A glaring issue when it comes to the use of mini-games.
Now, it's not that I don't enjoy them, far from it actually, the depth that mini-games like: disco, karaoke, going to the SEGA arcade to play games like Space Harrier or claw machines, going bowling, going to the batting cages, playing mahjong, going to a back alley casino, gambling in several games in a park with homeless people, fighting in what's essentially fight club, and there's telephone club and the video place but I'd call those more destinations than mini-games. They all add depth to this game, to this franchise, I think part of the reason Yakuza is such a solid franchise is because of the mixture of amazing main story, unique substories, interesting side events, and mini-games it provides.
Here's the thing, I love that all this stuff is a part of the game and as Kiryu and Majima I spent time doing all of these things on my own time just for kicks in between doing story missions, training missions, real estate for Kiryu and cabaret for Majima. I would go bowling or I'd go fishing or beat people up in fight club because it's a unique part of the game.
BUT..........
When the game starts to force those mini-games on you, especially when they not only force them on you but put you against AI that you may or may not beat by random chance, that's when I have an issue with them. Which has happened several times to me in the game, the latest being a disco substory against the Disco Queen of Sotenbori, Majima has to have a dance off against her, no matter the difficulty if you are not doing a mix of taking the right number of steps and hitting the right button combos you're screwed. I spent literally an hour and a half trying to beat that substory and got very lucky I did. I had fun doing the disco stuff on my own, I shouldn't be forced to do it for the substories, if you want me to do competitive rhythm games, I already buy your Hatsune Miku franchise SEGA leave it there. In Kiryu's real estate you are forced to do a mini-game against each areas King and lose a percentage of your property if you don\t win which is another unfair moment to the player; disco, cat-fighting, telephone club, video game racing, karaoke........none of which are easy except telephone club. Again though, forced to do these games for no reason. If anything at least if you see the players struggling with a mini-game by doing it over and over again, tone down the AI, like that would've not want to make me break things during that disco thing.
Mini-games in this franchise are so fresh, I can't think of another game that does them like this or this well, it's a seamless blend of the Yakuza series you're playing with just interesting side games. They did it way before Grand Theft Auto started incorporating mini-games like bowling and golf; they just do such a good job.
With Kiryu's tale over now, with Judgment out (which I own but have yet to play) hopefully the mini-games just stay mini-games and don't get forced on us as extremely difficult parts of the game.
That being said, here's my friend making it look super easy and making me feel foolish. She does a lot of these videos for various games so check out her YouTube channel as well.