I was a bit dismissive of Bare Knuckle III when I first played it, the flow of the game being much faster and aggresive compared to 2 caught me by suprise and I couldn't really get use to it very well. After giving it a proper play, I found stuff that I end up liking more that it's predecessor and began to apareciate it on it's own merit; more and faster enemies, a new and more flexible implementation of your desperation attack, and even the weapon pick ups have some more depths to them as they give new moves to the characters, except the Kangoroo, who can't pick them, because he's wearing boxing gloves.
I would like it more than Streets of Rage II by a fair share, but the game has a fascination for throwing worthless gimmick at you, which only become more aggravating in subsequent playthroughs. The loader segment might suprise you the first time you see it, and you'll feel good figuring it out the second, but then you gotta do it a third, fourth, and a million times, without alteration or any actual risk, it becomes a big time sink. Same could be said about the train section with the ninjas, or when rescuing that kidnaped guy, or when you end up fighting a literal claw machine for some reason. I would have preferred if the game focused more on "consider the place you're fighting in" like the level with pits or the first part of the train level, instead or "stop fighting to do this other thing."

Really fun sequel that greatly expands the character mechanics, with dashes, dodges, special inputs that you can cancel your jabs and a super that will help you get rid of the most annoying enemies instantly. Each character has their own secret tech, such as Guy and Lucia's dash attack combos, Haggar's whole grappling play, and Dean's (my favorite) which has a very short throwing range but makes up for it with some strong frame traps to catch enemies in their wake up animation. It's great to master them all, but the game design is a bit lacking; enemies have become faster and always try to attack you from behind like mosquitoes, but they can barely keep up with the player's mechanics. This is most evident during the bosses, some of them don't fight with any grunts (like the final boss lol) so there's nothing stopping you from cornering them into a wall, and even then if you're using one of the slow characters , you only have to be aware of their wake up attack, really.
I still had more fun with this entry than the previous ones, but it's missing that claustrophobic feeling of the first game, where your muscle guy is only slightly stronger than the evil muscle guys you're fighting.

Apocalypse is one of my favorite Megami Tensei games - to me, this game offers some of the best combat and boss fights in the franchise, with a wide variety of quick, addicting side quests to keep you constantly engaged and seeing new opponents. The writing, while largely pretty corny, wraps around into being cool as shit near the end with one of the most outrageous power trip endings of all time. I refuse to believe the Anarchy ending wasn't intentionally written as the ultimate payoff for people who did not like this game's cast.

I CLAPPED

THEY DID THE THING THAT GURREN LAGANN DID AT THE END OF THE MOVIE AND I CLAPPED

I CLAPPED WHEN JIN USED MISHIMA AND KAZAMA STYLE AND THEY PLAYED TEKKEN 3 MUSIC I CLAPPED

ALSO THEY GOT SAINT SEIYA SHIT IN THIS

IT WAS GAS

If Yakuza 3 has a million of fans I am one of them.

If Yakuza 3 has ten fans I am one of them.

If Yakuza 3 has only one fan that is me.

If Yakuza 3 has no fans, that means I am no longer on earth.

If the world is against Yakuza 3, I am against the world.