Yakuza Kiwami 3 is a game I really tried to go in with an open mind even with the questionable recasting of Rikiya and Nakahara, and the awful recasting of Hamazaki. I really enjoyed the main story of Yakuza 3 and how it revolves around the orphanage, the kids Kiryu takes care of, and the Okinawan Ryudo family being involved in the lives of Kiryu and the kids, which pains me to say that I don’t believe Kiwami 3 is able to be a suitable replacement of the original game as too much story-related elements have changed that make it hard for me to stomach.
For the positives, the game runs on the Dragon Engine, and just having a near-seamless world makes general exploration an improvement as fights with enemy NPCs and going into various shops and restaurants don’t need loading screens. Furthermore, the combat I personally find to be a lot less annoying in the remake and the new Ryukyu style is fun, though admittedly I have never delved too deeply in the combat of the Yakuza games and have been able to enjoy the combat of games that have their combat criticized, such as Yakuza 6.
On a separate note, the game made sure that there was a particular scene with Rikiya that was easily missed in the original game mandatory with the remake, and I personally appreciated that it was something that the player could no longer miss out on.
For the negatives, there are several. For one, this game shares a lot of DNA with Infinite Wealth and 8 Gaiden. At first, this really doesn’t sound like a bad thing since I previously mentioned the positives of the Dragon Engine, but Kiwami 3 also takes other aspects from those games like the bounty system, a significantly worse version of the Aloha Links with LaLaLa Loveland, and a new major side story with the Haisai Girls that can stop you from progressing in the story at one point.
In Infinite Wealth and Pirate Yakuza these are not criticisms as they felt like they were more naturally incorporated, but in Kiwami 3 they are tacked on additions to an already existing game. Maybe if the Haisai Girls side story was good I wouldn’t feel as annoyed, but it isn’t good. It’s annoying.
One of my biggest gripes with the remake is the sidelining of the Morning Glory Kids, Rikiya, and Mikio. A point of criticism with the original game I personally never agreed with was the idea that Kiryu’s kids were annoying. They are a major part of the story of Yakuza 3 and are a driving force in future entries even if they aren’t as prominent afterwards, so having major scenes from the original game taken out and either removed entirely or put into the optional bonding scenes in the remake I found to be the wrong choice. Especially since some of these scenes involved Rikiya and Mikio, such as Rikiya's involvement in Taichi and Mitsuo's stories or Mikio's involvement in Izumi's story. As a result, in Kiwami 3 Rikiya and Mikio feel more disconnected from the Morning Glory kids. So rather than the remake enhancing Morning Glory and allowing us to feel more connected with the orphanage and the kids, it turns them into optional content that comes at the cost of the main story.
Speaking of Rikiya though, I do want to talk about his recasting in particular. Sho Kasamatsu did a good job, but I believe Tatsuya Fujiwara’s performance is better, and I don’t think the recasting was worth it. If anything, it feels like Sho Kasamatsu was wasted on the role since he is replacing the likeness and voice of an existing character and will probably be chained to Rikiya moving forward, unable to play an original character in the series that will share both his likeness and voice. I don’t feel strongly about Nakahara’s recasting and I can honestly take it or leave it, but I feel more strongly that Rikiya’s recasting was a mistake that did a disservice to the character, Tatsuya Fujiwara, and Sho Kasamatsu. (EDIT: Stranger Than Heaven shows that RGG is willing to bring people in and use their voice AND likeness again such as how Yasukaze Motomiya shares his voice and likeness with both Shishido from 7 Gaiden and Tetsuya Hama from Stranger Than Heaven. I hope Sho Kasamatsu is given a similar opportunity in a future game in the RGG universe)
WARNING: SPOILERS FOR KIWAMI 3 AND GAMES THAT COME AFTER DON’T LOOK IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE SPOILED
For the ending of Kiwami 3 [spoiler] I am not against Mine being alive though I think a major reason as to why is we’ve known of Andre Richardson’s survival for years ever since we got a glimpse of him in the lead up to Infinite Wealth’s release so it feels like RGG has been preparing us for Mine's survival for a while, but I honestly think Mine is the last character they can get away with this. They’ve already resurrected characters like Kashiwagi, Lau Ka Long, Andre Richardson, and now Mine. Moving forward they need to keep characters dead. I’d be really annoyed if we see the likes of Ryuji or Rikiya reappearing at some point. As much as I like those characters, I would prefer that RGG learn to stick by the events of the story and not resurrect more characters. If they keep doing so, any character whose death isn’t explicitly shown will not be taken seriously anymore. Heck, I imagine that for some it’s already come to that point.
At the very least though, it’d be nice to not see Hamazaki ever again, or to have him have plastic surgery similar to how in 7 Gaiden Hanawa did when he talked about having been altered after joining the Daidoji faction. I don’t think that having Teruyuki Kagawa around is worth all of the bad press that it brings to the series. Regardless of where you stand on this, it doesn’t change the fact that many people didn’t even want to give this game a chance because of his involvement and any potential game moving forward that has him will be met with similar disdain from the moment people see his face and hear his voice. [/spoiler]
Lastly, I want to briefly talk about Dark Ties. I believe it’s a nice addition and I enjoyed my time with it, but I would not buy Kiwami 3 to play Dark Ties. It’s a small spin-off that really doesn’t take much time to complete, and I think that watching a playthrough of Dark Ties may suffice rather than to play it yourself.
Overall, I believe Yakuza Kiwami 3 is a remake that does more harm than good to the story of the original game. Rather than having a remake that enhances the story and themes of Yakuza 3, Kiwami 3 actively tries to move away from the things that made Yakuza 3’s story special while also polluting the game with a bunch of unnecessary filler content. Too much has been changed and it came at the cost of Kiryu’s story in Okinawa at the orphanage with the kids and the Ryudo family members that stood beside him and his family. While there are some improvements that I appreciated, and I genuinely enjoyed the Dark Ties story, I believe that, between Yakuza 3 and Kiwami 3, Kiwami 3 is the worse way to experience this story. Unfortunately, Yakuza 3 is stuck behind the Yakuza complete bundle but even so I would recommend you do what you can to play Yakuza 3 instead of Kiwami 3. Kiwami 3 is just not it.
