Think it went from third best Yakuza with Kiryu to best Yakuza with Haruka.
Sometime a bit of downtime can cause issues with the the game but to be fair, Saejima and Akiyama's sections weren't really boring. Shinada is the one who really has a slow paced section.
Final chapters are a whirlwind of Crazy though.
Lol. I actually liked the haruka gameplay a lot more than I thought too. My gripes are really with the structure of everything in how it decides to keep you (not)engaged. Im fine with going here and there because of this and that reason. But when I consistently do it to just have this long conversation of a lot of nothing, or this long experience of things I dont care about, it kind of loses me a bit. I feel like this has been happening from the point saejima got lost in the mountains with baba.
Overall I just think 'playing' is taking a backseat for them wanting to tell you every moment of these characters' experiences no matter how relevant/fun to play/entertaining or not. Im not sure if thats a good thing . Im not even trying to rush through the game or anything.
I dont know who Shinada is right now so I guess i'll be looking forward to that!