Greatly expanded the scoped of the series by including four protagonists, three of which that were completely brand new. And I think it did a fantastic job for the most part. Akiyama and Saejima are two characters I instantly fell in love with and are immediately among my very favourites in the series. Tanimura is solid too. And Kiryu remains excellent as he's always been. I appreciate that the plot was the most relatively down to earth one since Kiwami 1 as well. Their was no dull chapter. Unfortunately I do think parts were not extremely compelling and I kinda glossed over some of the later plot beats. The finale brought me right back in though. Extremely impressive that they managed to pull that team up together and have me so hyped just from a single game's worth of build up.

The gameplay was like a dream after Blockuza 3 and each protagonist's style was very fun.

This is probably the most conflicted I've been on a Yakuza game so far. It's the most I've ever been immersed and I did so much side stuff and substories which were fun but it has also exposed me to a lot of the tropes and idiosyncrasies of the series that are getting a bit old at this point. It's undoubtedly a good game but I don't know if it's great overall despite great moments.