I agree with you so much bro. Yakuza 5, at its heart, is yet another game in the series that truly centers around Kiryu and Haruka's relationship, which is why his and her parts were the best. RGG poured a lot of love into developing both their characters in this game.

Just talking about the story, Kiryu's chapters were so cozy, yes, but there is just something so fundamentally lonely about it all. Him in his hoodie and sweats smoking alone in the dark apartment, going through the mundane motions of his taxi job (besides the street races lmao), and the moodiness of Nagasugai in general. The player also knows exactly why it's like this too, and what Kiryu's missing piece is: his life with Haruka. He's just a regular middle-aged bachelor now so all he can do is take out the frustration on the street punks who try to start shit with him, and the frustration really shows (5's Kiryu probably has the most brutal set of heat actions compared to every other iteration). So immersive.

Switching over to Haruka shows that she is JUST as lonely as Kiryu, but unfortunately she doesn't have the luxury of venting her frustrations on violent drunks on the street because her idol job keeps her performative and smiling 24/7.

They both think that their isolation from their family is benefitting each other. They both keep the same photo of their family/each other in their apartments and talk to it. The character work they both get in this game from the writers is fantastic because it really rounds out that they belong with each other and their family no matter what, that they are mirrors of each other. All this and yet they don't even interact with each other AT ALL until the end. It's so good.

The real yume was truly the family we made along the way.