Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties Review – Why is it Always Real Estate

While Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio has kept the Like a Dragon pipeline moving with new releases, spin-offs, and remakes, some older entries haven’t aged as gracefully on the gameplay side. Anyone hopping into the Yakuza series for the first time is in for a roller-coaster ride, with the quality of gameplay slowly rising as they make their way through Yakuza 0, Kiwami and Kiwami 2 before it suddenly falls off a cliff in Yakuza 3. That’s not to say that it was a bad game when it first came out. However, 2009 was a long time ago, and certain elements of its combat and pacing haven’t aged as gracefully as its other aspects. Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties remedies this by bringing the title up to modern standards, while also expanding on the story of fan-favorite character Yoshitaka Mine through Dark Ties.

I spent quite a bit of time on Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties on the PS5, with over 10 hours spent in the main game and over 3 hours in Dark Ties. That said, most of my time with Kiryu’s part of the game was largely spent exploring Okinawa, getting to grips with his new combat style, and partaking in several new side activities. With Dark Ties, I was more tempted to focus purely on the main story itself. It is worth noting that, while they are ostensibly part of the same package, Yakuza Kiwami 3 and Dark Ties are both distinct games, each with their own save slots and progression independent of the other. In fact, I’d highly recommend you to finish a playthrough of Kiryu’s story before touching Dark Ties, since, like even the game itself warns you, there will be plenty of spoilers in Mine’s part of the game. Now, since Yakuza games are known for the twists and turns their stories often take, I will not be spoiling anything from the mid-to-late-game plot.

"The story of Yakuza 3 has always been a great one. However, a major complaint of the original has often been its poor early-game pacing."

Yakuza Kiwami 3 picks up the story right where Yakuza 2 left off. Daigo Dojima has taken up the position of the chairman of the Tojo Clan. The whole clan is still recovering from the events of Yakuza 2, and especially from the damage caused by the Go-Ryu Clan led by Ryuji Goda and the Korean Jingweon Mafia. Kiryu, however, has decided that enough is enough, and leaves behind the yakuza life to run the Morning Glory orphanage in Okinawa; far away from the crime-ridden alleys of Kamurocho.

While the first few months at the orphanage go by relatively smoothly, with Kiryu growing into his new role as the father figure for the children, he is invariably drawn back into the underworld thanks to a strange real-estate dispute. The affable head of the local Ryudo family, Shigeru Nakahara, owns the land on which Morning Glory was built, and is being pressured by forces beyond his control to sell it off. At the same time, Daigo is also facing pressure from several members of the Tojo Clan to partake in this real-estate deal. Things come to a head when both Nakahara and Daigo are shot as part of this deal, and Kiryu must trade in his cozy tropical outfit for his trademark suit as he’s pulled into a web of Tojo power plays and forces well beyond Okinawa.

The story of Yakuza 3 has always been a great one. However, a major complaint of the original has often been its poor early-game pacing. Quite a bit of time is spent simply living life in Okinawa before the story truly kicks off. Once it gets going, though, it also happens to be one of the more convoluted plots in the series, and ultimately ends up involving even forces from the governments of Japan and the US. Kiwami 3 doesn’t really help much with the pacing issues if you’re simply focused on mainlining the story. It does, on the other hand, offer a lot more side activities that help you feel some true ownership over Morning Glory, which in turn helps to raise the stakes of the story for the player. Staying true to series tradition, the more serious elements of the plot are balanced by the substories, which often add a healthy amount of absurdism, comedy and sincerity to counterbalance the otherwise convoluted and grim main story.

Dark Ties, being a new addition, is an interesting beast in its own right. In the original, Mine’s rise feels abrupt to the player and Dark Ties reframes that climb by letting you inhabit the steps he took to earn his position, we actually get to experience just how he achieved this with our own eyes. It offers plenty of fun moments, especially when Tsuyoshi Kanda is involved. However, ultimately, this expansion on the story doesn’t really end up adding too much to the overall plot. What made Mine a fun antagonist to begin with was his personality, and the mystique of how he even got to his position in the main story only added to his “cool” factor. While Dark Ties thankfully doesn’t take much away from this, I don’t really think it was particularly necessary either. Ultimately, it’s just “more plot” for after you’re done with the main Yakuza Kiwami 3 campaign.

"The story of Yakuza 3 has always been a great one. However, a major complaint of the original has often been its poor early-game pacing."

The traditional gameplay loop of Yakuza is well-preserved in Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties. You’re often going to find yourself roaming around Okinawa or Kamurocho, either heading to the next main story mission or stopping in the middle to partake in side activities like substories, arcade games or karaoke. Some of these might end up with you having taken quite a bit of damage, which means that you’ll want to find a restaurant to heal up before deciding on your next activity of choice. Of course, most gameplay will be taken up by combat, since you will also end up being accosted by thugs in either of the cities.

The combat system has been revamped quite well, and long-time fans of the series will recognize the evolution in Kiryu’s gameplay from Yakuza 6 to Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name to Yakuza Kiwami 3. The Dragon of Dojima has never felt better to play, and while he may no longer be at his peak, having entered into his 40s, he can still hold his own in just about any fight. Along with his usual combat style, Kiryu now also has a weapons-based one that makes use of traditional Okinawan weapons. This new style offers plenty of utility, since your combos decide just what weapons you’ll be using to attack. Ryukyu Style leans into traditional Okinawan weaponry, giving Kiryu a more technical, weapon-forward moveset that complements the revamped Dragon of Dojima style. I personally quite enjoyed using the bleed-inducing combos as well as the guard breaking moves offered by the new style. The former helped whittle down massive boss health bars, while the latter provided some reprieve against enemies who just love to block all your attacks.

The combat in general feels like a major upgrade over the original Yakuza 3, which often suffered from prolonged fights because of just how impenetrable enemies’ defenses would often be. While they never suffered from bloated health pools, even the most low-levelled thug had the propensity of just endlessly blocking your attacks until you eventually got lucky. Kiwami 3 not only doesn’t have this happening nearly as often, but also gives you more tools to deal with blocking enemies, like the aforementioned guard break in the Ryukyu style. You can, of course, switch between the Dragon of Dojima: Kiwami and Ryukyu styles at will, which makes the combat flow even better. My time with the game was spent on its Professional difficulty setting the highest one available when you start a fresh game and none of the fights ended up feeling unfair. There were some annoying encounters, especially when gun-toting enemies were involved, but they still ended up being reasonable to deal with thanks to the new indicator letting you know when you’re about to get shot.

"The combat in general feels like a major upgrade over the original Yakuza 3, which often suffered from prolonged fights because of just how impenetrable enemies’ defenses would often be."

No discussion about Yakuza games is complete without discussing its substories, and both Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties don’t disappoint in this regard. There are plenty of things to do throughout Okinawa and Kamurocho, and as I previously mentioned, the substories often add some much-needed levity to the story. The mini-games don’t really get deep, and while there are certainly rewards for playing them, these aren’t aspects of the game you have to touch in order to progress. Along with the classic slate of arcade games, the new ones added as part of running Morning Glory are at least fun enough to play a couple of times, even if you ultimately decide to never return to them.

The Morning Glory activities even have their own progression system, where doing chores around the orphanage and partaking in the children’s substories will result in Daddy Rank increases. Many of these activities involve mini-games of their own, be it games of Dragon Reversi essentially just reskinned Reversi or fishing and sewing. Through these, you can craft brand new items that can then be sold at the Morning Glory Market. The money you make here can then be used to make further improvements to the orphanage, helping further improve the lives of the children. While a fun experience by itself, all of the Morning Glory activities are ultimately optional, and aside from the first time you have to engage with them, can be safely ignored if you would prefer to get on to the main story. Training Points and money earned here can also be used to further fuel Kiryu’s own progression. It also helps make Morning Glory feel much more like a real, lived-in space.

Another major side activity involves joining a biker gang. After running into a group of characters Kiryu can join their group in their efforts to ensure that the rival gangs encroaching on Okinawa don’t ruin the town of Ryukyu. While also largely divorced from the main story of Yakuza Kiwami 3, the Bad Boy Dragon activities, as they are called in-game, are quite a bit of fun thanks to the colorful cast of characters you get to engage with. You can even partake in massive brawls against more than a hundred enemies at the same time. These no-holds-barred battles will have you riding through the battlefield on your own (customizable) bike as you go from fight to fight, using every tool at your disposal. Bad Boy Dragon also goes a bit deeper by allowing you to manage finer details of the NPCs, from their flags and outfits to their motorcycles, and even their squad setup.

"The Morning Glory activities even have their own progression system, where doing chores around the orphanage and partaking in the children’s substories will result in Daddy Rank increases."

On the more emotional side of things, Yakuza Kiwami 3 has no shortage of moments that can get you misty-eyed, whether you’re simply spending time at Morning Glory or stumbling into one of the game’s smaller, unexpectedly heartfelt side stories. Yakuza Kiwami 3 manages to strike a fine balance between the comedic and the heartfelt substories, and few ever end up feeling like simply being filler material to pad out playtime.

The character progression in Yakuza Kiwami 3 is largely tied to your money, and a new currency Training Points tied to how many side activities you partake in. Due to this, trying every single activity at least once is quite beneficial. Not only will it often reward you with more money, it will also definitely give you more Training Points to go further down the techniques tree where you can learn new moves for both of your combat styles. While money gives you some early-game techniques, it eventually only becomes useful for raising your health and damage stats. Training Points, on the other hand, is important if you want to do more than just spam the light and heavy attacks a few times, with the skill tree’s offerings ranging from new Heat actions and combo finishers, to entirely new moves. Despite this, however, there’s never any need to grind out either money or Training Points short of wanting to 100% the game.

Dark Ties, on the other hand, is a more focused experience. You’re not going to stumble into substories or new activities while roaming around. Rather, they are all tied into the Kanda Damage Control system, where Mine essentially runs a PR campaign to improve Tsuyoshi Kanda’s public image in the community. Substories and activities through this aren’t particularly deep either, and the main goal of the entire system is to unlock Drink Links through which you can learn more about both Kanda and Mine as they work their way up the Nishikiyama family ranks.

"You’re not going to stumble into substories or new activities while roaming around. Rather, they are all tied into the Kanda Damage Control system"

When it comes to the main story missions, both Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties don’t really stray too far from what the series has typically been. You’ll often have long, drawn-out conversations before getting into a series of fights, with the missions ultimately culminating into a boss fight that often marks the end of a chapter. It never really feels repetitive or boring, however, since both Kiryu and Mine are quite fun to control during fights, and the writing is incredibly strong, making just about every scene at the very least interesting, if not downright entertaining.

The story of Dark Ties is quite a bit more subdued than Kiwami 3. Aside from the loud, brash Kanda, every character in Mine’s story feels more reserved and sinister. Interestingly, despite being a much shorter experience than the main campaign, Dark Ties also ends up feeling like it has similar pacing issues to Kiryu’s adventure. The start is incredibly slow, and you’ll do little more than getting into fights between long cutscenes for quite some time. Thankfully it does eventually open up, giving you more options to explore Kamurocho and maybe hang out at the arcade.

Dark Ties does feature one interesting side activity that purely focuses on Mine’s combat prowess: the Fight Club. While it’s largely what you might expect, with a series of escalating fights, the Survival Hell mode of the Fight Club kicks things up a notch by presenting fights with different conditions. This mode even ties into Mine’s character progression, since rewards can include new moves as well as money that can be used to further push the character’s capabilities.

"The story of Dark Ties is quite a bit more subdued than Kiwami 3."

Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties feels like a technically competent game. The visuals are fantastic, making full use of the PS5 hardware and RGG Studio’s own experience with its in-house Dragon Engine. Both Kamurocho and Okinawa look breathtaking, especially at certain times of the day when the lighting is just right. Frame rates are also fantastic, and I never experienced a single slowdown or even hiccup throughout my time with the game. Developing Yakuza games has essentially become a precise science for the studio, since I also couldn’t find any issues with animations, either during combat or the story-heavy cutscenes. Continuing the trend, audio is also fantastically done, and the Japanese voice acting is some of the best I’ve heard from the series outside of Ichiban’s adventures in Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Be it quiet fury or tender moments, Kiryu’s voice actor Takaya Kuroda has once more done a phenomenal job, and the same could be said for every cast member.

Ultimately, Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties is a phenomenal game, and a great way to experience the story for the first time without having to deal with the original’s more archaic elements. It also makes for a great way to start the Yakuza franchise for series newcomers, since it offers optional recaps of previous entries’ stories. However, I would still argue that Yakuza 0 is a much better game to start with in that regard. Thanks to its strong writing and gameplay, it’s basically a no-brainer for fans of story-centric games and fast-paced brawlers.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.