Having only played Yakuza 0 prior, this game doesn't reach the same levels of quality but for a 1st entry it still has its merits. The story is pretty good with some interesting conflicts, the map has an odd mix up coziness and insecurity which I like, and the combat while not very well refined is a solid foundation for future games. However, you get interrupted by street thugs all the time and the loading times can get on someone's nerves do to the amount of battles you're thrown into.

Some aspects of the plot or the characters are also not well developed and that won't be the case until 0 (and to a lesser extent Kiwami) so I'd recommend playing 0 first. Between this and Kiwami I can't tell you which one I prefer because as of now I haven't played the latter.

(Played through the Restored mod which replaces English dub with the more faithful JP sub + some other improvements.)