A lot of people are, understandably, feeling a bit fatigued by the veritable tsunami of video game remakes and remasters we’re seeing right now. Silent Hill, Final Fantasy, Xenoblade, and even Dynasty Warriors — everyone is getting in on the remake scene. Just last month, I wrote a review about Metal Gear Solid Delta, questioning its role and reason to exist as a “new” version of a pivotal classic. Often, the limitations of the system games are made on are integral to their artistic vision, but there are times when those constraints can hinder an artistic vision. Yakuza 3 is one of those games, and it looks like it’s next up on the remaster block.
Apparently, developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio itself has accidentally leaked the existence of a Yakuza Kiwami 3, which presumably, like the previous two Kiwami games, would be a full-blown remake of the third game — most likely on the Dragon Engine introduced with Yakuza 6.
As reported by Push Square, the studio’s official website temporarily had a category for Yakuza Kiwami 3, before it was promptly taken down. But considering Tokyo Game Show is right around the corner, along with two RGG Direct presentations, it seems overwhelmingly likely an announcement is imminent. And I’d actually argue that Yakuza 3 is the most deserving game in the entire series of a remake, even over the previous two Kiwami games, for a multitude of reasons.
Yakuza 3 was the first game in the series on PlayStation 3, releasing three years after the console in 2009. What’s interesting about Yakuza 3 is that it has one of the most remarkably personal and emotional stories in the franchise, but it is absolutely a slog to play. Even just spending a few hours with the game, it becomes abundantly clear that it was part of a whole swathe of games that struggled with the technology leap, and simply didn’t know how to really harness the extra power.
The Yakuza series has always had exceptional “game feel,” from bone-crunching combat to the sublime simplicity of minigames like darts. But that’s what feels most off about the original Yakuza 3 — it simply doesn’t feel good to play. There’s an obtuse layer of jankiness to everything; combat feels imprecise and annoyingly slow, minigames can have frustrating controls, and even just moving through the world feels sluggish (much in the same way as Grand Theft Auto IV does occasionally).
The act of actually playing Yakuza 3, minute to minute, is unsatisfying at best, and downright infuriating at worst. That’s a shame because there’s actually a lot that the game does well, even better than other Yakuza games in many regards.
Yakuza 3 opens with Kazuma Kiryu enjoying his “retired” life in Okinawa, whiling the days away with his children in Morning Glory Orphanage. The first roughly ten hours of Yakuza 3 are deliberately slow-paced, generously building the bond between Kiryu and his kids, and showing how much this new civilian life fits him. Which makes everything even more heartbreaking when Kiryu inevitably gets drawn back into the murderous underworld of Japan.
This was one of the key games for developing Kiryu’s ideology, showing his inner kindness, and the conflict of protecting those he cares about versus living the quiet life he endlessly craves. The story of Yakuza 3 is one emotional gut punch after another, a slow-burn masterpiece that really digs into the ethos of both Kiryu and the series at large, including the overarching theme of criticizing toxic masculinity.
Unfortunately, this powerful narrative is bogged down by gameplay that was a victim of the times — an issue that a remake could directly address. Bringing Yakuza 3 up to the visual and mechanical standards of the rest of the series could work wonders for the experience.
On top of all of that, the original United States release of Yakuza 3 had a ton of content cut. This included completely removing Hostess Clubs and the Hostess Maker features, removing four different minigames that included a Japanese quiz show called Answer x Answer, and even losing 22 different substories.
All of this was removed for largely two different reasons. Some content was cut due to perceived cultural differences, something that was often done for Japanese games at the time. But also, the Yakuza series was incredibly niche by every standard and had very little budget, so taking out a lot of text-heavy content was necessary to even get the game out, with little money for localization.
When the remastered version of Yakuza 3 launched in 2019, it did restore most of the cut content, but not everything. Contract issues with real actors and companies meant that some hostesses and magazines couldn’t be used. The Answer x Answer minigame and its story still weren’t in the game, and three substories that involved a transvestite were intentionally removed. I’d assume the latter likely wouldn’t make it into a Kiwami remake as well.
But the overall point is that Yakuza 3, on top of having a large level of jank, has had an array of different versions with different levels of content cut. Both of these reasons make it a prime candidate for a remake, not just to have a feature-complete version, but to truly hone in on the game’s vision. It’s one of the rare examples where the limits of the technology genuinely held the game back from achieving what it wanted to.
There’s good reason to be fatigued and cynical about remakes right now, but there are times that a remake can serve a very specific purpose, both for preservation’s sake and the vision of the original developers. I’m hopeful Yakuza Kiwami 3 could be exactly one of those moments.