Previously:
LTTP: Yakuza
LTTP: Yakuza 2
Before we get started, I'd like to contextualize my criticisms of Yakuza 3, since although I am going to sound very negative here, I still enjoyed the game. At times, everything that appeals to me about the series was firing on all cylinders and I was happy as a clam. For me, Yakuza is like pizza: even when it's bad, it's still good. I don't like the game as much as I like the other entries in the series, but I can still easily picture myself revisiting the beaches of Okinawa and shooting for 100% completion somewhere down the line.
Here's how I feel about the third Yakuza game, and the first to arrive on the Playstation 3 to those of us in the West.
Fair warning: this is where most of my complaints with Yakuza 3 lie. That's important to note, because arguably the series' story is not its strongest selling point. So don't get too discouraged! I'm going to try to not be too down on the game as we go.
I don't think the story of Yakuza 3 remains focused enough for its more dramatic sequences to resonate very well. In a telltale segment, Fuma informs Kiryu that Daigo is in Tokyo, and in danger. He's arranged a personal jet for Kiryu so that he can return to Kamurocho as quickly as possible, but he's interrupted by Taichi, one of the game's terrible orphans who tells Kiryu that the Sunshine Orphanage has been demolished. Kiryu understandably delays his return to Kamurocho so that he can make sure all the orphans he cares for are alright, and then he finds out that Nakahara, leader of a small Okinawa family, has been kidnapped. Kiryu then decides to chase after Nakahara who he's only known for seemingly a few weeks, which endangers Daigo and results in the (abrupt!) death of Rikiya. The bullhorn sequence makes for a memorable setpiece, but it seemed that the main narrative was starting to ramp up when it was AGAIN delayed by some orphanage dilemma. Rikiya's death feels completely forced here and Kiryu's emotional response seems really out of character. Really, the whole chapter left a bad taste in my mouth, but it also exemplified my main problem with Yakuza 3's central narrative: the orphanage. I don't care about the orphanage. I don't care that Taichi has asthma or that Shiro is being bullied. Not because I'm an asshole, I don't think, but because the game's hook - that Kiryu's foster father Fuma has risen from the dead and started assassinating yakuza chairmen - has hooked me, and I want to find out more about that stuff, and not about Taichi's asthma. You remember how I praised Y1 for Haruka never becoming the annoying kid character? This game has boatloads of the sort of character I was happy Haruka never was.
Regarding the hook, I don't think it was resolved in a very satisfying manner, either: the lookalike evildoer was done better with Kazuki in Yakuza 2. The game's villain remarks in the climactic conclusion something to the effect of "Kazuma, I wish we'd met sooner," and all I could do was agree. Think back to Yakuza 2, where the excellent character Ryuji Goda crosses path with Kiryu the same day he arrives in whatever the name of that city was. Here, the audience is introduced to Mine in cutscenes around a third of the way through the game, and Kiryu learns of him shortly afterward through Date. In general I think that the characters are decent to pretty good, it's a shame we only see the politician guy for like two scenes as I thought his character was being built up from the beginning of the game but he just drops off the face of the planet after he talks to Kiryu and we never see him again. I know I criticized Y2 for occasionally misusing its cast but here it's much worse! The story wraps up WAY too abruptly to the point where I threw my arms up in surprise when the credits began to roll. I would've liked to see some sort of wrap up between Daigo and Kiryu, since they've known eachother for so long and the game's climax involved saving Daigo's ass. Or Nakahara, who has sworn an oath of brotherhood to Kiryu.
I could go on nitpicking about little bits of narrative that rubbed me the wrong way but you get the idea. The story DOES have its strong points - there's an arc where Majima's loyalty is put into question and I feel that the game does this very effectively - but in general I found it to be disappointing, especially after Yakuza 2. Shoulda had more Daigo. Daigo is cool. Also Lau Ka Long coming back didnt interest me too much given that he didnt play that big of a role in the first game anyway.
Changes to combat from Yakuza 2 seem minor, honestly: you don't get as much heat off of weapon attacks, but enemies cower in fear when you pick stuff up or kill off all their friends. The "feel the HEAT!" super moves look cool but take a bit too long for my liking. I liked learning new weapons and crafting them as it was really the only way to spend the abundance of yen which I accumulated far too quickly and had no real use for otherwise. Same goes for material - man my pockets were always stuffed with charcoal! If there's a parry or a reversal in this game like those in the first two games I never found it, which is too bad because I loved those. I know there's a heat move which counters an incoming attack, but that's not the same thing.
Like Yakuza 2 I found the combat in Yakuza 3 to be pretty easy, save the last VR boss-fight (side mission) and I thought the game's endboss was more difficult than either 1's or 2's. Im glad that 4 and 5 introduced new characters as I feel a bit tired of Kiryus movelist after 3 games, honestly.
One thing I feel is sorely missing from Yakuza 3 is the sort of massive side-quest like managing the club in Yakuza 2. Theres the 7 mysteries of Okinawa quest line, but those dont really tie together in any way outside of you finding them all through the three school girls. Theres also the home-made ramen guy, who sort of seems like Granny White in Y2 or Luigi in TTYD in that you keep running into them here and there and learn their story intermittently. Anyway, theres nothing that parallels managing the Marietta or playing host at Adam in terms of scope. Maybe the murder mystery quest wouldve become something big, but I was unable to figure out how to progress with that one and as Ive done with every Yakuza game, Ive avoided using a guide for anything during this playthrough. I also think there isnt enough variety with the games missions, and too often the objective is to go to location X and beat up 3 or 4 guys. Theres an early quest in Okinawa where you have to cross the street holding ice cream without bumping into anything, it wouldve been nice if more missions broke the mold like that.
The minigames are better here than in either of the previous games, at least. My roommates really liked watching me play golf and pool, and I thought that both of those were rewarding. I liked bowling in Y2 better, but only because I found it easier to exploit spins! The doctors VR7 or whatever it was called quests were really fun, but I gave up on the last fight. Boxcellios is okay, I dont love it, but its a lot more engaging than Y2s YF6.
With the generation leap come all sorts of new stuff, like a first-person mode which is used to find locker keys (I missed a LOT more locker keys because of this - in the last game I got like 90% of them!) and the "revelations" which are a nice addition. The revelations supplement the humor of the series better than the side missions in Y3, as I feel the side-missions are a bit less imaginative but I'll get to that later on. Also, the revelations got us that one Kiryu gif that is posted in every Yakuza thread. Sometimes I felt that the right answer for the revelations wasnt obvious, and in one case (delivery guy on the bike) I had to watch the revelations 3 times to get it right. Overall theyre a great addition, though, and a cool way to unlock new finishing moves.
But, of course, the most obvious thing the Playstation 3 does for the series is give it a huge cosmetic overhaul, and almost everything looks great. The cutscenes especially look beautiful, I couldn't believe how good some character models looked. Oddly I felt that both Yuya and Kazuki look bad, but neither of them are really in the game very long. Seeing Kamurocho without fixed camera angles was novel, and the city looks amazing, especially at night. In general, side-quests are a lot more cinematic in 3 than in the PS2 entries: that one mission where you have to stand guard and use the first person perspective to find a peeping tom comes to mind.
What disappoints me most about Yakuza 3 is the story, easily, I think its not nearly as exciting as either of its predecessors and its too frequently interrupted by terrible orphans. Beyond that, Ive got loads of nitpicks, most of which Ive already complained about but while Im at it, the pacing is off, too: chapter 3 (which leads up to you returning to Kamurocho) takes way, way too long and in many of the action segments there arent any save points (such as in the hospital at the end of the game) meaning that sometimes Ill only ever save between chapters. Having that much time between saves can be nervewrecking and annoying, for instance yesterday I left the PS3 on for 2 hours while I went to the gym because I didnt want to lose the progress Id made and I had to leave. For the most part I think the new cast is fine, the best probably being Rikiya. Mine is alright as a villain but he doesnt have nearly enough presence in the game to put him even in the same ballpark as Ryuji Goda. Theres not enough variety in the side-quests and I didnt find the combat to have evolved meaningfully since Y2.
Now, allllllllllllll that bitching aside, I still liked the game enough overall that I wouldnt tell people to skip it altogether, and I can see myself trying to 100% down the road. There were times the game was really growing on me, mostly when I returned to Kamurocho around chapter 4, and I do think some of the story segments are effective. It burns me a little bit that this is the game which most people will start the Yakuza series with, simply due to its low cost and since its on the PS3, because I think its actually the worst game in the series to start with as it does a poor job of representing how great the games can be.
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Difficulty: NORMAL
Difficulty changes: 0
Retries: 3
Times knocked down: 18
Weapons broken: 57
Distance on foot: 42.195Km
HEAT action finishes: 50
Encounters: 105
Harukas trust level: F
Completion total: 31.52%
Play time: 28:48
LTTP: Yakuza
LTTP: Yakuza 2
Before we get started, I'd like to contextualize my criticisms of Yakuza 3, since although I am going to sound very negative here, I still enjoyed the game. At times, everything that appeals to me about the series was firing on all cylinders and I was happy as a clam. For me, Yakuza is like pizza: even when it's bad, it's still good. I don't like the game as much as I like the other entries in the series, but I can still easily picture myself revisiting the beaches of Okinawa and shooting for 100% completion somewhere down the line.
Here's how I feel about the third Yakuza game, and the first to arrive on the Playstation 3 to those of us in the West.
Story
(SPOILERS)Fair warning: this is where most of my complaints with Yakuza 3 lie. That's important to note, because arguably the series' story is not its strongest selling point. So don't get too discouraged! I'm going to try to not be too down on the game as we go.
I don't think the story of Yakuza 3 remains focused enough for its more dramatic sequences to resonate very well. In a telltale segment, Fuma informs Kiryu that Daigo is in Tokyo, and in danger. He's arranged a personal jet for Kiryu so that he can return to Kamurocho as quickly as possible, but he's interrupted by Taichi, one of the game's terrible orphans who tells Kiryu that the Sunshine Orphanage has been demolished. Kiryu understandably delays his return to Kamurocho so that he can make sure all the orphans he cares for are alright, and then he finds out that Nakahara, leader of a small Okinawa family, has been kidnapped. Kiryu then decides to chase after Nakahara who he's only known for seemingly a few weeks, which endangers Daigo and results in the (abrupt!) death of Rikiya. The bullhorn sequence makes for a memorable setpiece, but it seemed that the main narrative was starting to ramp up when it was AGAIN delayed by some orphanage dilemma. Rikiya's death feels completely forced here and Kiryu's emotional response seems really out of character. Really, the whole chapter left a bad taste in my mouth, but it also exemplified my main problem with Yakuza 3's central narrative: the orphanage. I don't care about the orphanage. I don't care that Taichi has asthma or that Shiro is being bullied. Not because I'm an asshole, I don't think, but because the game's hook - that Kiryu's foster father Fuma has risen from the dead and started assassinating yakuza chairmen - has hooked me, and I want to find out more about that stuff, and not about Taichi's asthma. You remember how I praised Y1 for Haruka never becoming the annoying kid character? This game has boatloads of the sort of character I was happy Haruka never was.
Regarding the hook, I don't think it was resolved in a very satisfying manner, either: the lookalike evildoer was done better with Kazuki in Yakuza 2. The game's villain remarks in the climactic conclusion something to the effect of "Kazuma, I wish we'd met sooner," and all I could do was agree. Think back to Yakuza 2, where the excellent character Ryuji Goda crosses path with Kiryu the same day he arrives in whatever the name of that city was. Here, the audience is introduced to Mine in cutscenes around a third of the way through the game, and Kiryu learns of him shortly afterward through Date. In general I think that the characters are decent to pretty good, it's a shame we only see the politician guy for like two scenes as I thought his character was being built up from the beginning of the game but he just drops off the face of the planet after he talks to Kiryu and we never see him again. I know I criticized Y2 for occasionally misusing its cast but here it's much worse! The story wraps up WAY too abruptly to the point where I threw my arms up in surprise when the credits began to roll. I would've liked to see some sort of wrap up between Daigo and Kiryu, since they've known eachother for so long and the game's climax involved saving Daigo's ass. Or Nakahara, who has sworn an oath of brotherhood to Kiryu.
I could go on nitpicking about little bits of narrative that rubbed me the wrong way but you get the idea. The story DOES have its strong points - there's an arc where Majima's loyalty is put into question and I feel that the game does this very effectively - but in general I found it to be disappointing, especially after Yakuza 2. Shoulda had more Daigo. Daigo is cool. Also Lau Ka Long coming back didnt interest me too much given that he didnt play that big of a role in the first game anyway.
Combat
Changes to combat from Yakuza 2 seem minor, honestly: you don't get as much heat off of weapon attacks, but enemies cower in fear when you pick stuff up or kill off all their friends. The "feel the HEAT!" super moves look cool but take a bit too long for my liking. I liked learning new weapons and crafting them as it was really the only way to spend the abundance of yen which I accumulated far too quickly and had no real use for otherwise. Same goes for material - man my pockets were always stuffed with charcoal! If there's a parry or a reversal in this game like those in the first two games I never found it, which is too bad because I loved those. I know there's a heat move which counters an incoming attack, but that's not the same thing.
Like Yakuza 2 I found the combat in Yakuza 3 to be pretty easy, save the last VR boss-fight (side mission) and I thought the game's endboss was more difficult than either 1's or 2's. Im glad that 4 and 5 introduced new characters as I feel a bit tired of Kiryus movelist after 3 games, honestly.
Side content
One thing I feel is sorely missing from Yakuza 3 is the sort of massive side-quest like managing the club in Yakuza 2. Theres the 7 mysteries of Okinawa quest line, but those dont really tie together in any way outside of you finding them all through the three school girls. Theres also the home-made ramen guy, who sort of seems like Granny White in Y2 or Luigi in TTYD in that you keep running into them here and there and learn their story intermittently. Anyway, theres nothing that parallels managing the Marietta or playing host at Adam in terms of scope. Maybe the murder mystery quest wouldve become something big, but I was unable to figure out how to progress with that one and as Ive done with every Yakuza game, Ive avoided using a guide for anything during this playthrough. I also think there isnt enough variety with the games missions, and too often the objective is to go to location X and beat up 3 or 4 guys. Theres an early quest in Okinawa where you have to cross the street holding ice cream without bumping into anything, it wouldve been nice if more missions broke the mold like that.
The minigames are better here than in either of the previous games, at least. My roommates really liked watching me play golf and pool, and I thought that both of those were rewarding. I liked bowling in Y2 better, but only because I found it easier to exploit spins! The doctors VR7 or whatever it was called quests were really fun, but I gave up on the last fight. Boxcellios is okay, I dont love it, but its a lot more engaging than Y2s YF6.
Generation leap
With the generation leap come all sorts of new stuff, like a first-person mode which is used to find locker keys (I missed a LOT more locker keys because of this - in the last game I got like 90% of them!) and the "revelations" which are a nice addition. The revelations supplement the humor of the series better than the side missions in Y3, as I feel the side-missions are a bit less imaginative but I'll get to that later on. Also, the revelations got us that one Kiryu gif that is posted in every Yakuza thread. Sometimes I felt that the right answer for the revelations wasnt obvious, and in one case (delivery guy on the bike) I had to watch the revelations 3 times to get it right. Overall theyre a great addition, though, and a cool way to unlock new finishing moves.
But, of course, the most obvious thing the Playstation 3 does for the series is give it a huge cosmetic overhaul, and almost everything looks great. The cutscenes especially look beautiful, I couldn't believe how good some character models looked. Oddly I felt that both Yuya and Kazuki look bad, but neither of them are really in the game very long. Seeing Kamurocho without fixed camera angles was novel, and the city looks amazing, especially at night. In general, side-quests are a lot more cinematic in 3 than in the PS2 entries: that one mission where you have to stand guard and use the first person perspective to find a peeping tom comes to mind.
Conclusion
What disappoints me most about Yakuza 3 is the story, easily, I think its not nearly as exciting as either of its predecessors and its too frequently interrupted by terrible orphans. Beyond that, Ive got loads of nitpicks, most of which Ive already complained about but while Im at it, the pacing is off, too: chapter 3 (which leads up to you returning to Kamurocho) takes way, way too long and in many of the action segments there arent any save points (such as in the hospital at the end of the game) meaning that sometimes Ill only ever save between chapters. Having that much time between saves can be nervewrecking and annoying, for instance yesterday I left the PS3 on for 2 hours while I went to the gym because I didnt want to lose the progress Id made and I had to leave. For the most part I think the new cast is fine, the best probably being Rikiya. Mine is alright as a villain but he doesnt have nearly enough presence in the game to put him even in the same ballpark as Ryuji Goda. Theres not enough variety in the side-quests and I didnt find the combat to have evolved meaningfully since Y2.
Now, allllllllllllll that bitching aside, I still liked the game enough overall that I wouldnt tell people to skip it altogether, and I can see myself trying to 100% down the road. There were times the game was really growing on me, mostly when I returned to Kamurocho around chapter 4, and I do think some of the story segments are effective. It burns me a little bit that this is the game which most people will start the Yakuza series with, simply due to its low cost and since its on the PS3, because I think its actually the worst game in the series to start with as it does a poor job of representing how great the games can be.
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The numbers
Difficulty: NORMAL
Difficulty changes: 0
Retries: 3
Times knocked down: 18
Weapons broken: 57
Distance on foot: 42.195Km
HEAT action finishes: 50
Encounters: 105
Harukas trust level: F
Completion total: 31.52%
Play time: 28:48
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