Recent reviews by Akame ga Iru

Spoiler-free and long review:

As someone who is relatively new to the Yakuza series and who has started getting into it through Yakuza 0, Yakuza 3 Remastered feels different from the previous games due to the Kiwami-treatement of Yakuza 1 and 2. This can be good or bad depending on who you ask, but personally, there are aspects to this game that felt new and groundbreaking and there are some aspects that felt annoying and boring. When it comes to the review, I have to point all the good and bad points of Yakuza 3 so that its easy for you to understand.

The Good:

As some other reviewers have mentioned, Yakuza 3 is a substantial improvement from the original Yakuza 1 and 2 games, making the shift to the Yakuza 3 a lot easier for most of the players who have played previous polished games of Yakuza 0, Kiwami and Kiwami 2. The combat is easy to adapt to, albeit not diverse, the inventory shenanigans are the same as they were in 0 and Kiwami (although you have to share your item slots with gear and weapons), the heat actions still feel visceral and Kiryu still kills people with his spectacular karaoke. Some of the places in the Yakuza 3 Remastered can be stunning, some of the characters introduced in this game can be unforgettable and some of the new mechanics to weapon building and heat actions are fun.

The plot is intriguing when compared to the previous Yakuza games and I know that many people don't really like the pace change that they did in this game, but personally, it feels great to finally see Kiryu spending some time being a dad instead of constantly being involved throughout the story in some sort of drama with either Kiryu's family and friends or with some sort of international mafia that is constantly a threat. It allows for players to experience a more peaceful and dad-like life of Kiryu. To add to all of this, newly introduced characters go through great character developments that makes you cheer for them whilst the antagonists in this game, except for couple, feel humane and relatable as you can understand where they are coming from and why they are doing the things they do in the story. So overall, it's still a Yakuza game, but with a different pace of portraying the story.

The substories in this game remain the same, at times great entertainment, at others a chore. Certain substories have cutscenes and some of them help the player to get closer to some of the new characters, which is great as there have been so many additions and deletions of characters in the series thus far that you can become numb to some of the new additions.

The new mechanics that they added into this game, and later into the series, with Revelations, additional Heat Actions, IF7, and Hitman missions are actually fun. Whilst it is not necessary for you to complete and collect all of them, I highly recommend doing at the very minimum Revelations as those are great entertainment and provide great Heat Actions and Finishing moves that will help you immensely in the story. Very easy to understand where to go and they do not feel like a chore! IF7 is a cool idea, where you can re-engage previous battle fights and get upgrades or ingredients. Hitman missions are a neat idea and are easy way to get money and fight unique mini-bosses.

Talk about minor details, I genuinely think that this is the second game where I actually love the entire OST in Yakuza series thus far, Yakuza 0 being the first. Every single track feels fun, blood-pumping, stressful or emotional. Fly, Pure Malice, Sound's Storm, Receive and Stab You, D2A, and other songs are unique and unforgettable, making some of the fights actually feel inspiring and fun.

Last, but not least, KARAOKE. I think that this is the first Yakuza game that I have played so far that allows you to reminiscence some of the animated moments of karaoke, even those when you sing with friends or hostesses. I think it is a neat idea as sometimes you just want to listen to and enjoy the song without having to sweat on the QTE.

The Bad:

Oh boy. As you most probably have heard, the fights and encounters in this game, while might feel great at times, are not as fun due to uncanny amount of blocking. You are either forced to constantly grab enemies and send them flying, counter attack, or have items that can allow you to bypass their blocking (sharp items such as knifes on enemies with no weapons or guns). This sucks as it does not feel as great to fight as it usually is in any other Yakuza game. The only fights that actually feel fair and fun to fight are only by the end of the game as those bosses either don't block or are susceptible to block breaks.

In regards to the plot and characters, it's the same old Yakuza. Some of the moments in the story can be genuinely dumbfounding and some characters are just boring and undeveloped. Kiryu in this game feels more isolated in his own agenda, which is sometimes nice but at the same time infuriating, when you progress through the story. To add to that, the entire removal of previously established characters and their connections with Kiryu in the previous games also questions as to why writers have completely forgotten or have changed the narration entirely, as it downplays important events that happened in the already established storyline.

The game has its usual high amount of minigames that everyone love and expect to see from the previous corresponding games of Yakuza, but has outdated mechanics to them that feel sometimes more difficult than they ever were in other Yakuza games. Some of these, especially batting center's Extra Hard, Golf's Competition Completion with a score of -5 and Pool's Broken AI can be very challenging and soul-consuming if you are going for the 100% achievements in this game. Probably one of the most frustrating achievements I had to deal with in a while as the last time I felt this frustrated at my time wasted would have to be at Yakuza 0. To add to that, I have no clue as to why they added one of the worst minigames in the entire series, Hostess-making. It feels confusing as the game does not tell you the crucial information you need, so you have to use Google to find the most optimized way of completing or even playing this minigame. I had to play this minigame for a quite bit for the achievements and it felt like I was wasting time. I understand that not a lot of people are here for the 100%, but I believe that even if you are going to play for the entertainment value, you will not get a lot of fun out of these minigames, unfortunately.

Getting to Amon fight and the fight itself are disappointing. As mentioned, you have to date hostesses to unlock substories and have to complete certain hard levels in some of the aforementioned outdated minigames to get to the substory completion, which sucks. The Amon fight itself was boring as he uses same fighting styles as some of the bosses in the story, making it easy to win against as he is probably the weakest Amon in the series.

Conclusion:

Overall, for anybody who has been enjoying the Yakuza series so far, you should try this game out. It has a different pace from the rest of the Yakuza games I have played thus far, and it feels great. The addition of a new city, Ryukyu, the OST, and some of the new characters make it worth playing at least once. On the other hand, poor mechanics of enemy blocking, minigames and some sidequests are the most disappointing parts of this game and can be by themselves a put off for many people. Whilst I enjoyed this game despite its flaws, my recommendation for casual enjoyment would have to be play it for the story and not for the side-activities!

I apologize for any mistakes here as it is my first time writing a review, so I hope this helps!