Yakuza Kiwami 3 is the latest in many remakes that developers Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio have released, and unfortunately, it’s maybe their most controversial by far.
The third entry in the Yakuza series has never been the strongest to begin with. Knowing that, a remake had a tough mission to redeem its negative reputation. As gamers following this release would know, RGG not only struggled with this but also stumbled into multiple controversies that have alienated the series’ core fans.
In honesty, I’m a bit of a tourist when it comes to the Yakuza franchise. I’ve loved the recent Ichiban games, but I’ve spent little time with the Dragon of Dojima, Kiryu Kuzama. In that way, this remake should be perfect for a newbie like me to understand the impact its protagonist has on the franchise.
However, I found my experience with this game a bit alienating. While it still maintains that classic Yakuza charm, it’s tough to say that this is a great showing from the franchise to start with. To be fair, it shouldn’t have to be given that it’s the third entry in the franchise. But I feel like this is at the core of what’s off about this remake. RGG shared ahead of release that they streamlined and condensed the game’s story to improve its pacing, going so far as to remove over 70 side quests, some beloved by fans.
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There’s also the tie-in side game Dark Ties, intended to be played after completing Yakuza Kiwami 3, which follows the game’s antagonist, Yoshitaka Mine, and his rise. Which is a neat experience for long-term fans who wanted to see more from this character, so it’s tough to say that RGG weren’t developing this remake without them in mind.
I feel this mixed approach to catering to both newcomers and series veterans splits this game’s design philosophy down the middle, so that it neither caters to newcomers nor to series veterans.
A Remake of Lesser Parts
As mentioned, the team at RGG Studios worked to trim some of the more tedious parts of the story, especially at the beginning of the game. That said, I still couldn’t help but notice major pacing issues.
As someone dropping right into the Kiwami series with this entry, I appreciated the generous, in-depth recaps of the previous games at the start. At the start of the game, as soon as you take control of Kiryu while visiting the graveyard to pay his respects to the departed, you’ll get to reflect on the events that came before.
While this is a neat narrative moment, I wish I could have watched these back-to-back on the menu screen beforehand, as sitting through the game’s opening cutscenes, recaps, and following cutscenes before properly exploring the city was fairly overbearing.
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At one point, my PS5 even warned me it was about to enter rest mode because I had been watching Yakuza Kiwami 3 for so long instead of playing it. It’s not a huge knock against the game, and more on me for being a newcomer to the series, but I felt like I had watched the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy in one go and needed a nap by the time I could actually play.
If you decide to attempt to play the game without watching these recaps, I can only imagine how disoriented you might feel. You’ll spend your first two-three hours exploring the city, saying goodbye to important characters from previous games and playing a handful of mini-games to pass the time.
Afterwards, you’ll be transported to the city of Okinawa, where you’ll spend the majority of the game from here on. Ideally, I’d like the game to start in Okinawa and let you meet the city’s characters and Kiryu, taking advantage of what’s already a solid fish-out-of-water setup.
I understand part of this is due to how the original Yakuza 3 starts, but given this already being such a transformative remake and how redundant the opening chapter feels, RGG could have taken advantage of reworking this intro further to start things off stronger.
These pacing issues don’t go away, either. At one point in Chapter Nine, you’ll need to sit through a mighty long exposition dump. Funnily enough, the game will be generous to let you “take a break” and take control of Kiryu again to stretch his in-game legs before planting them back down for another lengthy cutscene.
Decisions like this also raise eyebrows, wondering why RGG kept what could have been tweaked in favour of cutting out portions that fans love.
I’m sympathetic to the argument of streamlining the experience. However, given how renowned the Yakuza series is for its abundance of charming (or frustrating) mini-games, I would have loved for more of the fan favourites to be kept. Especially when some that still remain still feel a bit painful to play through.
Some Good Changes
What makes Yakuza Kiwami 3 frustrating to talk about is that, at the end of the day, it’s still fun. Outside of pacing issues with cutscenes and its story, it’s still a joy to roam around Okinawa, get into fights with members of the Reapers and try to get rank 1 nationwide in Karaoke. It came to a point where the main story felt more like an interruption rather than a companion to the overall game experience.
A Yakuza 3 remake was always going to be tough for the team at RGG, as it’s stuck out as the black sheep for long-time fans of the series. While there are changes to criticise in this rendition, there are a fair few quality-of-life updates that make the game enjoyable to play.
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For example, combat feels smooth and responsive. I love the addition of weapon stances, which open up unique combos and pairings, and perfect guarding attacks create an addictive flow state in fighting.
Despite removing plenty of minigames and stories in the game, Okinawa still feels bustling and vibrant. You’ll still be able to stumble into unique NPC encounters throughout the city that give you ample reason to explore and take a break from the game’s main quest.
Reading ahead of the game and its orphanage, I was dreading the amount of backtracking and vagueness involved in completing the various kids’ sidequests. Thankfully, the remake contains a lot of these within the orphanage and has you bond with your newfound family without going on convoluted fetch quests. I won’t deny, one of the highlights of the game is this sewing minigame, which is a pseudo race track where you “drive” the sewing needle on a convoluted race track as you stare back into Kiryu’s intense, focused gaze.
It’s classic Yakuza absurdity that threw a curveball at me in a series that feels like it shouldn’t be able to anymore.
Dark Ties is also an interesting addition to the game that lets you take control of Yoshitaka Mine in a short prequel campaign. Mine’s kick-heavy form of combat is a nice mix-up from Kiryu, as launching enemies flying like a horse always activated my monkey neurons. Given some of the narrative changes the game makes, it’ll be interesting to see if people return to Yakuza Kiwami 3 more for the Dark Ties content than for the full-length game.
Who is Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties for?
After playing the game and soaking it in, I feel that Ryu Ga Gotoku attempted to revise Yakuza 3 to appeal to new players, convince series veterans to give the game a second go, and satisfy fans who view this entry as something of a cult classic. I don’t think the devs here succeeded in this mission, but at the end of the day, they still made a fine Yakuza game that will give fans something to do between titles.
That said, if players choose to avoid this entry given some of the controversies surrounding the game (and the questionable PR response to them), I think that’s also valid. Thankfully, there’s plenty of other Yakuza titles to keep you busy until the next one.
Access to Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Times was supplied to Quest Daily
