Yakuza Kiwami 3—seemingly the last in RGG Studio’s series of Kiwami remakes—released last week, though not without controversy. Between some baffling cuts, strange retcons, and the casting of an actor, Teruyuki Kagawa, who confessed to sexual harassment in 2022, even stalwart series fans weren’t predisposed to love Kiwami 3.
So it’s no surprise they don’t. In fact, at the time of writing, Kiwami 3 is the worst-rated game—by the metric of user reviews—of the entire series on Steam. Make no mistake, it’s not been review-bombed and it’s not universally loathed; Yakuza Kiwami 3 doesn’t occupy the doldrums of an Overwhelmingly Negative user rating. Nevertheless, it’s currently at a 63% ‘Mixed’ review score, putting it squarely bottom of the leaderboard relative to the rest of the games.
And so on and so forth in that vein. At 63% positive, it’s not hard to find positive reviews, but it’s quite a diminished result for a game in a series as beloved as Yakuza, and whose weakest entries even usually have their fanatical admirers. It’s worth noting that the only other two Yakuza games with Mixed reviews on Steam are the recent relistings of Yakuza 0 and Kiwami 1. RGG, it seems, is on a downward trajectory in fan estimations of late.
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