Yakuza 5 is fine. I hear that it’s a lot of people’s introduction to the series and that’s really dumb. That aside, I want to start by talking about each character’s story.

Unlike 4, you start with Kiryu in this title. It’s a nice little treat with the main downside being that also unlike 4, Kiryu starts pretty powerless. However, his ability to pick up skills at a relatively fast pace makes up for this. His play style is the same as it’s always been but I feel that it’s slightly more fluid from previous games. Still rewarding as ever to dispatch hordes of enemies or do serious damage to single target foes.

Kiryu’s story I find is one of the more interesting ones partly because it’s the first and the whole Tojo conspiracy with Daigo going missing immediately reels you in. Doing the sidestory also adds a decent amount to the characterization of the little town that Kiryu relocated to. You wonder why he moved and why Haruka is on TV and what’s going on with Daigo. All these interesting questions culminate to the end with “who killed Majima?” Personally I thought this was interesting but nothing that would be permanent. An off screen death for a beloved character didn’t seem like it’d stay that way.