My favourite of the first 3 Yakuza games by quite a wide margin, while also being the one that I felt had the most annoying nonsense and moments of genuine frustration associated with it, by a similarly sized margin. The biggest departure here is how the game is written, feeling like a departure from the first 2 games largely being huge homages to yakuza films and being pretty standard action dramas in a lot of particular respects. Yakuza 3 is still a lot of this of course, taking a ton of cues from Yakuza films and having this very evident, deep love for them (Kiryu's Okinawa outfit is just straight up the main outfit in Sonatine), but has a far more intense focus on looking inward at Kiryu's character and exploring it in ways that couldn't really be done before he was able to find a more peaceful life. Despite no longer being embroiled in the constant dangerous madness of the Yakuza life, Kiryu ends up feeling more vulnerable than ever, his humanity shining through in his many moments of uncertainty in this new frontier for him.

The first 3 chapters and also chapter 10 mark my favourite stuff in the series so far for this reason, just showing Kiryu running this orphanage in a largely low stakes set of events, with main quest beats often being small errands and doing things to help the kids that he's looking after. Kiryu's constant striving to be a positive role model on these children is a sight to behold, so clearly feeling out of his depth in some of these more tender moments while refusing to relent, giving it his all and being beloved, because of course he'd be, he's Kiryu, he's the best, a beacon of positive influence regardless of the situation. The city of Okinawa is also a big help in making these sections be so effective, taking the series usual penchant for having some of the most phenomenal environmental detail in a game, and applying it in such a way to make this small area feel so impossibly big and comforting, without losing its compact feel that Kamurocho never really tried for. Walking down the streets of Okinawa is beautiful, it's an activity that feels good to do even when you don't actively have a goal in mind and every moment in the game spent here is the best thing ever.

With that said, this is so full of gameplay moments that actively feel bad, even if they often benefit the overall experience by crafting something that feels even more naturalistic. The big way in which this manifests to me is how the combat feels, with everyone being rather defensive and frustrating to fight at first, often feeling like you're meant to grab enemies in a game where half of them with strictly refuse to have that happen the moment you make the slightest attempt at doing so. Bosses are even more excruciating in this regard, all of them feeling uniquely obnoxious, some feeling as if you're just spending 15 minutes chipping away at a caveman who keeps spamming the exact same attack over and over and somehow hitting you with it every time. I kinda love this aspect of the game though in its own way, each big encounter feeling uniquely memorable as a result, since it tends to be these moments of friction that lead to some of the most potent memories of any game, and I also feel like it very evocatively captures Kiryu's character at this point in time, being one who's rusty after living a life so detached from what he used to do and is still trying to come to terms with being put in the middle of yet another nightmarish power struggle.

This plays even better once you reach the point of the game where you gain access to a couple of avenues for further expansion of your combat capabilities and suddenly find yourself with a plethora of ways to get around the enemy strategies that have been bugging you all game, as if all it really took Kiryu was that little bit of training to find his footing again. Is it frustrating to have to deal with those early game encounters that feel a little ill-suited to what you can do? Absolutely, but it's handled in such a way that I ultimately believe it contributes to the experience as a whole once you hit that point where you learn a lot of specific techniques, as if it's this turning point where Kiryu is finally able to come to terms with the task ahead of him and forge a path forward, no longer having that sense of awkwardness and uncertainty in taking down the next obstacle in his path. It really helps that the combat itself feels at its most visceral yet, with each hit having the force of a freight train behind it, bouncing enemies off walls and hearing these loud, wet crunching noises as every bone in your adversary's body is shattered, and even basic combos feeling so much nastier than they previously have. It's made even funnier by this game's engine really dialling up how badly battered enemies can look, ending battles completely bloody and bruised in ways that occasionally hit the point where it becomes kinda funny how Kiryu really can just, absolutely obliterate a person like that. I feel like this all also works because weapons still feel quite strong, as if the more important thing is to be resourceful enough to use those instead of just barehanded brawling everyone.

Another moment in which conventional quality of life being eschewed improves the experience is how a lot of the substories are handled. While starting one of these shows up very clearly on the map, a lot of the time it feels as if you get a little bit left in the dark about how to proceed in them, sometimes the person you need to talk to not even being available until you reach a later part of the game. This makes the substories ultimately feel like more closely integrated parts of the world rather than existing purely for Kiryu's sake as something to complete. It always feels like a nice moment when you're running around in the middle of something else and end up stumbling upon the person to make something else progress without having expected it, mimicking the sometimes spontaneous nature of meeting someone important to you in one way or another. In some ways I fully understand why people get frustrated at this game, but I can't help but feel that most of these "annoying" aspects are ultimately things that contribute to a very uniquely textured game that is wonderful to immerse yourself in, it's sometimes slow, it's sometimes really frustratingly obtuse in how you need to approach it, but it's so heartfelt, so moving, so evocative, it's a masterpiece in a lot of respects.

9/10

Only on chapter 6 but i already can say that Yakuza 3 is better then 4. Prove me wrong
(24.03.2025) - Finally finished this game, DEFINITELY better then Yakuza 4, at least Yakuza 3 was fun to play and story didn't sucked.

It's peak.....