Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties Preview: Nobody Does Side Content Like RGG

After a few hours with Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties I’m convinced no developer in the world can do side-content as well as Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio.

As the Japanese word for Extreme, the Kiwami series more than lives up to its namesake by not only giving the Yakuza games a visual makeover, but also supplementing them with new content and quality-of-life improvements that easily make them the definitive versions.

But aside from remade cutscenes and overhauled combat what truly defines one of RGG Studio’s remakes is side-content you can lose hours too, and I’m confident Yakuza Kiwami 3 will be no exception.

During my preview I went hands-on with the two headline expansions to the base game, Morning Glory Orphanage and Baddie Biker Gang, as well as the all-new separate story mode Dark Ties.

Kazuma Kiryu, Daddy Of Dojima

Over in the base game we find Kiryu once again settling into life as a civilian, having left the streets of Kamurocho behind and finding a new home in the seaside town of Ryukyu. Here he’s opened an orphanage called Morning Glory. It’s deeply personal to Kiryu as he was an orphan himself, and he’s helped along by his adopted daughter Haruka.

When Haruka takes on more work than she can bear, Kiryu endeavours to do all he can to assist her, which means the mighty Dragon of Dojima must undertake a wide variety of chores in the form of intense minigames. Morning Glory was featured in the original Yakuza 3 but it's been perfected in Yakuza Kiwami 3.

Sewing clothes and accessories, cooking meals, and helping the kids with their homework, Kiryu does it all and each activity is treated with the same intensity as the life-and-death situations our hero often finds himself in.

SEGA

Players will be introduced to Morning Glory as part of the story but it’ll then become optional side-content the player can return to whenever they like. You can continue with chores, play games with the kids and tend to the garden, where vegetables can either be used for cooking or sold as produce to help fund the orphanage.

There’s loads to do and nearly every activity contributes to Kiryu’s “Daddy Rank,” yes that’s what it’s actually called.

It was heaps of fun, and feels like the natural successor to Yakuza Kiwami 2’s Club Four Shine side-content. I’d say half of my time playing Kiwami 2 was spent running the club and competing in the Cabaret Club Grand Prix, and I’m expecting to lose just as much if not more time helping Kiryu and Haruka make Morning Glory a success.

Biker Club Simulator

Another part of my preview was spent getting acquainted with the Baddie Biker Club. This is an all-girl motorcycle club called the Haisai Girls who Kiryu bumps into out on the streets of Ryukyu. When he sees the group being harassed by a rival biker gang, he naturally steps in with the player then dispatching the thugs with all the flair and ferocity you’d expect from a guy like Kiryu.

Kiryu is later recruited into the club as its chairman, and together you endeavour to grow your numbers and build a sizeable force capable of beating back the rival gangs.

Unfortunately my hands-on only covered the side-story’s prologue, but the full mode will see players recruit new members, engage in club battles and customise your motorcycles. It sounds like good fun and I’m excited to play more, but my limited experience didn’t pull me in like Morning Glory did.

SEGA

Following this I was free to explore Ryukyu which had all the amenities you’d expect from a Kiwami game, but a few new additions that weren’t in previous entries…

You can change Kiryu’s outfit! Vendors will sell some ridiculous Hawaiian shirts, shorts, suits, it’ll even let you change his nail colour and hairstyle. Whilst I was browsing some of the already unlocked fits I stumbled upon Majima’s snakeskin jacket, which I’ll be finding and equipping as soon as the full game allows it. You can also customise Kiryu’s phone, changing the lock-screen, placing stickers on it and more.

After beating up some thugs, helping a student confess his love to a fast-food worker, and hitting the karaoke with Haruka I waved goodbye to Ryukyu, and I can’t wait to return in February when the full game launches.

An Expansion That's Stealing My Heart

Next up was Dark Ties, an all-new prequel storyline following fan-favourite Yoshitaka Mine. It explores the character's history and the events leading up to their debut in Yakuza 3. It's might also be the grittiest story we’ve seen from RGG Studios for quite some time.

After my time in Ryukyu with Morning Glory Orphanage and the Baddie Biker Gang getting dropped into Dark Ties felt like I was being dragged out of a pleasant dream and thrown back into hard, cold reality.

Unlike Kazama Kiryu who’s always trying to move on from his time as a yakuza, Dark Ties’s story is about Mine’s best efforts to rise the ranks and his struggles of living with an empty heart.

In terms of combat, new players should expect a very different playstyle compared to the Dragon of Dojima. Mine is a former boxer, and as such his fighting style is not only fast but vicious too. Successful dodges and parries can be followed up with some devastatingly powerful Heat moves, and when things look dicey Mine can enter his Dark Awakening mode.

This mode has multiple levels with each one increasing his power and ferocity. His attacks also become lightning-fast and if you time them write you can juggle enemies that have been knocked up into the air, or use a Heat Action to slam them into the ground and scrape them across the floor.

All of this ties back to the core theme of Dark Ties, calling back to the bleak and gritty storytelling that made the early Yakuza games so emotionally compelling, and it’s very, very effective.

SEGA

The main mission I followed in my preview took me to the Hell’s Arena fight club, where the rich watch the poor compete in a game of life and death for fun. If that sounds like the Netflix series Squid Games it’s because it basically is. Some of the head honchos running the club even wear animal masks like the VIPs seen in the television series.

There’s no Red Light, Green Light here though, Hell’s Arena is divided into glorified cage fights and a survival mode called Survival Hell. This one was very fun as it’s basically a Yakuza rogue-lite. Mine fights his way through a maze filled with enemies, collecting weapons, health packs, treasures and stat buffs that only last for the duration of a run.

Gongs are hidden throughout the maze which must be rung in order to progress to the next area, with a boss fight waiting for you at the end. All of this is done under a strict time-limit, so efficiency in both exploration and combat is key.

After the mission is over it becomes optional side-content and one I’ll be eager to return to. It didn’t have the same appeal of the base game’s side-content in my opinion as I often prefer the minigames to the combat in Yakuza games, but it was still a good time and I’ll endeavour to see it through to the end.

Following this this I was free to explore Kamurocho for a bit and get up to my usual activities. A bit of karaoke, some baseball and checking out the new SEGA at the arcade. You can also have a go on a SEGA Game Gear at the hideouts, an excellent addition and one I hope to see expanded upon in future games.

My preview of Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties ticked all the boxes and reaffirmed my belief that no gaming studio can do side and bonus content like RGG. Yakuza is the only series I can name where I feel like I’m doing myself a disservice by not accepting a side-quest or checking out a minigame, and I can already tell Dark Ties is going to make my playthrough of the game all the more meaningful than it would have been already.

I’ll hold back my judgement until I’ve experienced the whole thing but Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties is shaping up to be another banger, and that’s entirely down to RGG’s continued commitment to bring players brand-new experiences, not stopping at simple graphical overhauls and modernised gameplay.