Dark Ties makes Yakuza Kiwami 3 an enticing prospect even for those who already finished Yakuza 3

As each year passes, more players (particularly in the West) discover the Yakuza series for the first time.

For those who stick with it through Yakuza 0, Yakuza Kiwami and Yakuza Kiwami 2, however – no mean feat considering how lengthy each game is – there’s a rather jarring moment when it comes to Yakuza 3.

Much like anyone who decides to watch Star Wars in chronological order from Episode I, when you hit the fourth episode – be that A New Hope or Yakuza 3 – things suddenly look far less polished than the three before it.

The reason for that is clear. Yakuza 3 was originally released back in 2009, whereas prequel Yakuza 0 was actually the sixth game, released in 2015. As for Yakuza and Yakuza 2, the Kiwami versions were remakes released in 2016 and 2017 respectively, meaning anyone playing Yakuza 0, Kiwami and Kiwami 2 these days will see a clear drop in quality when moving onto Yakuza 3, 4 and 5.

That changes on February 12 when Yakuza 3 finally gets the Kiwami treatment, giving it a full remake which brings it more in line with modern expectations of how the series should look.

This new-look version of Yakuza 3 will not only have greatly improved visuals, it’ll also add new cutscenes to expand the game’s story and a new team battle mode where you team up with the Ryukyu Gal Gang of female bikers and try to build the ultimate biker gang.

This extends to the addition of new fighting styles. As well as the Dragon of Dojima: Kiwami brawling style – which Sega says will have “the largest number of attack techniques in the series’ history – there’s also the new Ryuku Style, which is a weapon-based action style making use of eight different types of weapons.

All this combined should mean Yakuza Kiwami 3 is the definitive version of the game, and had developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio left it there it would have doubtless enjoyed its likely high Metacritic score and some healthy sales. Instead, it’s decided to go one better with the addition of Dark Ties, an entirely new second story.

Dark Ties follows Yoshitaka Mine, one of the main villains from Yakuza 3, this time in the role of protagonist. It’s a prequel which explores Mine’s origin story and explains what happens in the build-up to the events of Yakuza 3.

As well as a separate ‘Dark Awakening’ fighting style for Mine (which should ensure Dark Ties feels more than just a set of extra missions), Dark Ties also includes an underground fight club called Hell’s Arena, where players fight under different rulesets, and take on an underground dungeon in its Survival Hell mode.

According to director Ryosuke Horii, Dark Ties was originally going to be a non-interactive video bundled with Yakuza Kiwami 3, which would have given more insight into Mine’s character but in a strictly hands-off, cinematic manner. Which would have been fine, but probably only to a subset of fans who would be fine with watching what would have amounted to an extremely lengthy cutscene.

Instead, Horii decided to make the story playable, explaining to Famitsu back in September that the studio thought “if we miss this opportunity, we won’t have another chance”. It’s a decision that will doubtless expand Yakuza Kiwami 3’s appeal further – it’s likely to win over players who may have already beaten the original Yakuza 3 and didn’t have the appetite for a remake, but would absolutely be interested in an entirely new story.

The joy of the Yakuza games is that fans of the series know exactly what to expect, and while Yakuza Kiwami 3 will give the 17-year-old PS3 title a much-needed glow-up to make it look visually different, deep down it’ll still deliver the same brilliant mix of combat, plot and those trademark side-missions and mini-games that have earned the series its ever-growing fanbase. As such, it’s as close to a sure thing as you can get in 2026.

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