I hate to admit it, but this game is a diappointment

[Chuck P]

It just feels so barebones. For starters, it's only 5 measly chapters, most of which is just filler passing off as main story, and what story there is is pretty weak. Then there's the matter of the cities. Sotembori is nice but it's tiny, and Ijincho is cut in half. Together they barely amount to the size of Kamurocho, which they decided not to include. I'm fine with them dissing Kamurocho, but only if they add something worthwhile to replace it! why not include a full version of Ijincho? they already have the files, since this game is built on top of judgement, why make it smaller on purpose? why not add a new area like Shinseicho from yakuza 2 which is also in Osaka? the Castle is nice but it feels more like a detour than an actual city, akin to the river styx in the old games.

Lastly there is the combat. It feels great, a huge upgrade over Y6. There was so much potential, yet the movesets themselves are so barebones. Where are all the cool mechanics from the previous games? you can't even grab enemies from behind anymore. And only 2 styles. Why? they already implemented brawler and beast styles in the Dragon Engine during the Kaito Files! it would've costed them NOTHING to give them to Kiryu in this game.

All the wasted potential is so disappointing, it feels as if they went out of their way to gimp the game, like they wanted this to be more of a promotional tie-in for Y8 than an actual game worth remembering. I mean the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ demo for Y8 that comes with Gaiden is half its disk size. This is the first time I've ever regretted buying a Yakuza game, and that's heartbreaking (also 50 bucks, yikes, when did games become so expensive?).

I know it's not all bad. The arena group fights are brilliant, the bosses are great and the combat is smooth. But the positive points just make the negatives all the more frustrating.

[Nick Kutcher]

This game is kind a big DLC to me, story is good but short

[Solar_S]

It seems like you don't know what kind of a game you played lol

[TinFurs]

For me, it's just simply too short- I loved the story, in spite of this.

[Cacheelma]

All those wall of text and it just came down to one thing: the price. Uh.

[Val]

Yeah you're not wrong. I enjoyed the ride...but kinda..thought...thats it? Playing through a yakuza game over one weekend? Kinda disappointing. Guess i dont buy the next one on day one...but wait for reviews first. Or even go gamepass if it comes out there.

Combat was kinda, yeah. The "agent" style didn't really click for me...it didn't had a "flow" and gadget were mostly useless.

[romik0]

preordering was better because of the demo and the arena dlc, also the last chapter alone justifies half the price

[retsa2b]

Originally posted by Val:

Combat was kinda, yeah. The "agent" style didn't really click for me...it didn't had a "flow" and gadget were mostly useless.

I actually have the most fun with the Agent style. Definitely can't say SEGA got stuck in a same-old rut, in any event. I love controlling the whole battlefield with gadgets all over the place. Plus the EX mode is the counterpoint to any suggestion that Agent is overall weak.

[Even in your multiplayer!]

It's literally called a side story.

[Middle Aged Nerd]

I can't say I was disappointed overall with the game, but I was disappointed with some aspects of it. We all know it was going to be shorter, and is about the same number of chapters as one part of, say Yakuza 4 or 5 where you have four characters each with their own stores.

But I was disappointed with: We were told the game would take place in Ijincho and Sotenbori. The vast majority of anything takes place in Sotenbori. I mean, I love that location but there's nothing of substance to do in Yokohama and that irked me. There's no substories or any completion singular to Yokohama.

Also: It seems the devs banked heavily on players being enthralled with and wanting engage with The Palace. As someone who never enjoyed the Coliseum parts of any of the previous games, I wasn't that interested in The Palace. For me the best thing was the Boutique where as soon as I could I changed my outfit to Majma's (including the Majoma Construction helmet.)

Thankfully (because of my Humble Choice subscription) I was able to get it 20% off. Otherwise I would have felt gypped at the price.

[Bonhart]

The ending was excellent and the history in the remaining chapters was good and logical with what happened in the previous games. I had a good time at the coliseum, only the new Agent style didn't work out for them a bit and the gadgets a bit overdone.
I was afraid of the Hawaii thing, that drastic change of location but it's plot-driven, I'm curious to see how they'll deal with the language barrier.
Looking forward for the Infinite Wealth

[Akeyla]

The game was fantastic and I loved every hours I played. If I knew before I purchased what I know now about the game (length, content, etc), I would still happily pay for it and love it again. Yeah, a bit short, but I love they continue to bang out RGG games frequently instead of every five years like other companies.

Also, the demo, OMG! I LOVED Yakuza: LaD, have always loved turn based games, and eagerly await Infinite Wealth. The twists the added to turn based combat are fantastic!

[Legato Bluesummers]

look at this way, it sold well and people liked it a lot. We're definitely getting more of these and I'm glad that they can give us some side stories in between the 4 year dev time for the mainline games. Probably on top of doing some more spinoffs like Judgment and w/e else they come up with.

[psytic]

Its free on Game Pass, just saying.

[Horheh]

My biggest gripe with the game is the neutered combat. All the things you mentioned, including basic combo speed and flexibility when it comes to style switching. Its crazy that Kiwami 1 is only beat by LJ in terms of self-expression in combat. Not that it was ever that deep in these games but it let you skin the cat multiple ways, so to speak. If this game was gonna be smaller, and probably Kiryu's last standalone game, we should've been able to go all out in fighting. I came into it very aware this game would be bare-bones, but nonetheless, the stories and sub-stories so far seem earnest. Maybe the game should've been cheaper but I feel I got my money's worth as usual. Frankly I'm worried that Infinite Wealth may have content that feels as bloated and shallow as it did in Y5.

[Bonhart]

Originally posted by Horheh:

My biggest gripe with the game is the neutered combat. All the things you mentioned, including basic combo speed and flexibility when it comes to style switching. Its crazy that Kiwami 1 is only beat by LJ in terms of self-expression in combat. Not that it was ever that deep in these games but it let you skin the cat multiple ways, so to speak. If this game was gonna be smaller, and probably Kiryu's last standalone game, we should've been able to go all out in fighting. I came into it very aware this game would be bare-bones, but nonetheless, the stories and sub-stories so far seem earnest. Maybe the game should've been cheaper but I feel I got my money's worth as usual. Frankly I'm worried that Infinite Wealth may have content that feels as bloated and shallow as it did in Y5.

The problem with Y5 was that there were literally 5 storylines and then they still had to combine those storylines, not to mention 4 cities and in all the side activities. There will be a new map, probably the biggest of all the yakuza. They did well with Ijincho, also a total new one in Y7, looking at the history RGG knows how to manage their maps well, even one more game of Kamrucho wouldn't bore me. Looking at the map from the demo it doesn't look bad either. They say it will be the greatest Yakuza, we'll see.