Looking for a comprehensive Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties Review? We’ve got you covered! The golden sands of Okinawa would always shadow the darkness of what was, and for the man known as the Dragon of Dojima, fate has a twisted sense of humour. Follow a reimagined tale of Yakuza 3, where not everything is as you would remember, and not all heroes wear capes. Here is our Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties Review.
Developed and published by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios, this remake of such an iconic point in the life of Kazuma Kiryu has been a long time coming; however, it might not be what you were expecting. Reenter the world of organised crime where a once great dragon stood at the pinnacle of it all and walked away for a quiet life, which would soon take a turn.
STORY
Upon starting the game, you are prompted which story you would like to experience. Personally, I went with the base game as I wanted to know how it was different from the original release of Yakuza 3. While the story of Yakuza 3 is at its core mostly unchanged, there are some aspects which are altered, added, or overlooked. From a personal standpoint, Yakuza 3 is what got me into playing Yakuza, so I wanted to see a true update with additions, not something which cut content and diminished the experience I had with the original PS3 title. While Kiwami 1 and 2 were fantastic, I never experienced the originals on PS2, so Kiwami 3 was the testing ground, and while the narrative follows a diverted path at times, it still tells the story of Yakuza 3 and keeps a lot of the emotional sequences intact, the likes of Izumi on the Beach talking to Kiryu about family, for instance.
This was only added to by the addition of the new content, like substories, activities, and (for me, the Dreaded) the English dub. Honestly, after playing through The Man Who Erased His Name’s ending, Infinite Wealth, Pirate Yakuza, and now Kiwami 3 in English, Kiryu’s voice actor seems tolerable… no, not really. It’s just playing the game in English seems right for someone who doesn’t speak or read Japanese. That being said, I really prefer the game in its native language, and it feels wrong to miss that. Overall, the story of Kiwami 3 is an interesting one with its new twists and turns, like the introduction of Goro Majima at Millennium Tower. Originally, Nishida, Majima’s Second in command, would tell you the boss was up at the top of the tower waiting and give you some healing items, but in Kiwami 3, he initiates a battle with you on Majima’s orders. This isn’t a Bad thing, and I really wanted to beat him up by the time I came to the original Yakuza 3, just think what he puts you through in Kiwami, telling you about all Majima’s plots to pick a fight, then in Kiwami 2 he’s more or less a background character, then in the original 3 he helps you by sending you against a monster in the very begining of the game… I think I earned some reward dont you?
As the game goes on, there are more things that are different, for example, Morning Glory already has a dog, both Polititians being seen outside the Morning Glory, and the kids’ personal side-story, which adds a lot of exposition to who each of the children is, and what Kiryu will do to be called their father.
Returning to picking the game, and moving on to the brand new story of Yoshitaka Mine, Dark Ties. Dark Ties starts 2 years before the events of Kiwami 3, where Mine is removed from his role at the head of his company, only holding a chairmanship role. The game opens up playable sections where Mine is walking through the streets of Kamurocho before stumbling on an assassination plot to kill Diago Dojima. Instead of interfering, Mine watches from the corner of the Champion District, mesmerised in wonder as to why someone would throw their life away to protect Chairman Dojima, and Mine starts scheming. Later, he confronts Kanda, a Nishikiyama man who has just been released from prison, in hopes of making a name for himself in the criminal underworld.
It should be noted that the Dark Ties selection warns you about playing the game after you have finished Kiwami 3’s story. Getting back to things, Mine’s story is a simple one, but one which is told as bonus content within the Yakuza Kiwami world and adds some exposition to who this mysterious man is.
Mechanics, Graphics, & Technical things
Graphically, the game lives up to the previous entries in the series to date. I can’t fault the game graphically; however, I don’t feel that the graphical jump between 3 and Kiwami 3 is big enough to need this treatment. Originally, Yakuza 1 and 2 were PS2 native games, which were limited in so many ways; now we have game engines where the sky is quite literally the limit, and with the power of the hardware we have, we see more and more realistic graphics. Just take a look at the Stranger Than Heaven trailer or Gang Of Dragon, both of which are yet to come out. The Kiwami 3 graphics are good, but personally, I would have preferred the original. That’s not to say Kiwami 3 doesn’t look fantastic, just look at Kiryu below:
Characters aren’t the only thing to have changed; there are also the Environments which look more detailed, and other things. The franchise focuses a lot on the characters’ narrative, so it’s just right that they get some attention.
Mechanically, the game plays like a Yakuza game, which splits its ways of play between Exploration and Combat. Exploration is where Kiryu, or Mine, will walk around investigating the world they are part of and collecting things, as well as taking part in activities like Sub-stories and Minigames. Combat is where all the action is, and the player is able to do battle against thugs, Yakuza, and even some random street punk.
Overall, the mechanics haven’t changed since the inception of the franchise (we are ignoring the obvious elephant in the room), while they might have evolved and adapted as time has gone on, the core of the game has always stayed true, which is nice perticually when you can go from Yakuza 0 > Kiwami > Kiwami 2 > Kiwami 3, and so on. The point is the cohesiveness of the flow of the Mechanics are easy to follow from game to game. The exception is when you get to Yakuza Like A Dragon, but for all the early numerical games, the flow is unchanged, which makes Yakuza feel like a continuous story and coherent adventure. Kiwami 3, although the newest remake in the adventure, hasn’t been pulled away from that and probably fits better than the original game did to this effect.
Shifting to Dark Ties, Mine plays very much like Kiryu, so the switch to playing Dark Ties partway through the Kiwami 3 story is easy to adjust to. One thing of note is that Mine might fight the same as Kiryu, but feels more like you are playing a Takayuki Yagami, from Judgement/ Lost Judgement. This isn’t a bad thing, as going from Yakuza to Judgment feels natural, and vice versa, but it’s something to note.
One of the big differences between Kiryu and Mine is their Ultimate mode. For Kiryu, this is the Radial bar near his health; for Mine, this is the Hearts, which are chained below his Health. Realistically, there is no real difference in the power which is present, but the visual representation of the power is displayed to represent each character. It just adds a nice little dynamic for them to be unique.
CONCLUSION
In Conclusion, the idea of Yakuza Kiwami 3 is an enticing idea; however, it has its flaws. From the standpoint of a full-time Yakuza fan, and one who was introduced to the franchise with Yakuza 3, Kiwami 3 is an interesting idea, getting to play through the entire Yakuza 3 Story once again, but on the Dragon Engine. It should be noted that you shouldn’t get your hopes up; there is a lot of “missing”, or should we say “replaced”, content. The biggest thing, from my perspective, is the loss of one of the hardest challenges in the Yakuza franchise, who happens to be the best mentor figure for Kiryu, Sotaro Komaki. Personally, Komaki was someone who couldn’t be replaced. He was there at the beginning of both Kiryu’s and Majima’s stories from the very first game for Kiryu and Yakuza 0 for Majima. Removing Komaki feels like a betrayal to the fans, but what hurts more is that there is someone who replaces him in Okinawa who teaches you the Tiger Drop? If you can manage to get past the problems with the game compared to the original its not half bad, I mean I spent nearly 40 hours just wandering around Okinawa completing the Ophenage and Biker Gang portion of the game in Chapter 2.
As a side thing, some of the newer content, like the Lalala Mobile, Hell’s Arena, and of course, the activities around the orphanage, are some of the most entertaining, and you can sink hours into them. Personally, I spent a lot of time on the Mobile, Sewing, and Bug Catching, but probably my favourite way to just randomly pass time was farming. This might have something to do with really enjoying the Anime Farming Life In Another World, but the idea somehow seems wrong when you have someone like Kiryu in the role of your everyday lazy character.
On a related note, the new fighting style feels robust enough to be a proper system within the Yakuza universe; however, that fight at the end of Chapter 3 against Tamashiro, which was difficult in the original game, is made super easy in Kiwami. It’s almost laughable how easy the game is now. For me, Yakuza 3 meant something; it introduced me to this legendary hero known as The Dragon Of Dojima, and a game which was really hard to hit platinum constraints, and now with Kiwami 3, I feel somewhat betrayed by the trophies and mesmerised by relearning the story of Yakuza 3.
Overall, I like Kiwami 3; despite the missing aspects and everything, it is a good adventure. However, I feel that they could have included all the content of the original 3 and built upon it with the new content. Out of the 31 substories, there are a handful that return, or ones which return and have been altered. The masters have been replaced by a single person, meaning that Komaki, Kamiayama (not really a master, more the Master of Arms supplier), and the weapon master on the beach outside of the orphanage were sadly recycled into a single master. The biggest problem I have with the game is how pathetically easy it is, and that’s not experience or anything; both playing the game and trophies just feel like you’re being rewarded for just playing. I know that sounds silly, but for me, Yakuza 3 was tough, earning that shiny platinum took hours of dedication and effort, which I was proud of, then comes Kiwami 3, and you don’t have to play in the hardest difficulty, you have fewer substories, a Skill based system which (on estimation) you dont need to complete the completion list, and you dont (it is unkown at the time of writing) have an Ultimate Battles challenge. Adding to all that, Mine is a playable character this time around with the Dark Ties, which adds some light to the game, but honestly, it just feels like a rehash of the Majima Saga in Kiwami 2. This isn’t a bad thing. He has his own missions set by Kanda which revolve around raising his Reputation to being a “Good Guy”, yeah, I know that is near impossible for someone like him, but Mine manages it.
Adding to this, Mine has his own agenda, which is propelled forward by his drive to learn what is so special about Diago Dojima, the Sixth Chairman of the Tojo Clan and why people would recklessly throw their lives away for him. Something to add before our final thought, there is still an equipment system within Kiwami 3; however, it is more unusual, and I missed it for like 40 hours. This is the Customization of the Phone for Kiryu and the Gospels for Mine. While Kiryu has something which will always give him the benefits like in other titles, Mine only gets power-ups in the Hell’s Arena, and they are collected within the Arena. It might only sound like a cosmetic thing (for Kiryu), but the different charms and lock screens you apply change what you can get. As for Mine, his are found in chests within the Dungeon of Hell’s Arena and provide no visual change, unlike Kiryu’s Phone. On a final note its worth pointing out that there are so many things which we could have highlighted, like the Biker Gang, Swimming, Fishing, little things for Mine which make him who he is, and the list literally goes on. We only picked the aspects which we enjoyed the most, and the game is jam-packed with so much more to enjoy, with the added benefit of not needing to reach that fabled 100% for your platinum.
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