Am I just spoiled or is Yakuza 3 not that good in general?

[DevilVergilXT]

Well, I started with Yakuza 0 as most people recommended, it was a blast. I wanted more and moved forward with Yakuza Kiwami 1 and 2, which I also enjoyed them a lot (Kiwami 2 a little less, still great tho). I made a stopover with this series and I tryed Judgment since it is from the same Studio? and it was on sale, so far all of them were great games to me even with some frustrations of certain Mini Games.

Then I started Yakuza 3, I do went with the expectation that it did not received the Kiwami treatment and it's rather (as the title already implies) a remaster. However, currently I am at Chapter 3 and I must say, I have seen even PS2 games aged better, I just say how I feel about this game currently. I don't go into details, since I am aware that I'm still at the beginning and some things could change, but I want to hear more opinions since I am curious about it. Also I need to know how to set my expectations for Yakuza 4 and 5 after this.

Also yes, i am aware of the remaster issues as well,

 

[Atoya]

I played yakuza 3 on ps3 before, it’s the weakest in the series, I haven’t played 4,5 but my friends told me they are much better 

[VaDiMkA]

Well, i started years ago with Yakuza 3, so i may be biased..

 

but yeah, compared to 0 and both Kiwami´s, it hasnt aged well. Still, keep playing, the story is just like the other Yakuza´s, and personally i liked the substories in Yakuza 3 the most (as far as i can remember, been a while since playing some of the games XD). 

 

Dont wanna say something wrong, but Yakuza 4 and 5 are basically the same. 4 has a "bigger" story and 5 has more mini-games. 

[da_Heino]

Yakuza 3 is in a weird place compared to the other ones. You'll appreciate it more when you played all the way up to Yakuza 6.

 

I wasn't impressed either at the start when I played Y3 for the first time, but all of the yakuza games start kinda slow. It gets better the more you play, but it's definitely not as good as the previous games.

 

And like Atoya said, Y4 and Y5 were much better. Enjoy the ride.

[x7251]

I must be the only one who liked Yakuza 3 the most out of the series. Maybe it's just the nostalgia. Yakuza 3 was the first Yakuza game I ever played. One of the things I really enjoyed about the game was being able to explore Okinawa.

[PooPooBlast]

I personally enjoyed Yakuza 3. Played the series in order as well so I got to experience the same difference in graphics and gameplay as you did. 

 

This is my opinion:

 

Pros

- really great OST

- KANDA! 

- Okinawa was a blast to navigate through!

- revelations!

- A bunch of hilarious substories

- ANIKI !

 

Cons:

- some janky combat especially in the beginning when you're a weakling. Although it gets much better with upgrades

- Aside from the orphanage stuff and seeing Kiryu develop as a family man, i felt that the main villain was underdeveloped imo. 

 

Overall though keep in mind it's a remaster of a 2009 game so of course it won't be of the same quality as the other Yakuza games. Not to mention it's their second game ever where they created a world with a behind the shoulder camera (first was kenzan I believe). So yea I'd say play through the game and try to enjoy the story as if it's a relic from the past. 

 

Good news is that (well aside from Yakuza 4 :P) it gets better from there I hope! 

Edited April 16, 2021 by PooPooBlast

[Redgrave]

I think the gameplay is rough around the edges in some places especially in regards to combat since even basic enemies just block everything constantly. Along with that a lot of the minigames are more frustrating than they need to be but all that can't really be helped since it was the first one they released on PS3.

 

The story is great though and still holds up really well. I would definitely put it in the top 5 as far as the story in these games go.

 

As for Yakuza 4 the combat is definitely better since enemies in that don't block constantly, and Yakuza 5 has a lot of versatility in the combat in that you play as multiple characters each with their own movesets. So yeah, Yakuza 3 can be rough in terms of gameplay but they definitely do improve on it with the later games.

[jgm4789]

Yeah, outside of the original versions of 1 and 2 it is easily the jankiest of the series. The engine got a big upgrade between 4 and 5 and its really noticable coming off of 0 and kiwami 1(some people prefer this engine over the dragon engine titles from 6 on). It also doesn't help that the minigames aren't as good as 5 or 0s and all the best minigames were reused in 4.

[TrafalgarWarGrey]

Worst game of the series in my opinion.The dodge rate is insane and make you  only to to rely on grab and counter to be effective.I've played the remastered and on coliseum opponent seems teleporting.I don't know if the 60fps make them do that or also on Ps3 version is the same.I play only the remastered.Peraphs i enjoyed it on normal difficulty on premium adventur with All Star Tournament playing alongide Majima.

Edited April 16, 2021 by TrafalgarWarGrey
Made spoiler

[royal642award]

I played the series in order and its definitely not the best game in the series but hardly the worst. Its a great entry. I dunno why people think it is, i personally liked dead souls the least.

[You]

Yakuza 3 is my favourite, it has the best OST and in my opinion the most memorable sub quests. It's also pretty hard too, whereas the games seem to slowly be getting easier.

For getting platinum though it's the worst in the series, very hard indeed. I didn't like much of the main story in Okinawa though.

Being Kiryu for the whole game instead of 25% of it is a big plus unlike in 4 and 5.

 

[ PS you should try playing the Yakuza 1 and 2 PS2 HD remakes that were on sale for PS3, now THAT feels old and clunky lol ]

Edited April 16, 2021 by enaysoft

[Lord_Selrahc]

It's a pretty common opinion that Yakuza 3 was the worst in the series (minus the zombie spinoff one LMAO), so I wouldn't chalk it up to being spoiled.
However, considering you started out with some of the best in the series, i.e. Yakuza 0, it's very natural to see the big quality gap
I personally find 3 to be mid tier overall, but that's just because I have weird taste
But yeah, it'll take a while to get used to 3. It won't be like an awakening where suddenly you appreciate everything about 3, but you'll learn to tolerate it, and even enjoy it a bit. Probably.

[DevilVergilXT]

So from what I get it, Yakuza 3 can be enjoyable to an extend which makes me wonder if I should've started with that game instead. Then again for me personally I like to start a series chronologically. The combat is what I feel like won't change my opinion, that seems to be the worst one minus Y1 and Y2 of course (I have absolutely no clue about Dead Souls tho). Mostly because of the enemies being too defensive, not only about constantly blocking, but they also take their sweet ass time to attack in the first place, when you plan to counter instead. And of course, the 60 fps issue that messed up the dodge that makes punishing enemies after an dodge more harder than it should. At least from reading the comments, it should be more manageble after some upgrades which was the case for any games it seems.

But overall I don't intend to give up, I am still looking forward to the story at least and the whole series, would be weird to skip one game imo regardless of how bad it could be. The gap in quality from other games is what threw me off, it is a game from 2009 yes but there are numerous games that were much better in the gameplay aspect that even came out before 2009.

Another thing is, even if it is frustrating with the mini games, it is kinda satisfying to get the Platinum trophies not gonna lie. That series even teached me how to play and enjoy Mahjong after many hours, also strengthened my patience too over the time which was the least expected part for me. The pool minigame in Yakuza 3 Remastered is really a mess tho, that was the first minigame I tried and even finished, can't wait for Darts or Golf... Karaoke also seen better days, one of my favorite minigames in the series.

[Crispy_Oglop]

27 minutes ago, DevilVergilXT said:

So from what I get it, Yakuza 3 can be enjoyable to an extend which makes me wonder if I should've started with that game instead. Then again for me personally I like to start a series chronologically. The combat is what I feel like won't change my opinion, that seems to be the worst one minus Y1 and Y2 of course (I have absolutely no clue about Dead Souls tho). Mostly because of the enemies being too defensive, not only about constantly blocking, but they also take their sweet ass time to attack in the first place, when you plan to counter instead. And of course, the 60 fps issue that messed up the dodge that makes punishing enemies after an dodge more harder than it should. At least from reading the comments, it should be more manageble after some upgrades which was the case for any games it seems.

But overall I don't intend to give up, I am still looking forward to the story at least and the whole series, would be weird to skip one game imo regardless of how bad it could be. The gap in quality from other games is what threw me off, it is a game from 2009 yes but there are numerous games that were much better in the gameplay aspect that even came out before 2009.

Another thing is, even if it is frustrating with the mini games, it is kinda satisfying to get the Platinum trophies not gonna lie. That series even teached me how to play and enjoy Mahjong after many hours, also strengthened my patience too over the time which was the least expected part for me. The pool minigame in Yakuza 3 Remastered is really a mess tho, that was the first minigame I tried and even finished, can't wait for Darts or Golf... Karaoke also seen better days, one of my favorite minigames in the series.

 

I'm almost at the end of my Yakuza series journey, I'm about halfway through Yakuza 6 at the moment. I technically still have Like a Dragon to finish, but that's not really part of the Kiryu story arc). I've played them pretty much chronologically from the beginning and I'm honestly glad I did. If someone started at Yakuza 6 for example, I think they would lose a tonne of context and impact around some character and story events.

 

I don't think any of the main Yakuza game entries are bad, but I do I agree that compared to the other games in the series - Yakuza 3 wasn't the best experience in general and I honestly think it had some of the worst gameplay systems, mini-game optimisation and completion requirements in the entire series. But i'm glad I stuck with it and moved through the franchise in the right order . 

Edited April 16, 2021 by Crispy_Oglop

[VegaMan-X4]

From the outsider's perspective Yakuza 3 was a possible entry point to the series for me. That is I tried its demo and never entered. Until Judgment came along. Which I both enjoyed and simultaneously got enough with the series for now.

[CoffeePS]

I have been finding the substories quite compelling and I enjoyed the setting change in getting to explore Okinawa, but the gameplay has definitely been the weakest of the series for me. It makes sense that the gameplay here hasn't aged as well as the remakes or newer games in the series, but I was still a bit surprised by it. I think if you see it to end, you still won't have any regrets, and it might make you appreciate the subsequent games in the series a bit more.

[DevilVergilXT]

Well here an little update after I just got the Plat now: the more you progress with your upgrades, the more it becomes manageble and somewhat fun (mainly due to Tiger Drop and Komaki Parry), but it still has some issues like AIs being way too passive/defensive for my taste, lack of crowd controll is another issue as well (unless I missed something). The Minigames were overall worse than the previous RGG games I played, but I guess that is understandable since it felt like they were still experimenting. The Story has been great tho, but for spoiler sakes I won't go into details here.

Overall I would join the opinion of Yakuza 3 being the worst in series (I've played so far), still I didn't felt like missing out on it tho. Looking forward to Yakuza 4 and I hope it gets better.