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?