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The Yakuza Reviews Yakuza 3
It seems like whenever we review a game in the Yakuza series we get a bunch of hate mail from American fans of the series, telling us that we don't realize how realistic the games are. We don't put much stock in their criticisms; after all, what do a bunch of kids from suburbia know about the life of a Japanese mobster? It turns out not much – and for once the criticisms of the series are coming from a pretty unshakable authority: The Yakuza.
Boing Boing's Lisa Katayama recently posted a special review of Yakuza 3, orchestrated by Tokyo Vice author Jake Adelstein. Thanks to the connections he made while working as a reporter in Tokyo during the '90s, Adelstein was able to get three high-ranking Yakuza bosses to sit down and play Yakuza 3, while providing some pretty entertaining commentary on a variety of the game's details.
Some aspects of the game, like the recreation of Tokyo's Kabukicho district, were praised by the mobsters for its authenticity. The fighting? Not so much. "Kiryu [the game's protagonist] is fighting all the time," one of the bosses stated, under anonymity. "He's gotta be a f***ing idiot. No Yakuza is going to run around getting into fistfights like that."
The three men also criticized some aspects of Kiryu's appearance, stating that his shirt choice makes him look like a "low level Yakuza punk (translation)," and that his tattoos are lacking for a high level mob boss. "[His tattoos are] only on his back as far as I can tell. Maybe he ran out of enough money to get it finished."
The men also criticized Sega USA when they found out that their favorite parts of the game (namely the Mahjong, sex parlors, and hostess clubs) were removed for Western audiences, stating that they felt sorry for anyone who bought the American version of the game. So, any die-hard Yakuza 3 fans wish to complain about their criticisms of the game? We thought not.
Be sure to check out the entire review at Boing Boing now.
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