izigame.me

Edit note: After practically completing a majority of the game, i would give this a more "Mixed" than "Positive" vote as there are a number of flaws that are kind of hard to overlook at the middle-endgame point. More details in the "Edit in-depth" part.
Original review:
Five years ive been waiting for a new game and honestly its worth the wait.
Game is as usual oozing with style. Adding more voice overs and managing to snag Kazuma Kiryu is really something.
No performance issues and so far awesome story + lore building + open world exploration/gameplay.
I only played about an hour of this but i can definitely tell this is going to be an amazing ride.
Side note: There really ought to be a way to view past texts + play old voice lines from said texts if possible. That would help when accidentally skipping over some texts.
Edit in-depth:
After almost finishing the game i have to say there are a number of flaws that i feel kind of diminishes my enjoyment of this game.

Forcing me to backtrack and recollect stuff in places i have already been as i discover new mechanics/things is such a slap to the face.
From the top of my head i can remember:

Unlocking subcontractors scatters their contact throughout the world
Unlocking fishing requires you to revisit fishing spots
Unlocking the ability to launch pinky requires you to visit spots require said ability (Obstacles or collectibles in odd locations)
Unlocking fast travel requires you to find all phone boxes
I dont even know what the crows do but seeing so many of them scattered with the same model/function leads me to believe that this is yet another collectible we have to address at some point in time

Finally the worse offender: unlocking the claw grabber will newly populate the world with collectible mascots gachas based on the mascots you have now. Acquiring more mascots then adds even more collectibles to the world requiring you to retraverse many places you have already been.
That is not fun and all it does is introduce more grind + padded play time.
In some cases, like the ability to break down propoganda + trash, the ability is unlocked very early so its mostly fine since you wouldn't really be playing that far into the game without unlocking such a core ability.
Alternatively, something like the obstacle that requires launching pinky is also fine to some extent since it is made known to the player before hand when they first traverse the area that they would need to return for this collectible once they have the correct ability. Again, "to some extent". Having this mechanic way too often as it currently is is very unenjoyable.
The mascot job planning and execution was originally endearing and somewhat fun but quickly becomes a major chore.
Once you get about 20 mascots you'll need to get used to navigating menus just to send people on jobs several times + have to deal with at least 1/4 - 1/3 of them getting mishaps that require your attention.
Then there's the stylised loading screen/transitions which again used to be cool but slowly becomes such a dredge that you get very annoyed when you see it.
There are way too many unnecesary fluff.
The first type are somewhat fine since it adds to the style of the game: Texts that mean something basic but is transformed in a way to fit the current theme. Fans for example is basically just Experience points.
The second type is my issue: "Stats" that are so negligible it honestly should be either reworked or removed as it shows up unnecesarily but provides next to no reason to exist.
The main ones are "popularity" and "motivation". They technically have some tie into in-game but its so redundant and minor that it just serves to add more reading/padding to the game.
Claw machine gacha is very tedious. Again with the aforementioned need to first find the mascot THEN find the variants of gacha of said mascot, you also need to go through the tedium of playing this claw machine, a large number of times might i add, in order to complete the "Deliverables" questline.
Again to do with grinding with very little benefit besides completion.
The mascot aiding game is a bit too oversimplified to the point where it is kind of hard to lose unless you either purposely werent paying attention or send your mascots on jobs much harder than what you currently own as the mascot aid cards.
The game itself is kind of too basic, which in itself is not a bad thing since some people dont want to think too hard, but again once you own majority of the SSR and UR card it becomes very monotonous.
The point of no return storyline that ends the game was.... very poor all things considered.
The storyline build up during the early and mid stages were really really intriguing. Uncovering the truth behind the mysteries in the middle to late stage was also very fun. The ending however was in my opinion, a total disappointment.
Forcing unnecesary mascot agency tasks with no win chance, three times at that, just to prove an unnecasary point was really not required. On top of that the "Oh love and friendship!" build up was so cliched that i have to admit i was disappointed with how it ended up being considering how much more twists and turns Paradise Killer had.
The last minute reveals and "Aha!" moments seem way too jarring. The so called federation that rejected us from the beginning of the story for losing the 12 billion yen tribute ended up just appearing and cleaning up every single mess as well as being the people behind the mascot committee. Really feels like a cop out for the main story but also bring up so many odd questions (Like the one posed by the lieutenant himself, that people now know a yakuza is the head of the committee??)
The handling of some characters, specifically Toki, were so poorly done too. This is a guy the game tries very hard to force you into developing some sort of feelings or opinion about but is practically non-existent in the whole game. Then you are required to make a decision on said character that had practically no development on you throughout your time in Kaso-machi besides various hearsay .
The 500 million yen given at the end of the game is also pretty useless as by the time you've reached this point you've already purchased everything money could have paid for way before this point and are probably only left with the chore to collect remaining collectibles around the world.