Yakuza 3 -- All-In-One.

It's been over two weeks since my last update. I didn't fall off the face of the Earth. I just put a hundred and seven hours into earning the platinum trophy in Yakuza 3. Yakuza 3 was developed and published by SEGA for the PlayStation 3. Why did I wait so long to play Yakuza 3? Truth be told, part of me held out hope that a patch would be released returning the infamous cut content to the game. That never materialized of course and with the release of Yakuza 4 rapidly approaching I had to get it in. As I previously stated it took me a hundred and seven hours to earn the trophies and this is with the twenty missing sub-missions and the missing cabaret content. Yakuza 3 is a massive game stuffed to the brim with extra content and you'll pretty much have to do it all if you want that platinum trophy. Even if you don't want it you'll find Yakuza 3 to be daunting in scope and scale. The story picks up a couple years after the end of Yakuza 2 with Kazuma and Haruka running an orphanage in Okinawa. Much like Michael Corleone, Kazuma finds himself pulled back in to the world of organized crime after seemingly leaving it behind. Pretty soon you find yourself involved in a crooked land development deal that spirals into a greater conspiracy. Yakuza 3's story is twofold. On one hand you have the main story and its focus on Japanese politics. On the other hand you have the day to day dealings with the orphanage and the more personal dealings with the characters in Okinawa. The two halves don't really mesh all that well. I enjoyed the more personal aspects to the story. The more main story focus side left a bit to be desired in my opinion. It took a step back from the quality found in the previous two titles. This is the series' first entry on the PlayStation 3 and as such it has never looked or played better. The static camera angles and pre-rendered backgrounds are gone. In their place is a free flowing camera and a fully rendered 3D world. Just being able to stop and look around in 3D is very cool especially for a city you know so well from the previous games. The game looks great on the PlayStation 3 and there is a wealth of detail everywhere you look. The game is not without its flaws though. From a design standpoint, they're stuck in last generation as far as menus and the overriding game system are concerned. If you fail at a minigame for example, you have to load all the way out to the game proper and go back in choosing your way through four or five menu levels instead just having the option to replay it. The game seems built on a structure from last generation and has the load times to go with it. If I'm knocking the score a point for the story and a point for the overriding antiquated structure that means I'm giving Yakuza 3 an 8. Everything else about the game is great and it features an amazing amount of gameplay value, especially considering the entry price these days. What's next for me? I'm probably going to play an old classic. Then I'm going to do something probably a bit stupid instead of knocking out a few more backlogged titles or jumping in on one of the new games I've got sitting here.