why do people hate yakuza 3?

[george]

i hear alot that yakuza 3 sucks, but i was pleasantly surpised about the game its really fun.
yes, i agree the first few chapters dont have pace because it died, really wished i didnt need to do like two three hour long mandatory subtorys with the children but after that its exiting something is always happening
its just cool ivce gotten to chapter 10 so far really enjoying, tough the first few chapters really gave me a bitter taste.

but i also would be happy to see in the replys why people dont like this game

[Lar Dass]

The first chapters are actually essential for kiryu's character arc and his motivations for later games, it explains his actions going forward and that he would always put his kids first, even if he dies for it. They were gonna put it as side content but the director wanted people to get invested to the kids as much as kiryu is so its main focus. But yeah i agree, yakuza is overhated for no actual good reason, its just skill issues everywhere

[Regulus Corneas]

Yakuza 3 is certainly the weakest entry of the franchise. Not story-wise but gameplay wise. Its encounters seemed very tedious to me and a lot of other players. The enemy AI is just crap as they block everything and you need to unlock most of the abilities first until you can fight them fast.
So honestly it's just the random encounters for me.

Maybe people just hate on Yakuza 3 because they played 0, Kiwami, Kiwami 2 and then had a problem with the game's old style which I at least didn't have a problem with.

[kirbo]

probably the blocking issue. also, the first chapters are the reason I adore this game, they really resonate with me and i like them a lot.

[Slothfulstomp]

The game is really just disliked by people who started with Yakuza 0. Yakuza 3 was the first game in the series on the PS3 and the first one to move away from the ps2 controls to something we would recognize now as how a Yakuza games should control. Yakuza 0 came out after 5 and is the result of years of refining the controls and the enemy AI so it's really just jarring to players coming from 0, K1, & K2. It's nicknamed blockuza as 0 really just lets you spam rush combo straight to the credits and 0 fans don't really understand that these games offer a whole toolkit of moves to make the game play dynamic.

That and some youtuber or twitch streamer just told their fans to skip this game and read its plot on the wiki for some reason. So a lot of people just repeat that without ever having touched this game.

[Alvy]

After finishing a 2017 remake playing a 2009 game pushes them back.
Also they broke the enemy AI with the remaster and they keep blocking your attacks (Blockuza). Honestly the gameplay is not that bad, it's just a choppy version of Y0/Kiwami. I find Y6 and Kiwami 2 more frustrating.

People who don't give this game a chance are fools, they are missing out a chill game with a really good story.

[Hildefuns]

I hated it in my first playthrough, but actually enjoyed my second playthrough of it. I think I created a self-fulfilling prophecy for it my first time around: I decided I didn't like the game, but wanted to play for the story, so I tried to rush through while ignoring the side-content which meant I wasn't levelled high enough for the fights, which led to the fights being really difficult, which led to frustration and me to hate the game.

[Stormer]

I liked the gameplay somewhat (started the series with 0) but I hated the LATER part of the story. Controversial opinion in bound, Mine was a really, really poor villain. His motivations made no sense to me.

Certain plot twists and character behavior in the later part of the story not only made no sense but felt like none of the characters were given any value. With the exception of the orphanage and its kids, none of the characters introduced here were brought back or even mentioned in any entry after this game. The only person was Mine, with off hand references.

It was like they wanted to forget about 3 and forget about Okinawa as a whole, despite a lot of Kiryu's life being there. Even in 8, the game where half the plot revolves around Kiryu reminiscing on his life and the choices he made throughout the games, there was no reference to the yakuza family in Okinawa, only minor reference to Mine in one of Kiryu's moves, one character returning as a bartender in Hawaii, and that's it.

Storywise, the ONLY THING introduced in Yakuza 3 story wise are the kids. Every other Yakuza game introduced SOMETHING or SOMEONE that continues to have an impact in the story. Yakuza 4 had Akiyama and Saejima, Yakuza 5 developed Haruka more as a character and is even referenced in infinite Wealth way more than Yakuza 3 was.

The only thing you can semi-argue is that the Tojo financial situation and Daigo's behavior in Yakuza 4 is explained better if you played 3, but again, you can just take it at face value in Yakuza 4.

TL:DR: With the exception of meeting the kids in Kiryu's Orphanage and said bartender, nothing of value is gained in playing through Yakuza 3. Even if you look past the gameplay, the story gets way too much defense than it deserves. While the story is ok as a standalone, in the context of the entire series, you can literally just play 4 and go "oh yeah, Kiryu has an orphanage" and lose nothing of value.