Well that's not untrue, but it is what it is. I've never played another Yakuza and I'd heard this one was welcoming to newbies as it's set in an entirely new setting. Half of the story with Ichiban I could get on board (even without having played Like A Dragon), and the other half with Kiryu was, logically, something I couldn't relate to. I might simply have been lead astray by the marketing.

So the game is trying to have it both ways, which works for seasoned veterans, but not for me. And I only have my point of view to give, which is that the game is impenetrable for half of its runtime !

Otherwise, the story still dragged on for way too long, fan service or no. There's so much useless running around, and that to me still makes this a very unevenly paced game.