Yakuza 3 - Playstation 3

Yakuza 3, known as Ryu ya Gotoku 3 (Like a Dragon 3), in Japan makes its Western appearance after two years following the second installment. Because the Yakuza are the Japanese mafia, more or less, Yakuza 3 has been described as Grand Theft Auto Japan, but the story, and many of the key gameplay elements, are very different from that successful title. The Yakuza franchise is also very popular in Japan with Yakuza 3 selling 500,000 units in that country alone, placing it second after Final Fantasy XIII and ahead of Capcom's Resident Evil 5 for sales.Story: If you haven't played Yakuza 2 on the PlayStation 2, it will take a while to fully grasp the story. It is told from the perspective of Yakuza 3's main protagonist, Kazuma Kiryu, a Chairman of the Tojo clan in the Yakuza. After spending time in jail, and the events of Yakuza 1 and Yakuza 2, Kazuma chooses to raise children in an orphanage as he was. Kazuma moves from Tokyo and relocates to Okinawa near the beach. Shortly thereafter, the land the orphanage is on gets embroiled in various crime plots and politics. The government wants to establish a new military base there, but business leaders, including members of the Yakuza, want a resort on the land as well. Because Kazuma in currently residing on the property, and many in the Tojo clan do not want evict Kazuma, this sparks backroom dealings, assassination attempts, and outright extortion, to try and get him to leave. Yakuza 3 takes place in two locations, a fictional Tokyo district called Kamurocho which is modeled after the real Tokyo district of Kabukicho, and the fictional Okinawa district of Ryukyu which shares similarities to Naha's Ichiba Dori. The cast of characters is quite large and the story can be convoluted as it carries over from previous Yakuza installments. There are, mercifully, videos included with the game that details events from the previous games.Yakuza 3 is about as Japanese as you can get without actually having to buy a ticket and go there. The characters speak in Japanese with English subtitles, the fashion and culture is paired very closely with modern-day trends in Tokyo and Okinawa, and many of the locations in the game are inspired by, or are direct copies of, real-world areas. To keep with the sense of realism, some Japanese brands have their stores or products on display in the game. These include Don Quijote, which has a store you can buy from, complete with the catchy song "Miracle Shopping" which plays in all their real stores, Club Sega which also has arcade games you can play, PRONTO Cafe which you can dine in, Vivi and Weekly Morning magazines, numerous items which can be bought in stores and restaurants that exist outside the game, and many ads plastered all over the Kamurocho depicting real companies. This is a very Japanese game complete with all the quirks that add to the atmosphere of recreating Japanese areas.Gameplay: Many people see Yakuza 3 as Shenmue 3 in the West, but this is very inaccurate. This game takes elements from many different games, but also changes them. Shenmue was more of an adventure game in a kind of less-gritty Japanese town. Shenmue's developers, also Sega, wanted to immerse gamers in the story and location, just as Yakuza's developers did. Aside from this, Yakuza 3 and Shenmue are very different, with Shenmue being more of an adventure where many inane or pointless activities or items to be looked at or used. This game has also been compared with Grand Theft Auto. Yakuza does have the gritty adult nature of that franchise, but, unlike GTA, Yakuza 3 has a richer story and a world with much more to do, immersed in Japan. Yakuza 3 is a type of blending on Shenmue with GTA, combined with a dusting of a fighter game.There are several modes to Yakuza 3. The main mode you will be spending plenty of time in is the adventure mode. This is the part of the game where you move around, at first like a tourist in Japan, in the various districts. Here is where you acquire the 100 side missions, called sub stories, which add character to the game and hitman contracts. You can also find hidden locker keys and go out on dates with people you meet, for some reason, always hanging out in burger joints and ice cream stores. You can also spend your Yen and buy items from healing drinks, to weapons, all the way down to frivolous items like rings and magazines. While exploring, you can also partake in the myriad of minigames, such as the rhythm-based karaoke, Club Sega arcade games, a bowling game, darts, golf, billiards, baseball, fishing, and a slew of other gambling games. You can also participate in two different fighting tournaments, one under West Park and the other in a back alley near the Champion District of Kamurocho, foot races, and the occasional drinking game. All of these minigames are well done with the golf game being as full featured as many retail games, only lacking other golfers and a larger number of courses. Kazuma can also acquire revelations by pulling out his cameraphone, and snapping pictures of an event. After the quick time event picture taking session, you have to choose from three options about what just happened. If you pick the correct option, you get a new skill. There is always plenty to do in this game.Aside from the adventure mode and the full motion videos in the event mode, lies the battle mode for Yakuza 3. Not being a fan of fighting games, I was a little apprehensive about this part of the game, but the battle sequences are not that difficult to figure out and are not ridiculously hard. There is a button for punches, kicks, grabs, sidestepping, blocking, and locking on. Kazuma has a health meter and another called heat. The heat gauge allows for you to do special moves and can KO most standard enemies outright and heavily damage bosses. Heat moves are standard special moves, but, since this is Yakuza, you can pick up an enemy and slam him into another or face first into a car. Kazuma can increase his health, learn new moves, and increase the heat gauge by earning experience, Exp., and leveling up four different areas. Each of the four areas max out at level ten and require increasing amounts of experience. The battles are usually against a small party of enemies with some rare boss battles being one-on-one. The lock on feature is largely useless in most battles as you can only lock onto a single enemy. Maneuvering Kazuma around the battle arena can be a little tricky as you have to factor in the camera direction and getting lined up properly. In Yakuza 3, you can also use any item which isn't nailed down to fight with. Thus, trash cans can be effective at taking enemies out, as can couches, dropped stun guns, street signs, bikes, and any number of random objects. Every item, both random and actual weapons, can only be used a limited number of times before breakage. Because of this, it makes little sense to buy and upgrade weapons since they break so easily. Many opponents carry weapons into battle so you don't have to buy any. You can simply KO an enemy holding a baseball bat, pick the bat up, and swing away against the remaining enemies.Misc.: I was a big fan of Shenmue for the Dreamcast and was eager to try Yakuza 3. This game captures the immersive nature of that previous game very well while fleshing out a very grown up, if not convoluted, story. Although the game is loaded with minigames, secondary stories, and even romance at love hotels, it is not the exact title released in Japan February 2009. To meet certain deadlines, and to make the game a little more relatable, and in some cases, less offensive, to Western audiences, certain content was cut. The Japanese trivia game was removed since few Americans or Europeans know contemporary Japanese trivia like "Which famous band played on which Japanese Sunday morning show?" along with other obscure questions. Another element taken out was the hostess clubs. The concept of these clubs are totally foreign to many audiences but there was a lengthy sub story surrounding these clubs which had to be removed. Strip clubs, however, still exist as does the two host clubs tied to the main story, Stardust and Canal Grande. The erotic massage parlor minigame was also cut, as were the Mahjong and Shogi games.I really enjoyed this game, despite the barrier to entry, mainly not having played the first two Yakuza's and not knowing any of the characters or back story. Yakuza 3 caught me up fairly quickly and I at least had a vague idea as to what was going on with everyone. The sub stories do vary widely in quality and scale, but really add to making the game feel like a living world. Like every game, this one is not perfect. For me, the most irritating factor with this game is the random battles. At first, they were quite fun, once I learned how to handle Kazuma. However, as they dragged on, the battles became grating and I could only play the game for a short while because of them. The battles, which can take place in large public streets filled with pedestrians, police, and security cameras, are against the Japanese version of the white suburban rappers or pudgy daddy types in sweaters. These battles would be frequent, fighting on one street, then, three blocks later, fighting again. Occasionally, they would be against the slightly more difficult Yakuza but usually they were not. These battles are quite easy, more often than not, none would lay a finger on me or cause very little damage. When these battles are over, I usually got a worthless item, like comfy soles or charcoal, which can be used to upgrade weapons which, in turn, are totally unnecessary to buy. By chapter nine (Out of twelve) or so, the absurdity of these battles really set in. They were nothing but speed bumps keeping me from doing sub stories or other, more fun, activities. To recap, here you are racing through Kamurocho to your next date or sub story, run into some Eminem looking dude throwing signs, wait ten seconds or so for the battle arena to load, which, if you're becoming increasingly annoyed always takes too long, hit six buttons to take out one enemy then do it again over and over, finish the battle, get a stuffed toy, run a few blocks and do it over again. If these battles took place on side streets or back alleys, or were not as frequent, I would have no problems with them. By chapter eleven, I had enough and decided to complete the main story. I liked everything with the game, except this one thing.On the more technical side of things, this game runs at 720p, and looks ever so slightly dated. It's not too bad, but it lacks at times. The full motion videos are well done and are highly detailed. The voice acting is top notch and I think it was a good idea not to have English voiceovers. Some people may not like reading subtitles, which can be turned off, but with a game so immersed in Japanese culture, anything other than the language in which the game is set, would be a serious blow. The music is also well done covering everything from standard orchestral, to rock, to Enka, to J-Pop, and J-Rock. The soundtrack is worth buying as many of the songs are quite good, even if you don't understand some of the lyrics in a few of them. I competed the game in 36 hours having leveled up all four areas to eight, finishing 68 sub stories, and playing, not high scoring, all minigames. Even after all that, I still only had 30 percent completion. As for trophies, get ready to play this game for many, many hours. Trophies favor completion, you have to perform all 100 sub stories, some sub stories go away as you complete chapters, get the high score in all minigames, find keys to the coin lockers, and beat the game on the highest difficulty setting in addition to other equally involved tasks. Most trophies are bronze and expect to spend over 100 hours doing everything with multiple playthroughs. Only the most dedicated fans, or obsessive trophy hunters, should even think about getting platinum. This was a great game and is suggested for anyone who liked Shenmue, Japanese culture, or rich and lengthy games.

Yakuza 3 takes the GTA formula, matures it, adds a fantastically written storyline and comes up with a very interesting and very mature game which makes it hard to put the controller down before the final credits roll.Yakuza 3 takes place right where Yakuza 2 left off. Kazuma has decided to forget his Yakuza ways and open up an orphanage in Okinawa. Little does he know once it's established both the Japanese Government and Yakuza will make a land grab trying to build a resort and military base on the once peaceful holiday town of Okinawa. With this in mind, Kazuma tries to negotiate his land and from there he ends up being dragged back into the seedy world of the Yakuza.Yakuza is a third person action RPG that plays significantly different to many other games. For example, the first three or so hours could have been the most boring, but it turns out to be quite interesting. In many ways the game reminds us of Heavy Rain, the most menial tasks can seem interesting as they are developing the story. Talking to the orphanage kids, trying to resolve disputes helps you to prepare for the back-half of the game where you are resolving much more violent, intense disputes.The game plays out as you would expect. Get a mission, complete it and get another one in one of the most realised virtual worlds of Japan we have ever seen. Featuring both Kamachuro and Okinawa, we are reliably told that the replications of both towns are second to none with real stores present and the actual layout of each city/town present in the game. There is also a lot of side missions to complete and some of these are full of typical Japanese humor. The game all in all sticking to the main quests takes around fifteen hours to complete, but with the side missions and mini games on offer it can get to as long as fifty.Aside from the main quest, the game also includes a number of mini games to play. Some of them become part of the storyline such as golf, but others on offer include pool, darts, bowling and others. The world itself is incredibly realised and you will find yourself distracted from the main storyline many times. You can go to a restaurant and eat, visit a karaoke bar and sing and even visit an adult club to while your hours away. All this adds to the atmosphere of the Yakuza games and you really do feel like Kazuma is a made man.Another main area of the game is the Kazuma character himself. Throughout the game you get experience and can build either Kazumas health or his fighting styles to become more powerful. Further into the game you get access to weaponry and can purchase and upgrade these weapons which become a key component to the game.Sometimes the animation can seem clunky, especially for Kazuma, but once you look past that you find a fairly solid combat system. On the easy difficulty levels it turns into block, block, punch, kick, but blocking on the higher levels leads to getting Kazumas butt kicked, so you really need to use tactics.However, we can't go further in our congratulations to SEGA without mentioning the problems the U.S. version of the game has. First of all, SEGA has made significant cuts to the game to bring it to the west unfortunately. The first casualty was the hostess clubs, so you will not be entertaining young women in this game and as a result some of the side missions have been cut as well. The game still manages to stand on its own two feet very well, but the question has to be asked about this, especially when they managed to bring Yakuza 1 and 2 to the west without changes.But once you get over that, Yakuza offers an incredible experience. From the realised world of the two Japanese towns/cities you visit, through to the incredible story line and story exposition (some of the cut scenes run a long time and give Kojima a run for his money) as well as one of the most realised virtual worlds you are likely to see, Yakuza 3 despite its problems turns out to be one of the surprises from early 2010. We just hope that SEGA continue to bring this series to the west and fully intact, because the game is so good, it deserves that much.

I have no experience with the Japanese version, so the 'cut content' does not bother me. What does bother me, is that this game is pretty...boring.The fighting is basically the same thing over and over again. You run around for a bit in town, someone says "hey", and stops you to fight...for no reason. Is this really how Japan is? Come on. You easily dispatch of two or three street thugs, and repeat.I was told, as many were, that this was a 'Tokyo GTA'. Of course it's not. You're a Yakuza boss turned orphanage owner. One of your friends is shot, so of course you're off to Tokyo...only after you have a contest to pick out some stylish clothes to help one of your kids get a girlfriend! Really?The weirdness continues once you get a cell phone blog. Instead of going and smashing the faces of those who have been killing Yakuza bosses, you take cell phone pictures and blog about them in the weirdest scenes I've seen in a video game. They actually made me laugh.The game isn't bad. The graphics are pretty good, the weapons are fun to use, and there's a lot to do. The problem is that it's repetitive and ultimately uninspiring. Once you get into Tokyo, it ramps up a little bit, but not nearly enough to hold my attention. It's also in Japanese and subtitled (which didn't bother me, but may bother some).I say, hold off...unless you can get it cheap. It's an average game.

Awesome😀

Great game. Highly recommended if you played 1 and 2. If haven't played the previous ones, there is a long recap of them in the beginning of the game. However, I would recommend playing the previous ones to fully enjoy this one.

Game was brand new and in amazing condition! So excited to add it to my collection!

Not really an rpg, more like beat em up with story elements, side missions. Very, very japenese, with subtitles, cultural references, karaoke and the whole thing. Story missions and side missions have you running around, performing tasks and doing lots of fighting, which is the best part. You pummel people with combos, slap them with fish, stomp on their faces and break things like garbage cans, bycicles and tvs over their heads. There is a little gunplay but thankfully not much, because it only takes away from getting to beat the crap out of people. There are a million little things to do and see, most of them crazy and hilarious. I had to take away a star because the main story was just too short. I wanted more. Well, there is always yakuza 4.

I enjoyed the story and characters of this game