Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties - Review
With the rate that the Yakuza games have been heading to the Switch 2, it's even better news that Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio have finally gotten round to giving Yakuza 3 the Kiwami treatment after Yakuza Kiwami 2 was released.
Following the events of Yakuza Kiwami 1 & 2 (and Yakuza 0), The Dragon of Dojima, Kazuma Kiryu, is once again done with the Yakuza life. He seeks to live out the rest of his days as a civilian in Okinawa, running the Morning Glory Orphanage. As to be expected the Yakuza life hasn’t given up Kiryu, as he is dragged into turmoil within the Yakuza clans, on top of a battle over the plot of land the Orphanage sits on. Whether he is a civilian or Yakuza legend, Kiryu is the Dragon of Dojima, ever responsible for setting things right.
After a brief stop in good ol’ Kamurocho, Kiryu's home is now in Okinawa, looking after the orphanage. However, Kiryu does have Downtown Ryukyu nearby in Okinawa too, with events taking him back to Kamurocho. Where it feels the story finally starts moving along.
Dark Ties is an additional story, playing as Yoshitaka Mine, an antagonist in the main story. This shorter story is set before the events of Yakuza Kiwami 3. If you’re someone who is into Mine, then you’ll have a few hours to sink your teeth into. Unlike other story expansions chucked into game's season passes, or tacked onto remasters/remakes, there is only slightly more meat on these bones. It’s inescapable that it’s only a few hours long, unless you once again wring out the time with every side activity.
Yakuza 0 and Kiwami 1 introduced several different fighting styles, this was pulled back for Kiwami 2. For Kiwami 3 there’s just the two styles to choose from, a more traditional Dragon style and the new Ryukyu style. Ryukyu is a Okinawa-based martial arts style, which is fitting to have Kiryu pick up through his time there. It is a different fighting style than the previously added ones, utilising a variety of weapons built into Kiryu’s attacks. While Dragon style is ever-reliable, I often stuck with Ryukyu style as it had good range/crowd control, it’s easier to cause bleed damage, and was good for managing the guard heavy enemies.
As is Yakuza tradition you can go to Sega City and play some era-appropriate Arcade games, with Slashout, Magical Truck Adventures and Emergency Call Ambulance being fairly obscure titles. It’s also pretty easy to accidentally sink a heap of time into them, and that’s not all the “retro” games available. Kiryu now has access to a Sega Game Gear, with a pretty sizable amount of games available. While the Game Gear was portable, there are limited locations where you can play it in game. Surprisingly you can not only save and load anywhere, but rewind as well.
A lot of the mainstays are here, there’s Karaoke, Mahjong, Shogi, Bowling, Darts, Baseball, Pool, Golf and Casino games. There’s also mini games around Morning Glory, which includes assisting the kids with their Homework, Bug Catching competitions, Fishing, Reversi, Sewing and Cooking. And that's without even going into the vegetable patch, or feeding the animals for ingredients to use for cooking, sell or to turn in for requests. There’s plenty to do and plenty of it is fun in short bursts. I spent way too long with the Claw Machines! Mileage will still vary though - for all the mini games I enjoyed, I didn’t have the patience to also pick up Shogi and Mahjong too.
LaLaLa Loveland is another ongoing side mission. Kiryu scans the area around him for other LaLaLa Mobile users who are also participating in this social network. When you find another user you beam out the “Red Thread of Fate Transmission”. Like a bunch of the Sub Stories it’s a pretty funny intro, and returns to the contrast of serious Kiryu dealing with silly situations. Unfortunately, it still boils down to more busy work. Only this one also means you’re holding down a trigger button to scan the environment around you, which slows down getting from A to B until you decide to break away from it.
Bad Boy Dragon is a more involved side game, with Kiyru joining a motorcycle club to help the struggling Haisai Girls gang fight back against the encroaching Tokyo Night Terrors. Around Downtown Ryukyu and Kamurocho, you can recruit new members to the gang or beat up some Terrors hanging around, both help build up your reputation. You battle as a group, with multiple groups quickly available to level up and manage. There are larger turf wars to take on, as Kiryu is helping the gang to unite Okinawa’s gangs against this big mainland threat. The bigger battles involve multiple groups clearing out an area each, before converging on the final fight. Kiryu needs to keep an eye on if any teams are struggling in their fight so you can help them and push on through. To keep the gang at their best, you can upgrade the uniform, bikes, and purchase weapons. It’s another whole system to manage. Like all of the other side distractions I spent a lot of time with it, until eventually it stopped being fun grinding through similar battles to build up your ranking.
With the sheer number of things here, when it’s required for progress it can really hurt the pace of the game. After some story set up, suddenly you’re off working at the Orphanage and building up your relationships with the children in your care. I didn’t play the original Yakuza 3, from what I read in the past the sentiment was that the pacing used to be even worse, with even more of the side tasks wasn’t optional then, so I’ll consider this an improvement. However if you’re coming in fresh with Kiwami 3, it’s hard to escape that the story gets off to a slow start. For me it felt the game introduced too many different systems, between Morning Glory and the Bad Boy Dragon, alongside getting caught up in sub stories, never-ending briefcases and LaLaLa scanning/social networking. And then there's the mini games too, it can all feel a bit much. As always a lot of it is up to you how much you want to go down that rabbit hole, and if you want the most time out of your game, there are many hours to spend here. Morning Glory and Bad Boy Dragon have a lot more promise than the busy work they feel like after an hour or so. Fortunately there is plenty to do to have a break from any one task, including the story.
Kiwami 3 is the first remake on the newer Dragon Engine, which makes it the first Yakuza title on the Switch 2 to use it. While the earlier titles targeted 60FPS, those were also updates on remakes from around a decade ago now. In line with the recent remaster of Yakuza Kiwami 2, Kiwami 3 also hits 30FPS on Switch 2. This is generally fine, it’s not a game that suffers for it, nor is 30FPS an unacceptable target. Being a newer remake the visuals definitely benefit, with characters looking good the majority of the time. Still nailing realistic with exaggerated features, and plenty of colourful back tattoos across the story. Okinawa is a pleasant, sunny oceanside area, which manages to simultaneously make the game feel lighter and a scenic change of pace from the night lights of Kamurocho. While I enjoy the blue skies and sunny feel of Okinawa, it also somehow draws attention to the lack of detail at times. With Kamurocho, we’ve been around so many times, it makes improvements, but at this point you’re more moving around the town on muscle memory.
Pacing issues aside, the Kiwami games, especially with the Directors Cut for Yakuza 0, have left long term fans unhappy with some of the changes occurring, generally with previously killed off characters miraculously surviving. While I don’t have the same attachment to these storylines as it’s usually through the more recent versions I have experienced them. It is hard to ignore one of the story ending decisions, which feels like a stretch even without experiencing the original. It’s hard to know what becomes of these changes, or if there will even be further Kiwami entries to bring the middle entries up to date too. I completely understand why people would be upset about changes to the outcomes of certain characters' fates, and at the same time I also get that remakes aren’t necessarily looking to just recreate the original game. Ultimately the changes have tended to feel messy storywise, which is also wild given how over the top dramatic or silly the series can get.
It’s difficult to not address the elephant in the room with Kiwami 3, given a controversial casting choice in the latest remake. The actor for Kamazaki has previously admitted to allegations. It has understandably soured the fanbase before launch. It was a strange decision given the studio had previously recast due to drug offences. It really is a shame it was left to hopefully sneak by, and understandably there will be people who will give the game a miss as a result. The performance does leave you feeling gross and he makes for a threatening figure, which is reportedly intended, it feels gross beyond the performance too.
Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties gives Switch 2 players a way to play Yakuza 3, which is great, I am still hopeful we still see the steady rate there’s been so far. While it isn’t the original unaltered Yakuza 3, it is still a jam packed Yakuza game, more so once you get through the slower start. It’s hard to know what direction will be taken to bring the other main Yakuza games over. Kiwami changes would mess with the following games, or if the pace slows down to give the few older games the Kiwami treatment too. It feels like the Yakuza series is in a tricky place at the moment, one that I hope we get to see resolved and more of those titles showing up on the Switch 2.
The Score
7.0
Review code provided by Sega
The Pros
Combat sees some much needed variety with the new Ryukyuu style
Plenty of fun mini games to get lost in, including some obscure Sega Arcade games
No matter how many games, Kiryu is still an ever enjoyable character
The Cons
It’s also still easy to burn out on all the distractions
Some odd changes, omissions and additions
Even with a remake the pacing issues aren’t fully addressed
