Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties Review: A Visual Upgrade On a PS3 Classic With Some Nice Bonus Content

Yakuza 3 originally brought me into the fold, and Ryu Ga Gotoku's Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties are still a fantastic intro to the long-running franchise. This updated edition features an attractive soup-to-nuts rebuild of the original 2009 PS3 game alongside a self-contained story that expands on its unique villain, Yoshitaka Mine.

While the bulk of this version's mechanical updates target the fussiest side content of the original, it also introduces its own strange bits of filler, but I think it renders the main campaign better overall.

A Visual Overhaul and A Better-Looking Beach

Kamurocho and Downtown Ryukyu Look Better Than Before

For the unfamiliar, you play as Kazuma Kiryu, a/k/a The Dragon of Dojima. A fearsome enemy to his rivals and reliable anchor to his friends, Kiryu once chaired a mighty criminal organization but now plots his own winding road of redemption, standing as one of gaming’s most compelling and storied protagonists, a former gangster with a heart of gold and a silly streak.

As a child, Kiryu’s parents were murdered, but he now manages the Morning Glory orphanage as “Uncle Kaz,” caring for his young wards as they enjoy golden sunsets over the waters of Okinawa. That tranquility is short-lived, of course, with Kaz quickly embroiled in another far-reaching melodrama that drags yakuza business to his front door.

There’s no requirement to complete Yakuza Kiwami 3 before activating Mine’s new Dark Ties storyline, but you’ll want to engage all the new content featured in this Kiwami redux anyway. The visual overhaul arguably improves upon what’s found in the previous Kiwami releases, where the more simplistic textures and models of old are revived with heightened detail, all while maintaining the slick cinematic style the series is known for.

Both downtown Ryukyu and Kamurocho look outstanding here, bustling with neon marquees, shoppers and salarymen, burger joints and bars, dark alleys and arcades. As with other Yakuza titles, these open worlds aren’t massive, but they’re detailed urban environments with a hectic spirit that remains appealing on newer hardware.

The visual quality of Yakuza 3’s environs is improved overall in this Kiwami version, especially the Morning Glory orphanage, which I always considered the lowest-quality setting in the original. Street fights are more colorful and boast additional special effects and razzle-dazzle, and the many transitions between exploration and combat are virtually seamless now.

Split Your Time Between Kaz's Kids and His Biker Gang

Bad Boy Dragon and Morning Glory Offer Hours of Content and Yakuza's Largest Brawls

Yakuza Kiwami 3 contains a plethora of new mechanics and nuanced changes to discover. For one, spending time with the Morning Glory kids is now handled through a range of different activities and minigames. You can spear fish, farm produce, cook meals, complete simple quizzes reminiscent of Nintendo’s Brain Age, or compete with the gang to see who can catch the most bugs. I thought the sewing activity was especially clever, a creative interpretation of the craft as a racing game.

I lost hours maxing out Morning Glory, meeting neighbors, fulfilling special community requests, and helping Haruka with housekeeping duties. None of these activities are intricate or particularly deep — the worst boil down to simple QTEs — but they infuse the orphanage with life and better illustrate Kiryu’s growth as a father figure.

The second major gameplay add-on to Yakuza Kiwami 3 is the Bad Boy Dragon mode, a side activity centered on “baddie” biker-girl culture, which functions as a mix of The Man Who Erased His Name’s Team Coliseum with a smidge of Dynasty Warriors on top. It’s beyond silly as a concept — to say nothing of Kaz's bare-chested leather duster fit — but it's wrapped around an enjoyable staged narrative and recruitment system that later saturates the main campaign, culminating in the largest brawls in the Yakuza series to date.

Distractions Galore And A Terrific Arcade

Yakuza Kiwami 3 Features Some of the Best Old-School Emulation in the Franchise

As with most Yakuza titles, there’s a buffet-style assortment of distractions to engage or ignore. You’ve still got the standard batting cage, pool, darts, karaoke, Shogi, card games, and bowling. Note that there’s no real host/hostess content this time around, and golf has been reduced to just the driving range. Some more esoteric Club Sega fare was nice to see, including a superb emulation of 1999's SlashOut, possibly my single favorite Yakuza arcade offering yet.

You can also kick back on your Game Gear and play collectible cartridges that can be found or purchased around town. Certain games even feature multiplayer integration accessible from the start menu, though this was sadly unavailable to test for this review. Majima’s Coliseum eventually unlocks with its graded cage matches, and you can also progress through an increasingly difficult Japanese Mahjong circuit.

Overall, Yakuza Kiwami 3 is stuffed with a nice mix of activities and an unexpectedly strong collection of Sega emulation. I didn't miss the lack of Boxcelios at all, especially with the inclusion of SlashOut, Magical Truck Adventure, and Emergency Call Ambulance, and I'm very keen to play through some of these games in multiplayer on release.

Dark Ties is Short, Sweet, and Features A Great New Game Mode

Hell's Arena Is One of The Best Parts of The Package

Firing up Dark Ties lets you experience the world through the eyes of startup-CEO-turned-mobster Yoshitaka Mine. While his main quest is but a fraction of the size of Kiryu’s, it has its own set of unique substories and battles, with more Kanda content than anyone could possibly desire. Yes, Kanda remains a horrible, unapologetically noxious creature, but his budding friendship with Mine is meaningfully underscored by their eventual fates, adding a nice ironic air to Dark Ties’ drama and betrayals.

Hell’s Arena is the obvious centerpiece and my favorite part of this Kiwami package. Unlockable early into Mine’s campaign, this new seedy destination features its own Coliseum-styled matches, with Survival Hell as the main draw. An original dungeon crawler experience, Survival Hell offers multiple floors packed with enemies, traps, and treasures, something of an action-brawler twist on Yakuza: Like A Dragon’s dungeon gameplay.

There's an extraction component as well, with stat-raising tomes found in chests, special weapons you can equip ahead of your run, and even wacky AI-controlled goons to help even the odds against the hordes. Some upgrades are costly to acquire and equip, but that's alleviated by the increased cash flow bonus granted for any activities in Dark Ties. A ticking timer ramps up the stress level, and dying in the dungeon erases any accrued loot and progress.

It’s easily the best part of the campaign, and I kept firing up Hell's Arena after Mine's relatively short narrative was over. As for that story, it offers some unique insights into plot points only hinted at in Yakuza 3, though an eventual glaring retcon proved a hard pill to swallow.

Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties Provides A Perfect Entrypoint For New Fans

While There Are Plenty of Changes Here, Most of Them Are For The Better

Apart from this new content, the upgrade systems have been simplified compared to Yakuza Kiwami 2. This translates to a simplified skill tree and no more hunger gauge to keep track of, and gear is altogether nixed — essentially replaced with the swappable multi-weapon Ryukyu style — which matches well with the "Professional" difficulty level. Ryukyu style adds greater diversity to Kiryu’s move set, though it admittedly makes Mine’s simplified fighting style feel somewhat lesser than in comparison.

This general philosophy of smoothing over mechanics isn’t always ideal, and I imagine that a few new prospects in the game might seem insufficient as replacements to some. Bad Boy Dragon could have been expanded upon, though there are new battles to unlock after playing through the story. There's now a moddable cell phone that sort of replaces crafted gear, but detailing Kiryu’s flip phone with puffy stickers and rhinestones is a total dud of a concept.

Absent the aforementioned retcon, I found the updated translation and script in Yakuza Kiwami 3 to be a noticeable improvement, and Dark Ties’ entertaining Hell’s Arena sweetens the deal. Without it, I’d arguably still recommend the game, albeit with the caveat that curious fans might want to carefully weigh their list of preferences before committing. The unique substories and activities are worthy, as are the new gameplay modes, all of which secure Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties' role as an ideal entry point into this epic series, which now looks better than ever on modern hardware.