Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties

play OG instead

There's a lot going on with this game but I'm not gonna complain about the known changes like other reviews. You already know about the recasts, komaki disappearance, map, substories changes so I'm not gonna repeat and just drop a honest review: Treat this as a neutral, just like with my pirate yakuza review there's a lot of good and bad stuff in this game. Visuals are much better than pirate yakuza. A lot of cutscenes still looked bad and there's a lot of room for improvement, hopefully future games will get better. It's a shame that a lot of content got cut and changed but it was inevitable. Of course, K1/K2 changes were not as drastic as here, but it still was bound to happen. Performance is terrible, I had to replay both stories ending sequences because the game would randomly freeze during cutscene or after a fight and close itself after couple seconds. It was an issue with pirate yakuza but it got worse here. To start with Kiryu story, I love both fighting styles - I can't complain about anything except the lack of heat actions. There's barely any. Side activities are fun, especially morning glory activities. Substories for kids are not forced anymore, It's not an issue fo…

The game and story is nice, the majority of „dislikes” as I have seen are submitted by people that loved the original yakuza3 and the delisting of the original game. As much as I understand their angriness for SEGA delisting practices - just don't buy the game. (I didn't play the 1st edition of yakuza3!)

I have 30ish more hours in Kiwami 3 than I do in the remaster of Yakuza 3. Compared to the remaster, the combat feels way better. Yes, this game changed story elements and most of it is dumb. Yes, they removed some gameplay and recast some characters. They did add new activities that I found were very fun and heartwarming. Morning Glory I had a blast with, same with the Biker Gang. I'm not here to fully defend RGG, yet the game itself it good and worth a play (not at full price though, kinda steep.) The Mine DLC was pretty decent too, I hate Kanda with a passion. Don't listen to the naysayers saying this ruined the franchise, they say that about every new Like A Dragon entry. I also think the game looks great and plays great, never had any graphic issues or bugs.

Let's start with the good things: The new graphics and animations are awesome and there is quite a lot of (new) content, including a new fighting style (which is a little too strong imo, but pretty fun). You can feel that there's been care put into the remake and it feels much more modern and streamlined. Now for the bad news: The quote "Look how they massa*red my boy!" kept creeping into my head, since I've played the non-Kiwami version before. It's hard to put into words, but everything feels a little...weird. Too smooth, too easy, too polished, too "new". But that might be a me-issue as objectively, there's nothing wrong with Kiwami 3. It's still a high-quality game, though the price is a little steep, even if you get the dlc included. And yeah, it replaced the old Yakuza 3 Remastered on Steam, so you've gotta buy this version now, like it or not. Weird, especially since there are some story differences between the two versions, but I guess that explains some of the negative reviews. Not sure why they did it, not gonna open that can of worms, just something you need to keep in mind I guess.

Damn, i thought this game will be a flop, but that's not true at all. People often put criticism on this game because things like characters recasting, and others stuff, but as for me, i've already played Yakuza 3 like 5 years ago, and i think the game lack on Kiryu relationship with the orphanage. And yes, this game successfully created a wholesome moments in the orphanage and that is the most thing that I enjoy in this game. The minigame with the kids, the substories, cook for them, fishing, help doing homework, sewing, gosh it;s so much for me that i truly enjoy with this part of the game.