yakuza 6 is yakuza 3 kiwami
this didn't really dawn on me until i was close to the end of the game, but yakuza 6: the song of life feels like rgg studio taking another stab at yakuza 3. i have to wonder if this fully intentional, something they realized they were doing on accident and started to play into it, or it really was just a dumb coincidence. regardless of intent, there's really more parallels than i think you'd expect.
first is the setting. large portions of both games are set in quiet breezy sea-side communities, okinawa in 3 and the town of onomichi in 6. both lean into the general feeling of being the polar opposite of the hustle and bustle of tokyo's kamurocho. even with the section of naha that the majority of okinawa's gameplay takes place in within 3, it still has a different vibe to everything else. it's... chill. relaxed. kiryu is wearing a cheesy aloha shirt. onomichi is even more relaxed. kiryu is still wearing his usual attire, but he's taken the jacket off. while kiryu's time in hiroshima is by no means a vacation, it has a certain feel of respite that only okinawa matches.
the plot is another factor here. without getting into too much detail, both games ultimately reveal themselves to be about the shadow-y government groups controlling the fate of the nation. the same people trying to push the land deal in 3 are probably the exact same people for whom the revelation of The Secret of Onomichi would be career ending.
thematically there are links as well. both games are rather explicitly about the trials of parenthood. 6 is more overtly about this and it ultimately has the much more nuanced and impactful take on the responsibilities of being a parent. as for 3, well, half the game is literally about kiryu running an orphanage. this comes throughout the narrative. digressions like kiryu and rikiya putting on a wrestling match to cheer up one of the kids happen even as late as chapter 10. it's not merely an element of the game that get's dropped as soon as the plot starts really kicking into gear.
i think the biggest way 6 feels like 3 though is the characters. without putting a fine point on it, the hirose family feels eerily similar to the ryudo family, and someya feels like he was cut from the same cloth as mine. nagumo and rikiya both find themselves latching onto kiryu as their aniki and will remind kiryu of this point as often as they can. lastly, while he is obviously not a new character in either game, it's very interesting to me how daigo becomes such a hinge point of the narrative in the both game's respective ending. i won't say more for fear of spoiling more than i already have, but iykyk.
now, this isn't entirely shocking that this would happen. both games were, in their own way, meant to be the basis of the next 5-6 years of the franchise. yakuza 3 isn't actually the first hd game in the series (it was actually kenzan), but it firmly established how kamurocho and kiryu would look and play like throughout the entire PS3 era . 6, meanwhile, was the debut of the dragon engine, which would end up being the basis of 2 mainline titles, 2 spinoffs, a remake, and even remaster of virtua fighter 5. bold new eras of the franchise heralded by games that ultimately ended up being controversial. but i like them all the same.
p.s. if you want to be shitty you can also say that yakuza 6 feels a lot like yakuza 3 because the combat is bad and frustrating in both games. ;p