Legend has it that the term “yakuza” derives from the classic Japanese card game hanafuda. Of the many combinations of cards you can draw as a hand, the worst is eight-nine-three — pronounced, in an old dialect of Japanese, “ya-ku-za.” In order to win the game with such a hand, you would need a combination of trickery, luck, and courage — qualities that the gangsters who took the name as their own held in high esteem. Despite being the worst of society, they would use those strengths to attain power, wealth, and respect.
Centuries later, the U.S. version of Sega’s Yakuza 3 has been dealt an equally bad hand. Released without several of the features of its Japanese counterpart, Yakuza 3′s Western release has generated enough nerd rage to intimidate the Incredible Hulk, and has suffered from a bungled, half-assed marketing effort that has failed to engage anyone beyond the series’ cult following. Nevertheless — and pay attention now, because this is important — Yakuza 3 has what it takes to overcome the hype and go down as one of the PS3′s all-time great titles, but only if you will give it a chance.