Recently revealed remake Yakuza Kiwami 3 is going to be much more than a graphical glow-up.
We knew this would be the case, of course, since developer RGG Studio unveiled the revival alongside Dark Ties — an entirely new, packed-in expansion that charts main antagonist Mine's rise to prominence.
On top of that, Kiwami 3's got a bunch of new gameplay additions and adjustments, making it more of a modern reimagining of Yakuza 3, rather than a retread.
But as it happens, RGG Studio will also attempt to rejig the title's story — and that's bound to raise a few eyebrows amongst fans of the series.
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In an interview with Japanese outlet ThisIsGame (as translated by Automaton), director Ryosuke Horii explains: "With this remake, we’re revisiting a game we made not long after the Yakuza series’ very beginning, so we had all these lingering feelings about it like, 'I wish we could have done this differently,' or 'I wish we could have fleshed out this character’s drama more thoroughly.'"
Basically, it sounds like the developer's looking to add context — but the scope of this undertaking is currently unclear, and will probably remain so until we're playing Kiwami 3 for ourselves.
Horii confirms that a "significant number of new scenes that make the story more passionate and moving" have been implemented.
Now, as some fans will tell you, tampering with existing Yakuza plotlines can be a slippery slope. For example, the newly added cutscenes in Yakuza 0 Director's Cut divided opinion due to how they could recontextualise certain events.
The hope, then, is that the new scenes in Kiwami 3 don't mess too much with the stuff that already works.
And to be fair, Horii does apparently state that the team won't be touching any core story beats. Again, it's more about bringing additional detail to the existing narrative.
What are your thoughts in Yakuza Kiwami 3? Are there any parts of the story that you'd like to see be expanded upon? Don't mention the new Rikiya in the comments section below.