RGG Studio Dev Comments on Yakuza Kiwami 3

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, the team behind the longstanding Like a Dragon franchise, has expressed interest in remaking Yakuza 3, the franchise's third mainline entry that originally released in 2009. The studio had previously remade the first two games of Sega's celebrated Yakuza series, Yakuza Kiwami and Yakuza Kiwami 2, in 2016 and 2017 respectively. Ever since, fans have been eager for confirmation of a potential Yakuza 3 remake.

Most recently, Ryu Ga Gotoku has been busy releasing three Like a Dragon games in the past year. Just over a year ago, it released Like a Dragon: Ishin, a remake of the original 2014 spinoff game that had previously only been available in Japan. Bridging Kazuma Kiryu's gap from Yakuza 6: The Song of Life to 2020's Yakuza: Like a Dragon, RGG released Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name late last year in preparation for Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, which launched in January. Touted as the largest mainline Like a Dragon title in the franchise yet, Infinite Wealth is also considered one of the best with its stellar cast of characters, gripping narrative, and satisfying turn-based RPG combat.

In a recent livestream held by Ryu Ga Gotoku, Masayoshi Yokoyama, the series director of Like a Dragon, provided some updates on the exciting future of the franchise. Via Gematsu, he first revealed that the team is getting the ball rolling on the casting process for the next mainline game. He later mentioned that this next game won't be Yakuza Kiwami 3, but that the studio is still heavily considering remaking the third game, saying «I think we'll do Kiwami 3 at some point, I think we'll definitely do it sooner or later.»

With Yakuza 3 already having been remastered as recently as 2019 alongside Yakuza 4 and 5, it'll be interesting to see whether Ryu Ga Gotoku is planning to give the franchise the Resident Evil treatment of fully remaking all the early titles for modern fans. Yakuza 6: The Song of Life, the final entry in the proper Kiryu saga,