Yakuza 3 Remastered: Chapter #1 Review

The good, bad, and ugly.

(Yakuza 3 Remastered Cover Photo)

Good evening, my peeps, and may the algorithm bring this piece to you.

Today we’re digging into Yakuza 3 Remastered; it’s a Single-player, Action-Adventure game developed by Sega’s CS1 Team and published by Sega first to PS4 August 20th, 2019, on Microsoft systems January 28th, 2021, and originally on PS3 March 9th,2010.

This is the third installment in the “Like a Dragon” series, and the third one I’ve played; the other two were Yakuza Like a Dragon and Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name.

As always, we’ll be going into just the early game to refrain from spoilers, So without further ado, let’s get into this.

(Yakuza 3 Remastered Opening Scene, Photo taken by Nia🫧)

Story

We play as Kazuma Kiryu in the humble city of Okinawa, running the Morning Glory Orphanage with Haruka Sawamura, his adopted daughter.

Now I’m a newer player and don’t know the Story of the original trilogy, and this was the oldest game I could get my hands on for now.

I say this to explain why the opening cutscene was quite confusing for me, alongside the kind of exaggerated acting, but that’s what this franchise is known for, so I’ll skip over the very opening cutscene for now, mainly because it doesn’t make sense until later anyways.

So we begin with Kiryu and Haruka visiting his adopted father’s Shintaro Kazama cemetery.

While there, Kaoru Sayama joins them to tell Kiryu she’s heading to the U.S. to further her career as a police officer and asks if he wants to come with her.

Kiryu accepts, but before he leaves, he asks his rival, Goro Majima, to assist Daigo Dojima in being Kiryu’s successor for chairman duties.

Goro only agrees if Kiryu beats him in a fight, which he does.

After Goro and Kiryu share one last cigarette before saying their goodbyes and parting ways, Goro questions himself about what he got himself into.

Now, based on what I said, the story sounds straightforward, BUT! There was so much filler to get all this.

First, let’s break this down.

There are roughly 28 minutes of cutscenes before actual combat.

You do take control of Kiryu throughout this sequence, but it’s only to walk up to his father’s grave to pay respects, then slowly walk through town with Haruka; there is more slow walking and dialog before ending off the chapter with combat sequences.

This almost turned me off the game entirely, and I get we need context, but there is a difference between context and unnecessary sequences.

But their was one thing that definitely makes up for all this.

(Tokyo District of Kamurocho, Photo taken by Nia🫧)

Gameplay

Yakuza’s gameplay is genuinely where this franchise truly shines, and jumping into this one after playing the newer entrances felt precisely the same.

As Kiryu, we will primarily be traversing the small, usually cramped streets of Kamurocho, running into punks to fight, chatting with and helping citizens, and indulging in mini-games and restaurants.

Yakuza Three was the first entry in the series to have seamless battles, meaning we can adventure and battle without the usual clack loading screen.

We also have a first-person view when you press your right thumbstick, and if you stare at certain people while in first-person, will provoke them.

During combat, Kiryu has the standard parry, block, quickstep, light, and heavy attacks, grab enemies to attack or throw them, and as you land more hits on your enemies, it will fill a heat gauge that will inflict maximum damage.

As you play, you can upgrade everything from health, stamina, and abilities, and to replenish them, you buy or find food and potions throughout the map.

This system is straightforward, and you can tell Sega took a lot of time perfecting everything to ensure it was simple and enjoyable, and they succeeded.

(Mid-second tutorial fighting Street Thugs, Photo taken by Nia🫧)

Visuals

This is another feature in Yakuza that truly makes this game shine.

Since I didn’t play Yakuza 3 at release, I can’t compare the visuals between the remastered and original.

But I can compare the two newest entries to the remastered version.

All the games look great, and the Yakuza 3 Remastered still looks like it could have been released today.

The newer games shine in terms of little details, especially with faces.

One huge praise I have to give to the franchise as a whole is that every city feels so authentic and lived in.

I would probably be able to find some of these places in Japan, even though many are fictional.

Finally, this game should be shown in video game design classes on how to use color in games properly.

There is color everywhere, but it never feels out of place or overpowering and adds to that lived-in feeling I was talking about earlier.

(Fighting Goro Majima at the end of Chapter #1, Photo taken by Nia🫧)

Conclusion

Yakuza 3 Remastered is fun when looking at the newer entries before this one, but looking at this one first on its own merits, this game can be a bit of a tough sell.

However, once you sort through the tedious cutscenes, there is a beautiful world to explore and a fun game to experience.

Also, if you can play the games so that way you won’t end up confused trying to follow this story out of order like me.

Thank you so much for making it to the end of today’s post, and as always, I’ll catch you guys in the next one ;).