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Sunday, January 29, 2023

Yakuza 3

The third mainline Yakuza game and the first to appear on the Playstation 3, continuing the story of Kazuma Kiryu as he attempts to run an orphanage in Okinawa, away from the bustle of Kamurocho for a good portion of the game.  Per series norms it's an open world RPG with a heavy focus on side content in the form of minigames and side-stories, but some new polish is added, like seamless transitions between exploring and combat, a chase sequence minigame and "Revelations" - silly events you can seek out to learn new special moves from.  Some content was apparently removed from the western versions of the game, though - a minigame concercing trivia about Japan, some controversial side-missions and a few more Japan-centric minigames like Shogi and Mahjong (though the majority of these would be restored to the remastered version).  Its plot also definitely isn't the series' best and just feels a bit superfluous overall.  One of the less memorable Yakuza games, but if you're a series fan you're probably going to play through it at least once anyway.

Developer: Sega CS1 R&D/Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio/QLOC
Publisher: Sega
Platform: PS3, PS4, PC, XBox One
Released: 2010, 2019, 2021