Finished Infinite Wealth Story. Probably my favourite Yakuza thus far.
Ijincho and Kamurocho were nice to have, Hawaii was a lovely location and a refreshing change.
Story was strong, the cast were brilliant, I wasn't a huge fan of Tomizawa though, Lol. It sucks that Chitose wasn't at the end and it feels against her character to become the CEO of her families company? Lol. I was hoping future Yakuza titles (Kasuga led) would primarily consist of Kasuga, Nanba, Adachi, Saeko and Chitose. Balance out the permanent male-female ratio, Lol.
I feel like Zhao and Joon, I love em both but they were added far too late into the game for me to use them, Seonhee was awesome to have on our team but it won't make sense for her to be tagging along in every Yakuza, doesn't she have two organisations to run? Lol. So I would have had Chitose in place of her, with Seonhee perhaps showing up from time to time to join the team.
Minigames were fun, Crazy Delivery (Lol), Dondoko Island was awesome, I spent like 2-3 days only on that part of the game, by the end of it I had felt like I was playing a completely different game, I loved building up my island, I wanted more, Lol. The Sujimon League was hilarious too, Pokemon should watch out. Substories ranged from funny to emotional, I can't believe one of the most emotional involved the Gondawara Family, Lol.
Kiryu's Unfinished Business & Life Links were lovely to do, reminiscing on old memories, encountering old friends again, I feel like they should have been more of the storyline ones though, a few characters notably absent, like half of Kiryu's orphanage children for starters, Lol. I was also frustrated by "almost" meeting Haruka, happens once in a Life Link then it happens at the end of the story, we don't see them reunite, Goddamnit.
The combat was basically like 7 but with a few QoL tweaks which made it even nicer and also no ridiculous difficulty spike at random.
There's a few weird things, I felt like it was obvious Infinite Wealth wasn't made with Gaiden in mind, for example, in Gaiden, Kiryu earns his trip to Hawaii as a reward but in Infinite Wealth he's there on a mission, Hanawa seemed to warm to Kiryu in Gaiden but was more cold to him in Infinite Wealth, then there's the case of Hanawa teasing to Kiryu he is someone he knows in Gaiden but it's not mentioned at all in Infinite Wealth...
Then Hanawa dies...I think he shouldn't have been killed off, felt like a bit of a waste.
I felt the ending was a little rushed, like they just left Saejima, Majima and Daigo on the roof and we didn't see them again, Lol. We left Kiryu in a hospital but don't see Kasuga or anyone visiting him, then we see Haruka unexplainably finding him but they don't meet once again, I really hope they don't skip over their proper first reunion in years.
I also felt Daidoji let Kiryu off too easily, I feel like Yakuza 9 could have been about Kasuga breaking Kiryu free from the Daidoji's grips but obviously not anymore, Lol. Idk, for all the drama, it felt a little too easy for this shitty organisation full of shitty people to suddenly say "you helped us Kiryu, you're free now"
Story overall was hype at times, emotional at times, I teared up a lot, the cancer storyline hit hard, especially with Kiryu losing his will to continue fighting, his explanation made sense but I was still internally shouting at him to keep fighting, it especially hit hard knowing the director went through cancer too, I am so relieved Kiryu seems to have found his reason to keep living again, he deserves a happy ending damnit.
Kasuga is GOATed, if the world was full of Kasuga's it would be the most loving world, forgiving Eiji, damn, I was saying "what you doing Kasuga, fuck him" until Kasuga started speaking then I was like "Kasuga GOAT! Carry him to the police station! Fuck the haters!" Lmao. Kiryu apologising to Ebina was very emotional too. It was a very strong story with a strong cast but I just felt the ending was rushed.
Kiryu and Kasuga...GOAT'd team.
