“It wouldn’t have been much of a change if they just kept the same old mechanics they’d been using for more than a decade, but with a new main character would it? Granted, the combat isn’t perfect but it is the refreshing change the series needed, and I can only see it improving with subsequent iterations”
This is the problem right here. Is this idea that the series needed to change. It is also the idea that IF it needed to change and freshen up, completely doing away with the gameplay was the thing to do. Like making the core Street Fighter games into a Kart Racing or Grand Turismo into a Card Battle game. You, like the rest of the new fans, sound so stupid and devoid of any imagination it focking hurts… Seriously, stop.
The most laughable part is you thinking that Turn Based, a far more restrictive and inferior system, is somehow freshening something up. Any real Yakuza fan knows that that’s what the Offshoots were for. Something you would be very aware of if you actually were “a fan of the games since the PS2 days.” Which you clearly are not.
They killed a very unique franchise that served a niche in order to appeal to the likes of people like you and the rest of the “anime” Persona crowd. Something that they also did with Persona sadly enough. But it shouldn’t surprise me in the least, cuz that’s what SEGA does. Ironically? What Nintendon’t. Go figure.
They did the Yakuza franchise wrong, but c’est la vie.