Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties review: "The meatiest brawling this crime thriller's tackled in years combines with its warmest story, but its overly edgy new chapter leaves me cold"

Once again, a former yakuza and ultimate fighter is forced to come out of retirement to punch crime in the face – but, this time, he's doing it for the orphanage full of lovable children he now runs on a sunny beach in Okinawa. I've always felt that Yakuza 3's story is one of the series' best, only let down by some odd pacing and some of the brawling RPG's clunkiest combat. Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties wonderfully presents that same story, though minor changes do little to smooth out rough edges. Revised combat, at least, delivers the crunchiest nose-breaking since 2021's Lost Judgment.

The genius of Yakuza 3 is that it feels like an incredible trilogy-ender, as long as you disregard the knowledge that former-yakuza-with-a-heart-of-gold Kazuma Kiryu's story wouldn't actually end until Yakuza 6. And also in the seventh game, Yakuza: Like a Dragon. With his character arc also wrapping up in Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name. Which also continued through to ending in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (the eighth game).

Forget all of that, and Yakuza 3 explores a genuinely heartwarming story of a man who has already fought to leave his crime family past behind him, and to begin to ask – what's next? Later entries go to great lengths to have Kiryu operate from the shadows, forced to lead a life of self-flagellation – but Yakuza 3 dares to have him confront the work of building a new life with his background head on, and to grapple with the day-to-day of caring for a new family of orphans, whether that's offering fashion advice or talking to them about bullying.

Retirement plan

Which isn't to say Yakuza 3 is some kind of beach episode. Small orphanages right next to the sea convey two things: they must be strapped for cash, and they are living on prime real estate. Kiryu and his orphans quickly find themselves caught between the schemes of politicians desperate to enact their plans for the Okinawan land regardless of what its residents think, and crime syndicates snapping up that land in order to make a killing from the situation. When nobody will listen to reason, they might just listen to the fists of Kazuma Kiryu – the dragon of Dojima.

The early parts of Yakuza Kiwami 3 have Kiryu exploring a small but relatively dense downtown Okinawan map, a far cry from the pervasive night of Tokyo's Kamurocho, with tropical vibes that echo the Hawaiian Honolulu from Yakuza's recent entries. A lot of the game's challenges and substories – half skit, half side-quest – are new as well, and also take pointers from the series' Hawaiian adventures. A lot of these mesh well, revolving around the sense that Kiryu isn't just bonding with his children, but building a strong community in Okinawa, whether that's taking a girl biker gang under his wing (which plays like Pirate Yakuza's crew battles), or tackling the local stamp rally photo competition.

Even so, there are occasions where it feels like Yakuza 3 is bending a bit too much to meet the expectation of the modern era of Yakuza. A flip phone-based scavenger hunt (there are a lot of cute nods to the '00s setting), unlocking a prototype Street Surfer personal transporter, and waving hello to passersby are fine on their surface. But, compared to sprawling Honolulu, they're a bit needless in the cramped Okinawan space, which is actually a smidge smaller in Yakuza Kiwami 3 than the original game.

While many new additions are great, I'm disappointed by a few things we've lost – most notably the revelations, where Kiryu would see an absurd, comical situation, record it on his flip phone, and be inspired to learn a new fighting move while blogging about it. Now it's just a skill tree menu where you spend money and arbitrary 'training points'. Some sauce has been lost.

Before playing, I was in two minds about Yakuza Kiwami 3's revised combat. Firstly, desperate for anything different to the original Yakuza 3, which was plagued by enemies who would constantly block everything, narrowing your options to a few miserable effective combos. Secondly, nervous it'd feel like the low-gravity, floaty mob combat in Like a Dragon Gaiden or Pirate Yakuza.

Thankfully, Yakuza Kiwami 3 proves RGG Studio can still make combat that packs impact in smaller scuffles rather than feeling like bowling. Dodging, weaving, parrying, and unloading rocket-powered punches into skulls, knees to the stomach, or just grabbing a thug by the collar and slamming their head into the wall – fighting as Kiryu feels incredible.

A brand new combat style, Ryukyu (taught to him by the izakaya owner and martial arts instructor he befriends), has Kiryu summon traditional Okinawan weaponry out of thin air. It doesn't make a lot of sense, but when it's this fun who cares? Using an oar-like weapon to paddle crowds, a shield to deflect bullets, or tonfa to stun the living daylights out of beefy foes is a joy. Brawls are still over-the-top, and sometimes outright comical as enemies ragdoll around and Kiryu, who famously doesn't kill, mercilessly thrusts knives into flesh.

Dark side

For the most part, Yakuza Kiwami 3 is a great way to play through a great story that only features some minor changes. I'm not a big fan of some of the actor recasting, which has become the subject of controversy, and some spoilery endgame tweaks feel a bit needless but not greatly impactful on the core story. It's a shame bigger swings aren't taken. Some factions, for instance, have deep ties to Yokohama, a map that has been explorable in the last two mainline Yakuza games, but which still doesn't feature in Yakuza Kiwami 3. One chapter is still basically just back-to-back exposition cutscenes in a small room. Villain Yoshitaka Mine remains a fascinating foil to Kiryu, but with barely any screentime remains too underdeveloped.

Except, wait… What's the whole second part of the game's title about – Dark Ties? Ah, it's an additional campaign – complete with its own Sonic X Shadow Generation-style main menu launcher, that's focused entirely on playing as Mine. A prequel, it follows Mine as he joins the yakuza Tojo Clan, and explores his motivations for doing so.

Dark Ties is less a Yakuza 0 situation, which wonderfully cast former villain Goro Majima as a co-star with Kiryu, and more of a Yakuza 0 Deluxe Edition one. Everything in Dark Ties is brief and minor at best, or threatens to lessen the impact of Yakuza Kiwami 3's main story at worst. Yakuza 3 features some of the more irredeemable antagonists in the series – which is saying something – so cozying up to them as Mine, even if he's inner-monloguing about killing them himself, can feel tasteless and mean-spirited, the antithesis of such a warm-hearted series as Yakuza. But, Dark Ties is so insubstantial a package it's almost not worth the energy to grumble too much about, buoyed mostly by repetitive challenges, mini-games, and an almost-roguelike mode that's a bit too easy to even warrant having to tackle in multiple runs anyway.

Yakuza 3 has, despite its flaws, long been one of my favorites in the series. Helping out those kids – and with loads of new mini-games around doing so, you feel it more than ever – is a great bit of character development for Kiryu, as is getting closer to a new community (there's a reason it was thematically revisited for Yakuza 6). Yakuza Kiwami 3 makes it easier to enjoy those vibes than ever, and while I wish this remake was more focused on evolving what could have been, rather than poorly bundling in a strangely edgy and dull bonus campaign, Okinawa is still well worth a visit.

Check out our best Yakuza games ranking for more! Like a Dragon fans, please stop saying Kiwami 3 is a remake of the worst game in the series when Yakuza 4 is worse