Over the years, Sega has been slowly remastering many of its older Yakuza games through the Kiwami series. The first to receive this treatment was the original Yakuza game in 2016, followed by the second in 2017. Almost ten years later, the third installment is getting the same treatment, plus an added bonus with Yakuza Kiwami 3 + Dark Ties. This one is a bit unique because not only does it bring the game up to modern standards, but it also adds in new content for players to enjoy, thanks to Dark Ties.
Ahead of its February 12 launch, MonsterVine was invited to a hands-on preview where we got to play various parts of both games. Some of which had me playing the daddy of the year, while others had me fighting for my life in underground fight clubs for a couple of hours.
One thing worth mentioning before diving deep into the preview is that my time with the game was very structured. I was loaded into specific save files that gave me access to parts of the game that may have been locked otherwise. That said, I wasn’t able to play any of the main story beats at all. Instead, my time with the game mainly focused on all of the side activities you can partake in.
As soon as I loaded in, it started me in a save file where Kazuma Kiryu was running around the orphanage he’s running, helping the kids with their daily chores. At first, this might not sound like the most interesting thing in the world. But if there’s one thing the Yakuza series is good at, it’s making some of the most mundane things beyond interesting. In one of these, I was helping one of them with homework. Before I knew it, I was taking a timed test, which made me feel like I was back in school, and even though I knew all the answers, seeing a timer next to them didn’t help my anxiety at all.
But that isn’t where the house madness ends, either. Shortly after that, I was tasked with helping another kid sew something together, and by all accounts, this was not a sewing mini-game. If anything, it was a racing game disguised as a sewing game. I say this because not only was I timed on how fast I was going, but I also had to follow a race track with plenty of twists and turns along the way.
Some of the other chores included me setting up food for the kids, and looking through what food was in the garden. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy these too, because they were a nice reminder of how heartwarming the series is. Being able to set aside your day and help out these kids with various tasks around the house was very therapeutic, and I enjoyed every second of it.
Following that, I was thrown into a subplot in which I somehow became one of the head members of an all-girls biker gang. If you’ve ever played any of the games in the series, something like this shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise to you because the series is filled with all sorts of random and goofy moments. Playing through this small story beat took a little while, but it was filled with plenty of engaging moments that kept me hooked all the way to the very end.
Perhaps what was most rewarding about it was the endgame. Because once this side mission was completed, it opened a whole new part of the game for me. Not only could I recruit other people in my gang, but I could also participate in back-alley fights that would eventually lead to another side story plot.
The gang fights were absolutely incredible. This was primarily thanks to all the customizations you had at your disposal. Not only could I choose who would take part in the fight, but I could also change their clothes, add new weapons, and even customize the bike. Playing through it mirrored what a gang brawl would look like, too. I was thrown into a warehouse where my gang broke off into various aspects, and throughout the whole thing, I could see who was winning and who was losing.
So throughout the fight, I had to leave one squad behind to ensure the other would make it through to the very end. This created a fun dynamic because it really made me pick and choose what I wanted to bring into the brawl and how I managed my time for it during the actual fight. But by the end of it all, I was able to unite an underground fight club all under one banner, and it was easily one of my favorite parts during my entire preview.
Admittedly, there were a couple of other things available to me during my time with Yakuza 3, like a few different mini-games and side stories, but the gang fights took up a lot of my time, and I didn’t get to see many of them because of that.
After all of that was said and done, I then loaded into the Dark Ties part of the game. In short, this is a new addition to the game that lets me play as Yoshitaka Mine, the main antagonist of Yakuza 3. Dark Ties serves as an origin story for the character, but my preview with him didn’t touch on any of his story beats.
Instead, a large part of my gameplay with him was centered around an underground fight club, like I previously mentioned. This proved to be extremely fun, with an enjoyable gameplay loop. Each time you load in, it essentially acts as a dungeon crawl, and you have to find the exit within a set amount of time.
But the catch is that the area is filled with valuable loot, and it’s often worth it to run the risk of exploring a bit. To make this a bit easier, you can bring in mercenaries with you to help fight the hordes of enemies coming at you.
Once I was done fighting for my life underground, the game opened up, and I was able to explore the area as Mine. Honestly, there wasn’t really too much for me at this point in the preview. The main thing was a lot of the mini-games that fans of the series have come to love and expect. That being said, if you want to sing your heart out as a Yakuza criminal, you absolutely can in Dark Ties, while at the same time spending countless hours at the batting cages or at the arcade in-game. Even though my time with Dark Ties was a little underwhelming when compared to Kiwami 3, it was still enjoyable nonetheless.
What was perhaps the most important thing I learned from my preview with Yakuza Kiwami 3 + Dark Ties is that the game is still very much a Yakuza game at heart. I say that because it’s not afraid to get goofy, filled with plenty of moments that’ll make you laugh because of how absurd it is, and, on top of that, there are so many heartfelt moments that’ll make you feel like the love of your life has just hugged you. Needless to say, all of this has gotten me excited for the game’s full release, which is expected to launch on February 12 on PC, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch 2.
