Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth

Now that I remember, LAD7 had some really insane story hooks, all starting from pretty much the opening sequences. LAD8 felt more like a slow burn. Even the opening mystery with Akane kinda unclimatically resolved in the middle.

Still, I love the characterization in this game, and the gameplay was improved in almost every possible dimension. Almost like they looked at a wishlist of my gameplay gripes from last game and fixed them all.

i think that's partially because kiryu isn't as good of a party lead as ichiban is. like ichiban can become friends with a boulder if he tried and he feels like the glue that really binds the Hawaii squad together, but kiryu felt more like a follower to the rest of his party rather than a leader. i think that's intentional since kiryu really has no desire or drive to become a leader (even though he regularly becomes one due to circumstances usually beyond his control), nor does he want to rely on others to take care of what he sees as his messes. so taking the party to be an extension of his character I think it works well but I agree it comes across as sort of awkward when the party first assembles on a whim vs how organically ichiban's Hawaii party forms (besides joon-gi who comes out of nowhere because they couldn't find a better time within the narrative to put him in there)

Yeah I agree, Ichiban works way better because they actually developed that character with an rpg party system in mind. And it is interesting how they made Kiyru's leadership position in his party an extension of his overall storyline / character arc. I just wish it was explored further. Instead it just kinda leads to weird party chats and the like.