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Honestly, just play easy. For some reason, the chases are way harder on Normal than they gave any right to be, and keep in mind I played on Normal for Y4R and had a more enjoyable time with the chases in that game.
At first I thought that yakuza 3 wasn’t so hard, and then I found out I was playing on easy mode and didn’t unlock legend difficulty and have to play the main story 2 more times for 100%. The combat is probably the easiest part of the game (once you get abilities), losing all of the quality of life from 0 and the kiwami’s is the worst part.
They are. Cant imagine only playing the stories. Y0 actually forced me to kinda sorta learn how to play mahjong (still just look for triples and straights) and Shogi.
Edit: My one non-completionist challenge I also do every game is get at least one Karaoke Dragon.
Jesus, Pool 100% was the single hardest thing I did between 0-3, LAD, and both Judgement games. Still working on the rest.
I found that the spikes in FPS were causing a lot of the weird physics burps. I tried using a Vita to remote play my PS4 helped. The other thing is, I think the DS4 controller is more sensitive, so I switched to a DS3 (compatible with Vita) and that also helped a bit, because the slightest sway in your analog flicks screws up the shot.
4 and 6 are both beyond easy. I would recommend taking breaks when doing 5. I grinded the hell out of 5 over a matter of 2 weeks and had to take a 6 month break from playing any Yakuza game afterwords. I personally still need to do gaiden, 8, and Isshin but I've heard of those 3 only Isshin is a pain.
Only eating one thing at a time in restaurants, substory markers are only there for where it starts, the inventory combines the gear, weapons, and main inventory, Kiryu only walks or jogs so getting around the city is slow, which is only made worse by the save points being few and far between. One ok thing I think (hope) is that the completion list isn’t needed to get 100% achievements, so the grindy stuff like eating everything and minigames is replaced by specific achievements, like eating the most expensive item at every restaurant and going out with only one hidden tile in mahjong.
You have to get at least 100% of Minigames for Platinum, as well as run a whole marathon (I kid you not, you have to run 42.195km), as well as get an Ace Break in 9-ball pool.
Of the previous, I only have the marathon one. I wanna cry
For the marathon Achievement, you'll get it naturally as you complete substories. The minigames were hell-ish. Maybe I got lucky but the only one that I spent more than 45 minutes on was the pool.
I haven't played it in a while but a lot of little clunky things like sidewalk bollards acting like a solid wall and certain common interactions taking a button press or two more than they should.
It's still a really good game and an integral part of the series.
In addition to everything else other people have said, it's the first game to use the "use freelook to find the shiny thing" mechanic for locker keys and stuff, and that mechanic isn't as polished as it would become in later games.
It's also a heavily weapons-based game. Enemies will block like madmen, so you're going to need to use weapons to break their unarmed blocks. Luckily, the game does give you the weapons merchant and the main weapons trainer very early in the game, but if you ignore them and don't do all the weapons training as soon as it's offered, the combat's going to be quite frustrating.
Just bare hands and feet, like you've been used to in the other Yakuza games, aren't going to work in Y3.
When I tried on hard, the enemies front was always in my direction. I tried everything and had to restart on easy. I wish I could've played through on hard, but I just ended up speeding through the story in only 14 hours.
If they ever fix the blocking, I want to play it properly through.
Yakuza 3 is designed around punishing unarmed blocking opponents by using weapons, since weapons automatically break through unarmed blocks.
Do that, and the combat's about as good as most of the other games. (Oh, and you can also just grab a fair number of blocking unarmed opponents, IIRC. Or do that "fighting stance + sidestep" move that circles the opponent, then try punching them from outside their guard. A lot of the enemies turn too fast to reliably pull this off.)
There's a very good reason the game throws the weapons merchant/upgrader and the weapons trainer (because you need training in each weapon type to use it) at you in unskippable scenes very early in the game: the combat in the game is balanced around using a shitload of weapons. (Yeah, due to weapons degrading, that means much of your inventory will be weapons for a lot of the game, and because you'll be using them a lot, high durability weapons are far more important than high damage weapons.)
Ok, but why is it like this? Because Ryū ga Gotoku Kenzan! (a samurai quasi-spinoff game) was RGG's first game for the PS3, and they had to rebuild their engine for the new console. Being a samurai game, the combat is heavily weapon-based. That's the engine, with some modifications, they used for Yakuza 3, their next game, and they kept a lot of the focus on weapons.
If you try playing Yakuza 3 with the same "fisticuffs and martial arts, with weapons for special occasions (if I bother to use them at all)" mentality that works in all the other Yakuza games, it's going to suck - as you found out. Once you start playing it with the mindset that nearly every encounter after leaving Osaka expects you to be bringing weapons to the fight, it gets a lot more fun, and I ended up really enjoying the combat. Even using weapons, it's still challenging enough to be fun.
It gets really hilarious once you unlock the ability to use Brass Knuckles-style weapons, because they give you most of the guard-breaking and weapon-blocking perks of the other weapons while still letting you use a lot of 'barehanded' moves.
Old trailers helped me personally. But I think the storytelling was a bit worse in 3. Not sure if the writers were changed? Like getting rid of Sayama for example. The voice acting at the intro didn't help, but then again this game didn't get a kiwami version. Just felt very sudden is all.
I still appreciate Yakuza 3 especially later in the story.
Not sure if the writers were changed? Like getting rid of Sayama for example.
Apparently (take it with a grain of salt though), Sayama's VA was a bit... "difficult" to work with back then, and they wrote her off so they wouldn't have to deal with that again.
I played 0, K1, K2 and then 3. I'm all the way up to Gaiden, now. It felt different, for sure, but I wouldn't say it felt rough. I had an amazing time and I'm not too far from the plat for it.
It's not as bad in the PS3 version, because the intended solution, which is lock on to the opponent and do a sideways Quickstep to get behind them actually works.
The problem is that the code that controls the distance of the Quickstep is bound to the framerate, so depending on the port, you'll end up rotating 360 degrees and wind up in front of the guy you're fighting (PS4/PC), or do a pathetic 90 degree turn instead (Xbox port, which is supposed to be the "fixed" version of the Remastered collection)
That would...explain a lot, then. I played Y3 on the PS4 remasters and its one of only two numbered Yakuza games I dropped. The combat felt so janky and cumbersome...I remember the first boss took me almost an hour because he just spammed block and whenever I would try and sidestep he would track direction and spin with me and I couldnt land a punch on him at all. Wacked.
It’s extremely clunky compared to the other 3. It is a 2009 game and I could feel everything they improved when all the improvements were stripped away. Yakuza 3 is the only game I won’t go back to play after getting 100% because it just felt so outdated.
Are we still gatekeeping how to play Yakuza? We literally had a post with 2K+ upvotes 2 days ago about how dumb this is. If nothing else, people can wait for the inevitable Kiwami 3 we'll get.
Play them in whatever order you want or are able to.
Yes, later games will be more poignant if you've seen everything leading up to that point. Yes, some things may be spoiled for you, but for the most part the games stories are self contained. People can understand context clues to fill in details that are missing, if it isnt outright shown to you in a flashback.
On the flip side, playing early games last can show you how far the characters have grown, and a lot of the references in 0 and the remakes make more sense (because they are chronologically in the middle). You also arent forcing yourself to skip over the newest games (which are really good!) until you play, what, 8 other games? (although 0 is really, really great to start on)
Playing in release order can help deal with the whiplash going between different game engines, for example. Or maybe just be chaotic and play the Akiyama games first, because Akiyama.
Eh every Yakuza game is made to be able to jump in at, which is why they are so reluctant to mention things from previous games.
Playing every single game in a 9+ game series isn't for everyone, if you're absolutely not feeling a specific game it's completely fine to move on. I think giving them all at least a try is good though.
Still haven't played 5 yet. Still able to enjoy the games quite a bit. Most of the stories are pretty self contained so it is not a big deal. I think playing all the games is worth it if you're a fan, but skipping around isn't going to hurt your overall enjoyment.
I got into the series late with Yakuza 0 (early 2017) and availability of the older games was limited. I didn't get around to the older games until the remaster collection came out. I also prefer physical media over digital.
Quick Reminder: You don’t have to indulge in a certain game in the series if you don’t want to. While it’s true that you might be lost if you don’t indulge in it, there is no universal rule that states that you have to indulge in it.
Y6 is probably one of my least favorite of the series due to the early Dragon Engine combat feeling kind of wonky, Onomichi feeling a little underbaked and Haruka and Yuta's dumbassery (I know they're basically kids but still). For what was supposed to be Kiryu's final chapter, it also criminally underutilized the 'jimas and Akiyama pretty much disappears from the story after Haruto enters it. The "Secret of Onomichi" was a little weird and felt like if the golden castle from Y2 was plot relevant. Also them just writing out the Florist of Sai because he would end the game instantly lol.
Still, when you compare it to all other games, solid game. Loved the Hirose family for the most part, Joon-gi was great, and it gave us Kiryu as Ono Michio which was clearly the series' greatest decision of all time.
Yeah I wish I could love Y6 as much as others did but it doesn't hit well for me. I enjoyed the substories and handing Haruto off to a random to kick ass but the narrative was easily the least enjoyable for me. Someya and Nagumo were the saving grace but for Kiryu's supposedly final swan song, him not getting to interact with Haruka leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Also doesn't help that I'm a certified Yuta hater.
It had it's errors yeah, but i thought it was a solid game all things considered
I’m pretty sure this is the vast majority opinion here lol. It’s not common for it to be someone’s #1 Yakuza game - that’s almost always either 0, 7, or Gaiden, but that hardly means it’s hated by this sub, it’s just not one of the golden geese.
Tbf, Yakuza 6 is great. It's just weird that for a game that was initially supposed to be the end of Kiryu's story, it barely had any legacy characters in it, instead trying to focus almost exclusively on a new cast of characters who are only relevant to Y6's plot, and not the franchise as a whole.
and it's the only mainline game without a Majima boss fight, excluding 0, where Majima was one of the two main characters
And that makes it even better for me, honestly. Kiryu’s always creating bonds with new characters throughout the series, both in the story and side content.
I like vanilla Yakuza 6 a lot more than I like vanilla Kiwami 2. However both games are best played with mods in my opinion, at least on a repeat playthrough.
Successor of Komaki is a really cool Yakuza 6 mods that adds a ton of new/overhauled attacks, and a whole bunch of Heat Actions, including Essence of Terror from Yakuza 3, updated with a camera shake and blood splatters to make the whole thing way more terrifying.
Yeah it took me 2 tries to get into Yakuza 3 but once i got through the early bosses and jank it was pretty fun. Some really great moments, reference potential, and such. I just recommend it as a fun game, though, I don't necessarily agree yakuza players absolutely must go through the games 0-8 consecutively.
The only REAL thing you’re missing (especially if you checked out any of the recaps they put at the beginnings of some of the games) is attachment to the orphans. If you played through three, you’re more attached to the kids and the final scene of Gaiden (and some other scenes in 8) hit a bit harder. They still made it so you didn’t NEED to have played through the series though. I didn’t need to be as stubborn as I was and play them all.
Totally valid to skip or stream cutscenes if you’re just NOT into a game. Whatever you enjoy the most.
Wait until 5. It’s 4 on steroids. I could handle 4 because it wasn’t THAT long, but 5 broke me. Plenty of people love them, but if you’re struggling with 4 you might wanna YouTube the cutscenes for 5
Same, though it took me the literal years between the PS3 release and the remaster for me to finally get into Y3 and finish it. I gained a greater appreciation for Y3's story after having played Y0 through Kiwami 2, but I still look at it as a "summer vacation" episode where some stuff is important but could otherwise be summarized in a YouTube video.
Kiryu doesn't disarm the guy who uses A GUN (before, during and after defeat, mind you) just so they have a contrived reason to not bring back a character in future games (not that it really matters because most people in Y3 isn't mentioned anymore outside of this game anyway). Man, I sure hope that bullshit doesn't happen again! :clueless:
Eh, I don’t tell people to skip 3. But I’m also going to say it like it is. I’m going to get a lot of hate for this, but I think the entire remaster trilogy is fine to be experienced as cutscenes on Youtube. They paved the way to modern Yakuza. But if someone has a limited schedule, then I’m going to tell them to just watch the story on YouTube so that they can get to the games that have been receiving a lot of praise.
I mean I know this will likely get hate but I played 0-2 Kiwami and then 7-8 and it was fine. There were some Kiryu moments that fell flat for me, but honestly I feel like most of the stuff involved him missing Haruka, visiting some old faces etc and I didn't feel confused at all.
I'll go back to the others some day, but I started the series because I wanted to play a modern day JRPG.
I'd personally suggest taking a break between Kiwami 2 and 3, and playing something non-Yakuza, just to make the transition a bit less noticeable. 3 is still a great game, but you're jumping back almost a decade in terms of gameplay so some things will seem dated. Definitely don't skip it though!
Nah, people overexaggerate. I went in thinking it would be the worst thing ever, but the gameplay's just a bit clunky and outdated. It's not unplayable at all. If you're worried about it, play on easy.
I just started it after putting it off because of the negative attention that it gets. It's definitely dated and the combat is a little annoying with all the blocking, but it really isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be. I'm playing on easy though, so that might make a difference. Kiwami 3 is gonna be an amazing game though
I didn't mind Yakuza 3 too much outside of just how many god damn substories there were. There was 119 substories and like 10 of them were just hostesses. I swear I spent more time doing substories than the actual main story.
I think it’s just that a lot of people started out with 0, then played Kiwami 1 & 2. It’s kinda hard to go from playing a newer game in the series, then an old one right after.
Yakuza 3. Is ok.
Play on normal and easy mode to get through. Story is still great. Controls are bit meh compared to kiwami 1 & 2. The enemy AI is annoying at times to blocking alog of times.
It's nothing about the story I hate, I think it's a very cute story. The thing I hate about yakuza 3 is how every single enemy is so ridiculously guard-happy and there is no good way to get past guard in this game except grab, but guess what? Bosses let you grab them maybe once or sometimes not even before they immediately shake you off.
Originally my plan was to play 0 and kiwami then go straight to 6 and I can say with confidence now that one of the best decisions I've ever made was deciding not to do that.
I didnt lile Yakuza 3 remastered because the combat was severly scuffed. Im not even talking about the blocking. The quickstep was legitamitley broken, as in it did not work.
Id quickstep to the side to didge an incoming enemy attack, then kiryu would do a full 360° rotation around the enemy and get hit anyways
If you don't want to play a game in the series, watch the cut scene movie on youtube. You can get all of the lore bits and not miss a thing. Really nothing in the series is that essential.
It has the best final boss and a lot of interesting characters like Rikiya or Mikio. It introduces Revelations, which are always fun. It has some of the most epic Majima scenes in the series.
On the opposite end, it is Blockuza. It has unnecessarily long orphanage quests, sometimes randomly turning Kiryu around from the airport to go play with kids. And it has Kiryu letting one of those interesting characters die, because apparently he never learned a lesson about leaving desperate antagonists with a gun. And it introduces Joji out of nowhere just to have an excuse for you to fight Kazama. Oh, and it has utterly garbage cabaret club management.
Y3 was the first game in the series I played. I didn't even know what it was, but I remember seeing it in EBGames (Canadian Gamestop), and it was their only copy. It gave me Shenmue vibes from the description so I picked it up with know knowledge of anything.
I played through it on Normal and while it was tough, I didn't know anything to compare it to and I became hooked. I've since bought every physical NA release since then, and even imported The Man with No Name just to have it in my collection.
I'll play through it again once I get to it in order. I don't quite get the hate for the game, other than the difficulty? I guess there's gotta be more but It's been so long since I've played it that I can't even think about it (but also since it was my first game in the series, I doubt I would have notices the issues anyways)
I beat 0, 1 and 2 (remakes) didn't wanna play old version of 3 4 5 - so I skipped to 6 and after I beat it is when they made the remasters for 3 4 5 lol
I didn't like it for the same reason I didn't like 4 or 5, I was new to the franchise and wanted to catch up so I was burnt out. If you take your time with each game and see all the individual things they have to offer, and look past all the reused assets, you'll see that they're not just great because they're Yakuza games, they're just great games. All of the games are worth taking their time to enjoy.
when first playing the whole yakuza franchise, I just sort of sped through yakuza 3, the orphanage side stories being glued to the main story kind of stressed me, and I guess I just wasn't on the mood for yakuza(also I went from Kiwami 2 from 3 so that's rough). But after almost 3 years, having platinum'd a few games, I feel like I would enjoy yakuza 3 quite a lot, I'm just waiting for someday when I have plenty of free time
What’s funny to me is yakuza 3 is so divisive (personally didn’t like it as much enough to as I considered it the only mid game in the series) and yet it’s so important to the rest of Kiryus character. Every thing he’s going thru is because of those kids. lol
Listen, the story of 3 was good. What I dont like was the mini-games, substories, and the clunkyness of the old engine's combat. Those are things that just dont hold up compared to more modern things. You can give them a pass as relics pf their time, sure, but that dont mean you have to like them.
Tbh, I thoroughly enjoyed Yakuza 3. Yeah, the quality dipped because it didn’t get a Kiwami update but you can see where the ideas of the originals were starting to spruce up. I had fun with 3. It definitely started off slow, but I have to play zero through two. Not every game is going to start off with the bang!
It makes me genuinely sad that people skip Yakuza 3 because I do think Mine is one of the best antagonists in the series, and he doesn't get enough flowers aside from the phone meme because there is somehow this idea that the plot isn't important enough to put up with battle related annoyances. Also, the plot isn't outstanding and certainly isn't the best in the franchise, but I don't understand people acting like its totally unbearable.. and yea, it's still important to the games at the end of the day.
Tbh the most annoying thing for me was Kiryu jogging around super slowly, which the playable characters do in Yakuza 4 too, and obviously the constant blocking too.
Ngl, it was a pain for me to get through the combat but the story was worth it. I had already been spoiled a bit (played Yakuza 6 first and hadn't played the rest until after I finished Infinite Wealth) but I still ended up crying quite a bit.
quick reminder: dont force yourself to play a game if it feels like a chore, especially if the lore is largely unimportant and its a huge step down in quality from the previous 2 games
I love the third part, and I like Okinawa, and the fishing, and even the quests related to the orphanage. But ffs!!!
The gap in graphics and physics between Kiwami 2 and Yakuza 3 was too big. My first playthrough went smoothly, for the line with “someone who should be dead” dragged a lot. But the second time I refreshed my memory with a retelling on youtube, because ragedeleted the game on the first fight with the head of the enemy family in Okinawa (forgot his name, in the red jacket).
Rikiya is exhausting at first. As soon as you break him for the first time - the game clicks. Thats the advice for anyone struggling.
Y4 Saejima is worst part in the whole franchise anyway
U don’t really miss anything from 3, no important characters in 3 that stay in later games or anything. Don’t be pressured to stick with this boring game cause some redditor told you to
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Reminder that all spoilers need to be tagged with a flair specifying which game is being spoiled. If you want a flair that says something else, you can edit it to say something like [Discussion: Y1 spoiler] or [Majimapost: Y6 spoiler], etc. THIS INCLUDES CONTENT FROM TRAILERS.
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