I'm split on Like A Dragon Gaiden: The first and final chapters of the game are great and feature some of the best story elements in the Like A Dragon franchise yet. The bridging chapters between them though? Not so much.
+ The new agent combat style is ridiculous in the best way possible and really helps spice up the usual LAD beat-em-up combat loop.
+ The finale chapter is fantastic and feels like a special reward to long-time fans. That heartwrenching scene in particular is arguably one of the best in the franchise's history.
- The story's pacing is bizarre in the middle, locking you out on a few occasions to do side activities at the coliseum or substories. It felt somewhat reminiscent of XC2: Torna - The Golden Country locking its final story section behind side quests, though Gaiden's pacing isn't quite that bad.
- The upgrade power curve here is much stronger than other LAD titles which makes the latter half of the game a bit of a joke difficulty-wise. However, this in turn makes Agent style even more stupidly fun so this might be a positive for you!
- I wasn't a huge fan of the Akame Network. It's a neat concept but I ultimately felt like it took away from the spontaneous bizarrely of substory introductions on top of the map being filled with fairly basic and mundane combat or fetch quests.
+ The new agent combat style is ridiculous in the best way possible and really helps spice up the usual LAD beat-em-up combat loop.
+ The finale chapter is fantastic and feels like a special reward to long-time fans. That heartwrenching scene in particular is arguably one of the best in the franchise's history.
- The story's pacing is bizarre in the middle, locking you out on a few occasions to do side activities at the coliseum or substories. It felt somewhat reminiscent of XC2: Torna - The Golden Country locking its final story section behind side quests, though Gaiden's pacing isn't quite that bad.
- The upgrade power curve here is much stronger than other LAD titles which makes the latter half of the game a bit of a joke difficulty-wise. However, this in turn makes Agent style even more stupidly fun so this might be a positive for you!
- I wasn't a huge fan of the Akame Network. It's a neat concept but I ultimately felt like it took away from the spontaneous bizarrely of substory introductions on top of the map being filled with fairly basic and mundane combat or fetch quests.