Yakuza 3 was always going to be a little jarring, but it ended up being so for different reasons than I expected.
My biggest fear was that it was going to feel dated compared to 0, Kiwami, and Kiwami 2. Thing is that never truly bothered me. There are some conveniences that aren't there anymore and the movement feels different, but these are all quirks I can deal with. If anything I thought it was charming and closer to the Yakuza games I know than I expected. The remaster also looks good visually. Okinawa was an interesting new location and I was happy to see something with a different vibe. The sub stories were classic wacky Yakuza scenarios and they were so much fun. I guess the minigames did feel a little off at times, but hey I got to play golf so the game has that going on for it. The main plot was also decent although I have to agree with nearly everyone else that the pacing is off. The contents itself were good, and I think the orphanage stuff did wonders for this big set of characters, but the flow of it doesn't really work out as well as it should. That's not the end of the world though and I could have lived with that.
The jarring aspect ended up being the combat and it truly soured my time with the game. I feel like I deserve an award for completing Y3 on Hard difficulty because I don't think I have ever had a more tedious experience with a combat system. Funny part is that it isn't even a difficult game! The combat encounters are essentially drawn out since everyone has massive health pools (including the player), and enemies block the majority of your attacks. Then you just go around and try to exploit your way through their defenses to remove that next little sliver from your opponent. This is frequently made harder by very small arenas and a large amount of enemies. The camera is also placed extremely close to the player and the mob attacks you all at the same time which makes dealing with them all even more annoying (they never do enough damage to actually hurt you much - you are just locked in animations of getting hit).
Now I do agree that the skill cap in Y3 is the highest I have seen in the series because you can technically get past the block by stun locking the enemy and using wall bounds - I just don't think it is satisfying. The enemies generally block most hits after the first one that connects so you can punch the air and waste your weaker attacks and then make the powerful one that knocks them over connect - then just do that over and over again (preferably near a wall so you can get even more hits in).
To make things worse the Remaster took away the one other thing that could have helped get past the blocks. Quickstep distance was lessened by a lot so dodging to get behind enemies became way more difficult compared to the original. There's a mod that reverses that change, but I found out too late. That being said I somehow survived, and luckily Yakuza never returned to this style of combat so I can continue in peace.
My biggest fear was that it was going to feel dated compared to 0, Kiwami, and Kiwami 2. Thing is that never truly bothered me. There are some conveniences that aren't there anymore and the movement feels different, but these are all quirks I can deal with. If anything I thought it was charming and closer to the Yakuza games I know than I expected. The remaster also looks good visually. Okinawa was an interesting new location and I was happy to see something with a different vibe. The sub stories were classic wacky Yakuza scenarios and they were so much fun. I guess the minigames did feel a little off at times, but hey I got to play golf so the game has that going on for it. The main plot was also decent although I have to agree with nearly everyone else that the pacing is off. The contents itself were good, and I think the orphanage stuff did wonders for this big set of characters, but the flow of it doesn't really work out as well as it should. That's not the end of the world though and I could have lived with that.
The jarring aspect ended up being the combat and it truly soured my time with the game. I feel like I deserve an award for completing Y3 on Hard difficulty because I don't think I have ever had a more tedious experience with a combat system. Funny part is that it isn't even a difficult game! The combat encounters are essentially drawn out since everyone has massive health pools (including the player), and enemies block the majority of your attacks. Then you just go around and try to exploit your way through their defenses to remove that next little sliver from your opponent. This is frequently made harder by very small arenas and a large amount of enemies. The camera is also placed extremely close to the player and the mob attacks you all at the same time which makes dealing with them all even more annoying (they never do enough damage to actually hurt you much - you are just locked in animations of getting hit).
Now I do agree that the skill cap in Y3 is the highest I have seen in the series because you can technically get past the block by stun locking the enemy and using wall bounds - I just don't think it is satisfying. The enemies generally block most hits after the first one that connects so you can punch the air and waste your weaker attacks and then make the powerful one that knocks them over connect - then just do that over and over again (preferably near a wall so you can get even more hits in).
To make things worse the Remaster took away the one other thing that could have helped get past the blocks. Quickstep distance was lessened by a lot so dodging to get behind enemies became way more difficult compared to the original. There's a mod that reverses that change, but I found out too late. That being said I somehow survived, and luckily Yakuza never returned to this style of combat so I can continue in peace.