SPOILERS FOR THE WHOLE GAME

When I first played the remastered version some months ago, I thought it was a pretty ok game and continued with my life. But for some reason, the game stuck in my mind for a long while, like it had something special in it that I couldn't wash off. Now, it allured me to play the original version this time.

After playing Yakuza 2 and comparing the two, you can feel how important this game was for the series. I have yet to play Kenzan, and I know it was the first step in introducing this saga to the more realistic approach using the PS3 engine. But from what I've seen from it, Kenzan walked so Y3 could run. This game reimagined the whole aesthetic. Kamurocho goes from this gritty, dark, kinda noir vibe that PS2 games had to a sharp, stylish, and more flashy design. The city is more dazzling than ever and adding that it was the one to introduce minigames (a whole lot of them) makes up for this "Sleepless Town" essence. Kamurocho is just a LOT of fun to be running around.

-- Narrative --
My main problem with the game is the overall writing of the criminal plot. Coming from Yakuza 2, which manages to maintain its mysteriousness, unwrapping little by little and keeping you engaged with meaningful events, this one was kind of a letdown. The premise is so interesting, but it could have been handled a lot better. All the enigma and threat that Joji represented as a character ends up disappearing since he's just... a good guy👍; They don't even try to give both Joji and Kiryu more time on screen, to at least poke at the wound of a living picture of the most important person in his life that passed away being there, someone that knew more of him, get that emotional side of Kiryu, no.
Also, the lack of Black Monday presence throughout the game and the way they don't really show or try to create a menacing aura around the organization makes you not really care that much about all that stuff at the end not gonna lie.
Anyway, I'm not going to expand much else into it. The ending, though... I really, really like it since it makes a certain parallel with the previous 2 games in terms of Kiryu's existential journey and makes it feel like the actual END of a trilogy. Yeah, I know it sounds crazy, but hear me out. Even if it's not intentional, when I realized this, I was kinda blown away.

Both in Yakuza 1 and 2, Kiryu's afterward moments after dealing with the "main" conflict of the plot, usually ending in tragedy, he gives up; We tend to see a very stubborn, angry Kiryu that makes his way through purely with this raw violence, not really thinking things twice and is given either a reason or another chance to live by someone else. In Yakuza 1, he loses all the most important bonds of his entire life, destroyed by the yakuza world, Reina, Shinji, Nishiki, Kazama, and Yumi. Staring silently at the void, prefers to get arrested for life since nothing is left for him out there, nothing worth living. Date reminds him of Haruka. Try living for the girl.
He decides to keep going.
In Yakuza 2, he doesn't even try to escape, in this case, Kaoru reminds him ... Haruka is waiting for you, but even so, he accepts that she will never be safe with him. After all, she has been kidnapped multiple times for his past and constant engagement with the Clan's activity, so he decides to just die, right there, while everything blows away. He knows Haruka will be safer with someone like Date by his side. Even so, Terada, the very person who betrayed him "gives" him another chance to live, one that he would not regret.

In Yakuza 3, you can feel all of this in Kiryu's character, the way he talks to people, to his children, he's full of hope and wisdom from a very rough life, and he's finally trying to live a real life, one away from the yakuza, and he tries to pour all of his knowledge, values and experiences into his kids to give them a better life, one that he never had.
The situations in Morning Glory are kinda silly, and a lot of times oddly specific; But every time, at the end of these little mundane problems, Kiryu's speeches hit you in the gut, because they are messages filled with such love and a kind of complexity that surprises you coming from him, a very flawed man. Every time Kiryu watches his kids do good, smiling, it warms my heart.
I didn't remember Rikiya's death scene being so well done, I honestly think it is one of the more memorable scenes RGG has done, even if his sacrifice is not that "well" staged. First time in the whole saga Kiryu completely breaks down as he cries and his voice cracks, yes he also cries when his father dies but, this time is so much stronger as if a channel of all his reprimed emotions hit him at that specific moment like a fucking train; I also think this moment is particularly sad since his death represents a direct consequence of his yakuza past getting up to him, he remembers he can't escape and all his loved ones can be taken away from him.
Mine acts as a "what Kiryu could have been." You could even say he's the personification of Nishiki, and he's standing in front of him, once again, but Kiryu is not the same. He has grown; now it's his time to give purpose to someone's life, and he does, resulting in what we see as Mine's ending. He thinks he's too far gone to keep living but decides to end it all with a pure reason not born from hatred.
This game has an odd connection to blood relationships and orphans. Kiryu is an orphan, Mine is an orphan, obviously, all his children are orphans. An orphan is a representation of a human being left stranded, deprived of the first connection to LOVE that a person CAN (not always) have, Mine is a representation of one possible outcome, resents others, resents relationships, and is distrustful since he was taken away of this so early in life. Kiryu on the other hand, recognizes this fact and builds bonds around him, he had the luck of always having caring people by his side. ODDLY SIMILAR TO GAARA AND NARUTO... wtf, crazy.

Kiryu is stabbed at the end; he falls on the ground as he bleeds, staring at the sky, with the possibility of just dying right there. And that's when he says, "Even in your final moments, you can still learn to believe in someone." I know this is directly related to Mine, but I think he's at peace because now he has something to live for, and he won't surrender like he has done when facing death. He smiles; he has a family waiting for him at Morning Glory. All is going to be okay.

I played this game before the translation was complete so a lot of the side quest dialogue and item descriptions were ** instead of actual words, but it's was an alright game. Beautiful for the cut scenes that looks straight out of a comic book and I think that alone gives the game a much needed sense of unique identity and helps it stay remembered and stand out against the other Yakuza games.. also on the topic of being unique the soundtrack includes songs done by the Jet Set Radio composer.

Outside of that, the combat feels like the PS2 Yakuza because it's very archaic and clunky, however it wasn't ever horrible to the point where I felt hindered by it, and I think it's pretty impressive that it's even relatively good to begin with. I would write about the story and Tatsuya as a character, but I don't think I could do it justice because of the unfinished translation. I'll replay it one day.

My mother and father were taking me on a road trip as I hadn’t left the state of Florida throughout my life, and seeing as how my 12th birthday was around the corner, they figured there would be no better time. The trip was long and arduous, the seemingly unending road ahead of us nearly made my father swerve off of the road and slam into a nearby tree, or realistically fall into the river of Alligator Alley. I woke up suddenly to the unfamiliar sensation of my ears popping from the rise of elevation. I looked outside of the backseat car window and the first thing I noticed were the trees, towering and winding above the road, each trunk housing centuries of untold stories. A still darkness lies beneath them with beams of the sunset's light shining through the cracks of the leaves, burning my half-asleep eyelids shut once again. As we drove on a bridge that was above the canopy of trees, I noticed the vast ocean of mountains. The beauty of the insurmountable that laid bare upon my unknowing and immature eyes astonished me, cloaked in a mist of distant fog, shielding me from what lies beyond. What interested me more however, was that I had multiple street-passes on my red 3ds XL that I had in sleep mode during my slumber. That was true happiness.

Nearing dusk, we arrived at the destined mountain in which my grandparents resided. The one way gravel road with many twists and turns and minimal lighting was a horror beyond human comprehension, especially when your father was showing symptoms of being high due to having three mango slushes from Sonic. My Father does not remember this part of the story. After nearly driving off of a cliff multiple times, we arrived at the house. Dimly lit, it was slightly illuminated by the local firefly population. Sadly, we still couldn’t see shit and went to sleep because mosquitoes kept biting my ass. Ouch.

The morning came and I woke up to the smell of fresh air and nice smelling food. Just kidding, it was the exact opposite. I smelt rotting eggs and my balls were shivering because it was so fucking cold and I didn’t have a blanket. This fucking sucked. What’s more is I found out I was sleeping on an air mattress, which at the time sucked until I walked around the rest of the house and realized everything in the house and the house itself were rotting away at the seams. Then and only then was it seen as a blessing. Thank you mother. It was tradition for me as a kid to put my 3ds under my pillow as I slept, and before even opening my eyes I would scrummage around my bed trying to ensure my favorite toy was still there. Thankfully, not unlike all of the preceding days, it was and all was good in the world. Except for the stench of rotting eggs, which I was too lazy to follow. Instead, I opted to play Mario & Luigi Dream Team, a game I had purchased on the eshop months before. I was sitting on the edge of my air mattress in the heat of the final battle against whatever the fuck his name was, when suddenly my “grandmother” barged into my safe heaven, undoing the imaginary locks on the rotting wooden door and allowing the aforementioned stench to flow into my olfactory glands in it’s purest form, and only after reaching my olfactory cortex did the odor truly fuck me up. The ogre stood in the doorway, blocking the light from the morning sun from reaching my once pure, not grimacing face. She asked, no, demanded, “DO YOU WANT EGGS?” in a loud and quaking tone in her raspy voice akin to that of an eldritch demon. Startled, I stood up from the side of the air mattress, the precipice of fate, starring the demon in her ugly and moldy eyes. Pleading for my life, I begged “No, thank you”, then walked past the horrific creation of a jaded God, resting my opened red 3ds XL on the corner of my air mattress and ran as fast as possible toward the door. Not before seeing the watery eggs she had crafted. I dodged a fatal bullet.

As I swung open the front door, I heard a roar from the inner tunnels of the dwelling in which I rested, the demon cursing in her native tongue. It was only when I exited that I saw our location in light. Our cabin was atop a small hill with a barn at the foot of it. I was taken back in awe at the beauty that nature provided, staring distantly at the mountains and treeline. I snapped back into reality when I heard my mother yell my name from the bottom of the hill. I ran down the hill and told my father what I had experienced in the previous 10 minutes. After telling him the tale in which I escaped with my life, I instinctively touched the pocket on my red shorts… It was then I realized the grave error in my judgment. My red 3ds XL was not with me. I recollected the events and came to the conclusion that it must have been left on the air mattress. I looked back at the hill and saw the menacing castle before me, fumes of green oozing out of the many crevices of the once inviting home, a haunting laugh emanating from the inner corridors. I had to make a decision. Face the stench and find my love, or hide in my sorrow and fear. I ran as fast as I could up the hill, dodging the many bugs that came to attack me on my hurried pilgrimage. I rammed open the door and saw the beast sleeping on a throne of human skull. Tip toeing toward my goal, every creak in the floor could be my end. I refused to even breathe on my careful descent into the lair of madness. I eventually met the door and stood quietly in front of it, slowly moving my hand toward the doorknob. I opened the door as slowly as humanly possible, and what laid on my bed changed the course of my life forever.

My favorite, red 3ds XL. Shattered in two pieces. The hinges on my love were completely broken. The game would not even turn on. I wept for an eternity as I realized that I would never be able to play my favorite games again. What’s worse is that there is no conclusion. We don’t know how it happened. My mother believes it was the result of it sliding off of the corner of the air mattress and her stepping on it. My friends think she just snapped it in half out of anger due to the lack of watery eggs in my stomach and vomit in the toilet. But deep down, I know she sat on it because her legs were tired after standing up for 5 minutes after making eggs. Furthermore, the extra padding on her behind due her comically large body weight caught the innocent red 3ds XL off-guard, and couldn’t find a way to lift the pressure of 10,000 suns crashing down upon its red, feeble, extra large body. I never got to complete this game. I can’t ever go back. This is my story.