First of I feel the plot of this one is probably the most complex one giving the player a tenth of information through each character which makes it feel so overwhelming and lose interest the deeper in. This is also due to the fact that they've decided to go with even MORE protagonists then last time which imo made the game longer than it had to be. Haruka's part was fun for like ten minutes and then I realized I had to do the same songs 30 times over. It was a nice change from the constant beat'em up style of gameplay but in reality it's just a glorified karaoke minigame. Shinada felt like a rushed character trying to find someone to replace Tanimura so I didn't really get attached to him that much. Also with the Tojo Clan's only formidable enemy being the Omi Clan to spice it up I guess they had to make this overly complicated plot to make sure it wasn't just a re-run of 2's story.

Plot aside though, this game has so MUCH content. From arcades with more games to two different types of fishing to each character's side story (taxi driver, hunter, idol, and baseball) there was so much even if you weren't going for a 100% run you definitely could see how much more content was put into this one compared to previous entries.

The settings are also multiplied having a distinct city aside from Kamurocho which gives the player so much more to explore. I feel Fukuoka was the best of the new areas seeing how vibrant the city it really made it feel alive.

Gameplay wise each character has their own niche which gives players a distinct fighting style. Some are definitely stronger (Kiryu and Saejima) which makes playing as the others feel like you just changed the difficulty especially in the Coliseum which was brutal on Akiyama and Shinada at certain fights. Each character also has an alternate mode only being usable in Heat Mode which was interesting and felt like the set up for Extreme Heat Mode but some had their cons. Akiyama's alt mode only worked if you could knock them up but you can't do it on bosses or enemies who block or if you accidentally do a heat mode. I feel for the sake of both story and gameplay they should've just stuck to two protagonists being Kiryu and Saejima similar to how it was in 0 so you could get invested in each of their stories more.

QoL changes were added to like not having your Coliseum health being tied to your actual health so if you accidentally failed a Breakout stage you wouldn't be walking around at 1 mph. The yellow health bar was also a nice addition giving the player more room for eating food and giving you a buff along with the additional health.

100% percent wise there wasn't anything too difficult imo just tedious tasks and careful planning and you have a long but clear way through. Amon was annoying for Shinada only because he would spam his parasol move, a move being difficult to fully dodge and also making his invincible. Kiryu's Amon was just a mashup of everything but after a couple of TD's hes nothing. Minigame completions aren't too bad with cheat items coming in once again to completely skip over roulette and mahjong entirely (the non-Western gambling games are still annoying though). Ultimate Matches in this game felt completely unnecessary as well the only ones that really were memorable were the annoying ones funnily enough only with Shinada involved having the battle where damage is only dealt with weapon drawing and his run away from the forklift, yup the forklift sequence where you can't even see where you're going haha



TD is still king and they gave it to Saejima :D (makes sense with whats on his back) and kinda Akiyama but his kind of sucks compared to the others.

First of I feel the plot of this one is probably the most complex one giving the player a tenth of information through each character which makes it feel so overwhelming and lose interest the deeper in. This is also due to the fact that they've decided to go with even MORE protagonists then last time which imo made the game longer than it had to be. Haruka's part was fun for like ten minutes and then I realized I had to do the same songs 30 times over. It was a nice change from the constant beat'em up style of gameplay but in reality it's just a glorified karaoke minigame. Shinada felt like a rushed character trying to find someone to replace Tanimura so I didn't really get attached to him that much. Also with the Tojo Clan's only formidable enemy being the Omi Clan to spice it up I guess they had to make this overly complicated plot to make sure it wasn't just a re-run of 2's story. Plot aside though, this game has so MUCH content. From arcades with more games to two different types of fishing to each character's side story (taxi driver, hunter, idol, and baseball) there was so much even if you weren't going for a 100% run you definitely could see how much more content was put into this one compared to previous entries. The settings are also multiplied having a distinct city aside from Kamurocho which gives the player so much more to explore. I feel Fukuoka was the best of the new areas seeing how vibrant the city it really made it feel alive. Gameplay wise each character has their own niche which gives players a distinct fighting style. Some are definitely stronger (Kiryu and Saejima) which makes playing as the others feel like you just changed the difficulty especially in the Coliseum which was brutal on Akiyama and Shinada at certain fights. Each character also has an alternate mode only being usable in Heat Mode which was interesting and felt like the set up for Extreme Heat Mode but some had their cons. Akiyama's alt mode only worked if you could knock them up but you can't do it on bosses or enemies who block or if you accidentally do a heat mode. I feel for the sake of both story and gameplay they should've just stuck to two protagonists being Kiryu and Saejima similar to how it was in 0 so you could get invested in each of their stories more. QoL changes were added to like not having your Coliseum health being tied to your actual health so if you accidentally failed a Breakout stage you wouldn't be walking around at 1 mph. The yellow health bar was also a nice addition giving the player more room for eating food and giving you a buff along with the additional health. 100% percent wise there wasn't anything too difficult imo just tedious tasks and careful planning and you have a long but clear way through. Amon was annoying for Shinada only because he would spam his parasol move, a move being difficult to fully dodge and also making his invincible. Kiryu's Amon was just a mashup of everything but after a couple of TD's hes nothing. Minigame completions aren't too bad with cheat items coming in once again to completely skip over roulette and mahjong entirely (the non-Western gambling games are still annoying though). Ultimate Matches in this game felt completely unnecessary as well the only ones that really were memorable were the annoying ones funnily enough only with Shinada involved having the battle where damage is only dealt with weapon drawing and his run away from the forklift, yup the forklift sequence where you can't even see where you're going haha TD is still king and they gave it to Saejima :D (makes sense with whats on his back) and kinda Akiyama but his kind of sucks compared to the others.