Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties launched last week on February 12, and Sega decided to celebrate the occasion in Malaysia. An official Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties launch event was held behind closed doors for the lucky 200 Malaysian fans who signed up.
Not only that, the event was also graced by the producer and director of Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties, Ryosuke Horii from developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio.
Gamer Matters had the opportunity to ask a few questions as part of a media roundtable interview why the remake of Yakuza 3 put an extra focus on life at the Morning Glory orphanage, why the Yakuza/Like A Dragon games continue to include legacy arcade games from Sega’s past, that sewing mini-game as well as other interesting tidbits.
On Putting More Focus To The Morning Glory
For the remake, Horii specifically wanted to highlight the importance of the Morning Glory orphanage, not just because of its importance to The Plot (shoutout to Chapter 9: The Plot), but its importance to Kiryu as a character. “If you’ve played the game or you know the series, you know that moving forward from this point onwards, Kiryu is gonna go through some really difficult challenges in his life,” Horii said. “He’s going to have a bit of a hard life moving forward,” hinting on the events the entails in future instalments.
“Because of that, [we] wanted to juxtapose that with, the live at Morning Glory where, for the first time, viewers and players might see what Kiryu is like as a dad, finally understanding what it’s like to have a family, the warmth of having a family.”
The contrasting tone of the whole Morning Glory where Kiryu tries his darndest to be a dad by levelling up his Daddy Rank by doing chores and play games with the kids all enclosed in this lighthearted tone, is an intentional one. The Yakuza/Like A Dragon series have found its global appeal by nailing that sweet-and-sour note where it can be serious crime drama in one minute and silly shenanigans in another.
(During our interview as well as throughout the entire event, Horii specifically mention the phrase Daddy Rank, implying that that’s not a localised choice of English translation for the Morning Glory progression system, that is in fact the name they went for.)
Horii wants players to experience the levity from the Morning Glory content in Kiwami, especially knowing what will happen to Kiryu later on. As he said through a translator, there will be a lot of “chances to see Kiryu looking very happy, looking very content. A lot of bright and positive moments for him that we can witness whilst in [Yakuza Kiwami 3].”
How The Team Developed The Mini-Games For Morning Glory, Including The Sewing Racing Game
To really hone in the happy mundanity of the Morning Glory content, the team at Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio was dead set in gamifying chores, Horii explained.
“We were very sure that we wanted to turn those everyday chores into game elements within Morning Glory,” he said.
“I have children too, but I can’t do chores at all!”
In that vein, the team agreed that Kiryu can’t sew. “There’s no way Kiryu know hot to sew. So how would I develop it into a game?
“And when you look at sewing as an activity, there is a needle that goes in and out, and then you have to guide the plot along the way in order to work. And that concept was actually pretty much, at its core, the same as racing. You need the point to move along, of course. So which is how we came up with this idea.”
The sewing is the result of one of the shortlisted chores that was then gamified. The sewing mini-game’s first “track” was a brick-shaped oval with two long straights and all you is essentially turning left, with more complicated patterns having a mix of short and long, fast corners that would befit a rally stage.
Sewing was one of the mini-games Horii showcased to the fans during the live gameplay demo of the Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties launch event, alongside the bug-catching mini-game.
Preserving Legacy Sega Games Is “Our Duty”
We also asked Horii about his thoughts on the recurring inclusion of legacy Sega games as emulated arcade games, delivered diegetically in-game as games the protagonists can play when visiting the arcade (game center) by walking to a cabinet and inserting in-game money.
Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties has some deep cuts, titles that a regular gamer in Malaysia who do regular stumble into the rare arcade would ever find.
Horii said that “as a team, we thought about how we could bring back these games so that, the users of today can still experience and be able to play all of these older games. And right now, that’s the road that we’ve chosen.
“We’re always on the lookout for all these older games that, people of today can no longer play to be able to put inside the Yakuza series,” Horii said. “In fact, we feel that it almost feels like our duty to be able to preserve all these old games in a way that the players of today will not forget. It’s something that we want to continue to do and we’ll endeavor to continue to do so that our current gamers will have access to the older games in some way.”
Horii specifically mentioned that he has played Emergency Call Ambulance, one of the three new emulated arcade games in Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties, which he finds “very interesting.”
On Malaysian Food
Of course, it would be remiss for a Malaysian to not ask a visitor of what their impressions of the country. Horii only arrived to Kuala Lumpur the day before, but he had some time to sample the local cuisine and see the sights.
“Everything was very, very good on the [dinner] table and I actually liked spicy food.” Horii remarked that a spicy prawn dish, which we later discovered to be udang sambal petai (sambal-spiced prawn mixed with bitter bean, a Malay cuisine best served with rice) goes down well with beer, a fact he also shared with the rest of the fans at the event.
On Karaoke
Horii is the person responsible in bringing the karaoke mini-game, now a ubiquitous feature in Yakuza/Like A Dragon. The mini-game first appeared in Yakuza 3, as a matter of fact.
In a previous interview back in 2018, Horii mentioned he had sung at least 7,000 karaoke songs.
When asked for an updated tally, it’s now over 8,700. “My record is growing,” he said. He’s also a fan of the Japanese rock band BUCK-TICK, which he recommends fans in Malaysia to give them a listen.
The Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties launch event, as we expected, did feature karaoke. But it was not just someone. It’s just about everyone. All of the fans in attendance at the nightclub sang Baka Mitai together.
Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties is out now on PS4, PS5, PC (Steam), Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2. Check out our review of the game here.