Back when the 1st Yakuza came out on ps2 it had my attention until I started hearing the game was a Japanese gta style game so I didn't bother any further with the series. Then the Yakuza 3 demo was released on psn and I "played" about 2 minutes of it which from what I remember consisted of reading a bunch of dialogue so I never made it to the gameplay. Then I sat and watched a let's play of Yakuza 4 & 0 and that was what finally pushed me to give the series a legitimate try with this remake of the original. If you're still under the impression that these games are GTA but in japan wipe that thought from your mind immediately, thanks to mishandled advertising in North America this series has had a tough run. If you're to compare it to anything rockstar has made its much more like The Warriors mixed with a rpg.The central chunk of this game is a pretty serious crime drama revolving around your main character Kiryu being convicted for murdering the head of the Dojima crime family of which he is a part of. Kiryu spends 10yrs in jail and is finally released and heads back to Kamurocho where the entire game takes place and he is no longer a member of the yakuza. You will spend your time with the story trying to find out what happened to your friends since you've been in jail, taking care of a sweet little girl (if youre thinking of terrible escort missions don't worry you dont have any in the main game), and removing corruption from the Tojo clan which is the overall sum of the yakuza in Kamurocho. So now I'll get to what I dislike about the game, it's going to be a pretty short list.1. The lock on targeting during battle could be a tiny bit better with tracking the enemy you're focused on so they don't manage to get behind you and attack your backside.2. The highway rail shooting section, if you're playing on normal or a higher difficulty the there's a very noticeable spike in the difficulty once you get to this section but if you must you can switch to an easier setting while playing unless you're in legend mode in which case have fun fighting your way back there to retry many times.3. Karaoke minigame I hate it because to complete all of Haruka's whims you must suffer through a really tough I guess it's a rhythm minigame, it's not fun but I want all of her items just because.4. Climax Battles- an extra mode where you have to fight and complete the challenges under certain conditionsNow for what I like, which is pretty much everything else.1. Majima Everywhere, the closest thing I could compare it to is Nemesis in Resident Evil 3 but done much better since you really don't know when exactly Majima will show up to fight you. This is the closest a game has gotten to something I've wanted for about 24yrs.2. The story and characters besides all of the sillyness to be found in this game when it tries to be serious it succeeds and when things get goofy with substories (side quests) a high percentage of them are pretty humorous. The serious and silly also applies to the central characters too so they can be really cool as well as huge dorks.3. Aside from beating down scummy members of the yakuza, street gangs, punks, and an occasional drunk there is a lot to do outside of the main story although quite a bit of it involves fighting to gain special items and abilities. Outside of beating people up you can spend time playing numerous minigames ranging from mahjong to racing tiny customizeable toy cars. I'll pick out a few of my favorite ones but there's a lot more to be played. Mesu King Bug Battles which is a rock, paper, scissors game with sexy bug ladies fighting each other. Pocket Circuit Racing which is the 1 with the tiny cars that you buy parts to make your car more suitable for staying on and completing different courses. Black Jack, different forms of poker, and the fighting tournaments. There's a ton of other ones you can play too so even if you don't like the ones I mentioned you'll probably find some you can really enjoy.In the end I had and am still having fun playing this game even if im stuck on a karaoke challenge at the moment. As a new player to the series I would recommend Kiwami to anyone who likes brawling beat'em ups of the past such as Streets of Rage, Final Fight, or countless other similar games. If im thinking of more recent games to base a recommendation off of the first things that come to mind are The Warriors, the Batman Arkham games, or Lollipop Chainsaw