Yakuza 3 - 9/10
Yakuza 3, *otherwise known as Ryu Ga Gotoku Kenzan in Japan* its probably a title not many are very familiar with, not unless you played the previous Yakuza titles that appeared in the later years of PS2's life cycle. For those who dont know anything about this game, well lets just say its very similar to the likes of Squaresoft's The Bouncer, and Sega Dreamcast's Shenmue title. It is an extremely lengthy game packed and crammed with cinematic fighting scenes and likeable characters. However there is a catch, this title is only available in Japan at the moment, meaning all text is in Japanese, i had a hell of a time trying to work out when, how and why to do what? But some tasks are fairly straightforward, and dont need english language to guide you through.
The storyline is set in 17th century Kyoto Japan and focuses around the wheat straw chompin, laid back samurai known as Kiryu and the kitana he wields to carve into street toughs like pure steel easing through bamboo. There is a mixture of blood lust, love, theft, betrayal, prostitution, murder, romance revenge all packed within a network of plot twists. After the amazingly huge and epic intro sequence *involving, ruthless blood soaked Japanese warfare amidst a battlefield*, players find themselves in the sandal clad feet of Kiryu. Its difficult to say what needs to be done, considering everything is written and spoken in Japanese, this is the difficult part. The best way to describe Yakuza 3's gameplay concept is something on the lines of GTA set in a Kyoto village with a hint and a drop of Shenmue inspired flavour for good measure. Your goal as Kiryu is to gain power, respect and money *Yen* within the village, in order to do this, our fearful scruffy, sly, shinobi slayer will have to get into alot of village brawls to reach such local power. By fighting in the village against cranky samurais and blood thirsty ninjas wnating to grate you to bits with their shirukens, you earn power, money and respect, points if you like, which allows Kiryu to purchase powers, rare items etc.
So, Yakuza 3 = a samurai heavy game with mindless forced fighting, boring right? WRONG! Very wrong, the fighting scenes are far from samey combo happy affairs like Dynasty Warriors 6, these brawling set pieces are fantastic, although tooth grindingly hard sometimes, they are very dramatic and movie like. Whether it be saving a small asian boy from a group of fugu hungry townsfolk, making a blood spa out of cloth clad ninja's invading a whorehouse full of cutesy Japanese prostitutes, an assault on a power hungry clan in the twisty woods of a Feudal forest during a rain storm, or an assassination attempt on a VIP lord while he sleeps within his paper made dojo. Make no mistake, battles are not samey encounters, each fight offers variety keeping the chop socky asian influenced combat fresh and violent.
Practising the skills of the average sensai in your dojo, results in more combat moves and finishing grabs to KO enemies, the movelist is quite large, so sparring as much as possible encourages the player to an extent if they fancy pulling off some jaw droppingly crazy moves. And trust me, its worth delving deep into the game just to discover and unlock some of the fighting skills. The animations during the brawls are very impressive and vicious in execution at the same time. Slitting the throats of your enemies and watching them gurgle and choke on there own blood never gets tiring, stomping on foes faces and flipping them down into the dusty dirt roads of the village with cheesy J-pop music kicking off in the background is a surreal feeling that feels both bizarre and awesome at the same time.
Make no ifs or buts about it, Yakuza is a very deep game, it may be flooded with a plethora of fighting, but on a side note, there is a rice bag full of mini games to indulge in within the town instead of dropping everyone you see. These sub games fit perfectly under the Japanese weirdness category, but my word are they enjoyable if abit kooky crazy in hindsight. There is fruit slicing, Japanese chess, Shuriken aiming practise, and tortoise races......yes thats right, the turtle racing is as strange as it gets but also very fun and involving to get into. You can even place bets on which turtle you think will win the race. If this doesnt grab your attention then you could always enjoy a game of bowling or go to the nearest brothel to be pleasured by geisha girls. This involves all things kinky and steamy, sexy asian strippers in bikini's, innocent looking, cutesy eyed babes in kimonos that will do anything for your yen, Rolled up sushi, Ashiatsu massage anyone?.......you get the idea. Very bizarre but very absorbing and delightful. Yakuza 3 will no doubt win hearts with its wit and intrigue, it certainly one me over.
Visually, Yakuza is rich eye candy all the way through. The village town you walk through is gorgeous, brimming with dazzling colours and charming characters. The market streets are full of neon lit flashy lights, musical bands, blossom gardens decorated in spring water, fruit stalls, small corner shops that hide rare items, lotus ponds and crazy cultures in full effect. Its like a Chinese Xmas and resembles a desert based Hong Kong street market. The characters also deserve merit, facial animations are stunning and incredibly detailed, the female characters in particular are beautiful.
Overall, you would be plain silly to give Yakuza 3 the slip and nod of negativity, its a sweet surprise, a film like cinematic adventure that is fleshed out like an interactive novel. Its a glossy, original game with a cohesive, compelling vibe that grabs you and takes you in and instantly surprises you with its quirkyness, charm and character and wow's you with its attractive girls and plain odd mini games. My only complaint was not being able to understand what alot of it was about, the whole script was in Japanese, if you really want to experience this gem thats temporarily exclusive to the land of the rising sun, then import the title right now, your other option? Wait until a confirmed local release is set, but when will that be? Will this weird game even see the light of day in Western countries? That is what you have to ask yourself. Its a rare hidden gem and one of the best PS3 exclusives. Import away!
Submitted by callan5
05/05/2008
18
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