Yakuza 3 is a Playstation 3 exclusive that you should not miss on.

User Rating: 9 | Ryu ga Gotoku 3 PS3
*Warning, there will be some spoilers*

I first saw the Yakuza serie years ago, on Playstation 2 but only in commercial. I told myself that day "i'll play this game someday".
Then here i am years later, the serie is now at its 4th installment including some spin-off in-between each numbered games that came out,
as well as another spin-off coming out in March 2012 AND a 5th numbered installment in the work.

Dare i say i was fairly behind with the serie but its nothing to be worried about! A very nice feature Yakuza 3 offer is a recap
of the first and second game, assuming you can't find the 1st and 2nd title anywhere.
We're not talking about lazy recap too, each recap roughly last 10 to 15 minutes, fully voiced as well, explaining each
key events that happened in both game.

Story: *spoilers alert*
I first thought Yakuza 3 would have next to no story whatsoever while still delivering solid fighting. Boy was i wrong.
Yakuza 3 story focus around Kazuma Kiryu, the serie's main protagonist, who's now an ex-yakuza. He left Kamurocho to
open up an orphanage in Okinawa where him and Haruka, an orphan raised by Kazuma, takes care of other orphans.
One day Kazuma hear that someone wants to buy the deeds to his land, where the orphanage is, to build a resort and from
here on things begin.

One thing that may turn away some players is the sometime slow pace of the story.
Sometime you'll be entering building and will need to fight your way to the top to battle a boss and other time you'll be
helping the childrens of your orphanage. This sudden change of pace may disappoint some people. The main story took me
a good 20 hours to finish.

Cast:
The game's main and supportive cast is strong, those who played the previous games might recognize a few familiar faces.
Kazuma's relationship with the orphans is believable and characters development is solid.
Its one of the rare times where i was rooting for some of the characters in a game. Some of the villains are well
fleshed out.

Gameplay:

The gameplay is a mix of beat 'em up and open world. When you're not forced to progress the main you can
free roam around Ryukyu (in Okinawa) and after fulfilling certain conditions you can also free roam in Kamurocho. (Tokyo)
Both area are fairly small in size, kamurocho being the biggest but both cities still manage to feel alive.
Large numbers of citizens can be seen at all time walking around. As you walk around, you'll often encounter citizens who'll
end up picking fights with you. The fighting controls are simple, R1 is used to lock onto enemies, pressing X plus a direction does a quickstep.
If you want a good example on how simple basic combo are, think of Dynasty Warrior, you punch with the square button and
pressing triangle does a charge attack, chaining these together is the key to maximize damage, depending on
where you fight you could also find weapons such as trash can, baseball bat and more. Each weapons have a limited
amount of use, example a baseball bat might be used 10 times before it break. Weapons you find in battle cannot be kept,
you have to buy them in order to carry them with you in your inventory but if the ones you buy break, they can be fixed.
You can also buy accessories. such as gauntlet, belt, armor, etc to reduce damage taken.
Each of these fights gives you Experience points and sometime yen, restorative items or items used to
create modified weapons. As you gain experience you can level up Kazuma in order to learn new moves,
increasing your Health bar and Heat meter. The heat meter is what you need to execute a special attack.
Under your health bar is a blue meter, as you fight it increase and eventually you'll be surrounded by a blue aura
that's Heat mode. Once in heat mode you can use your surrounding to do a special attack, for example if you grab an
enemy, with the circle button, and bring him near a wall your character will do a special move. Heat mode can also
be used with weapons.From time to time you'll need to do a special fight called "Chase fight". As the name implies you need
to run after someone, while dodging civilians and obstacle alike. These sequence are normally short
and aren't difficult at all.

Difficulty:

The game isn't difficult at all, i played it on the go on Hard, most battle can be won without trouble, you might
die a few times against certain bosses but once you know their pattern its easy enough. At times though the game
can be unfair, sometime Kazuma stay on the ground for an extensive amount of time and when he gets up enemies can
knock you down again right before you can act. Same things happen with enemies that can stun you, they tend to abuse
the same stunning attack before you recover properly. Bosses will block a LOT and unless you learn some counter
attack move, you'll see yourself using the same attack over and over again.
These issues aside you should be able to play it finely on Hard right away.

Lasting appeal:

The replay value of this game is huge, main story aside there's 101 substories to do, 16 minigames, a coliseum, hitman
missions and more, after i was done with the story, my completion rate was only at 13%. Once you finish the main story you unlock
"Premium new game", "Premium adventure mode" and "Ultimate Challenge skills". Premium New Game is New game+
and you can play the game on Extra Hard. Ultimate Challenge skills is a set of 35 challenges where you play as a maxed out
Kazuma and need to beat a certain amount of enemies under certain conditions in a specific time.
Premium Adventure Mode is free roam in both Ryukyu and Kamurocho
it also carries over the progress from your main story save file. Every substories can be done, as well as
all the minigames and other extra contents. Sadly the variety in substories is lacking but
there's certain exception at time such as escaping from a crossdresser, playing a role in a movie, finding a lost kid
but you'll most of the time end up beating baddies. These quest gives experience points and various other rewards.
Quest givers are normally marked with a green arrow over their heads but sometime you'll need to be in a specific area
where an event will trigger thus giving you the sidequest. There's time where sidequests progresses can be confusing, unless
you follow a guide you might often end up asking yourself where you should go next for progressing a specific quests.

Cut content:

I feel the need to adress this particular point. Some contents have been cut from the US version. Some 20 or so substories
are missing in the US version of the game but the biggest difference i noticed is the Romancing. Yes, Yakuza 3 feature
a romancing minigame that count as substories. In the Japanese version you normally need to go to a club first, pick a table
and then pick the women you wanna date. Each womens have 16 hearts of affection, once the 16 hearts are filled they give
you their substory. To achieve complete affection you need to watch what you wear. If you equip various weapons, chances
are she won't like that very much. You can buy watches, cologne, etc and all this goes toward their affections. Each womens
have specific food/drinks they like and every time you date them you'll be prompted if you want to give her a present or not.
Presents can varies from very expensive dress, to handbag, necklace, etc. You'll also need to go through a set of questions
and each reply will go toward their affections. A lot of work for just getting a substory.

The US version of the game romancing have been EXTREMELY simplified. Each women can normally be found in a food joint
such as Smile burger and Gelateria. Club have been cut from the US version and can only be entered in Story mode.
In this version, no need for cologne or to watch what you have equipped it will serve no purpose in romancing the women.
The affection system is still there but its completely pointless, you won't have to answer tons of questions and the women
have no more specific food/drink they enjoy. Giving them presents is also optional. To get their substories you only have to
date them twice, doesn't matter what you do. You can give them present but its just a waste of yen seeing in the end the
result will be the same regardless of what you choose to do during both date. So all these fancy 2 millions yen priced dress
or that 100 000 yens priced watches are pointless and serve no purpose in the US version, at all.

So, there you have it, my review of Yakuza 3. If you're a Playstation 3 owner do not miss out on this excellent serie.
If you are a completionist and want to get every single trophies you're looking at a 75-90 hours game, depending how well
you do. If you simply want to finish the main story and the substories you're looking at a 40-50 hours game. The game
succeed in delivering an amazing experience both during the main story and post game and is probably Sega's best serie
in recent years.