Okay story that is carried hard by its characters/party. Kiryu's character and his development is written very well, and while I was happy with his story ending in 6, his arc here is a meaningful advancement for his character. And it manages to work in fanservice from older games without feeling like shallow cameos. However, this comes at the expense of everything else, namely shafting ichiban in his second game, leaving him stagnant and almost flanderized at certain points (and reducing saeko to just a love interest). The actual plot struggles under its weight with a lot of villains that come off as meh, tied to a lot of happenings/themes that are nowhere near as strong as 7's. At the very least, it doesn't fall apart as hard as some of the other large scale RGG games. Everything is messy. but the big ending scene manages to bring everything together with the charm that RGG has historically excelled at. Combat otoh is a big step up, and it feels so much more active and dynamic while still keeping the turn based structure. The animal crossing minigame was alright. They are real assholes if they try to make another kiryu focused game after this,

Meh. A few small character moments for kiryu hiding in a plot that spends its time either regurgitating older series plot beats but doing them worse, or spinning its wheels trying to create some dumb melodrama that doesnt have the development or charm to land the way that earlier LAD games did. Yakuza 6 (and 7 to an extent) handled these aspects so much better. Not to mention the forced side content padding, a big downgrade from kaito files which lacked any filler content in the main plot. Combat is a step down from lost judgment too, compounded by how much more grinding is needed to unlock skills. The opening cinematic, and the final boss fight and ending were cool tho.