in a game like this. Top it off with a final chapter where we fight 4 guys where I felt like Arai was the only one I 'felt' like fighting from story implications. I dont even remember the senior cop guy's name because I had zero motivation to have him as a villain. It was so fucking inconsequential. ON TOP OF THAT, where 3 of the final 4 fights were 'ok,' the final fight against him is BY FAR the WORST fight in any Yakuza game I've played, and I've played 7 so far. (0-4 and both Kiwami) Who the fuck approved that? Overall the combat encounters in this game didn't feel too interesting, where even 1 on ps2 had more fun encounters. If the story is eh and the combat scenarios aren't that fun what are you even left with?

Then in the ending that whole weird part about Hana losing so much weight from not eating at all was so offputting. Leave the poor girl alone, don't make us applaud the idea that she's 'skinny' now because she was so sick she couldn't eat. I felt so bad for her and then they pull that shit out, and she takes off her glasses as if you can only be pretty if you dont wear glasses and are skinny. Such a stupid part.

This game tried new ideas and I applaud them for it but ultimately, coming off of 1-3 which all had stories and villains that I felt strongly about, to this where the whole thing just felt like it came and went, lowered my score of the game a lot. I liked Akiyama's part a lot, I wish the game had more of him and I felt they could have done Saejima better (Yes I am aware they are in part 5, btw) but Tanimura felt like he didn't belong with us.

One final thing to mention that also made me lower my view of the game: holy shit does this game feel rushed. It was made in less than 2 years, I think it was a little more than 1? and boy does it show. Hard to go into detail since it was so many little things I noticed, like the entirety of the final showdown of Saejima's chapters happening in 1 big room, where previous games would have multiple rooms for the different fights.

4/10, a bad Yakuza game.