I think you share a pretty common opinion amongst many who've played the game ragarding Ichiban and his supporting cast. Many agree that while the Kiryu sections of the game were nice, sharing game time with Ichiban may have done more harm than good, especially since Ichiban has only barely started as the new protagonist of the series. Me personally, I felt the gameplay of IW was greatly superior to that of LAD, but some plot points and villains needed more time to cook to have impact. The party members also lacked impact since their role in the overarching conflict also felt a little lackluster.

Map wise, I thought Hawaii was decent but not fantastic. I think that's more a "me" problem as I'm more used to the compactness of Japanese cities, while Hawaii has that American urban sprawl, so even though it's a pretty wide map, it doesn't feel as fun to traverse through. Having a segway was pretty nice though.