{"id":54387,"date":"2025-11-28T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=54387"},"modified":"2025-12-02T14:33:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T05:33:16","slug":"yakuza-kiwami-3-and-dark-ties-include-major-hints-about-where-the-like-a-dragon-series-is-headed-rgg-studio-lead-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/yakuza-kiwami-3-and-dark-ties-include-major-hints-about-where-the-like-a-dragon-series-is-headed-rgg-studio-lead-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Yakuza Kiwami 3 and Dark Ties include major hints about where the Like a Dragon series is headed, RGG Studio lead says\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ahead of the \u201cLike a Dragon: The Four Ceremonies of Life Exhibition<\/a>\u201d opening its doors in Tokyo on November 28, RGG Studio director and executive producer Yokoyama Masayoshi gave an interview to GameWatch.<\/a> He talked about the future of the Yakuza series and reminisced about what he considers the biggest turning point in its 20-year-long history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February, RGG Studio will release Yakuza Kiwami 3 and Dark Ties<\/strong>, a bundle title containing a full remake of Yakuza 3 and an original spin-off game featuring Yoshitaka Mine as a playable character. According to Yokoyama, this release is important for Like a Dragon\u2019s future. \u201cIt contains some major hints about the future direction of the series. We haven\u2019t officially announced anything related to that yet. But once you play it, I think you\u2019ll get an idea, or rather, a pretty solid sense of what we intend to do with the series going forward.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Yakuza<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While Yokoyama doesn\u2019t offer any more hints about what RGG Studio has snuck into the new title, he remarks that \u201cif you think Yakuza Kiwami 3 is just a remake, you\u2019d be hugely mistaken.\u201d Additionally, he says that the events of Dark Ties will be \u201cextremely shocking,\u201d something the game\u2019s director Ryosuke Horii and Hiroyuki Sakamoto have also expressed, calling it the \u201cdarkest story in the series\u2019 history<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, Yokoyama considers Like a Dragon\u2019s biggest turning point in the past 20 years to be the introduction of Ichiban Kasuga. Although the genre shift from action games to RPGs (for mainline Yakuza games) was major too, the change in protagonist was an even bigger hurdle to overcome from his perspective. \u201cIt’s because players accepted [Ichiban] that we\u2019ve been able to continue the series.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apart from the Like a Dragon series, RGG Studio is currently also working on the brand-new IP Stranger than Heaven, and the sixth mainline entry of the Virtua Fighter series<\/a>. Yakuza Kiwami 3 and Dark Ties is set to launch on February 12, 2026 for PC (Steam), PS5\/PS4, Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Series X|S.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related: <\/strong>Yakuza Kiwami 3 fundamentally changes the meaning of the term \u201cKiwami,\u201d developers say. It\u2019s no longer just a technical upgrade<\/strong><\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like a Dragon\u2019s devs get spooked looks from industry peers when they say they juggle up to 3-4 titles simultaneously with one team<\/strong><\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like a Dragon series executive producer Yokoyama Masayoshi says the upcoming release will tell players a lot about the series’ future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":54389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-54387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nYakuza Kiwami 3 and Dark Ties include major hints about where the Like a Dragon series is headed, RGG Studio lead says\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Like a Dragon series executive producer Yokoyama Masayoshi says the upcoming release will tell players a lot about the series' future.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/yakuza-kiwami-3-and-dark-ties-include-major-hints-about-where-the-like-a-dragon-series-is-headed-rgg-studio-lead-says\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Yakuza Kiwami 3 and Dark Ties include major hints about where the Like a Dragon series is headed, RGG Studio lead says\u00a0 - 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