Well beat em up as a genre is kinda hit and miss. So nothing wrong if u dont like em. Me personally not a huge fan of the combat either but i still dont find em boring. I think even a lot of action rpgs can be boring and repetitive if you arent careful. I think the problem is usually these games dont reward u for style points. And you can pretty much finish most games on normal without unlocking lot of moves. Same goes for yakuza series too.. U can just spam square and triangle raise ur heat bar ,grab the enemy, wall heat boom..go through the whole game. Thats how i played 0 mind u.. But as i went through these games i understood these combat systems have more depth and not just what it looks like. But yeah all this is applicable only when u are willing to beat the shit out of infinite virtual thugs. So yeah.

Regarding story, tho I love them..pretty much in the same boat as u.. Yeah they r predicatable but it still feels unique.. Its like this over the top action soap opera. Lets just leave it at that.

Personally, in my opinion in order to enjoy these games u need to be a completionist to an extent, u need to explore everything substories, hidden boss fights, all the minigames.. Just can play these games for the minigames. Idk if u have played till 5 but that game is just what an yakuza game should be.. Story is meh for me but the gameplay is the shit.. Sheer amount of side content to do.

Idk if anyone read all that.. I know it wasnt that coherent and articulate...i just tried my best to explain how i play these games without boring myself. If u did read and want to know something more about these games.. Dm me maybe.. Cheers.