So! Kiwami 3 and Dark Ties, huh?
...Okay, spoilers ahead. If you keep reading past the Spoiler Blocker image of Kiryu giving Kanda backshots, it's on you.
For full context, he's actually trying to grapple him during a fight, but you know Yakuza, it'll take every opportunity.
So...I don't...hate the plot twist as viscerally as I thought I would. If ever there'd be a chance for Mine to survive, it'd be in an alternate universe branch-off sorta thing.
But I hate what it represents. Before, I criticized just how little consequence really mattered in the series after Nagoshi left. But now, in the ballsiest lack of consequence in the series, something actually brave, you chicken out and put it as an alt-universe "Kiwami" thing? So, Lau Ka Long, Kashiwagi, Andre Richardson (who fell from the same fucking building in Mine's arms), that's all fine. But Mine? Nah. That one's non-canon.
Also, fuck you. A bush? And he's recruited into the Daidoji? YOU ALREADY DID THAT TWIST WITH MORINAGA FROM Y5? Remember, Hanawa? You killed him off in Infinite Wealth! "Oh, sorry, this guy from Yakuza 5 that totally died? He's alive and in the Daidoji!" Oh, neat. "And we killed him!" Oh. "Oh, sorry, this guy from Yakuza 3-" FUCK OFF! You can't-y-you can't just pull the same shit twice in a row after spiritually pulling the same shit three times in a row prior!
And none of that would be so bad if Kiwami 3 didn't suck so much! It's so bad! "Let's hire a sex-offender, slash half the content people love, make it play like dry splooge, and never apologize for any of it!" Like, Komaki? Gone. Kiryu validating a trans woman? Gone. Revelations? Gone. Half the cool gameplay shit you just had in Lost Judgement and Pirate Yakuza? Gone! Have fun with Ryukyu Style, you bitch! We already have your money!
Like...having an alt-universe story where Mine survives is fine. I'm even fine with it being in a remake. I love FF7 Remake and that shit's actually a pseudo-sequel with multiverse time travel, I do not give a shit. But A) the game itself needs to be good, and B) you have to commit. "Oh, he fell in a bush" that's not commitment. Commitment would be "oh, he fell into the same scaffolding Andre Richardson fell onto or whatever, and in Dark Ties, you fucking fight the CIA while critically wounded and Kiryu and Daigo save him" or some shit. Nah. A bush. And the Daidoji. Again. And the game itself isn't worth it on top of that. Like, Christ.
I dunno what the point of this is. I guess, after a whole franchise of a high batting average, actually having a real stinker is worth the autopsy. Dead Souls? Too fun to hate. Lost Paradise? That shit has Kenshiro, I can't be mad at that. Yakuza 3 Original? Fuck you. But Kiwami 3? Now we have a conversation.
...The soundtrack is really good, though, they put some real effort into remaking the old tunes and adding some new ones. I prefer the original soundtrack, but the new Receive and Stab You? Really good. New boss version of Fly? Fantastic. Fatal Damage? Holy shit that grunge. Independence for Violence? No, not that one. The old version had that fun vinyl effect with the old Y1 version as an intro, and they cut that, so why bother with it? But the rest? Glorious. Morning Glory, one might say.
