This was my first Yakuza game back in 09 and I never got the hate for it. I think this has one of the best stories with Kiryu trying to step away from the Yakuza life to run an orphanage and all of the shit that came with it. It has some of the dumbest shit that goes on in the narrative while still being fun and having cool setpieces. A fantastic antagonist to follow up from Ryuji. Maybe when I replay this in the remaster I'll notice it more, but I got too much love for this game.

Reviewed on May 16, 2023


2 Comments


9 months ago

I feel the exact same way in regard to Yakuza 3 as it was my entry into the series as well and it holds a special place for me! I got the remaster as well and plan to play through it again sometime soon since it's been so long and want to experience it again.

1 month ago

Yeah I find it interesting too, most of the hate comes is due to the following: the combat, the translation or the cut content.

Regarding the combat, back when I played this game in PS3 I don't recall enemies blocking a lot or the combat being a problem.

Reading more about this, it seems the remaster broke the combat (some speculate it's because of the game logic being tied to the framerate, not sure if they patched this or there is a mod to fix this) - like enemies block more often and the dodge behind enemies to attack them is not consistent at all (which is basically the counter to enemies blocking).

There seems to be a huge divide on the reception of this game between the people that played the original and those that played the remaster.