A remake of the start of the series. It's fundamentally a brawler with a very serious, dramatic main plot... and a ridiculous number of distractions in the forms of various minigames and substories, some of which are much more silly than the main plot. This is a series in which you can carry a cannon built into a fish purely as a pun relating to a retired sprinter, and in which you could have a literal chicken helping you manage a real-estate company.

Some things to note:

* It's a remake of the first game, but "Yakuza 0" was a prequel made later. You may want to start there, to appreciate the story more.
* Controller highly recommended for most parts, but certain sections will be far easier with a mouse. There's an on-rails shooting section, for instance, that really benefits from this.
* The story is somewhat tweaked from the original, but it's still the oldest writing in the series.
* There's a few combat styles and quite a few moves to use, but one particular move ends up dominating and you can practically divide the game into "pre-that move" and "post-that move", because it's so ridiculously useful. Without it, various late-game fights can be truly obnoxious.
* There's a rock-paper-scissors game with stats and collectible cards, that features scantily-clad women costumed as insects... for... reasons? Must be some pretty good drugs at Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio.
* There are a *lot* of minigames and substories. If you insist on absolutely 100%ing everything, it will take a while.
* As noted above, a lot of the substories are... goofy. If tonal dissonance annoys you, stay away from the whole series.
* There will be a lot of grinding against one particular opponent if you want to really flesh out one of the combat styles (Majima, which is obvious from the store page).
* Difficulty can be tweaked during a game.
* It's open-world but with a set character and plot. Mostly, your decision-making boils down to whether you attempt to complete a substory or whether you ignore it, and there's generally exactly one way to do so. This isn't Fallout 2 or a Deus Ex game.

I personally enjoyed it, but it is what it is.

A remake of the start of the series. It's fundamentally a brawler with a very serious, dramatic main plot... and a ridiculous number of distractions in the forms of various minigames and substories, some of which are much more silly than the main plot. This is a series in which you can carry a cannon built into a fish purely as a pun relating to a retired sprinter, and in which you could have a literal chicken helping you manage a real-estate company. Some things to note: * It's a remake of the first game, but "Yakuza 0" was a prequel made later. You may want to start there, to appreciate the story more. * Controller highly recommended for most parts, but certain sections will be far easier with a mouse. There's an on-rails shooting section, for instance, that really benefits from this. * The story is somewhat tweaked from the original, but it's still the oldest writing in the series. * There's a few combat styles and quite a few moves to use, but one particular move ends up dominating and you can practically divide the game into "pre-that move" and "post-that move", because it's so ridiculously useful. Without it, various late-game fights can be truly obnoxious. * There's a rock-paper-scissors game with stats and collectible cards, that features scantily-clad women costumed as insects... for... reasons? Must be some pretty good drugs at Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio. * There are a *lot* of minigames and substories. If you insist on absolutely 100%ing everything, it will take a while. * As noted above, a lot of the substories are... goofy. If tonal dissonance annoys you, stay away from the whole series. * There will be a lot of grinding against one particular opponent if you want to really flesh out one of the combat styles (Majima, which is obvious from the store page). * Difficulty can be tweaked during a game. * It's open-world but with a set character and plot. Mostly, your decision-making boils down to whether you attempt to complete a substory or whether you ignore it, and there's generally exactly one way to do so. This isn't Fallout 2 or a Deus Ex game. I personally enjoyed it, but it is what it is.