Like A Dragon/Yakuza devs RGG Studio have revealed Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties, a remake of Yakuza 3 paired with a fresh spin-off adventure starring the beat-em-up’s baddie Yoshitaka Mine. They’ll be released as one package on February 12th, 2026, as announced at the latest RGG Summit showcase.
The showcase also saw the studio announce that Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut, originally released as a Switch 2 launch title, will arrive on PC December 8th. That revamp of the most 80s entry in the series offers some extra cutscenes and a Red Light Raid multiplayer mode all about battling hordes of goons.
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While a remastered version of Yakuza 3 did hit Steam back in 2021, Kiwami 3 is a more in-depth face-lift, in line with the Kiwami treatments the first two games in the series have gotten. That means a full remake, with RGG promising “more intense battles, added cutscenes that bring depth to the story, and minigames chock-full of replay value” in addition to retooled visuals.
Here’s a quick Steam page synopsis of Yakuza 3’s plot, in case you need a refresher: “Kazuma Kiryu has earned his retirement on the sandy beaches of Okinawa. But when a deadly power struggle arrives on his doorstep, he’ll have to walk the streets of Kamurocho to escape his past for good.”
The most newsworthy addition is definitely Dark Ties, a fresh spin-off adventure which puts you in the shoes of businessy Yakuza 3 antagonist Yoshitaka Mine. If you hop into Dark Ties from the remake’s main menu, you’ll get to see how he established himself in the underworld after crashing out of the corporate one, forming deep bonds with Tojo Clan chairman Daigo Dojima and more typical Yakuza villain Tsuyoshi Kanda in the process.
It’s been a few years since I played Yakuza 3, but I recall liking Mine as a change of pace from the brawnier brawlers Kiryu tends to have to wrest the clan away from, with his cold and calculating persona certainly being a lot different to direct predecessor and Yakuza 2 baddie Ryuji Goda. It’s certainly nice to see RGG doing more with one of the villains from the Yakuzas 3 to 5 range, given those poor lads are generally pretty forgettable compared to series cornerstones like Goda and Akira Nishkiyama.
There’s a deluxe edition of Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties which comes with some extra goodies, while costing £69.99 in comparison to the base game’s £54.99/$59.99/€59.99. I’ve mainly mentioned it because one of the additions is called the ‘Legendary Lads Set’, which is a very good name. It also features some flip phone customisation, though there regrettably don’t look to be any embarrassing 2000s ringtones.
You can wishlist this refreshed street scum sweeper on Steam right now.
