Video Game / Yakuza 3

Spoilers for all preceding Like a Dragon entries will be left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

The legend of the Dragon of Dojima begins anew.

"Majima, I need you to support Daigo."

— Kazuma Kiryu

Yakuza 3 (龍が如く3, Ryū ga Gotoku 3, lit. Like a Dragon 3) is the fourth entry in the Like a Dragon series, following the Japan-exclusive spin-off Ryū ga Gotoku Kenzan!, and the second game in the series to appear on the PlayStation 3. It was released in February 2009 in Japan, and the following year in the west. A remastered port for the Playstation 4 was released in August 2018 in Japan and August 2019 in the West as part of the Yakuza Remastered collection, with a PC (via Steam) and Xbox One ports of the remaster releasing on January 28, 2021.

After the last game, Kazuma Kiryu has now moved to Okinawa and is in charge of Morning Glory Orphanage along with his adopted niece, Haruka. The Orphanage is on a land that is owned by Shigeru Nakahara, the boss of a local yakuza clan known as the Ryudo Family. Nakahara is under pressure from the country's government to sell the land, which is the site of a government land grab, with one side wanting a military base and the other wanting a resort there. When his friend Daigo Dojima, Sixth Chairman of the Tojo Clan, is shot by a hitman bearing a familiar face, Kiryu must deal with the three gang bosses who arranged the attempted murder, and returns to the life he thought he left behind. Expect a large amount of Chronic Backstabbing Disorder.

This game has a little change of pace compared to Yakuza 2. The first quarter of the game only sees Kiryu in Okinawa with his kids, dealing with their various problems and occasionally butting heads with the local yakuza. However, once Kiryu learns more about the issues threatening the orphanage, he finds himself sucked back into the underworld and the life he thought he left behind.

Not as well-received as Yakuza 2, the game was also a bit notorious for the localized versions having omitted content compared to its original Japanese release. However, these features would return in the next game, Yakuza 4.

A remastered version of the game was released on the PlayStation 4 in Japan in August 2018 and a year later in Western territories. Unlike the previous two games, it was not a Kiwami remake, instead just a straight remaster. Along with a boost in performance, the Remastered version includes much of the original game's cut content and adds a few new touches, such as a substory finder and English karaoke lyrics, although some things have been removed in all versions.

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Yakuza 3/Ryū ga Gotoku 3 includes examples of:

• Abhorrent Admirer: Kiryu's animal magnetism draws the attention of the Drag Queen Michiru, causing 'her' to stalk you through several pulse-pounding chase-scenes. How is it possible to run that fast on high heels? The world may never know...
• Alternate World Map: Downtown Ryukyu serves as an alternate world map to Kamurocho. By the late game, Kiryu can freely travel between the two regions.
• And Your Little Dog, Too!: Mine & the Tamashiro family destroy the orphanage For the Evulz during the climax.
• Animal Motifs:
  • Kazuma Kiryu: Silver dragon
  • Rikiya Shimabukuro: Viper
  • Shigeru Nakahara: Shisa, a guardian dog
  • Goro Majima: Oni
  • Yoshitaka Mine: Kirin, a mythical beast said to be capable of opposing a dragon
• Anti-Frustration Features: The inventory system gets a minor overhaul over the PS2 games, most visibly bringing a larger inventory size (20 slots vs. the 9 item and 3 weapon slots from before). The big change however is removing Item Boxes in favour of having that functionality be part of the far more plentiful Save Points across the game, making it much easer and convenient to swap items between storage and inventory.
• Apathetic Teacher: After Shiro tells Kiryu that he got bullied constantly at school, the latter decides to phone up the teacher, Mr. Hashimoto, who denies anything like that is happening at his school at all, claiming that he had enough complaints from several parents that their children are being bullied. To make it worse, the main source of the bullying was from his own bratty son. Thankfully, Akira's mother catches on and reads him the riot act.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Essence of Pole Dancing. Learned by watching a drunk perform a pole dance on a lamppost, it does good damage, is an incredibly flashy-looking hurricane, and ... well, was learned by watching a drunk perform a pole dance on a lamppost. However, it uses up your Heat gauge, and far more importantly, instantly reduces your drunken status. Also, it's very easy to accidentally do when you're trying to perform another Heat action.
  • Essence of Drunken Thrust has all the same problems, but instead is activated from a Fighting Stance (hold R1) which would normally prevent Essence of Pole Dancing. This also means it has the same exact input as Tiger Drop, making it very hard if not impossible to "fish" for Tiger Drops without losing your drunk state and heat gauge.
• Ax-Crazy: Kanda. But he's more bark than bite.
• Back from the Dead:
  • Shintaro Kazama, Kiryu's father figure who was killed in the first game, suddenly returns as an antagonist and drives most of the game's conflict. Averted. It's his younger brother that no one knew about.
  • Lau Ka Long. Considering he doesn't survive this encounter, this is also a case of Back for the Dead.
• Badass in Distress: Daigo Dojima. Merely a year after he's named Tojo Clan's 6th Chairman, he gets shot. He spends the rest of the game in a hospital bed, a target of various assassinations attempts. He gets better.
• Bait-and-Switch: The opening cutscene starts with Kiryu being informed that the 'boss' has been shot. The perspective then shifts to Daigo Dojima leading up to his own gunshot injury. Perspective switches back to Kiryu arriving at the hospital, but instead of asking for the person the player had just seen get shot, he asks about Nakahara, who has yet to be introduced.
• Banana Peel: Kiryu discovers his Revelation for Hell's Floor from a hapless man slipping on a banana peel.
• Big Bad: Yoshitaka Mine
• Bilingual Dialogue: As this takes place in Japan, everyone speaks in Japanese. The trope is zigzagged in that Kiryu seems to understand Andre Richardson, an American who currently speaks English in that very scene, but instead seemed to only understand the gesture Andre made with the upward point, while Andre had a very good idea of what Kiryu was there for.
• Black Comedy Rape: The focus of any substories involving Michiru, a Creepy Crossdresser who Kiryu saves and has to run away from, with dire consequences should he fail.
• Boom, Headshot!: How Joji Kazama kills Lau Ka Long to save Kiryu and Rikiya, as well as Tetsuo Tamashiro later on.
• Bowdlerise:
  • In addition to cutting large portions of the gameplay out, various controversial aspects of the script were removed or toned down in the English translation, such as Riona's dislike of Mitsuo, originally due to racism, and the Big Bad's motivations, which were more explicitly romantic in nature. The remaster undid a large percentage of this.
  • The PS4 remaster removes Kiryu's cigarette on the cover as well as the substories involving Michiru, which has since become controversial due to the changes in Japan's current social atmosphere. The remaster also changed the Tamashiro Family Crest and Pin which originally had a Rising Sun motif to it, which has negative connotations in some regions of Asia surrounding Imperial Japan's war crimes.
• Boss Battle:
  • Duel Boss: Goro Majima and Joji Kazama.
  • Final Boss: Yoshitaka Mine.
  • Recurring Boss: Tetsuo Tamashiro, Goro Majima Andre Richardson, and Shinzaki from the Hitman missions.
  • Sequential Boss: Andre Richardson and Yoshitaka Mine.
  • Superboss: Jo Amon, Goh Hamazaki (faced only in post-game challenges) and Kazuto Arase (at the end of the HLA quest chain)
• Central Theme: Losing something important to the characters involved—wherever it's family, friends, or a home, everyone's got something to lose in this story.
• Chase Scene: New to the series is a mechanic that requires Kiryu to chase down another character on foot while avoiding objects and other people, although in some instances he's the one being chased after and has to outrun whoever's trying to catch him. It can turn into something of a Chase Fight against enemies as they try to throw objects at Kiryu and he has to charge into them to take them down.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: The "Presidential Golfer" Substory is this for golf. No matter what the speed or direction is for the wind, the President will always make the EXACT SAME SHOTS in each of the three holes you play him on, no matter how good or bad you are.
• Cover Drop: Using Kiryu's smoke break taunt will have him stare off into the sky for a brief moment with the lit cigarette between his lips, directly emulating the game's box art as pictured above.
• Disney Death:
  • Mikio gets the back of his head bashed by a Tamashiro thug's sledgehammer and survives a while later.
  • Kiryu is confronted by Hamazaki in the ending and is stabbed in the gut. The post-credits scene shows he survives.
• Disney Villain Death: Mine and Richardson courtesy of Mine suplexing the both of them off of a 30 story hospital.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The battle with Kanda in chapter 6 takes place in the suite of a love hotel, and some of the QTEs between the two of you look awfully suggestive ...
• Dual Boss: The final boss of the Hitman missions has you face Shinzaki and the boss, Arase at the same time.
• Dub Name Change: The new proprietress for New Serena and Date's love interest, who is referred to as "Mama" in the Japanese and remastered version and "Mariko" in the original English PS3 release. Also applies to Joji Kazama, to keep it consistent with his brother.
  • The Sunshine orphanage is called Morning Glory (あさがお) in Japanese, as can still be seen on the signs (it's supposedly because "morning glory" has another, rather inappropriate meaning in English). This became confusing later when the Sunshine hostess club was introduced in Yakuza 0. The remastered translation changed it back to "Morning Glory" from that remaster onward.
• Early Game Hell: Make no mistake, this game was not designed with a low upgrade Kiryu in mind. Enemies block often and without warning, and the damage Kiryu deals at base struggles to put a dent in enemy healthbars. Once Kiryu reaches Kamurocho, however, he can learn overpowered counters from Komaki that can break through block, like the iconic Tiger Drop, and suddenly the difficulty starts to tilt in the player's favor. While this dynamic exists in all Yakuza games, 3's reliance on blocking enemies is what makes its early game a tad more difficult than other games in the series.
• Establishing Character Moment: When the three patriarchs running for the top position of the Tojo Clan are introduced. Hamazaki is shown using threats and intimidation toward the owner of a Chinese restaurant before he has the place blown up. Kanda is heard having his way with (as in indulging his massaging fetish) a woman before he's summoned for a meeting, in which he aggressively slaps his subordinates and loudly calls for war. Mine is shown boxing against a punching bag in his office and has a business meeting cancelled to attend to the Tojo Clan's needs. This continues in the meeting scene. Kanda is loud, boisterous and violent, loudly proclaiming that he'll kill Kiryu. Hamazaki wraps Kanda around his finger skillfully while also maintaining his anti-Kiryu view, and Mine is the only one to agree with Kashiwagi but his demeanour suggests his own dark ambitions.
• "Eureka!" Moment: This game introduced the Revelations system is that something awesome, hilarious, and/or awesomely hilarious happens around Ryukyu or Kamurocho. Kiryu takes photos of the moments as it happens and after realizing just which moment can be used as a perfect attack, he has that moment and starts Rapid-Fire Typing onto his blog about the inspiration.
• Everyone Has Standards: Even Majima is a little creeped out when Mine presents Kanda's severed head as a peace offering.
  • The Ryudo Family may be criminals but they are all disgusted with how Saki's mother talks about her to her face, wondering how any mother could think that way about their own kid.
• Expy: Doctor Minamida, who runs the IF7 virtual reality mini-game, bears a striking resemblance to Doc Brown.
• Fishing Minigame: Yakuza 3 introduces the fishing mini-game, where Kiryu can catch fish and other items to sell at food markets or pawn shops.
• Flash Step: Chapter 9 allows Kiryu to learn the Essence of Terror by watching a barker get a box of pocket tissue packages out, Sherlock Scan everyone she needs to put the tissues in everyone's hand, replacing a man's cigarette with a package. Everyone is in Nakamichi Street is wondering where the hell these tissues came from.
• Flashback with the Other Darrin: A substory involves Kiryu meeting the man he shook down in the tutorial of Yakuza, and flashbacks are provided via still images of that game. Oddly, the remaster does not change this to screenshots of Kiwami, despite Yakuza 4 doing so in a similar instance.
• Formerly Fat: A series of Substories involves a dine-and-dasher that Kiryu chases through the streets of Kamurocho to pay for his meals. He has the money to pay for his meals, but he just runs for the thrill of it. The last substory shows that all of his running has slimmed him down so much, especially since the chain starts as early as Chapter 5 and ends as early at Chapter 10. In universe, it has been at least 2 days.
• Game Within a Game: The game also introduces the fast-paced arcade shooter, Boxcelios, which can be played at Club Sega.
• Gory Discretion Shot: The severed head of Tsuyoshi Kanda is never seen on camera when Mine brings it to Kiryu and company. Only character profiles outright state that he was decapitated.
• Gratuitous English: The "Let's Learn English" series of Substories in Okinawa has Kiryu getting some help with his shaky English by buying guidebooks and helping English speaking tourists around Ryukyu. It's represented by having the English being in a larger font than the smaller font which is meant to be Japanese.
• Groin Attack: Kiryu gets the Revelation for his "Essence of Rolling" attack by watching one of these happen at the Yoshida Batting Center. A boy's eager to impress his girlfriend by hitting some balls for his girlfriend. He manages to connect the ball, only for it to bounce down and hit him in the junk, then for another ball to bean him right in the face. All his girlfriend does is just laugh at him and take pictures of his failure.
• Hate Sink:
  • Tetsuo Tamashiro. Unlike other yakuza bosses who are ruthless in their ambitious, he stands out as being an immensely cruel bastard who has no qualms inflicting pain on everyone around him, including women and children.
  • Saki's mother. Good lord, Saki's alcoholic and party-going poor excuse for a mother who sees her child as the source of all her problems.
• Hide Your Children: Averted not only with the Morning Glory Orphanage kids, but other kids can be seen walking around Downtown Ryukyu as well.
• How We Got Here: The prologue starts with Kiryu being friendly with Rikiya. The game rewinds to the end of 2 where Kiryu and Haruka part ways with Sayama, then time skips to 2009 where the next two chapters are spent with him butting heads with the local yakuza to keep them from tearing down the orphanage.
• Identical Stranger: Much of the plot's conflict revolves around a man who bears a striking resemblance to the late Kazama, who was believed to be dead. Who knew he had a younger brother?
• Infinity -1 Sword: The War God Amulet is this relative to the War God Talisman. The Talisman requires beating the game and S-Ranking all of Ultimate Battle Mode to unlock, when the amulet just needs you to perform every Heat Action once. The Amulet lets you use Heat Actions without needing Heat in the meter, but you won't get the benefits of having infinite Heat Mode like the Talisman would give. Still, getting to spam Heat Actions whenever is more than enough of a boon to help with any fight, even the Superboss Jo Amon.
• Info Dump: Hoo boy, you might want to go make a sandwich before going to meet Defense Minister Tamiya. That conversation lasts about 35 minutes, and there is no real interaction from the player aside from "pick the next question". The chapter is called "The Plot" for a reason.
• Lack of Empathy: During one revelation, when the man's groin gets struck by a baseball launcher, the man's girlfriend (rather than display any form of concern for him) found his predicament hilarious and decide to take a picture of him.
• Kids Are Cruel:
  • You would think that some of the orphans at Morning Glory Orphanage are a bit of this, but the real examples are the kids that invite Riona to the movies, only to pick on her for her burn scars.
  • The bratty son of the teacher is a complete asshole to anyone in his class, even threatens to have his dad's friend shut down Morning Glory Orphanage just because he supposedly can. More than likely, he uses his position as the teacher's son to throw his weight around.
• Kingpin in His Gym: Mine is shown kickboxing with a sandbag in a cutscene because the game wants you to know that he's no pushover. Which you end up learning later on when he downs Kanda in one hit and then by yourself when he appears as the Final Boss.
• The Lancer: Rikiya Shimabukuro serves as one to Kiryu throughout the game, as well as one in general to the Ryudo Family as a whole.
• Man Behind the Man: Andre Richardson was playing everyone as part of Black Monday's evil schemes, although certain parties were in on him the whole time.
• Manly Tears: Kiryu actually sheds these when Rikiya dies. Seeing the usually stone-faced Kiryu bawling in grief is one of the absolute biggest tearjerkers in the entire series. You know from this moment on that someone is GOING TO FUCKING DIE.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": In the game's prologue chapter, Kiryu is repeatedly hounded by some mooks claiming to be part of the Kazama clan. When their boss appears, he recognizes Kiryu as the Fourth Chairman of the Tojo Clan, much to the horror of his underlings.
  • The ending for the "Silver Screen Dragon" substory has Kiryu changing out of costume after being pulled off the street to star in a film about the yakuza; Everyone in the film crew (sans the director) spots Kiryu's back tattoo and realize in utter terror that he's an actual yakuza member.
• Mundane Made Awesome: The Revelation for Essence of Terror involves this. A woman scans the area around her. She spots numerous people with their guard down. She moves faster than the eye can see, leaving something in their hands. What does she leave them? A tissue packet.
• Mythology Gag: The "Ghosts from the Past" substory features Hirata of Peace Finance, AKA the guy Kiryu debt-collected from in the first game's tutorial. In said substory's remastered script, Hirata's son, about to kill him, angrily shouts "You didn't pay your debts, and now this is what you get!", a paraphrase of Kiryu's original cheesy one-liner from the PS2 version's English dub: "When you don't pay your debts, I'm what you get."
• Neighbourhood-Friendly Gangsters: The Ryudo family in Ryukyu are excellent examples of this trope, even moreso than Kiryu himself. As Mikio walks around the market, sellers walk up and gladly hand him free samples of their latest products. When another family tries to muscle into the area, civilians gather around to support the Ryudo soldiers. They're openly beloved by the people of Ryukyu in a way that even the Tojo aren't.
• New Job as the Plot Demands: Played for laughs in the "I Want to Go to Tokyo 2" substory. Kaede, a laid back Okinawa native, isn't used to the strict Tokyo lifestyle despite wanting to move up there, having already been fired from multiple part time jobs. The first time Kiryu sees her, she's working at Smile Burger where she gives him some leftover fries, then gets fired for giving away food which she feels is only going to be thrown away. Her next job is at the Gelateria where she's got a line of customers cause she likes to be social until the boss gives her her paycheck and tells her she's fired. Third time is at Mach Bowl where she's optimistic that it doesn't involved food. Soon as Kiryu walks in, she's already getting fired because she was letting people leave and "pay later." Kiryu now suggests working a hostess club, and she loves talking to people. She ends up failing that, but gets a job at Earth Angel. Kiryu goes to check on her and there's a line at the door to get in. Going inside, the place is a full house! It's here that Kaede's finally found her calling as a waitress with the salarymen loving her accent and able to talk with her. Of course she ends up going back home to Okinawa though.
• Oddly Small Organization: The Ryudo Family seems to only be made up of three members: Nakahara, the boss, and his two lieutenants Rikiya and Mikio. Despite Rikiya claiming to have men patrolling the streets at one point, we never see them personally leading any foot soldiers, even when they would've been really useful.
  • In-Universe example with the Hamazaki family. They are one of the most powerful families in the Tojo clan, but they only have ten members. A family with that much territory should have several hundred. It turns out that Hamazaki has an alliance with the Chinese Snake Flower Triad, which is how he managed to get where he is with so few men. Once Lau Ka Long dies, that alliance is broken and Hamazaki is on their shitlist.
• Old Save Bonus: The remastered version gives players an Ukiyo Bell accessory at the start of the game if they have save data from other Yakuza games, as well as a Gold Plate for save data from Judgment.
• Post-Climax Confrontation: Mine has sacrificed himself to kill Richardson, the threat to the Tojo clan has been defeated, Kiryu's preparing to go back to the orphanage ... and then Hamazaki shows up on the street and stabs Kiryu in the gut.
• Redemption Equals Death: Yoshitaka Mine is talked out of his actions by Kiryu, and after Daigo awakens in time to save him and Kiryu from Richardson, Mine takes the chance to throw himself and Richardson to their deaths but not before wishing Kiryu well and apologizing for his actions.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni:
  • Kiryu is The Stoic, while Rikiya is Hot-Blooded and prone to throwing himself headfirst into hectic situations.
  • Tsuyoshi Kanda and Yoshitaka Mine: Kanda is not much of a proper villain due to his psychotic, very short-tempered, and brawny personality and Mine is stoic, strategic, brainy and believes power and money is everything to him.
  • The Ryudo Family: The blue oni of this family are Shigeru Nakahara who is a mellow, respectful leader and his daughter Saki is stoic and mute. Rikiya Shimabukuro is a Hot-Blooded red oni who occasionally plays with the orphans at Morning Glory Orphanage. The purple oni member is Mikio Aragaki.
• Retcon: The prologue treats the relationship between Kiryu and Kaoru as strictly platonic, even though the previous game explicitly showed it as romantic. This game along with future titles has Kiryu stating that Yumi was his true or only love.
• Rhythm Game: This game is the first in the series to include karaoke, where buttons are pressed with the timing of the music, and this mechanic would quickly become a staple of future installments.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Kiryu's first reaction once he's subjected to the advances of Michiru is to run like hell. And Michiru isn't one to give up so quickly.
• The Seven Mysteries: A chain of Substories in Okinawa, "The Seven Mysteries of Ryukyu" is this, each one starting with Kiryu overhearing a group of schoolgirls Haruko, Hozumi and Chisato talking about a local mystery.
  • "Locker 44" tells that ghostly moans happen from the coin lockers at night. Kiryu investigates and gets jumped by some thugs and takes the key to that locker, only to find it was a phone. He meets the leader of the gang and reinforcements, beats them up and learns just why the phone's so important: they were using it to make free calls without being charged to a provider.
  • The "Devil Cat" is two different black cats: one cat gets Kiryu into a fight with a guy who thinks he's trying to steal his cat, while the other is trying to save their owner.
  • The "Phantom Tour Guide" has tourists disappearing after taking a tour from a foreigner, especially once one local girl, Yoko, disappears. Kiryu gets a tour of the town by a black American named Tom who takes him to Aqua Sky where he's drugged with booze. Kiryu, being a hard drinking man, wakes up in the gang's hideout where he finds out that Tom is part of a group of Western kidnappers and slavers, beats them up and saves Yoko.
  • The "Mythical Goya Juice" is said to be so healthy it can cure any sickness, but it's said to be so harsh on the tongue that nobody could drink it, which is why the shop that sold it closed down. A kid comes to the store looking to get it since his mother is sick. The old proprietor comes out and offers to make it but it has to be the proper ingredients, and while using Okinawan names. Kiryu gets the ingredients and the old woman makes the juice for the boy, though she confesses there was never anything mystical about it: it's just that the ingredients were so expensive.
  • The "Coral Love Necklace" says whoever wears it will be guaranteed a love connection, with the salesman even hyping that it'll help Kiryu's luck in love and money for the low price of 3,000 yen, which he buys. After walking a bit, Kiryu gets bumped into by a woman and he thinks his love life is improving from the necklace, only to realize she just picked 50K out of his wallet. He goes to complain and sees Haruko is yelling at the same merchant about having lost her wallet and her tutor rejecting her, and she can't get her money back. Kiryu however asks for the company's office where he goes to get more than a "refund" after finding the whole thing is nothing more than a scam.
  • The "Golden Agu" is said to be golden agu pork that will make you younger and healthier by eating it. Kiryu goes to investigate and it turns out it's nothing more than regular old pork that's flown in from China and Australia that's given a golden sheen and then overpriced to high hell.
  • The final part of the chain involves Haruko's father being caught up to pay millions of yen for "car damages" and they're constantly hounding him for money to the point Haruko's family may have to move. The girls then decide to throw wishing coins into the river like Italy's Trevi Fountain, hoping to make a wish that they'll stay together. Kiryu goes to inspect the car and has the car's owner call him out on damages. Kiryu can immediately end the scam right there, or play along for now. If he goes through, he finds out the bill is now for 5 million yen, when he decides to start punching faces, making them leave town. While Haruko's family doesn't get her money back, least they don't have collection calls and don't have to move. Her friends also end up making a new "Mystery" of Ryukyu as well, that if three people throw their coins over the bridge into the river, their wish will come true.
• Shout-Out:
  • Rikiya has a tattoo of a pit viper on his back, and he refers to himself as "The Fighting Viper."
  • In one substory, there's a talented manga creator who studied to be a doctor, and wears a beret and glasses, just like the legendary Osamu Tezuka.
  • The Bumper/Con Substories have these depending on if you're playing the PS3 version or updated Remaster.
    • The Con Menace.
    • The Con Wars/The Bumper Strikes Back
    • Revenge of the Con Men and finally A New Con
• Shoot Him, He Has a Wallet!: Zig-zagged. It's the reason why Daigo was shot; Joji was reaching for something in his coat, which Daigo mistook for a gun and reached for his, which ended up getting him shot by the other agent in the room.
• Spoiler Opening: In the opening video, Mine is shown to be Not So Stoic, which would be a surprise considering his seemingly low-importance for most of the game. The scene comes from the final chapter in the game, no less.
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Kashiwagi is killed early in the game when he and Kiryu are attacked by a helicopter.
• Suspicious Videogame Generosity: It's likely little coincidence that you're introduced to the weapons shop and even given a durable and useful weapon for free right before taking on the first Long Battle sequence in the game in the form of the Tamashiro Family Office. Not to mention, you have to beat Tatsuo Tamashiro at the end of all that.
• Stealing from the Till: Rin Sasaba's Hostess Substory has her being arrested for embezzlement, being accused of stealing 2 million yen from her office job which suddenly appeared in her account. Going to Shine, Kiryu overhears an ex-boyfriend, Masaya who worked together with Takeshita, a jealous coworker of hers, to frame her, feeling like she just throws away boyfriends once she's done with them. One pummeling later, Takeshita confesses he funneled money from the company's payroll into Rin's account with Masaya giving him the account number.
• Taking the Bullet: Rikiya takes a fatal shot from Tamashiro that was meant for Kiryu.
• Taking You with Me: To make up for his actions, Mine takes Richardson and himself out by falling off the roof of a building.
• Therapy Is for the Weak: Yoshitaka Mine, again.
• They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: One of the Reapers, Tokoyami, the Masked Assassin, is this because when you fight him, he's really a Psycho Knife Nut salaryman. Turns out to be a Justified Trope since wearing a mask in Kamurocho makes even a killer stick out like a sore thumb.
• Time Skip: The game takes place in March of 2009 and begins with two characters getting shot which trigger the plot. The game then goes back to the ending of Yakuza 2 in January 2007 where Kiryu and Kaoru Sayama go their separate ways, he and Haruka return to Kamurocho to say goodbye to their friends, and Kiryu convinces Majima to return to the Tojo Clan. Six months later in Okinawa during the summer of '07, the orphans are introduced and Kiryu faces an eviction notice from the Ryudo family, who he later ends up befriending. The game then returns to the present time of March '09.
• Took a Level in Badass: Kazuhiro Takeo in the Purgatory Coliseum. He's initially no threat to any half-decent player due to his slow movement and easily telegraphed punches. After you defeat him 5 times however, Takeo becomes faster and more difficult to defeat than the Final Boss!
• Victory Fakeout: Happens in the second fight against the CIA agent. Shortly after he goes down, he'll attack Kiryu from behind, and he's much stronger than before.
• Villainous Rescue:
  • The apparent Big Bad of the third game saves Rikiya from a beheading. He does the same thing later, but he's a little too late that time.
  • In the finale, Mine takes himself and Andre Richardson out with a suplex off the roof of the 30-story Touto hospital.
• Watching Troy Burn: Haruka, Mitsuo, Rikiya and the orphans watch as Morning Glory Orphanage gets demolished by the Big Bad and the Tamashiro family, as mentioned in Wham Episode.
• Wham Episode: Chapter 11. Morning Glory Orphanage is bulldozed by Mine and the Tamashiro family, Mikio is almost killed via a sledgehammer to the skull, Nakahara is captured and thrown into a bullring, Saki finds her voice at last, the Tamashiro family and its bulls get a collective ass-whooping, and Rikiya heroically takes a bullet meant for Kiryu and dies. The last one is particularly shocking, as Rikiya is the only ally in the entire game who dies.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • Averted with Hamazaki, who shows up at the very end to menace Kiryu one last time.
  • Played straight with the side mission involving Rikiya finding his childhood friend working in a pole-dancing club. He promises to take her out of this lifestyle for good, but he's killed later on. The girl is never brought up in the main storyline, and how she feels about her White Knight being dead is left unknown.
• Would Hit a Girl / Would Hurt a Child:
  • After Haruka slaps Mine, he returns the favor.
  • Tetsuo Tamashiro slapped Saki's mother and then almost knifed her across the face after refusing her request to become family.
• Yandere: Yoshitaka Mine, again. He can't bear to see the usually strong Daigo on the verge of death, not knowing if he'll live or die, so he'd rather put him quickly out of his misery than see him suffer.
• You Are Too Late: Right after Tamashiro ends up shooting Rikiya, he's shot in the head from a distance from Joji. Joji realizes he didn't make it in time, and poor Rikiya dies shortly afterward.

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