Yakuza Kiwami 3 Is Not Just A Remake, It's An All New Like A Dragon Experience

With any long-running or hugely popular video game series, you inevitably encounter the issue of attracting new players who can no longer experience older entries locked to obsolete hardware. That’s likely why Ryu Ga Gotoku remade the first two Yakuza games as Kiwami 1 & 2 respectively, which overhauled the gameplay and graphics engines, enhanced combat, and added more depth to the characters, narrative, and so much more.

New content was added in the form of expanded locations to explore and more nuanced minigames, Majima Everywhere for Kiwami, and an entirely new saga for the eye-patched character in Kiwami 2. These improvements make both Kiwami games the definitive way to experience this chapter of Yakuza’s history. And now, with the announcement of Yakuza Kiwami 3, Sega is jumping aboard the remake train once again.

The Seven-Year Wait For Kiwami 3 Was Worth It

Yakuza Kiwami first launched in 2017, with Kiwami 2 following a year later in 2018. Naturally, fans speculated that we’d see even more remakes of this fashion, anticipating them in quick succession given that there was only a year between the first two, but then years passed by with no such news.

As the games that had been given the Kiwami treatment were the only two PlayStation 2 titles, and therefore the most in need of modernisation, it made sense. Additionally, we received a remastered version of Yakuza 3 in 2019, which checked the box for being brought into the world of modern games, even if it was modernised differently. But that’s all about to change.

We’ve waited seven long years for Yakuza Kiwami 3, and after going hands-on with it this past week, I can tell you now that the wait was well worth it.

Much like previous Kiwami titles, Kiwami 3 has been fully remade with the intention of evolving “every aspect” of the game. From the small section I played, story beats remain familiar, but take on a whole new lease of life with enhanced character models and environments, going so far as to completely change the appearance of certain characters – like Rikiya – while also fleshing out the narrative. Time will tell whether all these changes will go down well with fans.

Combat has also been overhauled, with Kiryu now being able to swap between the Dragon of Dojima and Ryukyu battle styles at will. I assure you, the first time you swap to Ryukyu and Kiryu whips out a sword and shield, it’ll make you do a double-take. Seeing him with knuckle dusters elicited the same bizarre feeling.

I say sword and shield, but in actuality, Kiryu uses several Japanese weapons, such as tonfa and nunchaku, and the shield is actually a tinbe rochin, while the knuckle dusters are tekko.

There are a few notable inclusions that have been inherited from more recent Like a Dragon titles. The Street Surfer is back, though it looks far more janky in design to accommodate the earlier time period of 2009. You can customise Kiryu’s outfits, and likely recognise plenty of the options from The Man Who Erased His Name andInfinite Wealth. You can also use search mode to collect bugs and other items during your travels, while there is a new friend system where you can connect to others with a flip phone called the Red Thread of Fate.

Kiryu using a tinbe rochin in Yakuza Kiwami 3.

The ways in which Kiryu and NPCs connect their phones by being opposite one another gave me immediate flashbacks to the days of sending things via Bluetooth.

There are also new karaoke songs, and a new feature where you can customise your flip phone and showcase it as part of a store advertisement. While we only saw a brief section during our demo, Kiwami 3 will incorporate new minigames like cooking, fishing, bowling, and plenty of optional substories to boot.

Much of the new content is clearly inspired by or based on content from recent Like a Dragon titles, and so that seven-year wait is paying off. If we had received Kiwami 3 in 2019, I’m sure it would have been just fine, but it wouldn’t have been subject to the same level of visual and mechanical evolution. This feels like a modern Yakuza game through and through instead of a jazzed-up glimpse into the past.

Returning To The Golden Age Of The Tojo Clan

Kiryu kicking a thug in Yakuza Kiwami 3.

One of the things that excites me most about Yakuza Kiwami 3 is that we’re going back to the Tojo Clan at its prime, before the yakuza clans began disbanding and started to be phased out by new anti-crime laws. While I love navigating the changing waters of the Japanese underworld over the course of the series, mirroring the real world, it’ll be nice to go back to a time when yakuza swaggered around the streets in their garish shirts as Kiryu finds himself trying to deal with complicated familial politics while trying to escape his life of crime for good.

We also get to see some of our beloved favourite characters in their prime too, characters that have long since been phased out or taken a backseat, so it feels so good to get the band back together again. We’re reliving Kiryu’s glory days, which feels like such a needed reprieve after the heavy atmosphere of Kiryu’s fate in Infinite Wealth.

While combat has divided fans ever since RGG introduced turn-based combat in Yakuza 7: Like a Dragon, I have always been a firm supporter of the real-time action brawling of earlier games. So, I’m happy to go back to my fast-paced, button-mashing ways in Kiwami 3, and even more excited to mix things up with the new Ryukyu style.

Being quick on your feet and quicker still with your fists has always felt like a core part of the series for me. You’re beating up thugs in the street, you’re smashing bikes on their heads, and you want to be able to hammer your controller to hammer your enemies into the ground. I like the turn-based combat enough, but nothing feels better than a button-mash beatdown for me.

Though it can be a risky move to mess with original and beloved material, I always have to applaud when a company goes above and beyond with a remake. You could easily remake a game from the ground up, make it look and run better, but not bother adding in new elements before calling it a day. It checks that modern availability box with no fuss, no muss, and little risk of irking fans by switching things up… like a character’s face. (The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced Rikiya’s new look won’t be liked by longtime fans.)

The first two Kiwami games proved that expanding on the original material was a winning move, but those classic PlayStation 2 titles were quite barebones compared to what came later. The further we get into the series, the more there is to mess with, and possibly the more there is to risk, but I think it’s well worth the gamble. I don’t want to just replay Yakuza 3; if I did, I could just play the remaster. I want to re-experience Yakuza 3 in a whole new way, and that’s what Kiwami 3 is offering.