An absolute, irredeemable, trash pile of a game. I loved the first 7 Yakuza games. I was EXCITED for it to become an RPG. But becoming an RPG was an absolute MISTAKE.

The story? Yakuza is a slow crime drama. Which is fine, and good even. RPGs are slow because of their gameplay, typically. Mesh an already slow game with a slower genre, and the story becomes so slow and boring. It doesn't get interesting or good until the last third of the game.

The characters? Snores-ville. Rather than fleshing out characters, they shove them into long text dumps in the Survive bar instead of trying to weave it into the story in any way. Game's already slow, least give us something interesting to do between all the boring slowness. One of your party members is the outright least likable character in the series. Imagine that, one of the "heroes" being less likable than the worst villains. Bring back Sengoku. Bring back that demented prisoner from Yakuza 5. Anyone but this loser. Too bad he's probably your best Mage!

The gameplay? Worse than an RPG from the 80s. You would have a better time going back and playing Dragon Quest 1 than even attempting to play this game. The job system cannibalizes itself, PUNISHING you for multi-jobbing. You're better off picking ONE job for everyone and sticking to it, with how huge the job level ups are worth. The permanent character bonuses are not worth it. Lining up attacks is fiddly as hell when they're AoE. And if Ichiban dies, you game over. Why is this SMT rules in a Dragon Quest game? A game that actively does Dragon Quest poorly. I guess that was the only way to make the game "hard" because the game is easier than Dragon Quest.

If you play how the game EXACTLY expects you to play, you will have 0 issues. But that means you're expected to GRIND. It's like the developers took that criticism of RPGs without checking if it was true. Did they hire Dunkey to make the game? "No no, don't make changing your strategy an option. Just write into the story that the characters say you need to go grind now. That's how RPGs work, just like DQ11!" Meanwhile DQ11 never expects grinding, except potentially at the VERY end.

I'm almost at the end of the game and there's been ONE dungeon layout that they use 3 times. One of those 3 is an optional dungeon. Dungeons are long, tedious, and boring.

The "threat level" system is literally broken. Chapter 12's threat level is a 7. Go into the story area, the threat level is a 4. This is right after the game tells you to go grind. A threat level of a 7 means level 40 enemies apparently. So what's a threat level 4? Level 50 enemies. WHAT?! HOW DOES THAT MAKE SENSE? it doesn't. And I actually went into it purposefully not grinding for the challenge.

For the first time, I was having fun. I didn't come prepared, just went in, and had a challenge for once. An unbalanced one because the game definitely didn't expect me to be 10 levels under the boss's level. But hey, it was fun. Then for the first time, Ichiban died, and it was game over. Then instead of letting me think, consider going to try the boss again... the game gives you an arcade countdown timer. You literally aren't allowed to think, to consider. You must make a decision NOW. Try again, or give up for now.

This isn't an arcade game, this is an RPG. I don't need to fish a quarter out of my pocket, I only need to select an option. And yet you're timing me, in a genre that rewards strategy.

Swapping to an RPG mid-development was a mistake, and hurt the game in every possible way. There's 0 good design anywhere. And I don't think I'm going to play Yakuza 8 now. All I heard was that this game was great... but all I got was a waste of time.

Update: I beat the final boss and the game softlocked. This is 100%, definitely, my least favorite game of all time