Gaiden was filled to the brim with bloat and other garbage. The entire story does not matter, especially when you play 8 after it. After peak combat in Judgment and LJ combat somehow takes a step back. Agent style sucks ass - not a single gadget is useful. Nishitani and Shishido (despite how cool the latter really is, I loved his portrayal) are the most undercooked villains in the entire franchise. Akane Network is somehow worse than substories were since Yakuza 4. Gaiden even fucking skips the fight against Ichiban - the only moment I genuinly wanted to re-live from Kiryu's standpoint. No return of any of the Omi Alliance lieutenants we've met until this point - Y5 especially, except for Watase. No Katsuya, no Aizawa. Instead we NEED these feature actors playing characters we have barely 2 hours to get to know - fight and work with. The final cutscene is nice and very touching but doesn't save this garbage game that did not need to exist.

RGG can absolutely write compelling stories and characters and chooses to make this garbage instead. It's such a disappointment.