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A very slow start to an otherwise great entry into the Yakuza franchise.

Being a huge fan of Yakuza 1 and 2 on PS2, I went into Yakuza 3 with some pretty lofty expectations, even after hearing about some of the cuts that were made to the game by Sega of America due to the thought that we wouldn't "get" some of the references in the game. Still, I knew the game would be packed with content, and come with what I assumed would be a pretty awesome storyline attached, so I was still looking forward to it. My feelings after playing it though are just a tad bit under whelmed. It's not a bad game by any means, it's actually really great, but an awfully plodding pace set by the beginning 4 chapters makes the grind to the good stuff feel a little longer than I would have liked, and the lack of significant changes to the fighting gameplay kept this title from hitting the top mark.

If you're going into this game with a rudimentary knowledge of what the Yakuza are, and thinking this is some type of Japanese gangster epic on par with how they're typically represented in film, you might be a little disappointed. Yes, Yakuza 3 has a lot of action going for it, and Kazuma tends to fix most problems with his fists, but overall you'll be surprised with how much the story tends to focus on the drama side of things. There's a lot of dialogue, and a lot of unspoken text boxes to sort through in between the entertaining cutscenes. There's a lot of optional stuff to check out, and even though things like the Hostess Bars and Mahjong have been cut out of this particular release, there's still a number of extra things to check out. There are some really simple activities, like darts, bowling, and so on. Then there's the more complex options like helping out various NPC's scattered about the different locations, collecting the 100 locker keys once again, and trainings yourself in various fighting styles to unlock new weapon proficiencies.

This is another point, the gameplay, where I think longtime players will still be satisfied but newcomers are going to have a hard time seeing what the big deal is. The combat hasn't seen a great deal of change this time out, Kazuma still starts with his basic strong and weak attack combo's, you still build experience off of defeating foes and completing quests, and there's the four sections that you can spend those experience points on found in the menu options. Even some of the upgrades that Kazuma can get are still the same from previous games, like the HEAT takedown if an opponent is on the ground, so yeah, there's not a lot of significant changes here. That's more of a double-edged sword than anything, sure to please the people that are already familiar with the game and enjoy it, but at the same time it feels like a game that refuses to evolve its systems in tune with current generation games. With most of the mechanics being cribbed out of a pair of games that are now 4+ years old, it'd be nice to see a few things experimented with or switched around.

There have been a couple changes though, just not within the combat realm of things. There's the new first person mode, which is a great addition when it comes to seeking out items like the keys, which are now hidden in spots that are generally above your reach. Going into first person mode, you can highlight special objects and the game will automatically zoom in on them, allowing you to interact with it by pressing X. Even if you see the object while in third person mode, you still need to switch to first person and find it to get any kind of result. And while the actual battles haven't changed, there's been some effort put forth into the transition between exploration and fighting, which makes the transition a little more seamless. There's still a bit of loading that's masked by the initial vs. screen that pops up, but it doesn't completely black out to a loading screen like previous games, which is nice to see.

You've probably heard a lot of people compare the Yakuza games with Sega's former Shenmue franchise, and while I could see the resemblance between the series with the past two games, I think that statement holds true here more than the previous two titles. While there's an incredible amount of things to check out in Kazuma's world this time out, it also suffers from a plodding pace when it comes to the story. Even if you try to cut away the optional material for later in the game, you'll find yourself stuck doing a lot of random tasks that involve running back and forth between characters without doing much to advance the main plot. It's these particular sequences that bring the game down a bit for me, and while I've been able to stomach them in previous games, for whatever reason Yakuza 3 feels like the game that broke the camel's back. It's not enough to keep me from hoping that we see Yakuza 4 make its way to the US at some point, but I definitely have my excitement kept in check for further entries into this series.

Still, if you decide to pick up Yakuza 3, you're getting a lot of bang for your buck. There's so much optional content involved that you'll be able to keep yourself busy for a long time, and most of the mini-game like activities, like the approach to golf found here, are actually well implemented and fun. If you can get past the slow moving plot line, then you'll find a lot to enjoy with this particular chapter. If you're planning on coming into this new, then I urge you to at least try and seek out the first two games, they're a great indicator of what you're getting into, and they'll be necessary to give you enough background into the characters of this particular game so that you'll actually give a damn when this guy shoots that guy and who that guy is and how he ties into the dude from the first game and so on. You can skate by with the flashback stories at the beginning, but I don't think you'll really appreciate it if you skip the first two games entirely.