You've got to admire how proud they are of the dragon engine. They went to a lot of lengths 😓 to show it off in this game. Onomichi is such a beautiful area, and it shines so much here. I do appreciate how every substory is voiced in its own little cutscene style. Unfortunately, combat is still at its worst here, being a huge step down from the older engine. They also removed a lot of combat challenges when compared to the other games, which makes the DE combat tolerable for now. The combat does become better eventually in other games(not Kiwami 2 lmao).

One of my favourite stories in the series and was solid for most of the runtime. It really gave off detective story vibes at some points, while also being a cozy little adventure. It did feel a bit slow at times and a bit of a rehash, but I didn't mind as it is very easy to tell which Yakuza game this pulls the most from. Between the trip back to the orphanage, seeing all the kids grown up for the first time, going to a new area with a new child to take care of, Daigo indisposed for the story, a Rikiya-like friend + Ryudo-like family, and many others I'm sure I missed. Replaying it for legend just made me enjoy all the hints they throw at you regarding the overarching plot.

It's odd how many new things they added while leaving out some major players... all of the activities and areas were simply removed... no closure on many things... 1/3 of the substories were locked behind a baseball sim...
Anyways, what a great send off to Kiryu, and I am very sad we are never getting another game. This really was Yakuza 3 - 2 and I loved it.