REVIEW: ‘Yakuza Kiwami 3 + Dark Ties’ Is A Mixed Bag

The Like A Dragon franchise has grown in popularity in recent years, with releases such as Infinite Wealth and Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii thrilling audiences worldwide. Yakuza Kiwami 3 + Dark Ties is a remake of the original Yakuza 3, bringing the game into a modern era and fitting it into the timeline established in the first two Kiwami games. 

Kazuma Kiryu has left the world of the yakuza behind, moving to Okinawa to run the Morning Glory Orphanage. He has settled into his life, taking care of his adopted children. Yakuza Kiwami 3 + Dark Ties shatters that peaceful illusion rather quickly, bringing Kiryu back into the action against his will. With a new land deal threatening to eliminate Morning Glory, Kiryu is drawn back into the violent world he tried to escape to keep hold of his new life and those he cares about. 

The narrative struggles of this remake are most evident in how it handles the game’s two distinct halves. The original Yakuza 3 was always a tale of two cities, balancing the sleepy, heartwarming slice-of-life drama of Okinawa with the high-stakes political thriller of Kamurocho. In a surprising twist, the remake proves that the boring dad simulator parts were actually the soul of the game all along. RGG Studio has leaned heavily into the Morning Glory Orphanage sequences, expanding them from simple cutscenes into a fully realized management simulation.

The warmth of Okinawa makes the cold, dry nature of the main yakuza plot even more apparent.

These additions are easily the highlight of the package. The new Daddy Score system gamifies Kiryu’s parenting duties in a way that feels essential rather than obligatory. Cooking requires timing button presses to chop vegetables perfectly, helping Izumi with her homework involves a surprisingly engaging trivia minigame, and even mending torn clothes becomes a tense rhythm challenge.

These moments ground Kiryu as a character. They provide the necessary context for why the Dragon of Dojima refuses to fight back against the local yakuza at first. He has too much to lose. When players spend time leveling up their bonds with Rikiya or catching bugs with Mitsuo, the emotional payoff is genuine. The orphanage feels like a home worth protecting.

However, the warmth of Okinawa makes the cold, dry nature of the main yakuza plot even more apparent. The political thriller aspect of Yakuza Kiwami 3 + Dark Ties involving the CIA, Black Monday, and a resort expansion bill has always been one of the series’ weaker narratives, but here it feels positively archaic. The juxtaposition is jarring.

The pacing grinds to a halt whenever Yakuza Kiwami 3 + Dark Ties tries to be a serious crime drama.

One minute, Yakuza Kiwami 3 + Dark Ties asks players to care deeply about a child’s struggles with homework, and the next, it thrusts them into twenty-minute exposition dumps where men in suits explain land deeds to one another. Without the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia, the central conspiracy lacks the personal stakes of Yakuza 0 or the explosive energy of Infinite Wealth. The villains, aside from Mine, feel like caricatures, and the pacing grinds to a halt whenever the game tries to be a serious crime drama.

This pacing issue is exacerbated by the game’s baffling approach to side content. Yakuza games are defined by their substories, the little pockets of weirdness that breathe life into the city. Yakuza Kiwami 3 + Dark Ties has made the controversial decision to cut a significant amount of the original’s content, most notably the Sun stories and the Hostess Maker mechanics.

There was also a storyline in the original that featured a trans character, which was surprisingly progressive for the time. While some might argue these moments were dated, their removal leaves Kamurocho feeling sterile. They should have been reworked and improved instead of removed completely. The city feels less like a living, breathing world and more like a high-fidelity movie set. There is a hollowness to the exploration that wasn’t there in the original.

The moment-to-moment gameplay of Yakuza Kiwami 3 + Dark Ties is much better than the original.

To fill the void left by this cut content, the developers have added the Gal Gang minigame, a decision that stands as the remake’s most impactful misstep. The premise has Kiryu stumble into leading a bosozoku gang of delinquent girls, guiding them through turf wars. On paper, it sounds like standard RGG absurdity, but in practice, it is a tedious disaster. Playing like a watered-down lane defense game mixed with a bad Musou brawler, the minigame suffers from atrocious AI and shallow mechanics.

Worse, it is forced upon the player during the early chapters, bringing the narrative momentum to a screeching halt. Just as the story ramps up the tension regarding the orphanage’s safety, the game demands players spend hours grinding reputation with a biker gang that has absolutely no bearing on the actual plot. It is bloat in its purest form.

Thankfully, the moment-to-moment gameplay is much better than the original. The days of Blockuza are officially over. The combat has been completely overhauled, with enemies now displaying aggression and tactical intelligence rather than just turtling behind endless guards. Kiryu’s Ryukyu Style is a rough, unpolished brawling set that feels distinct from his refined Dojo techniques. It carries a heavy, bone-crunching weight that fits a man who has been out of the game for a few years. Heat actions are brutal and satisfying, and the boss fights have been reworked to be fair challenges rather than tests of patience.

Visually, Yakuza Kiwami 3 + Dark Ties is hit-or-miss.

Visually, Yakuza Kiwami 3 + Dark Ties is hit-or-miss. Many areas have improved thanks to the Dragon Engine, but some bizarre lighting choices make parts look even worse than the PS3 original. RGG has promised a day-one fix, but these are similar issues that plagued previous Dragon Engine games. Okinawa and Kamurucho also look much more alike in Yakuza Kiwami 3 + Dark Ties, losing the unique visual appeal of the originals that made these different locales stand out. While there are some drawbacks to the Dragon Engine visual approach, there are plenty of genuinely beautiful scenes, and the character models are drastically improved.

However, the visual improvements and fixed combat cannot hide the narrative damage done by the Dark Ties expansion. This new campaign, starring Yoshitaka Mine, was marketed as a deep dive into one of the franchise’s most compelling villains. While playing as Mine is mechanically fantastic—his precise, lethal combat style is a joy to control—the story feels like high-budget fan fiction.

The narrative retcons surrounding the game’s ending and the involvement of the Daidoji faction undermine the emotional weight of the original conclusion. It feels like an attempt to retroactively force the story to align with the current state of the franchise, turning a tragic, final character arc into sequel bait. It cheapens the legacy of the original game for the sake of continuity.

So much of Yakuza Kiwami 3 + Dark Ties comes back to one central question: Who is this for?

There is also the weight of RGG casting Teruyuki Kagawa as Goh Hamazaki. Kagawa has been accused by multiple women of sexual assault, and even apologized for one of the instances back in 2022. It was already an unnecessary recast, but choosing to hire an admitted sex pest and defending it in an odd way is a stench that the game won’t be able to shake off easily.

So much of Yakuza Kiwami 3 + Dark Ties comes back to one central question: Who is this for? Fans of the original will surely be disappointed, as much of the heart of Yakuza 3 has been changed to fit the more modern storyline. But for those who have only recently entered the franchise, these changes aren’t noticeable. Yakuza Kiwami 3 + Dark Ties and Yakuza 3 are both flawed experiences, with this newest release trading surefire improvements for baffling changes that feel like a lack of respect for what made the original special.

Yakuza Kiwami 3 + Dark Ties makes plenty of necessary improvements, but some of the changes make it hard to recommend over the original. This is a game made for newcomers to the franchise, but it is worth checking out both entries if you are able.

Yakuza Kiwami 3 + Dark Ties is available February 12th on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.