What are the best games in the Yakuza series?

[Kane99]

What would you guys say are the best games in the Yakuza series? I only played Yakuza Zero so far, and I only played it for a couple hours at most. I want to get back into it though because what I did play, I enjoyed a lot. 

What is the best in the series? Should I start from the first and go from there? 

[Reality vs Adventure]

I keep seeing Yakuza 0 as being a good game and best place to start in the series. But the games can be played in any order as far as I know. I haven't played any in the series so I'm debating between Yakuza 0 and Kiwami 2. Kiwami 1 and 2 are remakes of Yakuza 1 and 2. 

 

[Empire]

Yakuza 0. If you like it then move on to Kiwami then Kiwami 2. If you're still invested, then play the HD collection then 6. As a side note I know plenty of people who aren't usually interested in turn-based combat but still end up loving Like a Dragon. It's a fantastic game and it's worth at least trying. Also it could be considered its own jump-in point since it's the start of Ichiban's story and is mostly isolated from the other games (except for the last 1/4th of the game).

[Lens]

Yakuza 3 on PS3, PS4 is my favourite of the yakuza series 

[Yaramaki]

I played em all, you can start anywhere you want since all have separate stories, sure there are some characters that reappear but that's about it.

Zero is the highlight for me, i just love the 80 ies setting the story was worth of a movie and all the mini games were so much fun. I do have to add that kiwami re uses some of those mini games so it may be get repetitive if you play those back to back.

Yakuza like a dragon is also highly recommended. 

My only advice would be  leave some time between playing an entry because running around kamarocho can get quite repetitve.

Also why not try out judgment and lost judgment!