Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties Review – A Worthy Remake?

The Yakuza franchise has spent years earning a reputation as one of gaming’s most reliable series — a wild mix of melodramatic crime stories and absurdist side content that somehow always lands. Yakuza Kiwami 3, the ground-up remake of 2009’s Yakuza 3, arrives alongside Dark Ties, an original prequel chapter starring Yoshitaka Mine. At $59.99 for both, it should be a straightforward recommendation. It isn’t. Here’s our verdict on whether this package is worth your money, controversies and all.

For background on what was announced, see our earlier Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties coverage.

Dark Ties: The Best Reason to Buy This Package

Let’s start with what works. Dark Ties, the 4-5 hour prequel campaign following Yoshitaka Mine’s rise through the Tojo Clan, is genuinely excellent. RGG Studio uses this condensed runtime to tell a focused, emotionally resonant story about ambition, loyalty, and the cost of climbing the yakuza hierarchy. Mine was one of the more underdeveloped antagonists in the original Yakuza 3, and Dark Ties retroactively makes him one of the series’ most compelling characters.

The writing here is sharp. There are no filler missions or padding — every substory and encounter feeds back into Mine’s character arc. A standout sequence involves Mine navigating a corporate merger that doubles as a gang territory dispute, blending the series’ signature absurdity with genuine tension. Combat uses a refined version of the Dragon Engine with a fighting style unique to Mine that emphasizes precision counters over Kiryu’s brawling, giving it a distinctly different feel.

Kiwami 3: A Remake That Cuts More Than It Adds

The Kiwami 3 main campaign is where things get complicated. The 12-15 hour story follows Kiryu’s life at Morning Glory Orphanage in Okinawa before he’s inevitably dragged back into Tojo Clan politics. RGG Studio rebuilt everything from scratch in the Dragon Engine, and visually, it’s a massive leap from the PS3 original. Okinawa’s beaches shimmer, Kamurocho’s neon-soaked streets pop, and character models finally do justice to the game’s dramatic cutscenes.

But what they’ve taken away stings. The original Yakuza 3 had over 100 substories — side quests ranging from heartfelt character vignettes to gloriously stupid comedy sketches. Kiwami 3 has fewer than 40. Many fan-favorite substories are simply gone, including several involving the orphanage kids that gave the original its emotional core. RGG Studio claims these cuts were made to “tighten the pacing,” but what’s actually been tightened is the content you’re getting for a $60 price tag.

The ending has also been changed in ways that have divided the fanbase. Without spoiling specifics, a pivotal character moment that defined the original’s climax has been rewritten to align with later series entries. Long-time fans who consider Yakuza 3’s original ending one of the series’ best are understandably upset. Whether this bothers you depends on how attached you are to the original — newcomers won’t notice, but veterans will feel the absence.

The Controversies You Should Know About

We’d be doing you a disservice to not address the elephant in the room. The casting of Teruyuki Kagawa in a key role has generated significant backlash following sexual misconduct allegations against the actor. SEGA has not publicly addressed the controversy, and the performance remains in the game. This is a factor that may influence your purchase decision, and it’s worth knowing about before you buy.

On the technical side, the launch was rough. A Chapter 9 save data bug corrupted save files for some players, and substory progression bugs blocked completion for others. Patch 1.13 addressed these issues, but the fact that a save-corrupting bug shipped in a full-price release from a major publisher is unacceptable. The pre-release demo was notably the first Yakuza title to receive a “Mostly Negative” rating on Steam, driven largely by performance issues and the content cuts mentioned above.

Performance and Technical State

Post-patch, the game runs reasonably well. PS5 maintains a stable 60fps in its performance mode, and PC performance is acceptable on mid-range hardware (stable 60fps at 1080p on an RTX 3060, though 4K requires a 4070 or better). Load times are short across all platforms. The Dragon Engine’s physics still produce occasional comedic ragdoll moments during combat, which — depending on your perspective — is either a bug or a feature at this point.

Is the Package Worth $60?

Here’s the honest assessment: Dark Ties alone would be worth $20-25 as a standalone experience. Kiwami 3, despite its visual overhaul, delivers less content than the PS3 game it remakes. Combined, you’re getting roughly 17-20 hours of content at a $60 price point. That’s not terrible by modern standards, but it falls short when the game it’s remaking offered significantly more.