Sep 292025
For me, the best announcement from TGS was Yakuza Kiwami 3 and its unexpected companion game Dark Ties, starring Yoshitaka Mine.
A few more details have surfaced since then, mostly through a Famitsu interview with director Ryosuke Horii.
(I’m relying on Google Translate here, just so you know.)
They’d originally intended to make Mine’s story something that could be watched as a video (maybe it as originally planned to be new cutscenes added to Kiwami 3, like the added Nishiki scenes in the first Kiwami?), but then they decided it would be better if he was playable. It seems this decision was at least partly made because of how popular Mine is.
When they announced Dark Ties, they described Mine as having an antihero approach in his substories, and Horii touches on that in the interview, saying that Mine doesn’t approach substories with the “defeating evil and protecting the weak” attitude that the other games’ protagonists have.
Overall, it sounds like they intend Dark Ties to be a darker story, which sounds pretty interesting.
The interview also describes the nature of Kiwami 3 as a remake, and how they felt if they kept it too close to the original Yakuza 3, it would feel boring/pointless since Yakuza 3’s remaster is readily available. Therefore, they approached it differently than the previous Kiwami games and treated it like a new work, and they don’t intend for it to replace Yakuza 3.
Another interview emphasized that as well, with Kiwami 3 involving bigger changes than Kiwami and Kiwami 2 had. Sadly, it also confirms the removal of the Revelation system.
(I’ve been hoping Revelations would come back to the series and appear in newer games, so I’m especially disappointed that they won’t even be in Kiwami 3.)
Moving on from the interviews, there’s also one big piece of information that has surfaced from TGS – the length of Dark Ties. Since it’s packaged with Kiwami 3, I thought it might be significantly shorter than the previous Gaiden games. I was hoping it would at least be the length of the Kaito Files, not as short as Kiwami 2’s Majima Saga. However, some previews mentioned being told it will be similar in length to Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name.
If it really ends up being that long, that’s incredible. I’m really looking forward to it.
What are your thoughts on the latest details about Dark Ties? How do you feel about their approach to Kiwami 3 as a remake?