4/5 ★ – KHFanXIII's review of Yakuza 3 Remastered.

And now we've arrived at Yakuza 3. I've heard some mixed things about this game, and I guess a substory in Kiwami 2 was based on the reception to this game. What do I think though? Overall, I liked it. The story was fairly interesting, but not superbly so like Kiwami 2 or 0. I feel like it's missing some intrigue. There's no real compelling mystery in the plot and I feel having an interesting mystery would've helped it. The main meat of this game that engaged me, though, was the subplot with the kids at the orphanage. Each individual kid gets their own little story and it really helps you connect with them and it's cool seeing a side of Kiryu that we haven't really seen like this before. That being said, there are issues with that. The orphanage subplot *really* feel like substories inserted into the main plot and, as such, do feel filler-y. Although I do feel they are inserted into better places in this game compared to similar things in the previous games, it still makes the story feel like it comes to a halt whenever you have to do stuff with the kids. I feel, overall, it would've been better suited as substories. That way, you are free to skip them if you don't care about the kids. Now gameplay-wise, it was a little rough. Going from Dragon Engine Kiwami 2, to this (pretty much) unaltered PS3 game gave me whiplash lol. It feels a little janky and unrefined, but that's expected due to this being the first HD entry in the main series. Despite that though, the combat system still feels surprisingly familiar. It's a little basic and simple, but you should have no problem jumping into this and getting the hang of it shouldn't take long. The substories in the game I'd say are about on par with Kiwami 2. Much better than Kiwami 1, but still below 0 as the gold standard. Really good production value on some of them as well, featuring fully voice-acted cutscenes and animations. And some of the substories are incredible, such as the one toward the end of the game where you literally have to solve a murder. It features its own mechanics and honestly reminded me somewhat of an Ace Attorney game. Overall, I quite enjoyed Yakuza 3 and while I'd still probably place it below Kiwami 2 in a ranking, it's still a very good entry in the series.