Well I'll be damned. I enjoyed a turn based RPG. I REALLY fucking enjoyed a turn based RPG. This game is DAMN good. Let me preface this entire review by saying I am the biggest anti-RPG guy in the world. I hate the concept of waiting my turn to attack and having to be patient during combat. Basically my attention span can't take it. However, this game does a lot to keep my goopy goblin gamer brain interested. For one this is a yakuza game, which means it is the silliest, goofiest, not-serious thing in the world. The absurdness of the attacks happening and animations just kept me entertained. Button-prompts to block damage or amplify attacks also made it so I would actually have to pay attention and care about what i'm doing (yes I know thats in a lot of RPGs but idc it just worked well in this game for me). The actual core combat isn't anything that insane. It just mixing in with a lot of other factors kept me enthralled and not getting bored. What also helps is me playing on normal. I kinda breezed through this game without having to go out of my way to grind. There was really only one boss that made me actually had to sit for like an hour and grind a dungeon and I think that's when I enjoyed this game the least. I might've stopped there, if there wasn't another thing that kept me going. The story and characters. I didn't think it was possible for this series to make me get attached to an entirely new set of characters we have never seen before. Yet here I am, enjoyable every bit of dialogue the party members exchange. There's little spots you can find while free-roaming that have your party members share funny interactions that increase bond level. When you increase this bond level to a certain limit you can have a drink with each individual members who share unique backgrounds and substories. And I love each and every second of it. The fact each member also gets their own karaoke song is fucking awesome and I love it. Speaking of characters, we have to talk about the main man himself, Kasuga Ichiban. What a phenomenal character. I fucking love this man, honestly I might enjoy him more than I do Kiryu (maybe just maybe). He's not the same stoic, high-mighty, and wise guy kiryu is. He's just a cocky dumbass who loves his friends, and I love that about him. The fact that all the crazy RPG elements and animations are ENTIRELY in his head due to him playing dragon quest as a kid (also schizophrenia) is the funniest thing ever. If Ichiban dies in battle, you instantly lose the fight because that means his illusion ends. Which from a story standpoint, I fucking love and is hilarious. But from a gameplay standpoint, I hate and think is dumb. The ending to this game is one of the most emotional endings to any yakuza game and that is purely because of how attached I got to Ichiban and the members of this game. I could go on and on about the story but I gotta wrap up. At the time of writing this review, I have finished all mainline yakuza games (A spinoff came out an hour before I wrote this). This entire series is an absolute treasure and I think it's a series everyone should experiences. I am incredibly glad to have played these games and I can't wait to play more future installments. Also this is NOT a shoutout to my friend London who did NOT kind of motivate me to play these games. (In all honestly I started playing these games cause Mang0 played 0 on stream and never finished it which pissed me off cause I got attached to the story)