Two Steps Forward, One Big Step Back

Earlier this week, I got some hands-on time with the long-awaited next remake in the Like A Dragon series, Yakuza Kiwami 3. While at the event, I also spent plenty of hands-on time with Dark Ties, a side story following Yoshitaka Mine’s rise through the ranks leading up to Yakuza 3.

The first thing that is worth noting is that Sega is presenting this package as two-games-in-one, that is… debatable. Yakuza 3 was already a pretty long – not as long as the near RPG runtimes of Yakuza 4 and 5, but it certainly has a more deliberate pacing than the first two games – and this game’s total reworking of the story and additions of new side content and stories seem like they could really beef up the runtime.

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Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties has a fantastic new coat of paint.

Bigger than before

While Dark Ties certainly seems to be larger and longer than Kiwami 2’s Majima Saga, it by no means feels like a standalone adventure due to just how tied in it is to the narrative of Yakuza 3. While we weren’t given a run time estimate, eyeing the style of side content (something I will get onto in a little bit), it seems more in line in size with 2023’s Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name. All of that is to say, from a totally brass-tacks perspective, Yakuza Kwami 3 & Dark Ties presents as a pretty damn compelling value proposition on the surface. That said, there are a few elephants in the room that need addressing.

I know that there are many long-time Yakuza fans who are pretty ardently against this on a conceptual level, and while I do genuinely find the original release very charming, I have long been on the side that Yakuza 3 would benefit massively from the Kiwami treatment. The recent Yakuza 3 Remaster did a lot to restore a lot of the content that never made it westward (and cut out one mission in particular, too); however, the near-relentless enemy blocking remained, and even running on a nice PC, you can tell it was an early-era PS3 game.

Yakuza Kiwami 3 seems to have nearly totally reworked all the game’s side content. While a handful of the original game’s minigames, like pool and golf, return, they have modernized to fall in line with the rest of the modern games (golf, especially, is now much more playable than the original’s infamous version), and there are loads of new stuff too. A lot of the substories I saw were totally new, and the game also features two larger overarching side-stories. The first focuses on Kiryu running the Morning Glory Orphanage and building up bonds with the kids he cares for while leveling up his “Daddy Rank”, the second is Bad Boy Dragon, which sees Kiryu recruiting a woman-led biker gang. A lot of the mini-games relating to Morning Glory seem to rework the farming content from Like A Dragon Ishin! as Kiryu cooks and cares for his kids. While biking with the Haisai Girls seems to be telling a refreshingly female-based story, as Kiryu takes the back seat and doesn’t actually run the club, but supports the club’s leader in fighting her own battles.

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Two new overarching side-stories focus on Kiryu’s familial qualities.

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Along with a focus on a biker gang.

New Old School

Regular side content mainstays return, with some new Karaoke songs (including one sung by Haruka) and a variety of retro games emulated in-game. Kiwami 3’s collection of retro games is both bafflingly bizarre and awesome. While previous games have included Master System and Genesis games, Kiwami 3 has singled out the Game Gear as the console/handheld that Kiryu keeps at home. At the preview event, we were loaded into a post-game Premium Adventure save file with everything unlocked, so if you are curious what Game Gear classics(?) you can check out, here’s a list:

• Columns
• Pacman
• Sonic and Tails
• G-LOC: Air Battle
• Woody Pop
• The GG Shinobi
• Mappy
• Fantasy Zone Gear: Opa Opa Jr. no Bouken
• Galaga ‘91
• Bare Knuckle: Ikari no Tekken
• Puyo Puyo
• Sonic Drift

While this lineup is nice to have as a novelty, it’s the game’s arcade line where things really get weird. Previous recent Like A Dragon games have proven the most accurate ways to emulate games like Daytona 2 and Virtua Fighter 3tb, but Kiwami 3’s choices are much stranger, and I love it:

• Slash Out
• Fighting Vipers
• Virtua Fighter 2
• Virtua Fighter 2.1
• Emergency Call Ambulance
• Motor Raid
• Magical Truck Adventure

Emergency Call Ambulance and Magical Truck Adventure are both obscure enough that I had never heard of them, and are definitely worth looking up because they are wild.

Dark Ties’ side content, however, seems much more limited. In the Premium Adventure save file I played, there was only one Karaoke song available for Mine to sing (you get one guess which one), and the side missions seemed extremely similar to the more filler side content in The Man Who Erased His Name.

Use Your Fists

The good news is that the combat system seems to have gotten the most love in this remake. Running on the latest version of the Dragon Engine instead of the Magical V-Engine that powered 3 and 4. This means that combat feels really good. Mine features his own brand-new fighting style, which seems to be a more developed version of Yagami’s Boxer style from Lost Judgement. While Kiryu has two styles in this installment, the Dragon of Dojima style that leans more heavily into classic brawling, and the weapons-based Ryukyu style, which features Kiryu quickly swapping between eight traditional Japanese armaments depending on button inputs. While both of these styles feel great, with flowing combos and controls that should be very intuitive if you’ve played any of these games before, there is one downside, and that is that Renta Kamiyama and his weapons truck are nowhere to be seen (I looked).

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Combat has had a glow-up and is a lot more engaging.

It’s changes like this where I start to become very weary of Yakuza Kiwami 3. Kiwami 1 and 2, while changing and updating certain things (and even cutting a whole location), did a largely admirable job maintaining the vibe, tone, and story of the first two games. They felt deft and considered when it came to what stayed and what changed. Kiwami 3 does not. In fact, in a video message before we started playing, the game’s producer, Ryosuke Horri, and the series producer, Masayoshi Yokoyama, talked about how the story has been changed enough that (to paraphrase, sorry I wasn’t taking notes yet), “By chapter 2 or 3, you might be asking if you are playing a different game.” The underlying reasoning for this is sound in a way. Simply so much new content was added, and the combat was changed so much that Kiwami 3 does feel like a different game, so the team says they have started treating it like one. And while I understand this reasoning, I do question the knock-on implications.

Yes, Kiryu still has his flip phone, but for the most part, Kiwami 3 feels very modern. I mean this in a contextual way, the game takes place in 2006 and 2007, but unlike 0, Kiwami 1 or 2, walking around Okinawa, it feels like 2026. NPCs are wearing modern clothes, and quality of life improvements added to recent games (like being able to fast travel from any location), just don’t really make sense in a pre-Uber world. Kiwami 3, at least so far, feels weirdly frictionless, despite taking place in an era where a lot of things simply weren’t. One of the strongest aspects of the Like A Dragon franchise is its sense of place, and while this still feels like walking around real places in Japan, it feels like doing it today, not 20 years ago. Maybe some of the substories will lean into the era, but from what I saw, it felt off.

The Shoe Drops

The other big (and probably biggest) change comes in the form of the game’s recasting. This requires a bit of breaking down, so stick with me. There have been two big bits of recasting, and I am going to hit the less overtly problematic one first. In Yakuza 3, Rikiya Shimabukuro (played by Tatsuya Fujiwara) is a loveable dork. He’s a loser. A poser of a small-town yakuza, with a bad haircut and worse sense of fashion, who you first encounter acting like he’s a big man. While Kiryu obviously quickly humbles him, over the next 20 or so hours, you start to love him, you realize how insecure this guy is, and how he genuinely means well for the people of his town. He’s a great minor character in the franchise.

Ryu Ga Gotoku has chosen to recast Rikiya for Yakuza Kiwami 3. This makes sense considering the now 43-year-old Fujiwara probably doesn’t have the same voice he did in his 20s. It is also worth noting that in the original Yakuza 3, Rikiya’s design was not modelled after Fujiwara. RGG made a conscious effort to make him look a little dorky. He has been replaced by a much bigger name in the form of Shô Kasamatsu. He has appeared in over 50 Japanese films and TV shows, and recently started breaking into English-language productions, including Tokyo Vice. The problem is that Kasamatsu is handsome, like really handsome. He’s charming and pretty and basically everything that Rikiya isn’t. RGG has decided to change Rikiya’s design to be based on a facial scan of Kasamatsu. Maybe this isn’t a big deal, maybe I am making a mountain out of a mole hill, but this really bothers me. It’s a frustrating instance of RGG putting star power and recognizability of good character work, and it’s a bizarre own goal.

However, Rikiya’s recasting really doesn’t compare to the shadow that hangs over this game due to the second high-profile role change. Goh Hamazaki is one of Yakuza’s most imposing villains, built like a house and towering over Kiryu; he is imposing. Hamazaki has been recast, too, and his new design is based on the actor, who is much smaller than this impossibly jacked thug. It’s frankly bad casting. However, this isn’t the actual problem here. You see, Goh Hamazaki’s new actor is played by Teruyuki Kagawa.

In 2022, it was reported that Kagawa forcibly touched a hostess at a club in 2019. This claim was corroborated by footage reported on by Daily Shincho, which also interviewed the hostess. A second victim came forward and also spoke to Daily Shincho about a similar incident that same night, which was not recorded. Kagawa admitted to the sexual misconduct through his agency and apologized to the first woman. The second woman never received an apology.

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There are some disappointing recasts.

There are no two ways about it, Kagawa’s inclusion in this game is a stain on the franchise. In recent years, the Yakuza franchise has so often gone to great lengths in stories to support and empower women, minorities, hostesses, and even sex workers. From Yakuza 0’s hostess management side content that humanizes hardworking women, to last year’s Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, which features a substory about an ex-sex worker deciding to write a biography about sexual liberation, based on and starring a real-world porn actress, the Like A Dragon series has seemingly established itself as a staunchly progressive pro-woman, pro-safe sex work series. And I get it, recasting a whole actor would be hard, but here’s the thing, in December of 2018, Judgement released first in Japan. In March of 2019, the game’s sales were halted after the actor who played the main villain, Pierre Taki, was arrested for cocaine possession and use. In June 2019, Judgement was released outside of Japan, with Pierre Taki’s voice and likeness replaced; this change was then patched into the Japanese version in July. It can be done. It has been done.

Writing this preview feels like looking at a monkey’s paw that curled right in front of me. For years now, I have lamented the problems that held back Yakuza 3. Kiwami 3 seems to go above and beyond addressing these problems; however, in the process, RGG has introduced several strange creative decisions alongside a casting choice that seems deeply at odds with the series’ own principles. Because of this, it’s basically impossible to feel unabashedly enthusiastic about this game, but only time will tell if RGG will react to the numerous fan petitions calling for Kagawa to be replaced.