I have played all of the mainline games in the series in the last year, plus Ishin. It’s hard to pick a favorite, and the way they handled the transition to an RPG with the Ichiban games was very impressive. I think my favorite might actually be Ishin. I really enjoyed the feudal Japan setting, and it was a refreshing change from the usual Yakuza setting.

I will also add that the best thing I ever did to enhance my enjoyment of these games was to play them on easy. It allowed me to progress at my own pace and just enjoy the story and the side stuff without getting frustrated by massive boss difficulty spikes, although there were still a few boss fights that took a lot to beat even on easy difficulty.