Yakuza 3

The story of the game revolves around the Sunlight Orphanage on Okinawa .

Kazuma Kiryu works in the Sunlight Orphanage on Okinawa Island, the Ryukyu archipelago with his foster daughter Haruka Savamura.

The orphanage is located on land that belongs to Shiger Nakahara, the boss of the local Yakuza clan, known as the Ryudo Clan. Nakahara is under pressure from the government to sell the land that they plan to make a seaside resort. When his friend Daigo Dojima, was removed from the post of head of the Tojo clan, Kiryu again falls into a series of difficult situations and again he needs to fight for the protection of honor and dignity.

Unlike other games in the Yakuza series, the game takes place on Okinawa , the Ryukyu archipelago and Kamurotyo.

Innovations

Trophies appeared on the PlayStation Network (50 in the Japanese version ^[2] , 45 in the European and North American versions ^[3] ), four new types of gameplay appeared:

• Of Battle the Seamless ( . Nn シームレスバトル Simuresu Bator, "Seamless battle") - streaming media , with the help of which you can change without downloads battle mode on an adventure, or vice versa.
• Chase Battle ( Jap. チ ェ イ ス バ ル бат Chase batoru , "Battle of the pursuit") - a new battle mode that replaces regular fights.
• Revelation ( Jap. 天啓 Tenkey , “Revelation”) - using Kazuma Kiryu’s cell phone camera, he can learn new tricks. A similar kind of gameplay appeared in the spin-off of the Yakuza Ryū ga Gotoku Kenzan series ! .
• First-person view ( Eng. First Person View ): when you press the R3 button (that is, an analog stick), the third-person view switches to the first one. This allows you to better monitor the streets and people, but looking at some people using the first-person view, you can provoke them to battle.

Adventure Mode

These are mainly sub-scenarios that are missions. More than 20 mini-games are available: oriental massage, mahjong, Japanese history (all three were present only in the Japanese version), darts, billiards, bowling, etc. With the help of additional content, multiplayer can be present.

Event Mode

In this mode, the plot is shown in twelve chapters, together with the prologue. As in previous games, each chapter is a cutscene, which later becomes available in the gallery.

Battle Mode

Kamurotyo has the Underground Coliseum ( 闘 技 場 Tohijo ) (it is also available in other games of the Yakuza series). It hosts mixed martial arts in a cage. The mode resembles the games of Virtua Fighter 5 and SpikeOut , in the development of which Toshihiro Nagoshi took part. Only 50 fighters and 11 tournaments.

There is also the “Final Competition” ( 究 極 闘 技 Kyokyoku Togi ) ( English Final Competition ). It has only 35 missions. If all 35 missions are completed to the rank of "S", the player gets the talisman "God's struggle."

Through additional content, you can open the "Exclusive modes" ( 専 用 モ ー ド Senyo modo , "Exclusive modes") . Only 10 missions, each must be completed in 3 minutes. In the “Battle of Survival” ( English Survival Battle ) you need to defeat the main boss - Yoshitaku Mine, and in the “All Star Tag Tournament” ( Russian all star tournaments ) Kazuma Kiryu together with Mount Majima must participate in battles against 7 teams from bosses and characters.

Ryū ga Gotoku 3 Original Soundtrack ( 『龍 が 如 く ３』 オ リ ジ ナ ル サ ウ ン ド ト ラ ッ ク Ryu: ha Gotoku 3 Oridzinaru Soundoundoraku ) was released by Wave Master on February 26, 2009 and sold with the game. The music was written by Hidenori Shoji, Hideki Sakamoto, Kentaro Koyama, Takahiro Kai, Yoshiro Tsuro, Hirooshi Kato and the band Love Sound System. The soundtrack consists of 31 tracks. 2 songs from them were performed by Seiyu Taku Kuroda (Kazuma Kiryu) and Rie Kugimiya (Haruka Savamura). These songs sound like karaoke in one of the mini-games.

The Japanese version was sold with the monograph Kamutai Magazine. Sony released a bundle that included Yakuza 3 and a PlayStation 3 in white with a dragon image.

The European and American versions were released a year later than the Japanese one due to low sales of the first two games of the Yakuza series outside of Japan ^[4] . In the European and American versions, subtitles were replaced ^[4] , 45 of the 50 trophies remained, 21 quests were removed ^[4] .

Outside of Japan, "Yakuza 3 Premium Edition" was sold in which there were: 3 video diaries of developers, 3 additional content, a soundtrack, 4 trailers and the Yakuza family tree in the digital version ^[5] .

Toshihiro Nagoshi in his blog said that in the first week more than 300 thousand copies were sold in Japan ^[6] . How many copies of games were sold in Europe and North America is not known, but Sega representatives say they are happy with the sales ^[7] .

Yakuza 3 received high marks from critics. Critics liked the dramatic plot, worked out to the smallest detail of the schedule, a large number of mini-stories and mini-games. 1UP.com called the game "fantastic." Game Revolution noted that most Japanese games currently borrow many elements from the west, but Yakuza 3 "refuses to budge."

Japanese magazine Famitsu rated the game at 38 points out of 40 possible ^[25] .

The Russian magazine " Country of Games " rated Yakuza 3 at 8.5 points out of 10 possible. In their review, they stated that “the new creation of Amusement Vision will almost certainly be to your liking,” however, due to the fact that the magazine acquired the Japanese version of the game, a critic from the minuses noted “the prevalence of hieroglyphs and weak hope for the appearance of the English version” ^{[21 ]} .

The game received the “Outstanding Achievement Award” at the Japan Game Awards in 2009 ^[26] . The game also won a gold prize at the SCEJ's PlayStation Award 2009 for more than 500,000 copies sold in Japan ^[27] . Yakuza 3 was also well-praised by critics in the West: UK's Official Playstation Magazine scored 9 out of 10, lowering the score due to 23 deleted mini-games in the European and American versions.

Japan

Starting March 5, 2009, eight add-ons were available for free for 8 weeks ^[28] . Add-ons include: new costumes for Kazduma Kiryu, Haruki Savamura and for Rikiya Shimabukura, support for multiplayer in mini-games, games on the theme of "question and answer", the game "Desire of Haruka" and the mode of "Ex-Hard".

Four exclusive Premium Adventure modes appear in the expansion:

• Survival Battle ( Russian. Battle for survival )
• Survival Onigokko ( サ バ イ バ ル 鬼 ご っ こ Saibaybaru Onigokko , “Surviving through the Salads ”)
• All Star Tournament ( rus. All the stars of the tournament )
• All Star Tag Tournament ( Russian. All stars of the tournament. The final part. )

Europe and North America

Four add-ons were available on Europe and North America on release day:

• The fight for survival is all the bosses of the game against Kazuma (known as "Survival Battle" in the Japanese version).
• All-Star Tournament . Only 7 types of tournaments.
• All Star Tag Tournament . Only 8 tournaments.
• Haruki's Desire is a series of missions for Kazuma Kiryu, in which you have to play mini-games and entertain Haruka.

The GameStop online store gave all players an exclusive addition to the game for those who pre-ordered Yakuza 3 ^[29] . The addition includes three mini-games: pool, darts and bowling, as well as clothes for Kazuma Kiryu, Haruki and Rikiya Shimabukura. The add-on can be bought on the PlayStation Network for $ 4.99.

• Official game site (English)
• Yakuza 3 on Sega Retro
• Yakuza 3 on the Yakuza Wiki