Kazuma soon arrives in the small town of Onomichi, where the new tranquility takes on even greater significance. The tranquil town could not be further from the hustle and bustle of the glitzy entertainment district. On the steps between an elevated temple complex and the bridge over a railroad track, an almost village-like idyll dominates the scene.
What is Mr. Kiryu looking for there? The father of his grandson. Or rather, the son of his daughter Haruka, who was hit by a car while holding the baby in her arms. Kazuma wants to find out whether it was an assassination or an accident - and of course, he finds out about a plot that once again hides an intrigue within an intrigue within intrigue.
Women serve exclusively as cues, hostages, or erotic tools in the story, which is carried entirely by men, while the primates posing in suits beat their faces up to become best friends, later beat their faces up to then immediately get along again and after a proper smash-up even immediately forgive the murder of their father, whereupon everyone loves each other again incredibly.
The script is interesting because the plot about the cronyism in the ranks of Japanese and Chinese clans is cleverly constructed and works excellently as a constantly changing shape and color carrot. Moreover, the thread isn't just wrapped around Kazuma, Haruka, and their offspring; nearly every short story and even a few mini-games make family a theme, so the narrative feels compact and multi-layered.
It just seems to me that Sega would have resigned itself to the fact, by part three at the latest, that the series, which has been extremely successful in Japan but barely noticed in the West, can't make big strides in either narrative or gameplay, so it didn't even try to modernize either aspect. Instead, perhaps to achieve any increase at all, the narrative has been exaggerated into a caricature of itself, while the game presents itself far too obviously as nothing more than a collection of various challenges, despite the aforementioned connection to the content.
Conclusion
That almost all interaction options are only mini-games located on the spot and the open world is almost devoid of dynamic events aside from random brawls. And yet Kazuma's seventh excursion into Japan's underworld is a damn good one, both in terms of gameplay and narrative! This is partly due to the outstanding backdrops, which for the first time have been completely set to music and in which every accessible room can be reached without interrupting the load - Kazuma's animations, as well as the meticulous attention to detail of the outfitters, also ensure that you are drawn deeper into this world than in any comparable game. It's not just because of the sheer amount of really good mini-games that make every meter of this open-world feel like a functional reality. It's also due to the revamped battle system, where tactics and timing have gained importance, as well as a sort of collectible card minigame whose real-time tactics could even stand on their own two feet. Mainly, though, it's because Sega takes the story of Kazuma Kiryu to a very logical and decidedly satisfying finale, especially for longtime fans. It was the last time that he is the main character of his adventure.
