{"id":379337,"date":"2026-01-20T00:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T00:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/379337\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T00:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T00:47:09","slug":"respect-the-original-but-dont-rely-on-it-yakuza-kiwami-3-director-on-remaking-a-rough-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/379337\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Respect the Original, But Don’t Rely on It’: Yakuza Kiwami 3 Director on Remaking a ‘Rough’ Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Yakuza<\/a><\/p>\n

Based on everything we’ve seen of it so far, Yakuza Kiwami 3<\/a> is shaping up to be a seriously robust remake of what many would consider to be a PS3 classic.<\/p>\n

But what was the process behind expanding and reworking such a beloved instalment? As reported by Automaton<\/a>, producer and director Ryosuke Horii has dished out some pretty juicy quotes on the subject during a recent media interview.<\/p>\n

“I think the most difficult and delicate part of developing a remake is deciding how much to carry over from the original,” Horii begins.<\/p>\n

“If you don\u2019t handle that well, you end up with a remake of mediocre quality. When working on this project, what I kept in mind was respecting the original, but not relying on it too much.”<\/p>\n

Obviously, remakes are nothing new for RGG at this point, but Kiwami 3 does appear to be the studio’s most ambitious revival yet \u2014 at least in terms of additions, like the whole new Dark Ties campaign that sees you play as main game antagonist Mine.<\/p>\n

But Horii also strongly suggests that the original Yakuza 3<\/a> \u2014 which first released in 2009 \u2014 is a prime candidate for the remake treatment, because it simply hasn’t aged very well.<\/p>\n

He says it’s “a game with many rough edges”, and that “you can\u2019t make a good remake if you don\u2019t confront that reality”.<\/p>\n

“I think you need the courage to fight against those idealized memories,” he adds, pushing back against the kind of nostalgia that could cloud a team’s judgement.<\/p>\n

But then Horii goes on to clarify that Kiwami 3 actually has the youngest development team in RGG’s history \u2014 a calculated decision that was made in order to avoid existing bias for the original release.<\/p>\n

Going into a little more detail, Horii gives his own impressions of Yakuza 3, all these years later. He comments that the original has “extremely difficult” combat, perhaps alluding to the game’s infamous block-happy enemies and Kiryu’s questionable combo potential.<\/p>\n

“It was tough to beat the game, and I\u2019d even say it was the hardest in the series,” he continues.<\/p>\n

Horii then reassures players that the studio’s come a long way since, and that Kiwami 3 should provide a much improved experience.<\/p>\n

“I think it\u2019s a very ambitious game that doesn\u2019t just dwell on memories of the past,” he concludes.<\/p>\n

What are your thoughts on Horii’s words? Are you looking forward to Kiwami 3? How do you feel about all its new stuff? Wear your best Hawaiian shirt in the comments section below.<\/p>\n

[source automaton-media.com<\/a>]<\/p>\n

\tRelated Games<\/p>\n

\tSee Also<\/p>\n

\"Robert<\/p>\n

Robert (or Rob if you’re lazy) is an assistant editor of Push Square, and has been a fan of PlayStation since the 90s, when Tekken 2 introduced him to the incredible world of video games. He still takes his fighting games seriously, but RPGs are his true passion. The Witcher, Persona, Dragon Quest, Mass Effect, Final Fantasy, Trails, Tales \u2014 he’s played ’em all. A little too much, some might say.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Based on everything we’ve seen of it so far, Yakuza Kiwami 3 is shaping up to be a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[59,112,214,86,56,54,55,66337],"class_list":["post-379337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-gb","tag-ps5","tag-sega","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-yakuza"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}