The Yakuza / Like a Dragon series is one of the biggest hits that, under the umbrella of the SEGA corporation, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio has been releasing for the last twenty years.
Although the new title on Nintendo Switch, Yakuza Kiwami 3 is a remake of one of the most famous games in the Like a Dragon franchise from 2010, the addition Dark Ties represents the story from the other side.
Yakuza Kiwami 3
The main protagonist Kazuma Kiryu moves from Kamurocha to Okinawa, leaving behind his past life as the head of the Tojo clan. In Okinawa, he decides to run the Morning Glory orphanage to repay his debt to society, as he himself grew up in one.
Of course, he cannot escape his past life there either. His orphanage is located on land that the government has designated for the construction of a resort, and within his former clan, power struggles are taking place among the heads of families, so he is called upon to use his influence, charisma, and when necessary, his fists, to bring order to the clan.
You will walk through the city, uncover new story details, and resolve most conflicts on the streets with your fists, sticks, swords, and other weapons (e.g., a bicycle). You will collect a bunch of various unnecessary trinkets, play children's games, make friends through a mobile app with people you meet while walking the streets, buy various clothes, sing karaoke, and much, much more.
It is possible to use a taxi for quick transfers, but then you miss out on many additional missions, loot, and you generally won't experience the soul of the city.
In the orphanage, you will play numerous mini-games where you will complete tasks, cook lunch, fish, or sew clothes with a needle. Charming, but not at all relaxing ;)
While walking the streets, you will encounter many rogues eager for a fight, who will serve you as quick cash.
Kiryu uses the classic Dragon of Dojima style in combat, which is based on combined strikes with hands and feet and throwing enemies in a wrestling style. You can purchase numerous additional combo attacks with money and training points earned by completing missions, catching Reapers, rogue Yakuza members, or simply beating up bad guys on the streets. After inflicting enough pain, you can activate Dragon Mode in which your strength is increased, reflexes are accelerated, and the Dragon Finisher allows you to destroy an enemy with a devastating attack.
At any moment, you can switch to a style in which you will use various weapons that cause special statuses, such as sticks that stun, sickles that cause bleeding, or boxers that break your opponent's block.
Dragon finisher in full glory
Dark Ties
This is effectively a continuation of Kiwami 3, so the game itself recommends that you play the original first due to spoilers. Here, you take on the role of Yoshitaka Mine, who is just starting his career in the Tokyo underworld. There is plenty of money, which he will use to buy allies. Of course, after he first beats them up.
Kanda becomes your ally and introduces you to the world of Yakuza. But first, you need to explain to him who the boss is.
He also relies on his own fists and a lightning-fast combination of punches and kicks, but he can activate Dark Awakening mode, which is particularly brutal, allowing you to sometimes slam an enemy's head into the ground and drag them face-first across the floor, leaving a bloody trail behind.
Attributes and additional skills are upgraded with money or training points
Although Dark Ties was initially advertised as a full game, it is quite short, so you will go through three chapters in about 5-6 hours. However, there is Survival Hell, a set of arenas with four floors each, with increasingly stronger enemies on each floor and money that you earn as you fight your way to the top and confront the main boss. If you die, you lose everything. You also have the option to exit on each floor and spend money to buy better weapons or hire helpers, then start over. This will give you a certain degree of replayability and make you want to return to the game a few more times.
Yakuza Kiwami 3 is a quite solid port, but due to the technical limitations of the Nintendo Switch 2, there had to be some graphical compromises compared to other platforms. The cities are colorful just as they should be in Japan, but the textures of walls and cars are of somewhat lower quality - they are not bad, but they are not very impressive either. The punch animations are colorful and flashy, and the Dragon Mode and Dark Awakening animations are very well done.
In both handheld and docked mode, the game runs at a stable 30fps, but sometimes the transition to animations takes just long enough to make you think the game has crashed. I admit I was startled a couple of times when that happened.
The animations are interesting, and you will learn most of the story from them, but they go on and on....
The voice acting in English is unimpressive, I would even say subpar, so I recommend playing in Japanese with English subtitles enabled.
The soundtrack, on the other hand, is excellent. You have a combination of aggressive beats during battles, smooth jazz while exploring the city, and you can also listen to music from some other SEGA titles through Kiryu's or Mine's phone.
To summarize:
Is this a top-notch remaster? No.
Does it provide enough content to justify the price? I believe it does. And with frequent discounts on the eShop, you can get a game that will keep you engaged with an interesting story, colorful characters, and excellent beat-em-up action long enough to justify every cent.
Nintendo Switch 2 copy of the game for review purposes was provided by distributor Colby.
