You know, I thought I had totally lost interest in Japanese RPGs. In fact, I was quite sure if it; passionate, even. But that might not be quite right.
The last week or so, I've been playing Yakuza 3. I haven't been thinking of it as a traditional RPG, and in some ways it does break that mold but in others it adheres to them quite closely. Much of Yakuza could be reskinned with kimonos and top-knots (or belts, zippers, and bare midriffs for you Final Fantasy fans) without having to really change anything.
There are towns with different shops, various weapons, dungeons (in the form of yakuza hideouts), and bosses with multiple transformations (the sword breaks and out come the throwing knives). You spend much of your time in Okinawa and Tokyo accomplishing side-missions for random joes on the street to level up your abilities.
It breaks away from RPG tropes first with the solo, real-time combat. The fast-paced brawls are more about speed and skill than strategy. The real draw for me, though, is the mature story. Not to say that other RPGs don't have mature, interesting stories. Rather, Kiryu Kazuma's story in particular draws me in.
Leave a comment