This entry leaves a lot to be desired as an adaptation and pretty much requires mods to fix the changes to the music. Even then there's still stuff just not adapted well. In spite of all that I don't think its an actively bad way to play the second entry and there's still a lot to love here.

It's not my personal favorite in the whole series but its probably the best one overall. The shift to JRPG combat was kind of genius and like a lot of games in the series, there's just a lot to do here. Ichiban is also a very loveable protag.

A solid game that can sink your time away, but the AI's behavior can be more frustrating in the ways difficulty is generated. Once you are winning games on the highest difficulty though, it does lose some fun.

I would say this game is close to perfect at adapting the original story save for a few hiccups caused by Majima everywhere made up by the extra cutscenes added into this release, but what its adapting is just fine. Arguably the best combat in the Kiryu saga.

My introduction to this wonderful series and I wouldn't wanna be introduced any other way. The whole cast is spectacular and the game's story is a lot of fun as silly as it gets, plus there's just so much to do.

This game introduces some fan favorites like Akiyama and signaled the start of the series becoming what it would be today. It also drastically improves the awful combat from the previous game.

999 is really, really good, save for the pretty lackluster last third, and VLR is just okay at best and a trainwreck at the worst of times. If you play this play it for 999 really, not VLR, though if you like 999 you'll probably be ok with VLR.

This game's a giant mess but its a giant mess with good characters and mostly improved somniums. Unfortunately the game's Uchikoshi twist drags it down a lot and we miss out on some of the better character interactions from the last game.

5 stars for the actual game as imbalanced as it might be, 1 star for the F2P model. Aquiring cosmetics is just too damn expensive and the battle pass kind of sucks.

UPDATE:
They fixed a lot of the above, new cosmetics still expensive but the f2p experience is honestly ok and I think the current BP is a good deal.

Ending could be better but an overall amazing game with some of the most loveable characters you'll meet.

Pretty solid game, has a few soft points and the second chapter hasn't aged remarkably, but its pretty fun and entertaining.

Great single player with some rough patches combined with the best integration of online in a Souls game makes this one of my favorites of all time.

Everything about this game is good except the dreaded combat. It's just so so rough and holds it back so much. Notice that even with those words its still 4 stars in my eyes at the minimum, in part to the endearing stuff with Kiryu and the orphanage. This is probably the best written Kiryu in the series for me, as far as being the main protagonist.

If you liked the first two games you ought to play this one, but I think its much worse. Still fairly good though.

Mostly really good, transphobic subplot and the inconveniences of actually getting the true ending hold it back for me.