WARNING: Major story spoliers for Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties, as well as the original Yakuza 3, lie ahead.
It’s natural to spend a lot of time thinking about what games could have been, had different decisions been made. Whether the change is preferable to the reality often doesn’t come into it, the fantasy of another possible world is the draw.
Despite that, few studios choose to make major shifts – at least as far as the main stories of those games go – when they remake their previous games. This won’t necessarily be a philosophical decision: the remaster or remake has to sell. Games which get revisited are ones players deeply love, and the suits will inevitably see tweaks to their fundamentals as an unnecessary risk. Old Oblivion is loved, so Bethesda adopted a rubber glove approach to the Oblivion remaster. They limited changes to modernising visuals and snipping away some annoying features. It’s akin to polishing up a holy relic, rather than replacing the gemstones or changing the engravings.
It’s why I’m intrigued by the change RGG Studio have made to the ending of 2009’s Yakuza 3 in the remake, Yakuza Kiwami 3 and Dark Ties, rather than annoyed. If you’ve not heeded the beefy spoiler warning at the start of this article, now’s your last chance.
At the end of the original Yakuza 3, arch-villain Yoshitaka Mine falls to his death from the top of Touto University Hospital. The ruthless corporate cynic turned equally ruthless underworld moneyman’s tale ends in an implied pancake on Tokyo’s pavement, punishment for his betrayal of ally and idol Tojo Clan chairman Daigo Dojima. It’s an ending that fits his character, if a bit disappointing in my estimation, since Mine’s particular brand of contemptuous pragmatism makes him one of the more engaging foils ever-conquering hero Kazuma Kiryu’s faced.
Yakuza baddies face a struggle not to be defined by their role in the game – placeholders waiting to be punched out. Rising beyond that and really making a mark on the series requires these evildoers to be given the sort of depth offered by the likes of original Yakuza villain Akira Nishikyama’s undeniable strong emotional ties to Kiryu, built up in that game and prequel Yakuza 0. On the other hand, the likes of Yakuza 2 foe Ryuji Goda and Yakuza 0’s band of colourful underbosses gain that memorable edge via battles which are veiled in so much pageantry their participants ooze an undeniable charisma. To me, Mine had the potential to be more, but, in a series entry already stuffed with villains vying for screentime, his brief cameo limited his impact. RGG Studio doomed him to become another notch on Kiryu’s lobbable bicycle.
It appears the developers agree. In Kiwami 3 and Dark Ties’ ending, Mine’s fall is no longer fatal. He lands in a bush and kinda bounces a bit, living to do money things another day. The first of these money things is hunting down fellow Yakuza 3 antagonist Goh Hamazaki. Hamazaki is standing in an alleyway, about to rush at Kiryu in the revenge stabbing which very briefly threatens the Dragon of Dojima’s life in the original game’s epilogue. Kiryu, of course, can’t be killed by any regular wound and may well end up besting cancer in the next mainline Like A Dragon game unless the disease has figured out how to counter a tiger drop.
In Kiwami 3, however, Hamazaki is talked out of stabbing Kiryu by the still living Mine. “What makes him so different to the rest of us?” Hamazaki asks. “Take a closer look,” answers Mine. “Do you really think he’s happy with this outcome?” Mine goes on to add that when he looks at the life Kiryu lives he sees “nothing but a living hell”. Kiryu has repeatedly tried to leave the world of organised crime but Mine believes he thrives and delights in violence. “I doubt he’ll keep his head down for long,” Mine concludes. “It’s only a matter of time before he falls to temptation and bares his fangs once more.”
Not to suggest RGG Studio are cribbing from my work, but I wrote a whole article along these lines years ago. So it gave me a kick to see RGG acknowledging the tragic and morally grey elements in Kiryu’s tale of pugilistic heroism. It makes his post-Yakuza 6 delve into nameless anonymity in the hopes of ending a torturous cycle even more fitting. Plus, Mine feels like the right sort of villain – misanthropic and analytical – to point out such things in a fashion that’s blunt, but veiled enough by the character’s own position not to reduce it to on the nose metacommentary.
Removing Hamazaki’s stabbing of Kiryu isn’t a great loss. It sets up why he starts Yakuza 4 in prison, but that’s a natural place for the villain to end up after his Yakuza 3 machinations fall apart. More concerning is the change’s potential to disentangle Mine’s fate from his relationship with Tojo Clan chairman Daigo Dojima. Mine’s complex cocktail of admiration and hatred for Dojima is one of the key pillars of Yakuza 3’s plot. Though, if Mine survives, there are new possibilities to have two collide in later games.
I’m typically opposed to retconned endings – they often do little other than ignite a debate among players – but I’m on board with the new Yakuza 3 conclusion. Though, there is a suggestion of what new role Mine will play. In the post-credits he asks Hamazaki to “walk with me down the wrong path” and meet someone dubbed The Fixer, an underworld manipulator adept at working from afar.
It certainly looks like Mine is angling for his own spinoff. Dark Ties, the new prologue that comes bundled with Yakuza Kiwami 3, charts Mine’s rise through the Tojo ranks and ends with him declaring “Yoshitaka Mine is dead. And me? I’m simply another man who erased his name.” That last bit’s not exactly subtle.
A Mine-fronted spin-off has potential to be an intriguing step for a series usually focused on the good guys. While Kiryu’s spinoff saw him working for a secret agency, assuming the undercover identity of Joryu, Mine doesn’t look to have any intention of giving up his life of grime. Putting aside the fact it seems those darker antics will involve the Kiwami 3 version of Hamazaki portrayed by Teriyuki Kagawa, who was accused of sexual assault back in 2022, it will be a welcome change of tone for the series.
Dark Ties itself, as I discussed in my review, isn’t the best early endorsement for this due to its brisk narrative and heavy focus on having Mine rehabilitate the reputation of a character who’s a violent sexual predator. The success of such a spin-off will hinge on whether RGG can tell stories set in the murkiest depths of the criminal underworld without muddying the telling with problematic actors and plotlines.
Like A Dragon spin-off series Judgment proves RGG Studio has the chops to tackle narratives built around issues like bullying, suicide, and the moral intricacies of clinical drug trials. They just need to exercise that control on the Yakuza series.
RGG had the guts to revisit their previous work and replace established history with something new, the question now is whether they can follow this new path to a worthwhile conclusion. If not, they should have left the potential in the realms of tantalising momentary hallucination.
