At its core, it's a Like a Dragon game like all the rest, but man I did not like it as much as I would have liked.

The story is good. A samurai game with various series characters filling the cast is a really charming idea. All of the casting/recasting is good, they all seem to fit the characters. The only one I was iffy with was Takechi. Just 0 fan service. Shibusawa is one of the weakest final bosses in the series story-wise. I just think they should have kept him the same or replaced him with someone friendly with Kiryu, like Nagumo from 6 or maybe even Ichiban. There's probably a better match somewhere. I just wish there was more stuff from 6. 6 is good!

I did not vibe with the gameplay initially. I ended up using the swordsman style exclusively, it feels like the style the game is built around. The other styles just don't feel fleshed out. In general your damage is comically low and the damage enemies do is pretty crazy, though it's likely I was using armour with awful stats. I wish the combat was faster in general.

I couldn’t bring myself to care about that stuff with the cards. I just kinda ignored it. I did find improved healing and damage cards which I used. I also ignored the crafting. Is it good? I don’t know. I don’t want to know.

Fights can be annoying, this game rivals Yakuza 3 in terms of enemies blocking attacks, although it’s easier to break through. Bosses are pretty bad about this. You’ll usually have to dodge to the side and get behind them and hit them a couple times for pitiful damage before they start blasting your ass.

The camera is bad. It's like a constant boss fight. There's a bunch of jank in general. I have to wonder how much of that is carried over from the original. This is probably the Like a Dragon game with the least polish. Also from what I've seen, the original looks better at times? I hope they go back to the Dragon Engine.

All in all, I really like gambling on chicken races, Great game.