What a hell of experience! Folks outside were obsessed with all kind of crazy news but I just sunk 140 hours over the past 3 weeks!
Okay, now here are my final thoughts for the game. As a fan of Yukuza specially all those memorable characters, I expected the game to be best in every aspect in the series to give Kiryu a flawless finish. In many facets it indeed is, but I was underwhelmed by some parts.
The story:
I always come to Yakuza (and Judgment) games for stories so this will make a great deal for me experience.
What I like: The overall plots are set written, suspenseful, and the pacing are not too bad. What the game does best is the paying all homage to all Kiryu's past sagas. Those memory are so vivid and touching, chapter 12 is the climax of the nostagia yet made my blood boil at the same time.
What I don't like: Is Kasuga a good character? Of course, I liked him in 7. As the in game characters all said this many, the time has changed, it is not the era of Yakuza anymore. And the game's story has shifted from Yakuza Gang War to more of issues of the society. I think switching the protagonist to Kasuga makes sense here.
But man, when I was playing I couldn't help but saw way too much Deja Vu of Naruto on Kasuga. In this game he kinda became a " hero stereotype": Act clumsy in usual time then become wise in critical time; always trusted ones he decided to trust for no reasons; as long as the villains have some background stories, then they are redeemable; the list goes on. I honest don't mind all of those in a actual Dragon Quest game, but in a Yakuza game, a protagonist needs to be more in depth, more layered than this for me. There are way more to expand but I'll just wrap up and say I think Yakuza 8 story is great, but the character depicts was not as good.
The gameplay:
When Yakuza 7 firstly switched turn-based, it was refreshing for a while (especially those over the top wacky poundmates, lol), but the RPG system was not deep enough to support engagement of a 100+ hours long playthrough. And I am so glad Yakuza 8 made a full evolution over its systems. And this made me first time playing a Yakuza game for gameplay over its stories. The combat now has way more playability: the position, the synergy, and the character builds are all engaging. Not to mention all jobs are just so fun to play and you don't have to worry weather they are underpowered. And many quality of life change such as fast travel at any point on the map, quick battle over underleveled enemies, able to eat at restaurants even HP is full, etc, all make the experience of this RPG Yakuza very pleasant. The only thing I hope to be added in the future is a party member hot swapping mechanics, that would make the combat even more engaging.
My overall thoughts:
Yakuza 8 gave me many emotional moments during its story and I absolutely loved the evolved RPG systems. Although I do hope future entries could be more of OG Yakuza story.
