THE YEAR OF THE DRAGON

The dreaded “Blockuza”. An entry fans will write off as being underwhelming, a game you need to get it over with in order to move onto Yakuza 4. Having beaten it, I can kinda understand why this got the reputation it did among the fan base. Getting this straight out of the way, yeah, Yakuza 3 doesn't beat the “Blockuza” allegations. This doesn’t apply to the standard street thugs you brawl, but with bosses who skill check you hard. While I didn’t find this to be as ‘bad’ as people made it out to be, it gets annoying with later bosses since quickstep is borked in the remaster’s PC port, and you’d need to hook up with Tiger Drop and some weapons to counter block effectively. Nothing about this is bad, except for quickstep being nerfed, and in fact I think this lends to Yakuza finally having combat that relies on the player doing more than just button mashing, but it feels arbitrary in order to learn to fight right. Like, maybe not vital information you should keep within the confines of side content, which considering my long trek into these games, I have to get picky about which mountains of minigames, substories, and training seems worth my time. Learning a technique or two which helps keep you up to the pace and flow of combat in this game seems too necessary to not at least drop in the beginning somewhere.

Now, there’s of course the other big thing with Yakuza 3 and that’s the story. Specifically, everything to do with Okinawa, by that, the orphanage, which I’ve picked up is something many fans weren’t too keen on. Look, I hear you; I understand you -- but you are wrong. Yakuza 3 is a game made aware of what the previous entries have done and attempts to really shake things up for a new direction Kiryu’s story will go through. Okinawa serves as an effective opener for many reasons; It’s not Kamurocho again, the conflict is divorced from Tojo Clan crime drama, the scale is more personal because of that, and it puts us into the serenity Kiryu has created for himself by just being a dad. I attribute this being some side effect of a lead writer for the first two entries, a crime novelist, having stopped contributing to the story after Yakuza 2, perhaps taking a bit of that realism or grit with him. Alongside… maybe a few other things, but we’ll get there in a sec. If I were to describe Yakuza 3, it’s the downtime we didn’t know we needed. It’s relaxing, pure vibes, you just want to see Kiryu impart his wisdom and compassion into the orphanage and chill with these little guys. But since this is a Yakuza game, that semblance of peace doesn’t last very long as Kiryu is dragged back in for Round 3 of How The Hell Is The Tojo Clan Still Standing. So… this is where I have to be mean to the story because I don’t want to really, but even I can’t deny that out of the four Yakuza games I have played now, in terms of construction, this is the weakest by far. The best way I can put this is that I absolutely adore the smaller scale Okinawa and the individual emotional character moments in relation to it, some moments here I see as being incredibly important for Kiryu’s journey from now on, but the actual main plot feels like a too-many-cooks-in-the-kitchen situation. Like, a very desperate attempt to further raise the stakes in the conspiracy thriller crime drama fashion Yakuza/LAD makes its identity by this point, only they feel so nonsensical and unnecessary. Andre Richardson is the character of all time, but if you strip away most of the subplots and focus it squarely on Mine and his whole deal that forces Kiryu out of Okinawa, then this would be a serious contender for the best story of the franchise. Even speaking for myself, who still really likes the story, oddities, quirks and all, and considers it to be my favorite one so far. Which is part of what makes this a difficult game to personally weigh some conclusive judgment on because there’s a lot to love, but much of it is back saddled by awkwardness that I’m only hoping RGG gets the ball running for something greater in the next entries. Sign of a flawed banger, alright.