Yes, the whole setup is amazing and I spent and am still spending lots of time on side quests. The story starts slowly but when it clicked I couldn’t stop playing, maybe the same pacing as Yakuza 6 main story.
After playing it, my personal rank is:
Just started Lost Judgment and Ishin is on my backlog.
Agreed with the bottom 3, but Y5 as the best is interesting. For me it’s was way too bloated. You could remove Shinadas story and it wouldn’t change much. It feels like they added so much stuff because Y4 story was rushed.
Every time I see a shiny object in the ground i think “is picking this up worth the slow ass animations/prompts”
There are some random objects with story related logs, I recommend collecting them if you care
I am halfway with Yakuza Like A Dragon. This is my second Yakuza game after beating Yakuza 0 last year. I can understand that the seasoned players enjoy and welcome the new turn-based combat - for me it is a turn off.
The biggest attraction that keeps me engage with both games is the story and are all the characters you meet. I am not a fan of grindy/Japanese combat. I am not an experienced JRPG gamer but I have played Ni No Kuni. And the similarity between both titels is that a new enemy encounter is just 10 seconds away. Although the combat on its own is sometimes very engaging - it drags the pacing of the game down a lot.
To sumerize. Yakuza games have great engaging stories but for me lack in fun gameplay.
If you wanna beat every sidequest you shouldn’t ignore them, after a point they’ll have logs and 25 are required for the final sidequest.
Always lots of encounters, true. But in 0 I welcome them since the combat is awesome. I do fear I won’t be nearly as excited when playing LAD because turn based is just absolutely not what I prefer. I can stand it, but I don’t enjoy it nearly as much as real-time.
I stopped trading the prize tickets in as it took so long, even in multiples of 5.
Had 300 left at the end of my playthrough.
Yeah that was so annoying haha
Just wrapped up Ishin. It was a great experience overall, though the last few parts did (like a) drag on a fair bit. I’ve wrapped up every significant bit of side content and I’m satisfied letting my completion percentage stay at 66.666 
Leak about an upcoming game. It was already announced that it’s coming this year, but better put it behind spoilers.
Is that the purgatory coming back???
Can’t wait for Gaiden, let’s go!
Store page is up. 50€ for more Kiryu-chan.
Us Yakuza fans are eating good this year.
$64.99 Canadian is insane. I want to buy now, but I am worried if there’s a reward preorder for it. Def going digital
Is that a smaller game ? Why is it only 50€/$ ? I’m not complaining but it seems like it’s not a main entry.
Gaiden means literally side story in Japanese, it’s certainly not a main entry.
Ok thank you. I genuinely didn’t know that !
I have a theory about this game and Yakuza 8. My guess is that the gameplay from Yakuza 8 will be a mix of turn based RPG when controlling Ichiban and beat em up when controlling Kiryu. Gaiden will be a side story from 7 (this was confirmed in the first release) and will introduce the mechanics Kiryu will use in 8. he is apparently using a string to catch items from far in this last trailer, it’s weird.
Interesting. I should get back to Like A Dragon before 8. I love Ichiban and his crew !
Doesn’t seem like it will, based on the producer saying it will be developed as an RPG in an interview. He also said they’d be working together towards a common goal, alongside their allies, which kinda hints they’ll be part of the same party. Maybe not from the start, but they’ll join forces for sure.