Oh boy, I just wanna say I did not like 3. AND I LOVED 1 + 2 ! It's especially the pacing of 3 that just totally killed it for me, and for a game with so much story, the story was just not engaging to me at all......I actually can't remember any actual bloody thing from the story except for the stupid orphanage stuff now that I think about it.

Its the worst yakuza BY FAR imo, soooo if you are able to enjoy yakuza 3 I'd recommend you try to track down the other ones as well as they are way less tedious .

And I LOVED the cheesy voice acting in yakuza 1, I'ts almost worth getting for that alone!

The actual fighting did get better with every game though, so going back to 1 especially can feel kinda clunky after playing those "next gen" yakuza's

But whatever, I hope you'll like Yakuza 3 more than I did :) Have fun!

@lestephan: I didn't like 3 either. The story felt throwaway/didn't really build on much.

Granted, i was on painkillers and recovering from surgery, but I feel it's the weakest of the main series.