https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzMyFzlWJO8
If God Hand didn't exist, every Yakuza game would run down the line of being the next best beat em up on the planet. If you've yet to play the games, maybe the introduction of some of these classic games might intrigue you as you'll be purchasing the game itself, as well as a compilation of sorts. In past Yakuza games, there have been ads for Sega games, but unless it was a pachinko game, it would be Virtua Fighter 2(which is a pos, imo) that was the first video game pulled from Sega's library.
Yakuza's main combat system is a step above your basic beat em up, but the game is ingrained with heat actions, QTE special attacks that actually aren't intrusive unlike most QTEs. They just really work for this game because of the frequency that you use these attacks, you know when they're coming. On top of that, you have the storyline which is great from game to game, rating high on the list of video game storylines regardless which game you play, and side missions that don't just feel like pointless busy work like in MMOs, stuff that has their own interesting dialogue and problem to solve.
It's the optional mini games and side content that break up any sort of monotony the game might have. Tired of advancing through the story, go take a break and play one of the many mini games throughout the series. There's original titles but also stuff based on real life games. Yakuza series has games such as Boxcelios, Boxcelios 2, YF6, Shogi, Mahjong, various Japanese gambling games, western gambling games, Pachinko machines, hostess club management, fight club management, UFO Catchers, Karaoke, racing, and more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeiJhKIA6ds Racing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAd3FDWdLA0 Boxcelios
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDlArIv4V0Y Boxcelios 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKslNYpw1xU Golf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_ZOfisY5rQ YF6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jGRH6HRplc Bowling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGZiq4qXcUA Ping Pong
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGdDEDS3LJk Batting Cages
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnsNuKbk7ss Pool
If you've yet to get into this series, maybe you should? If you've had PS+ on PS3, you should have Yakuza 4 and 5. Every game allows you to watch the storyline of the past games in a more condensed version, each lasting around an hour or two hitting all the major points that you'll need to know to catch up. You don't have to watch them or play the other games, but there are characters from each game that are in different positions and it'd give you perspective on these characters and why these characters even come into play or why Kazuma even cares, so it's recommended.