I really liked Yakuza 3's story. The calm moments where you just run an orphanage work very well with the crime drama the series eventually turns into. I liked most of the new characters and many of the returning ones hold strong.

Side stories are fine. More down to earth than 0's or 2's, but not as dull as 1's. I'd say my biggest complaint is tracking them. The menu for it is bad and it frequently doesn't tell you what you need to do. Leaving your mindlessly wandering around the city looking for a green dot above someone's head or get pulled into a dialogue section.

Combat is the worst so far in the series. It is dull, boring, and lacking in real variety. Enemies, especially bosses, block spam like no tomorrow, while tracking you relentless when you try to hit them from behind. When they go in heat mode, you're best off just running around until they queue up the QTE to get them out of it, or it runs out. It was not fun.