Review #626: Yakuza 3

 Just give Kazuma a break already!

 Kiryu just can't leave the Yakuza business behind, can he? With a new generation of consoles hitting the market it was only time before Ryu Ga Gotoku would make the jump into the HD generation. And it did... with a spin-off that never left Japan, but the following year Ryu Ga Gotoku would hit the scene. You'd expect Sega to cut back a bit in order to start a new, but the Yakuza team managed to make Yakuza 3 the biggest and largest Yakuza yet.

 The game opens up one year after Yakuza 2 and Daigo Dojima, the sixth chairman of the Tojo family, getting shot. And then we're taken back in time to right after Yakuza 2 ended before Kaoru is unceremoniously removed from the story to pursue a career in America. Screw that noise! Kaoru and Kiryu were the best and I'll never forgive Sega for that. That aside, the new story has Kiryu and Haruka moving to Okinawa to start up an orphanage and move away from Yakuza business. But it's never easy to leave crime behind, and soon he becomes embroiled in Tojo affairs again, just by trying to protect his new home and his kids. While we had some pretty complex villains in Nishiki and Ryuji before, Yakuza 3 has some of the evilest and most ruthless villains we've seen yet! And, on the flip side, also has some of the most endearing characters yet in the form of the Okinawan Yakuza. The first act of the game is very slow paced, which I appreciated for the build up, having Kiryu taking care of his children as well as dealing with the local Yakuza. But it's not long before Yakuza earns the respect of the Ryudo family, beloved Okinawan Yakuza that just might bite more than they can chew when they come across Tokyo's worst. Yakuza 2 is often considered to have the best plot, but I disagree, I completely adored Yakuza 3's script, I love how we get to see Kiryu acting like a foster parent and having to manually partake in such menial tasks as calling the kids for a family meeting since someone stole money, or having to chide them into doing their homeworks! It's not for everyone, but it does wonders to develop Kiryu and sell you on him as a parent. On the other hand, Yakuza has always been a very Japanese franchise, so expect to come across a few... questionably affairs, such as Michiru, a cartoony transvestite that chases Kiryu because rape is funny, something which was thankfully axed from the PS4 port, as well a bit of unintentional sexism, such as everyone trying to pair up to kids just because the kid likes the girl, even though the girl is clearly uninterested. On the other hand, they have a brilliant portrayal of a gay(or maybe bi) character. It's a different culture, you either take it or leave it.

 The game continues the tradition Yakuza 2 started of building on top of what came before. If you ever played a Yakuza game before, well, it's pretty much exactly the same: You are thrust into the small city of Kamurocho, which you're free to explore as you follow the story or invest your time solving sidequests. I expected the amount of sidequests to be lower than Yakuza 2, since it was a new engine, but there's about a 100 of them, so have fun. It took me almost 30 hours to beat the game, 10 more than Yakuza 2, and I spent a ton of them delving into these, from chasing the nefarious dine-and-dasher to solving a crime-mystery right out of Phoenix Wright's notebook, pointing included. Exploring the city feels better than ever, fixed camera angles are a thing of the past, with the camera firmly stuck behind Kiryu's back, and his running speed is quite fast. You can also swap items from any Telephone Booth out there, which is a godsend, no longer having to trek back to a Hideout because you need to make space in your inventory. As per usual, there's a secondary area besides Kamurocho, this time being Okinawa, a pleasant rural town that offers a golf course and its own set of Lockers.

 Joining the Batting, Mahjong, Shogi and Golfing from Yakuza 2, now we've also got a new Arcade game: A sidescroller shooter, Golf, Darts, Fishing, and best of all: Karaoke. The Karaoke minigame is so good and so much fun that it will be returning in future games! On the other hand, a lot of the more Japanesy activities, such as Hostess clubs, were removed(According to Sega, due to time constraints) which... are no skin off my back, I never cared too much about them(Even though I appreciated them being there, since it made Kamurocho more authentic) so their loss didn't sting too much. Dating hostess has been hilariously simplified into them just asking Kazuma to take them out on a date out of the blue. Ridiculous, but at least their sidequests were kept in.

 Combat is easily the best it's ever been, offering more options than ever before. The basics are the same as before, Weak attack, Strong attack, Grab, Dodge and blocking, as well as a Heat gauge that builds up as you dole out damage which can be spent on powerful finishers... if you fulfill the right conditions. Leveling up is now divided into four different categories, and while a lot of the things you'll be unlocking you already unlocked in the previous game... there are also a ton of new additions. You can hasten the speed of Kazuma's combos, you can get a second Strong attack after your weak combo string, a TON of new Heat specials. There are so many options now that combat feels great, the new engine allows for more interactions with weapons, so stray blows might send tins or cans flying around, and the new graphics makes everything very crunchy. On the other hand, this is the hardest Yakuza yet, but by the time you've got a well developed Kazuma you'll be wrecking faces left and right.

 There are two new additions worth talking about, since they'll be returning in Yakuza 4: Chases and Inspirations. Inspirations come in the way of observing silly people doing silly things and hitting all the QTEs. The QTEs are easy enough, but afterwards you have to pick from three choices in order to earn a new move... and it's not always obvious which is the right choice, so you might have to trigger the scene again until you get it right, which can be a bit annoying. Chases are a new mechanic in which you must hold R2 to dash and try to tackle a your target to decrease their stamina.... before you run out of yours. Sometimes you'll be doing the escaping, in which case you'll just have to run around until they run out of stamina. Chases felt tacky at first, but they grew on me, and by the end of the game I was genuinely enjoying them.

 I was ready to hate Yakuza 3. It's the one nobody talks about and the one that came before number 4, the one that brought the paradigm shift of multiple playable characters. But the slow-paced beginning captured me, and then I fell in love with the new supporting cast. I mean, Ryuji was cool, but the new main villain is a ruthless son of a gun that has his own traumas, and as much as I loved Kaoru and Kiryu, Rikiya is the best bro anyone could ask for. And the more I played it the more I realized just how great the combat felt and by the end of the game I couldn't help but notice just how great the side content was. Yakuza 3 is the best Yakuza 3, although I think 4 is even better. But we won't find out, since I'm skipping straight to number 6! Y'know, since I already played 4 back in 2011 and 5 never got a physical release.
9.0 out of 10