Yakuza 3 Review

Yakuza 3 is an awesome game. There are hardly any beat em' up games anymore but this is one franchise that excels at it. It really reminds me of river city ransom, which is probably one of my favorite original Nintendo games. But that's another topic altogether. Yakuza has excellent action, many mini games to keep you occupied, and an innovative way to learn new moves.

This game also has one of the most bad ass protagonists known to all video games. Kazuma Kiryu, you're my hero.

Graphics

Let us start off with the graphics. I am not a huge stickler when it comes to graphics since i grew up playing the good ol' Atari and Nintendo, which makes me quite happy since i can respect and appreciate old graphics. This does not necessarily mean graphics can not break a game for me; it can, but rarely does. Graphics are not a huge factor in a game for me, but they always add an awesome amount of uniqueness to a game.

On to the graphics of Yakuza 3, they are not the most terrific but they are definitely not the worst for a current gen title. The cut scenes are really polished (and there are many) and done well, while the in game graphics are good at best. There are no frame rate drops at all so that's a huge plus.

Gameplay

Yakuza 3 shines in this department, and truly makes the game. There are rarely any good beat up games at all, because they are so repetitive. Well the fine developers of this little gem ingeniously through in mini games that were actually created well.Some lack in certain areas, but others are well designed. Throughout the story you will end up playing many mini games, one of the many is golf, which reminds me of how a golf game was on the Sega Genesis.

Yakuza 3 also has a leveling system, which is quite self explanatory for RPG fans. Kazuma has 4 stats which can be upgraded through doing side stories, beating bosses, and the normal lackeys. The stats are Mind, Body, Technique, and Essence. Mind increases your heat gauge, which is used for special moves and for buffs during heat mode. Body increases your health and power of throws, and so forth. This is not the only way to learn moves though, there is yet another mini game that is kind of like hide and seek. There is a minor character that sends you e-mails of certain locations and you try and find the event. When you do, you do a little quick time event (press the buttons while they show up on the screen) and you receive a new move or technique. It is really quite addicting, but can be a little frustrating at times when looking for the events.

This game is pseudo open world game, you cannot do whatever you want and there are random encounters with enemies when you travel throughout the few areas that are given. Although these areas may not be the biggest, there are many things you can do. GO to the arcade, a bikini bar, and many other places and it keeps the game fresh. Bored of kicking ass? Well check out the bikini babes dancing. Don't wanna be a perv? Then go play some video games inside a video game!

The battle system is quite simplistic, but it takes a while to get used to. I haven't played the previous two installments much, but from what i understand they are quite similar. The battles are intense and somewhat short in length at times but it fits the games pacing. The battle system has quite a bit of depth to it, and you can only perform certain special moves in certain situations or status. There are moves that require a certain status of HEAT, or a certain number of enemies and so forth. You can grab enemies, throw them in to their colleagues, bash their head in to the ground, beat them against a pole, or whatever is in the environment. There are many different ways to beat someone's ass in, and it kicks ass. Throw weapons in to all of this and it adds in to an amazing amount of heats moves within the game.

With all of these actions you perform, it actually controls quite well. Albeit it uses a quick time event system in battle it doesn't hinder the pacing of battles at all. It allows them to feel very intense and exciting without making the controls bad, or too confusing.

Story

Yakuza 3 has a very complex story that takes awhile to ease in to. Kazuma Kiryu is an ex-yakuza who now lives in Okinawa that runs an orphanage. One day he receives a notice for an eviction, and he soon learns that its from the local yakuza. After he deals with that with an ass whooping, it then skips forward a year and he learns his good friend was shot back in tokyo. I don't want to get too involved as it would ruin the story.

Re-playability

After beating Yakuza 3, you can continue the game in New Game Plus which gives you all the previous stats you had in your previous save and what not. There are many sub story missions and little extra things within the game to keep you busy for at least 50 hours, which is quite amazing for a game this generation. Overall, this is an awesome buy for a game.

4/5 ; 80%