There is so much to do, see, and experience in Yakuza 3 that it rivals hardcore RPGs like Oblivion and Dragon Age in terms of amount-of-time-played to amount-of-money-paid ratio – an equation that many games these days come up shockingly short on.
There is so much to do, in fact, that after completing the main story, all sub-missions, and dabbling here and there with the plethora of mini-games, my save file read a whopping seventy-five hours. Seventy-five hours – and that was with my total completion percentage at forty-five. It may be cliché, but this is one of the few games on the PS3 that really does keep on giving.
All that said, Sega’s release of the game in the west didn’t come off without a hitch. Several weeks ago, in response to a whirlwind of rampant, internet forum speculation, Sega confirmed that they cut content from the non-Asian versions of the game. The cuts aren’t widespread or gameplay mutilating, but they are there, and they are noticeable (to those familiar with the Japanese version). Yakuza 3 is so inherently and unabashedly Japanese that bringing it to the west would have been a challenge for even the best of localization teams, but Sega’s team seems especially ham-handed with their decision to, almost arbitrarily, lop off all hostess clubs (the hostess girls are still in, however, as are dates), the Club Sega trivia game, Mahjong and Shogi (Japanese chess), amongst a few other things. In the end, though, the cuts are trivial. They are like the removal of one flavor of candy sprinkles from an exquisitely decorated cake – if you didn’t know they were removed, you probably wouldn’t know the difference. Yakuza 3 is still one of the most polished gameplay experiences on the PS3, and the second must-have, system-exclusive title of 2010 (after Heavy Rain).
The story’s potency is strengthened by Kazuma Kiryu himself – a video game protagonist who ranks up with Solid Snake and Nathan Drake as one of the all-time best. Kazuma is a man who follows a strict moral code – a code that mirrors the Bushido of Edo period samurai, with strong emphasis on loyalty and prowess in battle, but not on needless killing. Kazuma is also tall, muscular, sharply dressed, and capable of walking into any nightclub in Tokyo and leaving with the girl of his choice. He’s sort of a more stoic, less ruthless version of Ian Fleming’s 007, with a badass dragon tattoo sprawled across his back. Players get to step fully into Kazuma’s shoes and experience all shades of his personality, from his time cooking dinner with the kids at the orphanage, to his brutal fisticuffs with anyone who tries to challenge his strict ethical code.
In January 2009, I spent my honeymoon in Okinawa. A month later I was playing Ryu ga Gotoku 3 (the Japanese name for Yakuza 3) and found myself utterly blown away by how thoroughly the game’s Ryukyu area was modeled after Naha Okinawa’s Kokusai street – complete with a Blue Seal ice cream parlor, monorail track and station layout, and even the sanshin (the habu snake-skinned instrument of Okinawa) music wafting pleasantly out from street side shops. If you’ve ever wanted to go to Japan, but couldn’t for whatever reason, consider Yakuza 3 to be the closest way to experience the country without actually stepping foot in an airport.
Of course, just exploring the game’s remarkably detailed cityscapes isn’t the only thing to do outside of pushing forward with the main story – over a hundred sub-missions will open up to the player over the course of the game, with themes that range from silly (running from a lustful crossdresser) to serious (investigating a local tea shop murder) to romantic (helping a buddy reunite with an old flame). And, as fans of the Yakuza series already know, there are dozens of ways to keep yourself entertained when taking a break from completing missions or advancing the story. Want to go bowling? It’s in there. How about golf, billiards, darts, or just a quick trip to the batting cages? Go right ahead. How about some gambling? Poker, blackjack, roulette… even traditional Japanese gambling games such as chinchirorin (a sort of Japanese version of craps) – all in. Heck, go grab a hostess girl (seven of which are digital recreations of actual Japanese Ageha models) and sing some karaoke together.
Sega! I should have just bought the JP version a long time ago instead of waiting for it to be released in the US. At least I would have had time to play the full version instead of this content-missing Eng release >.
