Ashley p

I'm almost at the end of the game, and I've played all the games in the series. There's things I enjoyed or they improved a bit on, and things I wasn't a fan of. Firstly, let's start with the positive. They made improvements to the turn based combat. Anyone in the party can pick up a weapon, like a bike or a chair. The combo combinations with party bonds can be pretty fun. There's more of a point to bond with your team, than the first like a dragon. And the conversations between your party can provide insight more on their personalities. You learn more about your party as an individual likes and dislikes. The mini games are fun. The new jobs they added are also fun to use, and you can combine abilities from jobs. There is the Dodonko island if you are an animal crossing fan, the Sujimon battles if you're into Pokémon type play. The negative. There is a lot of repeat and rehashed content from the first like a dragon. Same jobs, same characters, same enemies. Which is to be expected it's a sequel. The economy early game can provide challenging, as weapons can be very expensive. The story for the game is pretty predictable, cliche, and some plot holes. I also did not agree how they wrote kiryu to be so damaged and weak, or like a second class character or a side character. I did not like that at all after playing multiple Yakuza titles, it's a disservice to his character. The story seems weaker to me than the first like a dragon. If you play in Japanese like I have, the characters speaking English to you and them responding in Japanese is weird to me. That should be subbed also. It just makes sense. Thirdly, the game is extremely grindy. Even for a JRPG. The sujimon is grind and repetitive. The dodonko island is a grind and repetitive to get it to level 5. Dungeons, leveling up. Collecting materials for weapons. You can't craft armor like boots. If you enjoy that kind of thing, you might like it. I found it to be a chore after a while. The side story content like part time hero gets very tedious after a while. Lastly, I absolutely do not support putting new game+ and legend mode difficulty behind a pay wall. I refuse to support that. You should never pay for new game + in a game. I hope this review provides helpful. I enjoyed it, and I didn't at the same time. 3 stars out of 5.