Really happy this was actually pretty good, came out of 0 hearing very mixed things about the next chunk of the series so this forebodes well. Definitely not nearly as strong a game story or character wise but still showed flashes of something brilliant here and there. Kiryu and Nishiki's dynamic was easily the highlight of this game and coming from Zero made it so much better. One of my complaints about this game is that it wasn't more focused on them, some of the other characters felt very weak and cliche.

You can definitely tell this is the first story the series told, and they were still getting warmed up in making every element in the game sit together well, especially with how Majima was utilized. He was my favorite character in Zero and it felt like he just kinda got placed here for no reason. Despite my issues, it still feels like it would have been a strong start if I had gone this route instead. Definitely way more excited for what's coming next after playing this.