Yakuza 3 is a Japanese action rpg that continues the story of Kazuma Kiryu, an ex-yakuza chairman. The stories of the first two Yakuza games can be conveniently recapped in great detail from the title screen anytime, so don’t worry about feeling lost. What may lose people is the fact that the game’s some three hundred minutes of cutscenes are all Japanese with English subtitles, though this does add to the game’s authenticity. If you can get past this, Yakuza 3 offers more than sixty hours of thoroughly enjoyable gameplay, incredible graphics, and what the Yakuza series is famous for mini-games galore.
Yakuza 3′s street battles can be fun, but after finishing more than a hundred of them they may begin to feel stale. Thankfully Yakuza 3 offers a tremendous amount of engaging and rewarding mini-games including fishing, gambling, karaoke, and multiple sports like pool, darts, bowling and batting cages. Yakuza 3 is bursting with content in fact. It offers more than a hundred side-missions across two maps (Okinawa and a pedestrian district of Tokyo) in addition to it’s twelve chapter main story. Any of these activities, if missed during the main story, can be completed in free-roam mode which is unlocked at game’s end.
Yakuza 3 seems to be a spiritual successor to or even inspired by the cult NES classic River City Ransom. Yakuza 3 is open-world, all on foot (no vehicles). Shops and restaurants can be visited to regain health or purchase items for later usage. More powerful moves can be unlocked and experience is gained, raising stats and maximum health. All very reminiscent of this classic title. The graphics obviously set them apart though, which are surprisingly excellent for a game originally released in Japan way back in 2008.
Yakuza 3 is such an amalgamation of different games it can potentially appeal to a wide audience including fans of open-world, RPG, fighting, and story games. With so much content to offer, it’s easily worth it’s now reduced price tag and is highly recommended to fans of classic 8-bit and 16-bit beat-’em-ups like River City Ransom and Streets Of Rage.