RGG Studio has announced a showcase for next week to provide a closer look at the upcoming Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties.
The Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties Direct will be on December 22 at 5 PM PT / 8 PM ET.
In case you’ve missed the announcement, this is a full remake of Yakuza 3, bundled together with a new Gaiden-style prequel game starring Mine.
As a Mine enthusiast, I went from “Yakuza 3 is fine and doesn’t need a remake” to “Wait, this is amazing!” when Dark Ties was revealed. The new content being added to Kiwami 3 also got my attention, because more slice-of-life content with the kids is exactly what I wanted. The one thing I was worried about was that they might make too many story changes, although they’ve said Kiwami 3 is meant to exist alongside Yakuza 3 rather than replace it.
…That statement is a little harder to believe after recent developments, as they’ve delisted the original Yakuza 0 to replace it with the Director’s Cut, despite the story additions in the Director’s Cut being controversial at best.
A shadow also fell over Kiwami 3 because one of the new actors added for the remake was accused of sexual assault, and RGG Studio hasn’t even acknowledged the backlash against hiring him. (The recasting decisions were already controversial even without that, so it’s been a firestorm out there now.) So I have to admit, my enthusiasm for Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties was dampened somewhat by everything that happened since its announcement.
That aside, I don’t know if I’d want to watch the Direct anyway, just because I don’t want too much of the game spoiled for me. They already showed combat and mini-games when the game was announced.
How do you feel about the Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties situation? Are you going to watch the Direct?
Today is officially the 30th anniversary of the Tales series!
Tales of Phantasia first came out in Japan on December 15, 1995.
Producer Yusuke Tomizawa released a message for the anniversary stating that the coming year will be “filled with even greater excitement and news.”
He also expressed their plans to continue the remaster project “with the goal of assembling as many remastered titles as possible, as quickly as possible.”
Finally, he said that new games require more time to make than before, but that we should be looking forward to a new title in the future.
The remaster news is good to hear, and I hope the next remasters announced will be older games. Personally, I still want to see some of the games that were never localized, like Tales of Rebirth, get remastered and translated.
On the other hand, Luke being part of the anniversary’s key visual (pictured above and in the video) makes it feel like Tales of the Abyss has to be on the table… right?
When it comes to new titles, this message doesn’t do much besides assure us there will be one eventually, which I don’t think was in doubt. It’s a little disappointing that a new game hasn’t been announced yet, but I’ve got plenty of Tales games in my backlog in the meantime.
What are you hoping to see from the Tales 30th anniversary year?
The Game Awards were held last night, and neither Ace Attorney nor Kingdom Hearts IV were there.
But there were some other good games, so I’ll be covering the highlights that stood out to me. Be sure to check out the live stream if you want to see the full show!
As always, there was a short pre-show before the main show. The pre-show is basically exactly like the main show, except the announcements are smaller and it isn’t hosted by Geoff Keighley.
(Seriously, the pre-show even includes rewards.)
The first game that got my attention was Bradley the Badger, a strange action-adventure game about a platforming character who gets stuck in an unfinished game.
I’m not completely sold on it yet, especially in terms of tone, but it looks like it has some interesting ideas.
Then there’s Stupid Never Dies, an action game where you’re playing as a zombie, and…
It’s just surreal. I don’t know what to think. I’m intrigued by the game just because I spent most of the trailer thinking, “What am I even watching?” On top of that, the gameplay looks fun.
Meanwhile, the main show started off with a huge announcement – Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic, a new single-player narrative-driven action RPG.
Not only that, but it’s being directed by Casey Hudson, who directed Knights of the Old Republic and the original Mass Effect trilogy. So yes, that’s exciting… although no release window was given, and there are claims that it’s still a long way off.
So I’m excited, but I’m not holding my breath for news anytime soon.
Moving on, Frictional Games announced a new horror game: Ontos. The trailer doesn’t show a lot, but I’m always intrigued by a new horror game from Frictional. (Yes, I still need to play Soma.)
In other horror news, there was a new Resident Evil Requiem that finally confirmed Leon as the game’s second protagonist, which had been rumored since the game was revealed. According to the announcement, Grace’s gameplay will involve “spine-tingling survival horror” while Leon’s has “exhilarating, death-defying action.”
I’m having flashbacks to when Capcom tried to appeal to everyone with Resident Evil 6’s multiple campaigns. I really want Requiem to be good, but I’m feeling cautious toward it right now.
Now, the highlight of the night for me (and the only one of my predictions that came true) was the official reveal of Control’s sequel, now titled Control: Resonant. It looks like it has more melee-focused combat this time, which helps explain why it’s officially called an action RPG, but I don’t mind the change. It looks great!
We also got to see the first game from Nagoshi Studio, the company founded by longtime Yakuza director Toshihiro Nagoshi after he left RGG. It’s called Gang of Dragon, and it’s an action-adventure game sets in the criminal underworld.
Part of it even takes place in Kabukicho.
I’m amused and baffled by him leaving Yakuza to make Definitely-Not-Yakuza, but it does look like it could be fairly different. It appears to have a stronger focus on gunplay, for example.
Two new Tomb Raider games were announced at the Game Awards, as well. Tomb Raider: Catalyst is a new game in the series, while Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis is a remake of the original Tomb Raider. I’ve never gotten into the Tomb Raider games, but these trailers left me thinking I should.
Finally, the last major highlight for me was a game I’m not interested in for its own sake so much as for what else it might mean. Capcom announced Mega Man: Dual Override, a new mainline Mega Man game, for 2027.
This news comes right on the heels of the investor report that named Mega Man, Devil May Cry, and Ace Attorney as IPs to grow through new releases, remakes, and ports. If they followed that with a new Mega Man announcement, maybe a new Ace Attorney is right around the corner after all.
Anyway, these are the games that stood out to me the most. It was a weaker Game Awards for me, but I’m excited for Control and looking ahead to the far future for Star Wars. What announcements were you most interested in?
RGG Studio has announced a showcase for next week to provide a closer look at the upcoming Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties.
