RGG Studio released a statement on January 30 addressing concerns about graphics issues in the recent Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties demo. According to RGG Studio, these issues do not represent what the full game will offer, and will be fixed in a day-one patch, alongside other quality concerns.
Those who played Kiwami 3’s demo reported less-than stellar-presentation in locations such as the Kubochi River, even when playing on the highest graphics settings. This is largely due to a lighting issue which brings down the realism and depth of environments and objects.
According to the statement on RGG Studio’s official Japanese X account, the reason for these issues is that the demo was being developed simultaneously with the main game, resulting in some aspect being lacking compared to the full game. In addition to the lighting, several bugs in the demo resulted in other unintended graphics issues.
The devs assure that these bugs will not be present upon Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties’ official release. The upcoming Patch 1.11 will fix the graphics and add other improvements to the final game. Meanwhile, Like a Dragon fans are hoping that concerns regarding the casting of Teruyuki Kagawa will also be addressed by the developers.
Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties releases on February 12 for Windows (Steam), PlayStation 4 and 5, Nintendo Switch 2, and Xbox Series X|S. A free demo is also available.
I would not trust that. The game looks rushed overall. It’s more than just graphics as well.
1. The combat has magnetism which is extremely bad for Action games
2. Physics are very off when performing certain moves and Specials
3. Cutscenes and Karoake Bar have awful camera work
4. Models are off including Kiryu
5. Characters like Kiryu stare blankly into the ether and have zero soul in Cutscenes or even the Karoake bar
Nagoshi needs to come back or they need to shelve the franchise because it’s clearly obvious Nagoshi managed every part of LAD. This is extremely bad and mismanaged by Yokoyama who defends localizers and censorship of works. So I would not expect anything less.