A solid game with great narrative,story and combat, brought down by tedious repetitiveness.Is it worth your time...?
It would give this game more justice if I called it for what it is.It's a third person perspective brawler with a good story and a little bit of rpg elements.
Story
To fully understand the whole story, one needs to go way back to the first and second installment of this game.The good thing is that the game itself provides access to the highlights of the previous games.It's a neat touch because it gives you the possibility to understand who's who and what's actually going on.
Story in yakuza 3 is one of the best I've seen for a very long time.There's politics,conspiracy theory,emotional moments that make you realize that this game isn't taking any easy way out.
It's a mature approach to tell a story of a man, a former yakuza,head of the Tojo Clan who decides to retire and fully concentrate on running an orphanage.
A certain twist of events though, pushes him against a wall and once again,whether he likes it or not, he has to get involved in all the ongoings in order to save all that's dear to him.
In story terms,the game manages to pull all the right strings.
Politics, money, battle for domination is set against an emotional setting of an orphanage which occupies a land, all the sharks are fighting for.
The specific contrast between the two and the change of the narrative pace manage to achieve two things: You care what happens next and you get involved so all the outcome becomes personal not only for Kazuma,it also becomes your own crusade.
It's also open for debate though that there may be too much of the orphanage theme at some point which may easily detract the player too much from the main plot.
I just understand that it may be frustrating when in almost every chapter you smash someone's face and then you play hide and seek with the kids at the orphanage for 30 minutes.One becomes detached from the main plot at times and feels like the game is overdoing it in terms of deep gameplay. It's a brawler after all...
Graphics:
Graphics on PS3 or any other console of this generation has always been a touchy subject.There's only that much you can squeeze out from the hardware at your disposal.
My personal curse is the fact that I also own a high end PC and it just swallows any console in terms of graphics, therefore every time I try to judge PS3's graphics, it's like I'm deducting at least 2 points even before I begin.I've just seen how the graphics can look like on a powerfull machine so I'm trying really hard to stay objective and try to judge PS3's graphics for what they are and according to the platform's capabilities.
Yakuza 3's graphics are solid but nothing overwhelming.It's not subpar either.We all know that PS3 doesn't support antialiasing and it shows in this game.There's a lot of rough edges on the buildings,on the cars...Kazuma ( your " hero " ) though has been polished enough to make him stand out from the random crowd and surroundings.
What I loved though was the cinematics in each of the chapters.Those were of very high quality and a pure pleasure to watch.It felt like they were made by professionals.
The level design left much to be desired though.Both cities of Ryukyu and Kamurocho feel way to small and claustrophobic and the whole design looks like a cookie cutter placement of buldings,cars,pedestrians.
The area I fancied the most was the orphanage's neighbourhood.The orphanage is situated on the beach basically and it's been a very nice place to be at.
When you combine the great beach setting with the presence of a fishing pole on it, it wouldn't come as a surprise that I spent quite the amount of time fishing,enjoying the sun and listening to the calming noise of the splashing waves.
Gameplay
Gameplay is this game's most valuable asset.At the same time it can at some point become it's main weakness as well.
What definitely stands out is the great and addicting combat.It feels like playing Tekken mixed with Urban Reign.The fights are intensive,bloody and a true joy. You can use your fists and your surroundings.By surroundings I mean all of the items lying around that can serve as your weapons.
You can smash someone's face with a banner,a bike, planter or a trash can but you can also use less ridiculous weapons like katanas,guns,bottles.What's also amazing and fullfiling, are the fatalities you can perform,every time your HEAT gauge fills to the adequte level ( you could call it an aggression gauge ).
The simple fact that you can perform over 80 different finishers,depending on whether you smash a guy onto a wall or a lamp post, makes you truly appreciate all the effort and attention to detail put into the gameplay.
It's just great to be able to help a mugged old man by pounding his tormentors into oblivion like there was no tomorrow.
What may become this game's biggest drag though is the fact that most fights are random and depend on the random placement of the " area trouble seekers ".
Those people appear randomly in the city and are distinguished pretty easily in that they rarely walk and look like they're looking for trouble.
What's annoying is that there seems to be too many of them and very often when trying to get from spot A to spot B, you need to fight with hordes of them before you reach your destination and that becomes dull.You can always equip " silent shoes " to reduce the probability of those encounters but it still happens.
It kind of reminds me of the irritating random encounters in FFVII or Xenogears on PS1.
Also when you consider the pretty long loading times and the fact that the fights are very short and usually reward you with crap,it may be a game breaking issue for some, especially if you consider that there are 101 side missions to complete and many of them require you to run around the city.
I could say that those random encounters are responsible for at least 1/3 of the time spent on each walkthrough ( if not more ).
Speaking about side missions...
Like I mentioned above,there are 101 side missions to complete and I would advise you to try and complete as many of them as possible, not because they give good exp and money, but for the simple fact that the stories in those missions are one of the best I encountered in any game.
Some are ridiculous, like being chased all over the city by a horny drag queen and some are very emotional and may even bring some tears for the more sensitive people, like a story of a small boy who lost his balloon and because of that his mother couldn't find him in the city's crowd.If you add the fact that his parents were divorced and the mother wasn't allowed to see him....or the stories of the lonely kids at the orphanage,their problems...like being bullied at school and laughed at by other kids because they don't have parents, or that they were discriminated by other kids only because they couldn't afford to pay for a cinema ticket....truly emotional moments and one truly feels for them.
What's also worth mentioning are the minigames which are a plenty.
You can do : bowling, karaoke, darts, golf, poker, blackjack,cee-lo, pool, play baseball in batting cages,fight in colloseum and more.
Those mini games are great for people who want to relax after some 50th fight and are a great addition.
There was one in particular which made me laugh my ass off the whole evening, and that was Karaoke.Seing a badass yakuza singing some romantic japanese theme...priceless :).
Mini games have one main problem though...
For those aiming for the platinum trophy, they can be very frustrating since as much as they're fun, they are also very tough to master and mastering them is one of the keys to the platinum trophy.
Speaking about trophies...well....if you're looking for an easy plat,forget it.The trophies difficulty is sitting in the " brutal " category, since it takes a lot of patience and time to get everything done, so if you're a trophy hunter who loves plat-ing games like Hanna Montana or Terminator Salvation, turn around, it's not for you.
Summary :
Pro's :
- Great story
- Great sub stories
- Cinematics
- Audio
- Minigames
- Great Combat
- Weapon variety
Con's :
- Mediocre graphics
- Too many random battles
- Minigames may be too tough for some
- Trophies
- Claustrophobic feel of the cities
- pretty long loading times
Final Thoughts :
Yakuza 3 is a very solid game that's worth playing.It has some very strong points.Story being one and combat being second.
It's a game that will intrigue you, make you smile and sometimes even shed a tear or two. It will also put a smile on your face after that nice fatality resulting in a thug becoming one with the nearby lamp.
It may frustrate you if you're looking for an easy plat or if scoring 10 trophies per day is your addiction.
If you like TPS games with a GTA theme then look no further as Yakuza 3 is at least as good.It may not have the same scope and hollywood feel to it but it definitely stands on it's own and honestly, as a franchise, it doesn't need comparing to GTA.You would give it more justice if you treated it on a separate level and appreciated all the hard work that was put in it.
That is,if you manage to get past the frustrating random encounters.....
The story alone is worth it.