Yakuza 3 Remastered

I gotta say I have mixed feelings towards this game,problem it's definetly the weakest entry so far.There were moments where I considered guiting this game,because it felt like a filler arc.Don't get me wrong,if there is anyone who deserved a break after everything he/she has been through,it's Kiryu.Watching him take care of kids in orphanage felt like a vacation for him.I know people really don't like orphanage missions,but personally those parts are where Kiryu shines as character the most.You got 2 locagions now,Okinawa and Kamurocho of course. Now I know controls and combat feels stiff and dated,but cmon it's remaster of a game that came out in 2009,although I believe Kiwami 3 would be a better way to go instead.Boss fights are great,ost really good,Fly is fantastic one.Yakuza 3 got plenty of substories and content,problem is I had 0 interest in playing them,since most of the story feels like filler arc anyways.I got to say I'm surprised how much I cared about side characters,they did a really good job in developing them.Story itself was fine,but outside of last 5 chapters it didn't felt good like previous games.I love how there are emotional scenes in the game tthat's gonna make you cry,regardless of which moment,you are gonna feel it.I also gota praise the main villain Yoshitaka Mine.His boss fight was fantastic.He's got a 3 fighting styles,and it keeps changing.Mine is collected,smart,calm,and when neccessary agressive individual that can also fight,his character and voice actor did a fantastic job,he ended up being my personal favorite character in the game.I do wish they cut some times from cutscenws because there was plenty of them.I was thinking about writing how dissapoined I was with the game and ranting about,kinda glad I didn't quit if I'm being honest.Last 5 chapters really saved this game from being bad.Worthy of playing once,hard to say I feel like going back again.

Unique setting, great story, great vibe
I love it.

This is my favourite yakuza game because of the story and characters holy crap I love rikiya

Despite not being the first game in the franchise to use a full 3D map and a new combat system, Yakuza 3 was known in the west as the big next step in the franchise (as Kenzan never left Japan).
Whether you have played the original, are playing the remaster for the first time after trying out the PS2 games or just continuing the series after Kiwami 2, you can't deny this game was a big step for Kazuma Kiryu's adventure, not only when talking about the game's plot.
Kamurocho has been remade from scratch into a beautiful and lively 3D map without losing its former layout, making the exploration of the city feel both fresh and familiar when coming from the PS2 titles.
Despite finding myself liking the camera angles in the first two titles, one cannot deny how much of an improvement a free camera can be in a combat oriented game: the result is, in fact, that moving around while fighting is much easier and it doesn't feel like a constant struggle against the automatic camera movement of the previous titles.

The combat system has been improved and it feels good, but it definitely has a slow start. Before unlocking the strongest moves for Kiryu, you'll often find yourself against bulky enemies capable of blocking anything, from normal hits to swords and bullets. Sure, at least the game tries to make you think of a strategy instead of just button mashing in combat, but I think a better balance could've done miracles to the whole game experience.
At the end of the game, I was crushing mobs as if they were nothing, but before unlocking the strongest skills I feared every encounter in the narrow streets of Downtown Ryukyu, where a simple encounter with some fat dudes ended up wasting way too much of my time.

Graphics were good for a PS3 game, nothing fancy but definitely a big improvement over the PS2 games. The only thing really bothering me is Kiryu's face: I love this dude, but he looks like a high monkey in this one. Yet, for some reason, every woman wants to take him to the Hotel District after knowing him for 5 minutes.
Faces aside, both Kamurocho and Downtown Ryukyu (based on the Makishi district in Naha) are beautiful and a pleasure to explore. The contrast between the big city and the tropical sea town is neat and makes for a perfect "virtual tourism" experience.
Fishing in front of Sunflower, taking care of the orphans, golfing on the okinawan islands courses, living the night life in Tokyo... things that I ended up enjoying way more than I should probably had and made Yakuza 3 feels like a vacation after the incredible adventures of the first two games.

Yakuza 3 definitely did put more emphasis on the game's side stories compared to the first two games: there's a total of 119 secondary quests which are usually short, but full-fledged stories on their own.
While Yakuza 2 had more or less the same number of missions (120), they were given less relevance over the game; here, Kiryu character is mostly characterized by them. The protagonist life choices, ideals and relationships with the cast around him are themes way more relevant in those sidestories than the main plot itself: for example, the fact Kiryu's the biggest simp of all Japan is something that's almost never talked about in the community, simply because most of the players skip everything that isn't the main plot just to jump right to the next game.
Kiryu's a man with a big heart, an inexperienced father trying to give some orphans a better future, an improvised life coach for the okinawan youths, a goofy oddball who doesn't speak a world of english, a great singer, a man trying to help those who lost their way in the criminal life of Japan.
He has definitely grown since the first game, going from a 27 years old thug to a 41 years old boomer dad, and it really shows; I'm growing attached to this character in a way any other game hasn't been able to make me do in years.

The rest of the cast ain't as developed as him, that's for sure, but there are still some good examples of enjoyable characters such as Rikiya, Mikio, Nakahara and Taichi (the absolute unit).
I still feel like the female characters are often underveloped, maybe willingly, because even the most important ""woman"" (Haruka) in the game still feels like a really secondary NPC for the whole game.
Aside from her, only the hostesses can be really described as characters, but I'd rather not write anything about them as I felt physically sick reading any of their line of dialogues. The fact I had to max out 10 hostesses affection towards Kiryu to unlock the secret boss didn't help at all.
As you could guess, the plot of the game itself ain't that much better.
Just like the first two games, Yakuza 3 is a typical japanese drama story interrupted by wild fighting and... nothing much more. The pacing is terrible and the way the story throw random and completely unrelated informations at the player only makes for a confusing and incoherent narrative where YOU are tasked with placing all the pieces in the correct place once the game has ended.
There's a whole chapter that's just a politic man explaining the whole game's plot to Kiryu for 40 minutes. I'm not kidding, that's what the whole chapter is about, followed by Kiryu rushing to the final bosses. There's no climax, no surprising relevation, nothing: just a fat dude on a couch explaining you why the bad guys did what they did.
While I tought Nishiki and Ryuji weren't really imprevvise villains, at least I could sympathize with Nishiki and think ryuji was a badass; in Yakuza 3, the main villain is just an idiot who thinks he's better than anyone else because he was an orphan.
Like a Dragon fans would usually scream at me for saying this, but Mine is a boring, bidimensional and overall bad written antagonist. He has no motivations, he has no excuses for his childish behaviour, and ends up dying without having learnt anything at all.
The only thing I could think about once I finished the main game was... "Uh, that's lame". Yeah, that's it. I didn't care about Mine for a single moment, and every other major plot point felt either obvious or forced.
The writing was definitely a big step down from the previous title, and I also hate how they threw Sayama out of the window just for the sake of giving the player the option to let KIryu fuck Japan's whole female population.

That said, despite not liking the plot AT ALL, I still had a good time with Yakuza 3. I would probably not play it again, but I didn't hate it as the rest of the fanbase do. Looking forward to continuing the series with Yakuza 4 Remastered in the near future.

This game is amazing story wise, I loved it.. I would rate the story the best after Y0 from what I played, also Haruka here is much better than the previous games and actually likable.

I turned the difficulty to easy mid game because the combat is very repetitive, boring even after you unlock tiger drop and other skills, but on easy it was fun although way too easy.

Decent game i don't have much to say