Okay, this was a bit weird to give my full thoughts on. Despite my massive amounts of enjoyment for the game, it was hard for me to find a proper way to fully express my thoughts. Mainly due to just how massive this game is and having so much variety in its content, with each part having its own strengths and weaknesses. To make it easier on myself, I'm gonna separate this into each of the character's parts, along with the finale and miscellaneous thoughts I have about the game.

Kiryu's Story - Honestly, a very strong introduction to the game and what it has to offer. Kiryu's fighting feels like it was given a lot of rework from 3 and 4 which helps him become refreshing, Nagasugai is a great city to introduce the player in with locations being distinct from each other, and the story and the substories are great to witness. Probably the highlight would be the taxi and racing side story and just how fun it was to go through it all, especially the racing sections with its strong story, though the best part has to be how you can listen to Daytona USA's "Let's Go Away" while doing these races and makes them even better. The only real problem I have with this part is how one of the characters in this story was treated. For a character that was given priority on the front cover due to being a celebrity likeness over characters like Majima, Park (which I'll get to later), and Daigo, Mayumi doesn't do much. I thought she was going to be this game's equivalent to Yasuko from 4 and her being a driving force in bringing all the characters together, but no. She's mainly there just to check up on Kiryu to make sure he doesn't get hurt and eventually ends up becoming yet another love interest for Kiryu despite not him not expressing any romantic interest. I get that she is a celebrity likeness, but it just seems so odd that despite her very small role she still manages to be on the front cover. Thankfully, she isn't the worst character this game offers, just wasted potential if anything.

Saejima's Story - I heard a few people say this is the weakest/most boring part of the game, but I honestly have to disagree with that. I ended up really enjoying the prison section of his story, especially when compared to Yakuza 4, and I thought the hunting stuff was interesting and very refreshing. I ended up completing the hunting side story before tackling the rest of the story because I was just that invested in it. Tsukimino, while having a really nice aesthetic, felt a bit cramped to travel in due to how many parts you are not allowed to travel in, though there was still a lot to due and the story was still strong in this part.

Haruka/Akiyama's story - This was the part of the game I was most conflicted. On one hand, I did enjoy the dancing/idol sections Haruka did, and was a nice refresher from all of the fighting, and it did give a good look at just how difficult working as an Idol can be. On the other hand, this section lasted simply too long and this story introduces what is possibly one of my least favorite characters in the series, Mirei Park. While I do like the idea of a character who was affected by the difficulties of working as an Idol in a negative way and wants a shot at redemption through somebody else, the execution of it was simply terrible and is just another showcase of how RGG writers sometimes not knowing how to write women. Firstly, the first scene with her gave a pretty horrible first impression as to what she is like, with her gaslighting and manipulating Kiryu into giving Haruka to her and leaving the orphanage, over a dream which the game never really bothered explaining if Haruka wanted until the ending. Secondly, despite attempts at trying to show Park in a more positive light, that first impression of her has constantly made me question whether any of it was genuine, especially between moments with her and Haruka since I felt like she was trying to win her over by treating her to nice things and forgetting about Kiryu rather than being a properly supporting figure. Finally, the characters saying that Park was a wonderful and hardworking person after her abrupt death honestly felt really lazy and forced. It feels like the writers didn't have a proper way of showing Parks more positive traits so they just took the easy route and just have characters treat like Park was in the right and Haruka should follow her dream. Which like, hello????? Didn't the game ALREADY forget that she manipulated Kiryu into handing over someone she didn't know for long and only did it since it kind of reminded of herself when she was younger???? What am I supposed to feel towards her? Again, I feel like a rewrite of her character would have improved her significantly, but as it sounds, I ended up disliking her a lot and was frustrated at how the game poorly treated what could have been her more positive traits. On a more positive note, I did enjoy Akiyama's portion of the story, and was still fun to play as, though the like of a proper side story (Unless the club stuff at the end of the game counts which feels like post-game content more than anything) does greatly impact my enjoyment of him compared to all the other characters.

Shinada - I was worried that I was going to dislike this part of the game, especially given how I already missed playing as Tanimura from the last game, but I was gladfully proven wrong. I ended up enjoying the baseball drama-esque story and how it ties into the main story. I really ended up liking Shinada as a character and enjoyed both his serious and silly moments. His batting center side story I ended up enjoying a lot and ended up completing just to see how it all unfolds despite most of it being completely optional. I thought his fighting style was very unique and enjoyable, especially with being able to use the various durable weapons he gets. Overall, I ended up really enjoying this section and was a strong highlight of the game. The only real complaint I have if anything was that I thought Kineicho was a bit too similar to Tsukihimo minus some new areas and a different aesthetic, but I still enjoyed exploring it.

Finale - I was surprised by just how quickly the first four chapters ended up being, though I still got some enjoyment and it was nice to finally explore Kamurocho again after being absent for most of the game outside of the beginning of Saejima's story. The real highlight was definitely the final part where it had easily had some of the best story and gameplay moments in the game and the final boss between Kiryu and Aizawa ended up being my favorite final boss in the whole series (so far). I wasn't sure how to feel about Haruka's final speech and revealing to thousands of people how Kiryu is her uncle, though I think I'll get a more proper opinion on it whenever I get to Yakuza 6.

Miscellaneous thoughts
- I thought the side quests involving the chef guy Tatsuya were pretty neat, though I'm not sure how I feel about the boosts you get from eating food since it pretty much turns a game from a series known for being fairly easy into a bit of a cakewalk. In fact, it was the first time in a while that I didn't die a single time throughout the entire time I was playing. I'm sure if I was playing on a higher difficulty these boosts would have more benefit, but with how I played it, it just made things a bit too easy.

- I know everyone who played this game has said but JESUS CHRIST why are the enemy encounters so persistent? It feels like half of the population of Japan is trying to kill you and it makes it really hard to enjoy exploring through these cities since I was making sure I didn't run into enemies. This ended up making me enjoy Haruka's section more since it was the only time I could enjoy exploring these cities in peace, but I wish the other characters would get something similar, even something like the money-throwing move from 0 would have been really nice to have despite that game coming later.

- Graphically the game is very much a step up from the last few games. The models look more detailed and realistic for PS3 standards and the animations are a lot less stiff and have more weight to them. Of course future games that were released for the PS3 like 0 and Kiwami improve things even further, but there's definitely a noticeable improvement in graphics.

- The soundtrack is also really damn good. Looking past how this game gave the series' most iconic song, Baka Mitai, the entire soundtrack was really enjoyable to listen to and there wasn't one I felt was bad. In my playthrough specifically, I actually was playing a mod that uncensors and restores a lot of the songs present in the Japanese version, meaning I got to listen to songs not present or replaced in the international release. The real highlight of this has got to be the song that plays during the fight between Shinada and Daigo (Which is a licensed song called "Wild Romance" by Kyosuke Himuro) that helped make an already great boss fight even better.

- Despite some noticeable pacing issues in some parts in the game (Mainly from Haruka's chapter and most of the finale), I thought the game managed to keep me pretty engaged. There wasn't a moment where I was bored and there was plenty of variety in various parts of the game to make sure things weren't still. The long runtime of the game does make me miss how shorter earlier games in this series went, but this isn't the worst I have seen.

Overall, despite some minor to somewhat concerning issues I have with the game, the sheer size of the game, the variety of things you can do, and my overall enjoyment of the game easily make this one of my favorites in the series. It manages to improve upon many of the issues I have with Yakuza 4 while still managing to be really refreshing, bringing in plenty of new ideas for the series, and overall just being a good ass game. It is not my all-time favorite in the series, and there are many things I would like to see improved, but I am glad I finally got around to playing it.

Note: Just like with Y3 Remastered, I decided to install a few mods, though it mainly focused on making the game look a little nicer and have it more closely resemble how it appeared on the PS3. This includes uncensoring the game's songs, restoring Tanimura's original actor into the game, restoring the Quickstep to how it was originally, and using a 4K font. These hopefully shouldn't affect my opinion of the game too much though since I tried to keep it as close to vanilla as possible.

- First of all, I was most curious about with this game was how I thought about the story. I already heard from quite a people about how much of a mess the story was, especially when it came to its twists (I already heard more than enough jokes when it came to the "Rubber Bullets" twist even before playing the game and knowing the full context), so I was curious as to how I felt about it. Even though I had some issues with the story, mainly how Yasuko/Lily felt more like a plot device to get all the main leads together rather than a truly fleshed out character, and the rubber bullets twist being just as stupid as I was expecting to the point where I was ironically cheering for it whenever it was brought up. But other than those main two things, I really didn't have many issues. The story kept at a good pace unlike Yakuza 1 and I thought it was cool seeing different events happen through the lens of the different playble characters, and seeing how it all ties in the end. I do wish we got to spend more time with the main characters as a team, since Kiryu's sidequests in the finale does showcase them working together, and it was really cool to see how their personalities played off with one another, it's not that big of a deal, but I really wished we got more of that instead of them going solo in their own stories. Overall, while it is a bit of a messy story, it is FAR from the worse story I've seen in this series as well as other games I've played.

- I think the choice of expanding Kamurocho into having underground and rooftop sections, while interesting and cool to see, didn't feel like it was used to its fullest. For the story alone, I felt it was only primarily used in Saejima and Tanimura's section of the story and wasn't used much with Akiyama or Kiryu's part of the story. It does get used more in substory stuff, but it was never to the point where I fell in love with it. It's still a cool idea, but compared to Okinawa from the last game and how unique it was to Kamurocho, it is a bit of a downgrade.

- The combat, which I'm happy to report on, is probably one of the most unique and memorable aspects of the game. To make things easier on myself, I'm gonna rank the fighters and describe what I liked about each of them.

1. Tanimura - Easily one of the most creative fighting styles I've seen in this series so far. His parrying system and the amount of different heat actions you can do after any of his moves make him such a joy to play as no matter what. Even during the final boss where I've heard so many say is the low point of the finale, I really didn't have much problem with using Tanimura and was able to get through it just fine (Though it was a bit annoying at times)

2. Kiryu - Kiryu really didn't change all that much going from Y3 to 4, but he does feel more refined in some of his tools, and I was genuinely surprised that unlike other games, Kiryu actually kept some of the skills he had from the last game, making him feel like a New Game+ version of K3 Kiryu without being too overpowered. Overall, a really cool version of the character.

3. Saejima - While his style of big slow and strong attacks doesn't mesh 100% of the time with the stuff he goes through (Mainly his fights with Saito which I felt had a really sudden difficulty spike), I still thought his style was to go through. His moves are satisfying when pulled off and seeing some of the things he did that would transfer over to Dragon Engine Kiryu (Mainly the charge moves and some heat actions) was pretty cool to witness. Still preferred Kiryu and Tanimura, but I enjoyed playing as Saejima.

4. Akiyama - He never felt bad to play, but it never felt like I got enough time to really explore him in depth. He's only around for the beginning of the game, and the time you last play him up until the finale is such a long wait, that I don't really get a chance to truly explore his potential. He's still a fine character to play as, and I do like how flashy yet smooth he plays just like how he is portrayed, but I just wished he had a bit more screentime with combat.

- I was pretty surprised in how this game handles its sidequests. Not only were the sidequests roughly the same amount as Y3, but divided into the four main characters to where each of them only get a pretty small amount of them compared to Kiryu in previous games, but the tones in them were a bit different than before. The substories in 4 never felt nearly as lighthearted or silly as previous games (Though some still retained that) and many of them either had surprisingly big connections to the story, had arcs that spanned over many substories with an end, or provide a surprisingly serious and impactful tone that made me a bit emotional at times (Mainly White Lies in Kiryu's substories). idk if I would call these the best/my favorite substories in the series, but they are probably some of the most unique and memorable ones so far.

-The graphics, while not being too different from Y3, are still nice and show some improvements from that game, and the soundtrack is still amazing as ever. I like how each of the main characters got a different set of songs for their situations, and it made them that more unique from each other. My favorite songs in this game to me is the main theme, For Faith, along with the rendition of Recieve You that plays in the credits.

Overall, while the somewhat messy story, lack of impact of Kamurocho's new areas, and slightly inconsistent difficulty does bring it down to being my least favorite in the series so far, I still think it's a pretty great game. It does show progress and change in the series with it introducing multiple playable characters and tying their stories together, and it brings in more worldbuilding to the Yakuza series for both new and existing characters, which is always nice to see. It's now gotten me more curious as to how Yakuza 5 will expand and possibly fix some of the issues I have with 4, but so, I'm still glad I got to give this a shot.