Preview: It’s Mine’s Time to Shine in Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties

You never forget your first.

And when it comes to Ryu ga Gotoku, many of you will have taken your first taste of the franchise with Yakuza 3.

That’s because, in the West at least, it was the first entry in the series to release on Sony’s next-gen system at the time, the PS3.

Controversially, content was removed from the 2010 localisation, including the hostess club minigame. SEGA blamed time restraints and an overall lack of confidence in the franchise, which you must remember was outstandingly niche at the time.

Its PS4 remaster in 2019 added all of these absent activities back in, and now Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties aims to expand upon the adventure in an all-new expansion.

We got to play around 20 minutes of the new Dark Ties add-on at the Tokyo Game Show, and to be honest, it’s always difficult to determine just how valuable a preview for a game like this even is.

News flash: it looks and plays like Yakuza, despite the transition to the franchise’s more modern engine.

The original Yakuza 3 is particularly dated if you play it today, so representing it within the Dragon Engine is already a strong place to start – even if it does mean there have been some controversial casting changes as a consequence.

But first up, Dark Ties: what is it? Well, it’s a full-length side-story depicting the rise of Yoshitaka Mine, who’s the primary antagonist of Yakuza 3.

In the quest we got to play, we find the perfectly groomed businessman suffering something of a mid-life crisis as he’s developed an unhealthy obsession with Tojo Clan tough guy Daigo Dojima.

Long story short, he decides to team up with ex-convict Tsuyoshi Kanda, and the gameplay gets underway as the portly perve arrives in Kamurocho hoping to revel in the pleasures of the local soaplands.

Kanda has no cash, and so when he spots a long-legged beauty waltzing through the red-light district, he rather repulsively decides to drag her to a back alley. Mine intervenes, and gives us a taste of his emo fighting style.

There are two key mechanics we twigged during our brief demo: holding the attack button allows him to jump onto an opponent’s chest, using it as a kind of springboard to launch devastating aerial attacks.

Similarly, as he fights, he builds his Dark Awakening capabilities, which allows him to “unshackle” three hearts from under his health meter and go into overdrive. Yakuza 3 takes place in 2009, so we bet Mine was listening to Taking Back Sunday or a band like that at the time.

The demo allowed us to explore other sandbox activities from Dark Ties, including karaoke and the photo booth in the Club SEGA arcade. (Did you know Atlus actually used to make these? As in, the Atlus? It’s true!)

And that was the end of our Dark Ties demo really – it seemed intriguing, and should flesh out the characters of Yakuza 3 nicely.

Speaking of which, we also got to very briefly take a trip to Okinawa, and try out the main campaign.

For those of you who played the original, you’ll recall the first several hours are dominated by Kazuma Kiryu running his Sunshine Orphanage by the sea. We really enjoyed it at the time, but perhaps in hindsight it was a little too slow for its own good.

We don’t really see SEGA tampering with the flow of the original, but it’ll be hoping the Dragon of Dojima’s new Ryukyu Style combat stance adds some much-needed variety.

While we only got to play the tutorial, Kiryu’s essentially able to wield several different weapons, all inspired by Okinawa’s history.

It’s fun and the combat overall benefits from the 15-or-so years of refinement SEGA’s been able to achieve since the original Yakuza 3’s release.

Unfortunately, those with an attachment to the PS3 release may not like some of the recasts, particularly when it comes to the likes of Rikiya. His new model is based on voice actor Sho Kasamatsu, and so it lacks that naïve innocence of the original design.

Personally, we’re not particularly fussed because we’ve played so many of these Yakuza games since the third instalment that we don’t really remember the finer details. But your mileage may vary.

We’ll be very surprised if SEGA screws this up overall, though. From what we’ve played this looks like a rock-solid revisit of one of the more memorable entries in the series.

Sure, the franchise holds very few surprises these days – outside of the excellent RPG instalments, we suppose – but they’re always dependably decent. And with the Dark Ties expansion included here, you’re getting quite a lot of bang for your buck.

Did you play the original version of Yakuza 3 on the PS3? Or did you first experience its story on the PS4? Will you be checking out this Yakuza Kiwami 3 remake? And what aspects are you most excited for? Unshackle your hearts in the comments section below.