Known for its flashy brawler combat, beautiful period-accurate city playgrounds to explore, and engaging narratives blending absurdity and heavy themes, the Yakuza (also known as Like a Dragon) franchise is one that has stood the test of time by largely sticking to its well-established formula over its nine mainline titles and multiple spin-offs.
Despite being a highly praised series overall, not every game in the franchise has been looked upon fondly by fans, as the original 2009 threequel, Yakuza 3, is often regarded as an unfortunate misstep, criticised by some for its slow pace and less engaging combat. Undeterred, Ryu Ga Gotoku (RGG) Studio is hoping for an underdog story by breathing new life into the title with its upcoming remake, Yakuza Kiwami 3.
Following in the footsteps of 2016’s Yakuza Kiwami, a remake of the first game and its 2017 follow-up, Yakuza Kiwami 2, this third renewed entry not only promises to bring all the bells and whistles from previous remake efforts, like massively improved graphics and streamlined UI systems, but also some narrative improvements like new side missions and activities, since it will also come with new spin-off title, Dark Ties, a completely new story centered around the game’s main antagonist, Yoshitaka Mine.
For game director Ryosuke Horii, giving Mine his own spotlight to shine was a no-brainer, considering how much of a fan-favourite character he was.
“He is simply a very popular character that many people resonate with,” he explains during an interview at the Tokyo Game Show (TGS) 2025 with Geek Culture and other members of Southeast Asia media.
“When we were thinking about whose story to delve deeper into, Mine was the obvious choice, and something we really wanted to do.”
While Horii refrained from spoiling too much about Dark Ties’ storyline, its narrative will centre around the beginnings of the iconic villain from Yakuza 3, giving fans a better understanding of how he rose from being betrayed and cast aside by his colleagues at his start-up R&D company, to slowly rising through the ranks of organised crime to become the antagonist fans know and love in the base game.
Of course, narrative is but one pillar of any Yakuza experience, seconded by its addictive and easy-to-pick-up brawler combat, and Mine literally packs a punch with his visceral boxing fighting style.
“Mine is a very cool and composed character. His base style is a boxing style that’s cool and stylish, but that’s not all he is,” explains Horii. “He has a poker face, but he also has a fire underneath that, so we wanted to add something that reflects that part of him too.”
This comes in the form of Dark Awakening, a new combat meter for Mine that’s represented by three hearts below his health bar, and something we were able to witness first-hand during a lengthy 20-minute gameplay demo covering combat and some free-roam side activities. Once the hearts are filled by dealing damage to foes, a button can be pressed and held to unleash up to three levels of Dark Awakening, leading to not only increased damage, but brand new ultra-violent finishing moves as well.
Still, fans shouldn’t expect Mine’s story in Dark Tie’s to be too absurd like their recent spin-off, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, as the goal this time is to try and keep the high-octane action grounded, while still offering an exhilarating time all the same.
“In Pirate Yakuza, Majima was really showing off, he was always accelerating, jumping around,” adds Horii.
“Yakuza Kiwami 3 Dark Ties is the next action game we’re putting out following that, and even though we can’t get as wild as Majima, showing off the exhilaration within that limit is something they try and something the team worked really hard to balance out.”
Apart from Dark Ties, Horii and the RGG team haven’t forgotten to show love to the base title, as Yakuza Kiwami 3 is set to bring its own improvements and additions too, which largely focus on enhancing its narrative to address past criticisms.
These improvements extend to combat, with a new weapons-based “Ryukyu” fighting style for its protagonist Kazuma Kiryu inspired by Okinawan martial arts, alongside additions to both the game’s main story and side content, with the former being improved with not just brand new scenes to expand upon the original’s plot, but also reshot scenes featuring the same Japanese voice actor for Kiryu, Takaya Kuroda.
“We looked back on many of the previous scenes, and worked with Kuroda to retake many of his voice-overs,” explains Horii, “So the good quality voice-overs are still kept in the game, but in order to show off a newer Kiryu, or if there were some scenes that needed more emotion, we have remade those scenes from scratch.”
The other major enhancement came from side content, specifically new side stories, a feature lauded in the franchise for providing some of the most engaging quickfire narratives that range anywhere from serious to absolutely bonkers, as well as the addition of some minigames.
“For side stories, a vast majority of them are new, although some are simply rewritten based on the original game,” Horii describes, “Looking back, I do feel like some of them were half-baked and maybe a little low in the drama aspect, so I wanted to bring those up to a modern quality and make returning fans feel like they are almost playing a new game.”
In terms of mini-games, apart from returning staples like Karaoke and batting, Yakuza Kiwami 3 will also feature two new additions – Morning Glory, where Kiryu manages and interacts with the children at the orphanage, and Bad Boy Dragon, where Kiryu gathers a crew of delinquents to fight rivals.
The former also tied into improving another of the original’s more criticised elements, as the game’s stark change in pace from crime dramas of past titles to a slower, more heartfelt tale of Kiryu managing the Morning Glory Orphanage was controversially felt as boring to some fans.
Due to this, it was important that the team made the effort to expand upon this aspect with the new Morning Glory mini-game, and although he did not specifically reveal what it entailed, Horii did admit that this mini-game was one of the bigger challenges the team had to face during development.
“In the original Yakuza 3, there were some interactions with the Morning Glory children, but we couldn’t delve that deep into it due to the story’s tempo,” he explains, “I think that the biggest part that got improved is Morning Glory. It was a challenge, but I think it paid off, and I’m really happy with how it came out. And the stories with the children are very touching, it even brought me to tears as I was making them.”
That being said, Yakuza Kiwami 3 and its new Dark Ties spin-off seem to have it all, improvements to combat with fresh fighting styles for both Kiryu and Mine, improved storytelling, new narrative content in the form of side stories, as well as some exciting additional mini-games for players to discover, and for Horii, these enhancements mirror the nightlife of the very city the game is set in – Okinawa.
“The concept of Yakuza Kiwami 3 can be interjected into the nightlife of Okinawa,” he concludes, “You go out onto the beach, it’s very quiet and it’s very calming, but at the same time, you’ve got the endless stars up in the sky that gets you lost in that moment in time as you stare at them, which perfectly describes the game – it’s something you can kind off relax into, but also really feel the depth of it as well.”
Yakuza Kiwami 3 and its Dark Ties spin-off will release on 12 February 2026 for the PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
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