Yakuza 3 Remastered

Yakuza 3 Remastered brings the series' third entry from 2009 to PlayStation 4, in which Kazuma Kiryu temporarily steps away from yakuza life and moves from Kamurocho to Okinawa to run the Morning Glory orphanage. The peace doesn't last long, though - local land disputes and old ties to the Tojo clan gradually pull him back into a conflict that links the idyllic island setting to darker themes of organized crime and corruption. The contrast between sunny Okinawa and old Kamurocho is one of the biggest things that sets the third entry apart in the series, and it was the first time the series showed it could also tell calmer, less action-heavy stories.

The combat system builds on previous entries but adds new techniques and smoother animations; the remaster also restores several content pieces that were cut from the Western PlayStation 3 release during localization, including some side quests. The game still centers on fistfights in an open environment, collecting side activities, and taking care of the children at the orphanage, which gives the story an unusually family-oriented and calmer tone compared to the surrounding entries, especially in contrast with the darker nighttime Kamurocho the player regularly returns to.

The remastered PS4 version offers higher resolution and steadier framerates, making the game more playable than ever, although the old control scheme and camera betray its origins from the end of the PlayStation 3 era. Contemporary reviews of the third entry were more mixed than for its predecessors, mainly due to the slower pace and reduced action in the game's second half; the remaster, however, gave players and critics a chance to revisit it and appreciate its unconventional story about family in the middle of a criminal underworld. Thanks to the restored content, the remaster today offers a more complete and faithful version of the story than the one players knew from the Western PlayStation 3 release.

Why play it: Thanks to the remaster and restored content, the PS4 version offers a more complete and playable take on an unconventional story about family amid the criminal underworld than the one players knew from the older PS3 version.