I don’t think the exact reason why a lot of people prefer Majima’s story is the fact that it’s a lot more easily digestible, but it certainly must be a factor. Even with the slower pace of the story in Kiryu’s first half, I think there’s a LOT of stuff being dropped on you at specific points regarding the Empty Lot, the Kamurocho Revitalization Project, and relations between the families within the Tojo Clan and Omi Alliance. I think it could’ve been spaced out more with some of the downtime in the first half. Majima’s saga falls into the Empty (P)Lot eventually, but his initial deal is simpler: I’m a disgraced yakuza, and my former family head ordered me to kill this musclebound meathead named Makoto Makimura so I can join up again. Makoto Makimura is actually a frail blind woman. Something’s not right, I gotta protect her. There’s obviously more to it than that, but that baseline incentive is a good enough hook to keep you going through the exposition. I think they tried to make exonerating Kazama in Kiryu’s storyline a similar incentive to keep going, but it’s just not the same. The game does an okay job of emphasizing how important Kazama is to Kiryu and Nishiki, but it gets pretty lost until the end when he finally shows up to chat with Kiryu. There is that direct involvement he has with arranging for Kiryu to fall in with Tachibana after leaving the Dojima family, but he’s not as ingrained with the main story and conflict as Makoto is.

I did not expect to love the relationship that formed between Majima and Makoto as much as I did, but I really loved it, especially how it ties into the Mad Dog character. Yes, it might be cliche at a debased view to say “Majima is the way he is because he fumbled a girl” but it’s a lot deeper than that. I think Nishitani plays a pretty big role here too, in teaching Majima the only way he could cope with the ills of the yakuza underworld was to construct a character, and to stare daggers back at the abyss.

Wei Han Lee is not a character that gets enough love, in my opinion. I’m always a sucker for big and aloof dudes who are unspokenly super caring and gentle. I was so upset at his death, but if the upcoming Director’s Cut tries to retcon his death, it’s gonna be pretty stupid.

Awano felt kind of like a missed opportunity to me. The scene that he shares with Kiryu after the second Kuze fight was one of my favourites in the entire game, but they pretty much never butt heads again (besides before he gets saved by Tachibana outside Serena). There’s clearly a lot of depth to his character, but close to none of it is explored, and he basically gets shafted into being a warm-up for Majima’s final boss in Lao Gui, and there it feels like he’s speaking more to the player than Majima. Then he gets shot and it’s over. On this note, I initially was a little disappointed at Shibusawa being Kiryu’s final boss, but I appreciated it more over time. The encounter itself is fucking amazing; The preceding cutscene and his monologue about his father were great, and the dynamic intro paired with the music was just incredible as well. Although there are some weird things here, as I think him holding Makoto hostage in a wheelchair was kind of ridiculous, and I never totally bought into the whole “I’m the real Dragon of Dojima” thing. But with everything else considered, it almost made sense that he would silently bide his time and rise to be the captain. Kuze and Awano faced their own downfalls, in that Kuze was too obsessed with his scrupulosity and devotion to his own code (leading to five total losing encounters with Kiryu, lol), and not only was Awano too sadistic and unstable, but he simply preferred the leisure of yakuza life, even if he is an undoubtedly competent lieutenant.