Thursday, May 27, 2010

Yakuza 3 Review

I stayed under 1000 words! I think I'll keep it that way from now on. TEXT WALL K GO. Oh sorry, please read. Ty :3

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Yakuza is an odd series. You would think that it's an all out brawler by looking at the back of the case, but it really is so much more. At first glance you could compare it to the Grand Theft Auto series due to it's free-roam nature, but that would be wrong too. If anything, it's like a more action orientated version of Shenmue. While the two games were made by SEGA, don't get the two mixed up. Yakuza 1 and 2 were both PS2 games and received a good amount of attention in the West, while it definitely shined the most in Japan. Approximately a year after Yakuza 3 was released in Japan (with Yakuza 4 being released at the same time we get Yakuza 3) gamers in the West have a chance to step into the shoes of Kazuma Kiryu, the dragon of Dojima, as he once again takes on the Japanese underworld.
And you thought bowling alleys were just for bowling

Yakuza 3, as I mentioned previously, is an odd style of game. You do run around an open world beating people up, but it has a strange RPG-element to it where you level up, learn new moves, and become stronger and faster. What makes the game strange is that the storyline is probably the smallest part of the game. Yakuza 3 is chock full of side-quests that are blended into the over-world. Helping an old man hunt down treasure, rescuing a cat, or even helping a man carefully cross the road with ice-cream to get to his family. It's fun little things like that which makes the game a gem. There are a LOT of side-quests too. Besides the "random battles" where Mafia members or street thugs start fights with you if you get too close, you'll tend to run into side-quests like I mentioned just while exploring the Japanese cities.

Real men wear tropical shirts

The locations aren't huge but considering you never enter any vehicles short of a taxi, it's not necessarily a bad thing. While you start off in Ryukyugai, a fictional location in Okinawa, you eventually move on to Kamurocho, a fictional location in Tokyo. Most of the game resides in Kamurocho, but you can go between Ryukyugai and Kamurocho via taxi any time you wish after a certain point in the story. The sights of Ryukyugai and Kamurocho are very authentic and the game is filled with Japanese product placements and restaurant chains. You can eat at restaurants, buy things from a convenience store, go to karaoke, go bowling, go fishing, hit baseballs in a batting cage, and participate in a fighting ring. You can also play darts and billiards in pubs and arcade games in a SEGA arcade. You can even play a full game of golf as excellent as any golf game you'll find on PS3.

Locations are authentic and well detailed

The amount of things to do is vast and you won't get bored for awhile. In fact, on several occasions I actually stopped progressing the story because I was too distracted by all the small activities spread out across the world. It's compelling stuff, and great fun. Unfortunately, SEGA erred on the game and decided to cut content from it's Western version. The Hostess Club, a Japanese History Quiz, Shogi and Majong were all cut from the game because SEGA felt it wouldn't "resonate with western culture." It's a bit disappointing when content is cut like that, personally it would have made more sense to cut it and then sell it back as DLC for those who it DID resonate well with. You can still go on dates with girls but you can no longer run a club and design how the girls look.

Kazuma really didn't like his face

Combat is great fun, if not a little repetitive. When it comes to fighting people it's generally the same thing over and over. Run into some punks who think they can take you, beat the living daylight out of them, rinse and repeat. There is a good amount of variety in combat but only if you take the time to discover and learn new moves for Kazuma and there are a good amount of moves to learn, and weapons to master, construct and find. The most fun part of combat are Heat Moves which can be used once enough Heat has been accumulated. Think mana really. It unleashed a devastating finisher depending on a variety of things. For example, I unlocked an ability where you could light up a cigarette and when an opponent got close, you spat your cigarette into their face, leapt up and beat them down. Badass. There's heaps of different Heat moves depending on what weapon your holding, where you're standing, what you're doing and who you're fighting. It does get tedious seeing the same one after awhile however.

You can pick up objects from your environment and use them as weapons

The storyline isn't anything too special and it's quite short. Several Yakuza families try to interrupt your peaceful life and you somehow get dragged back into what you do best: beat on peoples faces. One problem with Yakuza 3 is the amount of text walls. The game is in Japanese with English subtitles so expect to be doing a lot of reading. Not only that, but outside of cutscenes, everyone speaks in text boxes. There's a lot of dialogue to chew through and you probably won't get any of it unless you know anything about the previous titles. Fortunately, Yakuza 3 has an option where you can watch the previous two games as if watching a movie. I'd recommend you watch them both first if you want to get into the story.

Yakuza 3 is a good bit of fun. The graphics are quite nice to look at and variety of things to do make it quite enjoyable to play. It even has multiplayer for things like bowling, darts, etc. Despite having a relatively short story that requires previous knowledge to enjoy, the mind-blowing amount of side-quests and things to do will keep you hooked until we get Yakuza 4 in the west.

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NEXT: Alan Wake 

Neoseeker Yakuza 3 user-review

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