yes, it's here, but no one is talking about it... so allow me.

the Yakuza 3 demo has arrived! well, at least it has if you've got yourself one of those nifty Japanese PSN accounts. i know a lot of you have recently taken the plunge and purchased a PS3 (yeah i read the blogs - i'm hip like that) and are no doubt hurting for things to do with it, so here you go!



the demo is split into 2 pieces. the first (which is around 850MB) has 3 portions of the game to choose from - Geisha entertaining, bow and arrow on horseback, and combat. the second (around 950MB) is just one thing - running around the world and interacting with people (the main gameplay of the actual game).

now, what makes the whole thing difficult (to navigate through AND to judge as a whole) is that it's all in Japanese of course. however, if you played the original Yakuza, you can fumble your way through most of it.

my thoughts?



- Geisha entertaining looks to be almost exactly the same as the entertaining aspect of the original (maybe a little more robust)

- the bow and arrow on horseback (which has you on a rail traveling forward as you aim at targets with your bow and arrow) was easy to learn but seems difficult to master

- the combat system again seems very similar to the original except 1) the addition of samurai swords is awesome, and 2) the animations seem to be more fluid

- running around the world and interacting with people looks to be almost exactly the same as the original, with the exception of a camera you control with the right stick (in the original there were static cameras as you ran around the world)

- the game looks rather beautiful, but i thought the original had a certain beauty to it as well, so it mostly looks like a polished version of that

overall, if you liked the original - which i did quite a lot - you'll probably like this, as it's more of the same but a bit more polished. let's just hope they do something about the horrendous load times from the original.

actually, let's hope that we get to see this game AT ALL in English. Sega still hasn't brought Yakuza 2 over here yet, and i'm starting to think it may never happen.

verdict? download it. give it a try.

what else do you have to play on your PS3?



let me guess, mommy left you and you're trying to find her? and your mommy and i have a history together? and you may or may not be my daughter? go away.

- k