I wanted to like this game so badly. I loved Kiwami to bits. But... the longer I played this, the more it frustrated and disappointed me. Switching back and forth between characters was clearly meant to illustrate their thematic mirroring, but in practice it bloated the game and killed pacing. Plus having to do multiple minigames and near-identical sidequests for both of them became tedious fast. I only finished Kiryu's real estate plot because I hate myself. Didn't manage Majima's clubs. And both their stories were... bad. While I understand a disconnect between gameplay and plot, Kiryu's arc included him gaining huge amounts of notice within the Yakuza, as well as becoming a real estate mogul on the side, but by the end he has to arbitrarily choose to go back to being basically a mook because the game's constraint as a prequel demands it. There was no character growth because there by design really -couldn't- be. And Majima started with a PHENOMENAL introduction, and I know that this was supposed to be his 'why is he LIKE that' origin, but I didn't buy into... any of it, for a number of reasons. I was largely bored by him. I kept waiting desperately for him and Kiryu to actually meet. Which they... never. really did? Also christ alive I HATED Makoto. I know and accept the sexism of Yakuza games. I can deal. Things aren't perfect. But Makoto was. A LOT. She's not a character, she's a macguffin suitcase with big innocent sad eyes, to be dragged along by the men around her, or sit in a warehouse and wait. And to ensure that she doesn't get ANY agency, they make her blind. She is more helpless than the literal 9 year old of Kiwami. It's so egregious.
So.. yeah. I don't know. I tried so hard, but this game did not do it for me.