Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties review: "The meatiest brawling this crime thriller's tackled in years combines with its warmest story, but its overly edgy new chapter leaves me cold"

Kazuma Kiryu batters enemies in the streets using the Okinawan Ryukyu style in Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties using his shield as a throwing weapon.

Once again, a former yakuza and ultimate fighter is forced to come out of retirement to punch crime in the face – but, this time, he's doing it for the orphanage full of lovable children he now runs on a sunny beach in Okinawa. I've always felt that Yakuza 3's story is one of the series' best, only let down by some odd pacing and some of the brawling RPG's clunkiest combat. Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties wonderfully presents that same story, though minor changes do little to smooth out rough edges. Revised combat, at least, delivers the crunchiest nose-breaking since 2021's Lost Judgment.

The genius of Yakuza 3 is that it feels like an incredible trilogy-ender, as long as you disregard the knowledge that former-yakuza-with-a-heart-of-gold Kazuma Kiryu's story wouldn't actually end until Yakuza 6. And also in the seventh game, Yakuza: Like a Dragon. With his character arc also wrapping up in Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name. Which also continued through to ending in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (the eighth game).