I absolutely love Ichiban, that was my greatest fear. He's adorable, at least my version, since i play the kind one. He indeed is a goof when he can, but when comes the time to take things seriously, he does. His smooth delivery when trying to comfort sad people makes me think of Kiryuchan.
The mates have good chemistry so far, there's additional dialog available through a button press at certain points when you are walking your way, but not enough for my liking so far.
Some of my favourite activities are not there... why the heck do you keep battingcenter in but leave bowling out , batting not on a field is boring as all hell T-T, golf course will obviously be out (my poor Ichi ... golfing ? yeah... no .... ), and the arcade collection is... i won't spoil but very familiar. No Project Diva or Initial D or other surprises...
Aaaand so far, no pachinko, these are all boring slots... i hate slots... the pachinkos of old were not the best ones, but at least they were trying.
Don't expect full voice over, it's still a yearly Yakuza release.
I am not sure i will like going to the formation center to be capable for future jobs... we'll see.
Cars are dangerous ! don't cross the street when a car is moving fast, you'll get heavy damage... i lost 100HP (heavy hit, i had like 130 HP total at the time).
The enemy groups are very close to each other even at low danger, and for now they don't often let me go my way when i walk maybe am i walking to fast.
There are hangouts/homebases with a spot that regenerates HP and MP for everybody, so frequent in and out are a possibility when you don't want to buy medicine, and you don't have to eat your way back to health. Leveling up recovers HP/MP, it's not a system where you just get a bump.
The combat is alright so far, there's a "Weak" status memory for what kind of attack works well with what kind of enemy, which helps not having to remember them, and you can Auto-battle with your priority given, but still retain the just-in-time button presses to keep a little active.
The one thing that makes me feel more detached than it should is that you cannot move your characters around in battle... so no moving behind bicycles if your character doesn't feel like it, which is a bummer (or i missed how to do it). It's far less visceral, far less raw... i love brawlers and i love RPGs but i love brawlers for their "tactile" experience and RPGs for their stories... so this is not 2 things in one anymore, it's just one thing, RPG (until i unlock the mandatory management game xD i am writing as of chapter 4).
Antialiasing works alright, but there's a brighter halo around edges which separates shadows from body.
You can see compromises for the console, like some lesser texture quality peppered here or there (like the administrative text explaining what happens at donki's behind the scaffolding) , not many things casting shadows, framerate, but it looks nice nonetheless overall. The starting area damp patches were very very nicely done.
I am broke, and karaoke costs 500... taxi more than 700 ???? come on... i'll walk thank you.
