LogFAQs > #975564471

I played a demo of one of the Yakuza games like a decade ago and didn't care for it much so I never played any others of the series

finished Yakuza: LAD because it was free on PS+ and (mostly) really liked it, though there are things I would change (random massive difficulty spikes to encourage grinding, excessively long [as in 1hr+] back-to-back cutscenes)

I'm interested in getting into the other Yakuzas but don't know a ton about the series and it's a little tricky to sort out what's what

1. What are the essential must-play games of the series? LAD didn't really require knowing the other games to enjoy but not sure if that's the case elsewhere?
2. How does Judgment/LAD: Ishin/LAD Gaiden tie in to all that?
3. I know the past games were action/adventure combat instead of turned-based. Is that the case for all of them?
4. LAD was a like 80 hour game without even doing the Milennium Tower challenges; is that the case for all of them too? I fully dont expect to have time to play the full series if that's the case

basically I'm just curious what I should know before trying to branch off into what is a not-so-straightforward series