Yakuza 6: The Song of Life is not the game I was expecting. The series’ newest numbered release (actually the seventh, after Yakuza 0) has long been billed as the swan song for longtime protagonist Kazuma Kiryu. As such I expected a celebration of the hero’s interpersonal relationships—those key moments of Yakuza storytelling that have propelled the series forward for more than a decade.

Strangely, though, Yakuza 6 feels like yet another solid, introductory jumping-on point after 2016’s prequel and last year’s remake of the first game. It opens with Kiryu enjoying another stint in prison; this time for three years. When he gets out, his adopted daughter is in a coma, his closest allies are in prison, and the Tojo Clan he once served is at war with an entirely new criminal faction. Without these direct ties to the past, Yakuza 6 feels like a fairly self-contained—if not exactly clean—tale of international criminal conspiracy.

I’ll be honest. I wasn’t thrilled about this de facto “reset” at first. Kiryu and company have carried Yakuza through six numbered games, three spin-offs, two full remakes, and a couple of movies. Much of that wealth of history is completely missing this time around. Where were Daigo, Haruka, and the kids from the Morning Glory orphanage? How could Sega send Kiryu off without resolving the violent sexual tension between him and Goro Majima?