No. The early Heisei shows, especially Kuuga and Agito, are more like drama series that have some action in them. They spend a lot more time on character interactions and dynamics. Some episodes have only a brief action scene near the end or beginning and the rest is drama. Generally, the show's feel much more serialized because of all the ongoing character stuff. The two-episode arcs are still there, but less obvious.

That sounds like something I could get into.

I hope you can, these shows are awesome. Who needs Ghost when you have Blade? :p

Switchblade described it pretty well but I'd like to note that Kuuga is kind of in its own little style. Agito's sort of close, but not too similar.

It actually has a very distinct two-parter structure and while there's definitely a plot that progresses the show is way more about the interactions between the characters. The "action scene" of some episodes consists of Yuusuke transforming, throwing like one punch, and the episode cutting to credits.

Agito-Blade have the key difference of central mysteries that things focus around but in Kuuga any mysteries are more of a background element. It's a show about a normal dude who hangs out with other normal people and sometimes he fights monsters. The others are like that too but it really defines Kuuga in a way that makes it distinct from every other Kamen Rider in my opinion.

I... do not like Agito at all to be honest. I'm glad other people can enjoy it more than me though!

(Psssh, I like Faiz anyways, you probably shouldn't listen to me.)

I like Ghost. We are few, we are proud.

From what I can tell, Kuuga is sort of unique in the world of Rider, while Agito is a bit closer to what the series would start to evolve into

I feel like that would drive me crazy, actually. I'm okay with good drama, but if you're going to have fights you can't just have short teases like that.

The only Heisei shows I've seen are Drive and Ghost, but I think my favorite element of both were the investigations. Drive focused on a police team and Ghost on a paranormal investigation team, both of which would investigate mysterious events that usually ended up being connected to some sort of MOTW. How similar are these earlier Heisei shows to this style? If I liked the investigations in Ghost and Drive, would I like them as well?

I'll probably watch Kuuga sometime soon (W is next up, so maybe after that?) but I'm not entirely sure how I'll feel about it. Guess we'll see, huh?

That's what I've always felt. Agito really cemented the style Heisei Rider shows had for the next half decade or so and some of the stuff in it, like multiple Riders, is still a big part of the show now.

It's a total non-issue watching it now. Just pretend Kuuga is an hour-long show and the action is paced out fine. There's a fight in the "middle", and a fight at the end.

Well, Kuuga's plots basically follow a formula of:
1. Monster starts killing people
2. Police investigate the patterns in how they're killing people
3. Kuuga's cop buddy calls him in
4. Kuuga fights the monster
5. An explosion

...so it's actually pretty close to the Neo-Heisei shows in a sense. The other shows still have elements of this but I remember them feeling way more like a single narrative than Kuuga.

Fun fact: Kuuga is the only Kamen Rider show I actually burned out on to the point I just decided to rewatch the dozen episodes I'd already seen when I eventually got back to it. It's also one of my favorite shows and in my opinion one of the best.

It's really unique and I love it for how daring it kind of was, but it's a relaxed enough show I can see some people finding it boring. The general consensus seems to be that it was pretty good, though.

Yeah I understand how that sounds. I think my problem is that Agito tried really hard to set up an overarching story (which I appreciate) but failed to follow up on it. There's some cool stuff that isn't explained. I don't think it's bad, but it felt a bit disappointed. (fwiw, I think the show could've been better if it had focused on G3) But that's just my opinion.

Yeah, watch W next. It has the best version of those Kamen Rider mystery solving bits.

Ahhh... I sort of get that. I think everything played out pretty naturally but I can see how someone might have a problem with it.

Also, it's f***ing W. What other reason do you need? :D

I was torn between that and a couple of others. But W seems like the correct next series.