Yakuza 3 or 4 better?

Perhaps not the best area to post such, but I am curious as well.

Length wise is about the same. Feature and variety wise, Yakuza 4 is better than Yakuza 3 but you may wish each character has more screen time so you can get to know them more. Yakuza 3 focused on one character. It gives you feeling of longer game.

Summary:

Yakuza 3 has:

• Slower pace, story picks up on chapter 4.
• Orphanage part(chapter 1 to 3) is hit or miss, you may completely like it or hate it.
• 103 sub stories.
• Focus on one character.
• Less freedom in upgrading skill. Each level has its own set of skill upgrade and no fear of wrong skill upgrade that may get you trouble facing bosses.
• 2 distinctive cities. Kamurocho and Okinawa(country side).
• 4 mini games excluded of 20 mini games.
• No hostess club but you can still date the girls.
• Much harder to get platinum trophy if you care about them.

Yakuza 4 has:

• Faster pace compared to 3.
• 4 different characters, each with distinctive personality and fighting style.
• Length wise is about the same as 3 but since there are 4 characters, you may find yourself wishing to know more about each characters.
• More freedom in upgrading skill. There is consequence, recklessly upgrading skills may give you trouble facing bosses.
• 64 substories. They are more important to do then Yakuza 3. This time sub stories explain more about each characters personality.
• Kamurocho city only. The city expanded so you can explore rooftop, underground and sewer.
• More side stuff variety compared to Yakuza 3.
• All mini games present this time except Answer X Answer(Japanese trivia game) which requires you very good knowledge about Japanese culture.
• Easier to get platinum trophy.

ive only recently played yakuza 4 which i really enjoyed its a strong recommendation. Now im going to go all the way back to yakuza on the ps2 and see whats up before i get to 3

Yakuza 4 I think has the best story it's great that it follows 4 characters and not just Kazuma as it has been for the other Yakuza games and the fighting is so much better and easier. Yakuza 3 is worth getting and you should be able to get it quite cheap now, but you can watch a recap of the story on Yakuza 4 as it tells you the story from Yakuza 1, 2 and 3.