Yet another game down on my journey to catch up on the series, doing every sub story along the way! And what a behemoth of a game this one was, as always I'll try to avoid spoilers but I'm going to talk about what I liked and disliked about all the playable characters and my overall feelings on the content and entire plot package after.
Kiryu: This is the most fun Kiryu to play in all of the PS3 remasters, fun, powerful and nice to control. His story is one of the stronger ones in 5 and his side story about taxi driving is EXTREMELY fun and addictive, the opening to this game might be my favorite opening in the series so far.
Saejima:He's graduated from bad gameplay to kinda good gameplay in this one. Still slow but a lot less so, and very powerful. His story was just...ok? It starts strong and I like the characters involved in it but it just felt kind of like a "whoops his story kinda sucked in 4 lets try it again". His side story about hunting is fun if a little repetitive.
Haruka: This might be divisive but her rhythm based gameplay and ability to roam around without 398493843984 dudes attacking you constantly is a breath of fresh air, I also think she had the strongest overall story in this game easily, her side story about doing idol jobs is extremely fun and relaxing.
Akiyama: He feels a lot weaker in this one, he's alright to play but something just feels off and his new air combos are cool but a little awkward to me. His story was nice but its mostly just in support of Haruka, he doesnt get a lot of screen time and the poor guy doesn't even get a side story :/.
Shinada: The newcomer to the group. His gameplay is uh...bad? It just feels terrible once you get used to it he's alright but he feels so weak, its a pretty common complaint about this one and I have to agree. Personality and story wise I like him well enough though I don't really feel like he fits in with the rest of the cast and is just kind of there. His side story didn't have much of an actual plot but it was really fun, if a little short.
Overall thoughts: I'm gonna get the negatives out of the way, first this is the only Yakuza game I've played where Premium Adventure completikon doesn't roll over into NG+ for some bizarre reason. Also the enemy spawn rate is way way too high, they are hard to avoid without using Beads of Good Fortune and sometimes I will chain up to five fights in a row just trying to get down the street which is extra annoying as a lot of side stories and such want you to backtrack back and forth. The positives? The gameplay is fun theres a lot to do (some might argue too much) and the story is miles ahead of Yakuza 4 which was a low point for the series for me. The minigames this time were really fun and the Amons were tough but fair (that last one got me down to a single healing item)
Excited to start Yakuza 6 soon!
Kiryu: This is the most fun Kiryu to play in all of the PS3 remasters, fun, powerful and nice to control. His story is one of the stronger ones in 5 and his side story about taxi driving is EXTREMELY fun and addictive, the opening to this game might be my favorite opening in the series so far.
Saejima:He's graduated from bad gameplay to kinda good gameplay in this one. Still slow but a lot less so, and very powerful. His story was just...ok? It starts strong and I like the characters involved in it but it just felt kind of like a "whoops his story kinda sucked in 4 lets try it again". His side story about hunting is fun if a little repetitive.
Haruka: This might be divisive but her rhythm based gameplay and ability to roam around without 398493843984 dudes attacking you constantly is a breath of fresh air, I also think she had the strongest overall story in this game easily, her side story about doing idol jobs is extremely fun and relaxing.
Akiyama: He feels a lot weaker in this one, he's alright to play but something just feels off and his new air combos are cool but a little awkward to me. His story was nice but its mostly just in support of Haruka, he doesnt get a lot of screen time and the poor guy doesn't even get a side story :/.
Shinada: The newcomer to the group. His gameplay is uh...bad? It just feels terrible once you get used to it he's alright but he feels so weak, its a pretty common complaint about this one and I have to agree. Personality and story wise I like him well enough though I don't really feel like he fits in with the rest of the cast and is just kind of there. His side story didn't have much of an actual plot but it was really fun, if a little short.
Overall thoughts: I'm gonna get the negatives out of the way, first this is the only Yakuza game I've played where Premium Adventure completikon doesn't roll over into NG+ for some bizarre reason. Also the enemy spawn rate is way way too high, they are hard to avoid without using Beads of Good Fortune and sometimes I will chain up to five fights in a row just trying to get down the street which is extra annoying as a lot of side stories and such want you to backtrack back and forth. The positives? The gameplay is fun theres a lot to do (some might argue too much) and the story is miles ahead of Yakuza 4 which was a low point for the series for me. The minigames this time were really fun and the Amons were tough but fair (that last one got me down to a single healing item)
Excited to start Yakuza 6 soon!