Yakuza 3 - First Impressions, Slow Burn

I'm on my Yakuza binge still, and I've finally reached Yakuza 3 after playing Like a Dragon, 0, Kiwami 1 and Kiwami 2.

And I must say, so far, Yakuza 3 has been the biggest letdown in terms of pacing and gameplay. The sudden change from the perfection that was Kiwami 2 to... this, is just jarring.

Don't get me wrong, the story feels like it has potential and I've only played 5 hours so far, but the very very slow burn through the start and the variety of bullshit the game has you do just makes it so... so... boring.

It's great to see Kiryu doing what he always wanted by starting an orphanage, but do we really need all these mundane side-quests related to the kids? Side-quests that lead to absolutely nothing storywise?

I really liked the dynamic between Kiryu and the Ryudo as he's an outsider to Okinawa and gains their trust by doing classic Kiryu bad-assery, but I can't help but feel tired after playing this game for the entirety of today's afternoon. It's been boring task after boring task.

Why do I have to play golf to solve a bullying problem for a kid on my orphanage? Why?
I want to kick ass, but the game just has me doing errands for the kids back to back. Rescuing a dog, helping out "lovers" who turn out to be siblings, solving a case where a girl steals money from another girl and then everyone just pretends everything is fine because they forgive each other.

It's just such a slow boring start.

But this isn't even my biggest problem with Yakuza 3 so far.
I don't mind the graphics, at all. It looks outdated but it's charming, it's that early PS3 vibe, I like it. I was there for the early days of the PS3 so graphics like these don't bother me whatsoever.
But the combat... Oh boy. It's awful.

Maybe I was spoiled for not having played the original first two games on PS2 and playing the Kiwami remakes instead (except for a brief stint of Ryu ga Gotoku 1 & 2 HD on the Wii U), but god damn, the combat feels like an insane downgrade.

Well, in truth it's the Kiwami combat that's an upgrade, since those are newer titles running on the Dragon Engine, but 3 just feels antiquated, slow and unfair.
Enemies can just gang up on you and attack you without stopping, they can stunlock you easily and breaking their guard is really damn difficult (in Kiwami 2 for instance you could easily do it by charging a normal attack, not here).

I've heard the combat of 3 is the low point of the series and I can totally see why.

The UI also feels like a huge downgrade from the Kiwami titles, but I kinda like it. It's a bit charming and the upgrade paths for Kiryu are straightforward. Grinding isn't too bad and getting new moves and techniques is quite good, I can't wait to get to Komaki.
I'll keep moving along with the game because I want to see where the story will go, the whole drama of Daigo and Nakahara being shot and no one knowing what's gonna happen next is enticing to say the least - I just wish there was less monotonous bs in the way so I could get to what trully matters.

I hope the pacing picks up with time and the game becomes more enjoyable, but for now, it's sort of a slugfest with sprinkles of greatness poured in there.

Guess I'll just have to bare it for these first few chapters.
And hey, wide PS3 graphics Kiryu is funny.

I'm also happy that each chapter achievement gives me 15 gamerscore on Xbox, that's a nice way to grind some gamerscore lol, but with the game being only 12 chapters long, it's sort of understandable.

Maybe I'll end up enjoying this one by the end, but the beginning was pretty underwhelming.

Thanks Mack, for giving me the idea to blog about it. This was a funny interaction.

Thanks for reading!