Finally jumped back into this after finishing chapter one and kind of slipping off.
And I'm really, really glad I came back. Previously, I'd only done one side case, and because the "friend events" I'd seen so far had just been Poppo buyathons, I'd written them off too.
Instead it's like... all my favourite, humane, awesome interactions and systems from Yakuza are here and tripled down on. I'm only on chapter three but I'm on, like, city level 25 and have done all the side cases available to me. I'm kind of sad, in a way, that I kind of raced through some of the friend events that probably would have been better revisited incrementally as I continued through the game, but hey, I was having such a good time that I'm sure get over it.
There are few games I have as much fun with as I do Yakuza games when I'm the mid-game flow of taking on all the little side quests around town. Just a total joy. I hope this game found an audience.