Every since finally starting my journey through the Yakuza series with 0 three years ago, it’s been very interesting to see series evolve… yet also see that in an “incorrect” way. I mean, sure now I’m fully familiar with Y1 and 2 first hand, but those were the recent Kiwami remakes, not the originals. And even 0 itself was one of the newest developed entries in the series. In fact, Yakuza 3, even in its remastered format, is now the oldest made game in the series I’ve played. This age shows not in the most flattering way.
Just like the majority of the series, Yakuza 3 is an open world beat em up story driven action adventure with a compact but highly packed with details and stories world. Also like in most entries, there are several open world maps, each with its own feel and stories, both main and optional. And I guess this might’ve been the turning point for the franchise as a whole. I say “guess” because I’ve still not played 4 through 6 myself and because all the games I’ve played were made after 3, so it’s very difficult now to see what influenced what. This game, as far as I can understand, set the standard for controls and mechanics that were mostly carried through until Yakuza Kiwami 1 and 0, updating the ideas from what you got in the original 1 and 2. Being originally a PS3 title it also brought the series into the then “next gen” and even today on higher resolutions it can look absolutely fantastic, thanks to the direction in the cutscenes.
And if there’s one thing that I absolutely loved about the game is the fact that this is the first game in the series (if starting with original 1 and 2) where the story became genuinely engaging and more complex than just Buff Men Beat Each Other and Cry Occasionally. Kiryu walks away from the yakuza life completely and tries to manage an orphanage in Okinawa, away from the busy life of Tokyo. And a lot of the focus is moved to very simple things in life, where he’s trying to help the kids he’s managing to be happy, not get bullied, figure out their wants and dreams. All while a rather complex political situation puts the orphanage at risk. It’s a genuinely nice idea, full of moving moments and memorable characters that feel more complex than anything you’ve seen in 1 and 2, even in Kiwami form.
Yet… Yakuza 3 is just so unfun to play. This was the first time for me with the series, where I genuinely outright skipped lots of substories/side-quests because I found them unfun and frustrating or just too distracting from the game’s story. The basics of beat em up are the same as what you might be familiar with already, you still get picked on by some ruffians on the streets for random fights and get rewards for winning, still heal by drinking energy drinks mid-fight and can just go through most of the fights soaking damage and healing. Although it is interesting, that the ruffians actually have some sort of an “excuse” that they state before fighting and that your hits actually make the enemies bloody and beaten up dynamically (even if it’s a very simple thing). These random fights can still be annoying, but they feel far less invasive and frequent than what you get in Kiwami 1 and 2.
The fights aren’t really the problem, rather the other minigames/mechanics and the overall pacing is. One of the big minigames, for example, is chasing someone (or running away), and it’s absolutely awful. Buying things at eateries and in shops feels awkward, something that later games would improve. The main big minigame, one thing that tends to be in any Yakuza game, is the hostess club management, but unlike what later released games would do, this one is a joyless slog to go through, so I dropped it immediately.
And the pacing is just off all the time. For all of the cute moving moments you get with the kids at the start, once the story picks up, you want to follow it. But the game prevents you from doing that for hours, constantly inventing new reasons to hang out with the kids. Which instead of strengthening the bond makes you start hating the orphanage, as you’re told that you’re going to be late if you don’t leave, but as soon as you do a new situation happens that keeps you from leaving several times in a row. The story does pick up eventually, but at that point it’s a bit too late to save the pace and the game does stumble like this a few times more. It also has the feeling as if the game was intended to be the last for the most of the development time, but at the last moment they decided not to make it one. And due to that you get lots of resolutions for stories and characters from earlier parts of the trilogy and the sense that this is the last tale about Kiryu, but it wasn’t for 3 more games (4 counting 0).
It’s a shame that the game is so not fun to play, since the story is genuinely good. Almost makes me want to wish for a remake of this one as well, actually. As such, I feel that if you’re really into the series at this point, you might like Yakuza 3 despite a lot of its issues. If you’re more casually enjoying the games, you might skip it. And if you haven’t played the previous games, playing this one would just be pointless, as you won’t have any emotional connections to any of the characters on the screen and lots of them aren’t really explored for newcomers into the series, they just appear. Really cool story, though. Despite the weird Albert Wesker-like dude in it. And great soundtrack.