Why couldn't this have been a spinoff instead...Just to talk about the good things first, I really enjoyed exploring another new city with Yokohama. Dragon Karts, Can Quest, vocational school, and the movie theater, all being new activities, were great. Nearly every new character was good, and even Ichiban was a decent guy when he and the entire game weren't reminding you he was a gamer.
But my god, the combat is awful. Every fight just gets inflated to be at least twice as long as before. The positional combat just drags it out even more if you really want to take advantage of it. The bosses and "setpieces" are at their worst. The first dungeon plays out like every other dungeon, with hallways full of enemies that never prove a threat to you. Constant healing stations and random items litter pointless, samey-looking sewers. Then you get to the first boss, where you walk into the restaurant to find your patriarch so he can explain himself. You meet your captain, whom you took the fall for in prison for 18 years. You expect this amazing buildup to end in a satisfying fight, like every other game. Instead, you slowly select your skill and use them while hitting your little qtes just to make sure you do an extra 10 dmg! You get a little break from this occasionally to remind you of what could have been. Do you change anything up from gameplay in the lead-up to this boss? Of course not; you just keep selecting the same skill to use and watch a meter mindlessly go down. Oh, now you're out of mana, and the boss still has 15% of his health bar. Well, I guess it's time to just hit your auto attack and make sure you perfect guard their attacks even if you're in no danger. Well, that sure was a fight, but you really toughed it out and understood the extent of the boss's mechanics.
Except for 1 or being generous 2, this is how every boss fight plays out. I want to especially highlight a terrible one because it was done almost perfectly in Yakuza 6! The lead-up to Joon-gi Han and then his actual fight were such a disappointment. Y6 players will obviously know him, so seeing him pop up here already was a red flag. First off, you can tell his personality is very different and worse for it. He isn't such a charismatic, ruthless leader anymore, having been reduced to just a calm guy following orders from his leader. Moving on to the actual boss fight isn't up to par at all. I feel like new fans would be just as disappointed as I am, as the fight was so basic when we're halfway through the game at this point. Going away from these boss complaints, the random battles out in the world have worse spawn rates than Y5 and Judgment! Everyone is also forced to start the game on normal when every other entry could start on hard.
Yeah, I understand later he's not the same, but being a body double twist is awful, even by Yakuza twist standards. It really felt like they just wanted to use a great design again no matter what while also ruining what made Joon-gi Han so great in the previous game. Even the other twists in this game were a new low. Mirrorface is probably the worst twist I've seen in a series full of increasingly weird twists. Other than Ichiban pouring his heart out, everything after the Kiryu fight I wish I could forget and erase from the game. If I could, I would remove Kiryu too, but with RGG's recent summit introducing even more Kiryu games, it seems like they do not want to give him an ending.
The story otherwise was decent, with some pretty good moments in Chapter 12. That entire chapter was a huge highlight, especially when they decided to include the first boss of the game near the end. I really was not feeling the combat for most of the game until this chapter. Some jobs needed to be done better because many skills are simply useless or not transferable while stuck in a useless job. Not to mention, even if you just wanted to experiment, it is a huge hassle to always go back to one spot to change a job. There were many times when I wanted to swap things around to learn a specific skill but quickly decided to just stay with what I had.
Aside from the strange inclusion of a fake Joon-gi Han, I thought the rest of the party was a good addition. Nanba and Adachi were the best ones, with Saeko losing a lot of relevance after a few chapters. Zhao and JGH were kind of interesting since you recruit them from a different faction, but they didn't seem to have as much screentime. Of course, there is another optional character too, but the game just forgets about Eri almost entirely. Eri is never shown in any cutscene in the story and really only exists for the business minigame. Even in the story cutscenes, there is so much inconsistency with who is shown. Sometimes you just see the main trio of Adachi, Nanba, and Saeko, while other times they sprinkle in JGH and/or Zhao. Sometimes it's a combination of these five, with no rhyme or reason for any of the changes. Even in substories, you will only see Ichiban, which makes it just feel so awkward. Each of the characters also has their own bond links, where you can usually learn more about them. Each one of these stories ends the same way, with their problem being solved after an easy fight, leaving them all feeling pointless. Also, tossing in Kashiwagi and Lau Ka Long when they are both clearly dead is insane.
But my god, the combat is awful. Every fight just gets inflated to be at least twice as long as before. The positional combat just drags it out even more if you really want to take advantage of it. The bosses and "setpieces" are at their worst. The first dungeon plays out like every other dungeon, with hallways full of enemies that never prove a threat to you. Constant healing stations and random items litter pointless, samey-looking sewers. Then you get to the first boss, where you walk into the restaurant to find your patriarch so he can explain himself. You meet your captain, whom you took the fall for in prison for 18 years. You expect this amazing buildup to end in a satisfying fight, like every other game. Instead, you slowly select your skill and use them while hitting your little qtes just to make sure you do an extra 10 dmg! You get a little break from this occasionally to remind you of what could have been. Do you change anything up from gameplay in the lead-up to this boss? Of course not; you just keep selecting the same skill to use and watch a meter mindlessly go down. Oh, now you're out of mana, and the boss still has 15% of his health bar. Well, I guess it's time to just hit your auto attack and make sure you perfect guard their attacks even if you're in no danger. Well, that sure was a fight, but you really toughed it out and understood the extent of the boss's mechanics.
Except for 1 or being generous 2, this is how every boss fight plays out. I want to especially highlight a terrible one because it was done almost perfectly in Yakuza 6! The lead-up to Joon-gi Han and then his actual fight were such a disappointment. Y6 players will obviously know him, so seeing him pop up here already was a red flag. First off, you can tell his personality is very different and worse for it. He isn't such a charismatic, ruthless leader anymore, having been reduced to just a calm guy following orders from his leader. Moving on to the actual boss fight isn't up to par at all. I feel like new fans would be just as disappointed as I am, as the fight was so basic when we're halfway through the game at this point. Going away from these boss complaints, the random battles out in the world have worse spawn rates than Y5 and Judgment! Everyone is also forced to start the game on normal when every other entry could start on hard.
Yeah, I understand later he's not the same, but being a body double twist is awful, even by Yakuza twist standards. It really felt like they just wanted to use a great design again no matter what while also ruining what made Joon-gi Han so great in the previous game. Even the other twists in this game were a new low. Mirrorface is probably the worst twist I've seen in a series full of increasingly weird twists. Other than Ichiban pouring his heart out, everything after the Kiryu fight I wish I could forget and erase from the game. If I could, I would remove Kiryu too, but with RGG's recent summit introducing even more Kiryu games, it seems like they do not want to give him an ending.
The story otherwise was decent, with some pretty good moments in Chapter 12. That entire chapter was a huge highlight, especially when they decided to include the first boss of the game near the end. I really was not feeling the combat for most of the game until this chapter. Some jobs needed to be done better because many skills are simply useless or not transferable while stuck in a useless job. Not to mention, even if you just wanted to experiment, it is a huge hassle to always go back to one spot to change a job. There were many times when I wanted to swap things around to learn a specific skill but quickly decided to just stay with what I had.
Aside from the strange inclusion of a fake Joon-gi Han, I thought the rest of the party was a good addition. Nanba and Adachi were the best ones, with Saeko losing a lot of relevance after a few chapters. Zhao and JGH were kind of interesting since you recruit them from a different faction, but they didn't seem to have as much screentime. Of course, there is another optional character too, but the game just forgets about Eri almost entirely. Eri is never shown in any cutscene in the story and really only exists for the business minigame. Even in the story cutscenes, there is so much inconsistency with who is shown. Sometimes you just see the main trio of Adachi, Nanba, and Saeko, while other times they sprinkle in JGH and/or Zhao. Sometimes it's a combination of these five, with no rhyme or reason for any of the changes. Even in substories, you will only see Ichiban, which makes it just feel so awkward. Each of the characters also has their own bond links, where you can usually learn more about them. Each one of these stories ends the same way, with their problem being solved after an easy fight, leaving them all feeling pointless. Also, tossing in Kashiwagi and Lau Ka Long when they are both clearly dead is insane.