10 Video Games You Play For HOURS Before Starting

Yakuza 3 is arguably the weakest game in the entire mainline franchise for many reasons, one being that it takes its sweet damn time getting going.

The first three hours focus mostly on Kiryu running the Morning Glory Orphanage, and while there's absolutely value in the game familiarising players with the orphanage's young residents from the start, it goes way overboard.

There's a shocking lack of combat in those opening hours, with the player instead forced into an array of tedious fetch quests and general busy-work until they finally travel to Kamurocho to investigate Daigo Dojima's near-assassination and the story proper kicks off.

Even accepting that most Yakuza games are in no rush to dig into the meat of their narrative, Yakuza 3 takes liberties with the player's time and patience, enough that getting to the good stuff feels like an honest-to-God chore.

Between this and the woefully dated gameplay in even the recent remaster, Yakuza 3 is the card-carrying black sheep of the series for good reason.