Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties [Review]

With a stellar opening, Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties is profoundly paradoxical and makes questionable decisions that, as the game progresses, poisons the good intentions of the sub series aimed at remaking the original mainline games.

Kazuma Kiryu is an ex-Yakuza that now lives a calm and hard working life in the island of Okinawa, where he manages an orphanage, and finally is able to be who he wants to be: a found-family father and a role model to his daughter, Haruka, and every other kid that needs him there.

The first chapters of the game were great: good side stories, a nice city to explore in Okinawa and a fun "fish out of water" perspective for Kiryu in a new town where he is not known as a legend, but just as a big city brute. For a while there, the game is somewhat cozy and feels local, with a sense of community being more important than the big mafia drama.

Things start to go awry when big interests cross over his now peaceful life, and it is when the Orphanage is at risk that the dominoes start falling, and a big and nationwide narrative begins to unfold. It is a strong beginning with great characterization, and I was happy to see Haruka a bit older and more mature. It is fun and rewarding to see these people growing up, and that includes Kiryu as well.

Another side character is introduced here, Rikya, and I fucking love him. Rikya was one of the best written characters in this franchise, and his whole arc was super emotional. He grows with Kiryu and shows that friendships are as important as the "father duties" in his life, and I was very convinced by him.

The beginning of the game made me assume some things about what was to come. I'd assumed that every subsequent chapter would have as much sub-stories as the first three. I'd also assumed that a gearing system would be implemented eventually, and that more abilities and moves were to be unlocked.

As I progressed through the game, I could easily perceive that all of these aforementioned systems were lacking and anemic. Kiryu plays almost the same from the first hour to the last one. Contextual finishers (Heat Actions) were cut, and the regular ones were few and far between, and the brawling, although fast and snappy, can be reduced to button mashing in most of the fights.

Equipment can be interesting in these games because it incentives going after them in stores and shops that I wouldn't otherwise enter. Making food could provide interesting stats results to make the city lived in. These systems were explored in the past Kiwami titles and mainline entries of the franchise, but here they were all but scrapped, and I don't really understand why. It hurts the game badly, and makes some sections boring.

On the big city, there are several fun activities to partake, like bowling, pool, darts etc, but most of them aren't really new. The worst part of these activities, though, is how disconnected they can feel from the world, since there aren't stories or people to meet and relationships to develop while doing them. A stark difference from previous titles – even budget ones, like this.

I really missed more sub stories through the game. Instead of having them in every chapter to make Kiwami 3 more varied, almost all of these quests are relegated to the beginning of the game and makes the last two thirds of the it feel less fun and definitely shallower.

What felt new, though, is the progression system on the Orphanage. Kiryu wants to be a good dad first and foremost, so there are lots of activities and mini-games to do while at home with the kids, like sawing, cooking, and helping with schoolwork. All of these rank up Kiryu's relationships with the kids, and rewards the player with nice and heartfelt stories of people that matter. It is here where the game finds its heart the most. I cried in these sections more than one, because seeing humanity in Kiryu was emotional and well deserved.

The game is also very pretty, and both Kamurocho and Okinawa are the most visual appealing that they've ever been. The blue skies and large streets make sense, the NPC variety is good and there are bars, restaurants, and mini games to do everywhere. The soundtrack is great too, even if a bit repetitive.

Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties is constantly questionable, though, in everything that does well, it also does two or three things weirdly. Choosing a problematic and misogynistic Actor to portray one of the villains is something impossible to defend. The very well documented, horrible and criminal real life actions made by Teruyuki Kagawa, the voice and motion capture behind Goh Hamazaki, don't have a place in this game, and somewhat undermines most of the narrative's good and well meaning stories. All of that to a mediocre performance and a characterization that has nothing to do with the original character. It is a shame, and RGG Studios and Sega are at fault for platforming criminals in their games.

The "side mode" of Kiwami 3 is the Bad Boy Dragon/Haisai Girls. Kiryu helps a female-led gang of bikers that fight for other women that are being harassed by one of Japan's biggest male gangs. This mode is nice, a bit repetitive, but nice nonetheless. The characters on it are fun and interesting, and I liked Tsubasa a lot. Again, isn't it contradictory that the game features a whole mode with women being the lead, with focus on female friendships at the same that that a putrid, misogynistic real-world person like Kagawa is given a job as well? It is paradoxical.

As the game get closes to its end, though, every problem adds up. The lacking systems, vapid side quests, repetitive exploration, criminal voice actor, no gearing whatsoever, low amount of sub stories... But the worst is yet to come. The finale of Kiwami 3 is, simply put, stupid. Changes were made at the very end and it was really bad, I burst out laughing at one of the worst post credit scenes that I've ever seen in my life.

The other "side" of this game is Dark Ties. Honestly, it could have been added as chapters inside the main story, as it isn't that big or fully fledged to be a standalone experience. It gives context to some of the actions from Mine, the main antagonist of the game, and playing with him is super different and nice. His chapters are so-so, though, with no substories whatsoever and a "questing" system that feels like an old MMORPG: fetch quests and irrelevant battles throughout just to raise a meter.

I liked Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties more than Kiwami 1, but barely. It is not exceptional like so many other games in the franchise, and the choices they've made were the ones that made this game overall worse and painfully average. At this point, I don't really think they will do new Kiwami games, and although I get bittersweet about it, it may be for the better.

7.5/10