The peak of the series, a point that none of the future installments have come close to reaching. The best combat of the series, its so much fun. Tweak a few things and this is just a character action game.

The best villain and atmosphere of the series. Smoothed out all the issues of Yakuza 1 (outside of some of these substories, fuck those minigames man) to make one of the best games on the ps2

Great first impression to a new cast. I do dislike how they just decided to drop everyone else for no reason and just wrote them out forever. A very basic but fun jrpg with some pretty glaring issues. I hope to see things like only being able to change character classes at the job center changed in the next installment. If they don't improve from here I worry for the longevity of the series

Raw and kino story of brothers becoming enemies. A lot better than people will give credit. Perfectly paced for this story. There is an undub patch now literally zero reason to play kiwami over this now

Honestly felt like a return to form for the series. It has all the strengths narratively with lovable characters like Kaito and Mikiko. It keeps things small scale with only a few characters focusing on their interpersonal drama with a larger conspiracy in the background that is used as a vehicle for the character drama instead of vice versa. Keeps twists to a minimum instead of trying to constantly blindside the player. Combat feels great, the pacing is superb, zero bloat spotted. We need more stuff like this RGG

Good start to a new series. The detective mechanics in this game are as shallow as a puddle. They hand hold you to the point you can't fail anything and dailogue options are completely pointless since the game will bend over backwards to justify having you be able to select the other options.

Mechanically the best dragon engine game. Narratively it gets too grand in scale and convoluted for its own good which leads me to feel that Judgment's story was cleaner by comparison. It was a much stronger narrative when it was just about local school bullies

People write this one off as the game that doesn't matter but it has some of the best character moments for kiryu especially in a context we don't often get to see (being a father). This game is failed by future installments with characters not being referenced at all going forward when there is no real reason not to

Parts of this game are the best in the series while other parts are the worst. Somehow feeling both too long and too short. The end of the game feels unfinished. Truly a mess of a game. The pacing and formula of 7 and 8 need to change if they want me to have any interest in the series going forward because my god i can't imagine going through the same song and dance for 9.

Maybe after waiting for this game for nearly a decade the hype was too high that it couldn't live up to it. Still a very good game that i enjoyed a lot but there are some things about it like the grind and some combat stuff that is really annoying. Maybe the original version is better but that will remain a mystery for me till i go play that for my retrospective on ishin. They shouldn't have changed the faces, justice for baba

Parts of this game are very good but also parts of it feel so pointless and didn't need to be shown. Not bad but not my favorite and i certainly don't agree with people who say this is the best game in the series, its not.

The worst final villain in the whole series, he's so bad i can't remember his name ever without looking it up or spending at least a minute plus just trying to think of it. Very cool introduction to the new playable characters but the story just constantly falls apart with the amount of shitty twists

The most frustrating entry of the main series. It does a lot of cool things but for as much good as it does it does equally or more bad. Combat is terrible, leveling system is terrible, parts of the story leave a lot to be desired. I do like the send off to Kiryu but the fact this is the last game for the entire old cast hurts this game unfairly because it shouldn't be the end for them. This is the end of the Kiryu saga and i think it did it well. But that shouldn't mean its the end for majima, saejima and akiyama

The final chapter of this game is great. Everything else is awful. Everyone is so stupid and all their plans make no sense. The leveling system rivals 6/k2 for how bad it is. Extremely bloated with busy work to justify that this is $50 instead of a dlc like it should have stayed

Bloated and flawed remake with terrible level system that is a horrible blend of the classic system and yakuza 0's keeping in the worst aspects of both. There for those who aren't willing to go back to the ps2 but as someone who likes those games I have no reason to ever play this game again. If I want to re-experience the story of yakuza 1 I will just play the original

bloated beyond belief with one of the worst leveling systems I've ever seen. Like kiwami 1 its for people who aren't willing to go back to the originals but as someone who likes them I have no reason to ever play this game again. If I want to re-experience its story I will replay 2