I finally finished this game and overall this game was enjoyable with... a few caveats.

This game was marketed as a reboot of the franchise and I would say this is a good point to start, but there are still a lot of nostalgic hints to previously established characters. Ichiban's journey about family and brotherhood when he hit rock bottom reminds me a lot of Kiryu's story from previous games. Overall the story is great with a lot of both passionate and tear-eyed moments.

The biggest difference in this game is the switch to turn-based combat similar to that of the Persona series. Character classes are reimagining of actual "jobs" such as Idol, Breaker, or Cook. Ultimate Attacks (Essences) are pretty creative and funny to look at. As cool as these attacks are, the problem lies how grindy and repetitive some fights and dungeons get. You have tanky bosses that can two-shot you despite being levels lower than your party. One party member is forced to focus only on healing and nothing else...that's not super fun (and probably why it took me forever to finish this game) With the amount of minigames available to play along with the grinding required for exp, the combat makes the game drag on and inflates the playtime.

All that aside, the new locations, systems and most importantly the dynamic characters make up for the tedious combat (in late game) to make this game a good recommend!

I finally finished this game and overall this game was enjoyable with... a few caveats. This game was marketed as a reboot of the franchise and I would say this is a good point to start, but there are still a lot of nostalgic hints to previously established characters. Ichiban's journey about family and brotherhood when he hit rock bottom reminds me a lot of Kiryu's story from previous games. Overall the story is great with a lot of both passionate and tear-eyed moments. The biggest difference in this game is the switch to turn-based combat similar to that of the Persona series. Character classes are reimagining of actual "jobs" such as Idol, Breaker, or Cook. Ultimate Attacks (Essences) are pretty creative and funny to look at. As cool as these attacks are, the problem lies how grindy and repetitive some fights and dungeons get. You have tanky bosses that can two-shot you despite being levels lower than your party. One party member is forced to focus only on healing and nothing else...that's not super fun (and probably why it took me forever to finish this game) With the amount of minigames available to play along with the grinding required for exp, the combat makes the game drag on and inflates the playtime. All that aside, the new locations, systems and most importantly the dynamic characters make up for the tedious combat (in late game) to make this game a good recommend!