While many will be reductive and say that this is a Pokemon clone (and to some degree it is), I fully believe they're parallel games more than actual competitors (more because GameFreak are hacks). Palworld is a survival crafter. Pokemon's almost entirely about the battles.
Admittedly, I am a little disappointed we don't have the literal sweatshops as seen in the initial trailers, I do believe we have a good product that lets you fulfill some of that impression regardless. Wouldn't hurt to give me a reason to be evil to Pals aside from just a plus to productivity though.

Unfortunately, this is the weakest game in the series. I still recommend it to get familiar with the story if nothing else, but on sale. The new combat is half baked, Onomichi is tiny, and Kamurocho is literally under construction through the entirety of the game. The game suffers from trying to be revolutionary more than evolutionary. Spoilers ahead.

For combat, the lock on is at its worst. It never feels reliable. The new fighting style feels unnecessary and variety feels shafted when a lot of heat actions are locked behind Extreme Heat. Not being able to have your own weapons is a major step back. XP orb gains are atrocious and the cycle of Gym -> Eat -> Fight -> Gym with side stories mixed in is far more tedious than just fighting enemies with side stories mixed in for an XP bar.

Kiryu needing to go to jail to atone spits in the face of what happened in Yakuza 5 when he was at his lowest in part from not being able to take care of the orphans.
For a game that was initially touted as the end of Kiryu's story, it doesn't necessarily have a present sense of finality or any sort of sending off throughout the story until the end, where it doesn't really pay off. No Komaki, hardly any Akiyama (who gets shafted hard even when he is on screen), and even less of Saejima and Majima yet the story goes on about bonds and Kiryu's regrets with how he handled his. Don't get me wrong, I like the Hirose boys, but they just don't have the history Kiryu has with other major characters in the franchise's past. On more than one occasion, I thought that if they didn't dispose of characters after every game, there could've been a major improvement in how invested I was if it were the remnants of the Ryudo family in the Hirose family's place.

12 years of feels. Just read it for yourself, it's the OG free Ren'Py VN. Don't go in expecting some crappy meme VN or anything subversive.