This is just pure fun with an interesting story and tons of content.
The story is super interesting and swaps between Kiryu (the main protagonist from other Yakuza games) and Majima (pre KIRYU-CHAN!!!!!!!) that does come together nicely in the end. The main plot revolves around a plot (ba dum tsss) of land that various Yakuza families are trying to buy but the owner is missing so it's a hunt to find them. Kiryu is framed for murder within this small plot of land so his story is about proving his innocence and preventing a power struggle happening within the clan. Majina is an ex-Yakuza, forced into a civillian role to try and get back into the Yakuza lifestyle. It really is a massive difference between this Majima and future him but it actually makes me sad about how Majima ended up the way he is like in the future games and really develops his character from being this one joke character to add some humor.
The combat is the main attraction to this game. It is brutally fun, rediculous and super stylized. You have different fighting styles for each character that feels unique and great. The breaker style for Majima has him fighting like he's break dancing and the beast style for Kiryu has him feeling like a tank; slow and hard hitting to give some examples. The environmental "heat" moves are also ridiculous from smashing a guy's head in a door to dropkicking them out of a tower window. No killing though! Kiryu hasn't killed a single man. That highway shootout bit? Rubber bullets! Oh they exploded? Rubber explosions! It's a running joke in the series.
Now the open world aspect of the game. Most sorts of open games are massive with barely anything in them. This is the opposite. There's 2 areas to explore, each with A SHIT TON OF STUFF TO DO. I am not exaggerating. The substories are abundant everywhere you go and range from being very serious to downright hilariously stupid and I love it. One substory has you protect "Miracle Johnson" as he moonwalks through an area from zombies for his music video. Yep. That happens.
Then you also got the minigames. Holy crap there's a lot. To name a few, you got karaoke, batting cages, arcades, fighting arenas and dancing. I can't name everything cause there's just so much you can do!
All in all, this really is just scratching the surface of the game. The story is great, there's tons to do and it's just pure fun to play. Highly recommended.
The story is super interesting and swaps between Kiryu (the main protagonist from other Yakuza games) and Majima (pre KIRYU-CHAN!!!!!!!) that does come together nicely in the end. The main plot revolves around a plot (ba dum tsss) of land that various Yakuza families are trying to buy but the owner is missing so it's a hunt to find them. Kiryu is framed for murder within this small plot of land so his story is about proving his innocence and preventing a power struggle happening within the clan. Majina is an ex-Yakuza, forced into a civillian role to try and get back into the Yakuza lifestyle. It really is a massive difference between this Majima and future him but it actually makes me sad about how Majima ended up the way he is like in the future games and really develops his character from being this one joke character to add some humor.
The combat is the main attraction to this game. It is brutally fun, rediculous and super stylized. You have different fighting styles for each character that feels unique and great. The breaker style for Majima has him fighting like he's break dancing and the beast style for Kiryu has him feeling like a tank; slow and hard hitting to give some examples. The environmental "heat" moves are also ridiculous from smashing a guy's head in a door to dropkicking them out of a tower window. No killing though! Kiryu hasn't killed a single man. That highway shootout bit? Rubber bullets! Oh they exploded? Rubber explosions! It's a running joke in the series.
Now the open world aspect of the game. Most sorts of open games are massive with barely anything in them. This is the opposite. There's 2 areas to explore, each with A SHIT TON OF STUFF TO DO. I am not exaggerating. The substories are abundant everywhere you go and range from being very serious to downright hilariously stupid and I love it. One substory has you protect "Miracle Johnson" as he moonwalks through an area from zombies for his music video. Yep. That happens.
Then you also got the minigames. Holy crap there's a lot. To name a few, you got karaoke, batting cages, arcades, fighting arenas and dancing. I can't name everything cause there's just so much you can do!
All in all, this really is just scratching the surface of the game. The story is great, there's tons to do and it's just pure fun to play. Highly recommended.