After seven games, I've finally completed the last chapter in Kiryu's story and... wow. Yakuza 6 is one of the best of this already amazing saga. After the clusterfuck that was Yakuza 5, taking a step back and making this story smaller in scale feels like a breath of fresh air and helps a lot the more introspective narrative of this game. It's also got things for the fans of larger conflicts, but it mostly focuses on the theme of parenthood and I love the way it deals with it. The characters are also amazing. I can't help but praise Kiryu, he's up there as one of my favorite videogame protagonists and he doesn't disappoint here either. The new characters steal the show too, specially Nagumo and Someya. The legacy cast is barely there though, only Akiyama and maybe Date are important here, but the rest are mostly offscreen and it feels a little wrong if we take this as the final game with Kiryu. Also the main villain is... fine, but he's revealed way too late into the story for me to care too much about him.

As for the gameplay, it's really good! The dragon engine has some wonky physics, but they don't detract from the experience, in fact I'd say this is the most fun game to play in the franchise. My only issue is that heat actions are barely available, you can't use them on fallen enemies and it kind of elongates fights more than they need to.

Yakuza 6 is a perfect send-off for Kiryu, and I enjoyed it a lot despite its several shortcomings. I can see why some people may think it's not that great, but for me this is easily my second favorite of the franchise as of now. Can't wait to get my clutches on Like A Dragon.