It took me long enough, but I finally have the Platinum Trophy for this game.

For a while I had very conflicting thoughts on the gameplay. Traditional turn-based RPGs are something I'm very picky with, with action combat being my preference. I thought the game felt too grindy at points during the first half, I felt super underpowered a few times, and I ended up getting burnt out at that point and shelved the game for a while. It ended up growing on me, as you can imagine, and when it clicked for me I became sort of addicted here. When I got access to efficient farming methods to get better gear, it became a lot more palpable for me (I might have slightly overleveled for a few certain fights). The Essence moves are hilariously over the top and always satisfying and entertaining to see play out.

The story and characters are where this one really shined for me. Ichiban is officially my favorite character in the entire series, the story is tied with Y0 for favorite in the franchise (2 is my favorite overall, for reference). I became IMMENSELY attached to everyone in the main cast, and it might have the greatest voice acting in any of the games and some of my favorite performances ever.

Completionists should heed my warning. If you want the Platinum, you'll need to do several minigames (some of which get rage-inducingly frustrating) and constant job farming to complete the final post-game dungeon, which might be the hardest challenge in a Yakuza game I've done.

This definitely got me to try out more traditional turn-RPGs, I have Persona, Nocturne, and a few others in my backlog. For now though, this is definitely a top tier Yakuza game and I'm looking forward to 8 (and of course Gaiden).

Strong 9/10