Gaming: Yakuza Kiwami 3's New Expansion Basically Turns It Into A Breakneck...

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio is, by this point, the undisputed master of recycling. By reusing characters and environments and minigames across the Like a Dragon series (and then remaking the games to do it all over again), it's able to pack each new game with a luxurious volume of stuff while simultaneously piling cutscenes to the rafters.

So it's not at all surprising that the biggest new feature of Yakuza Kiwami 3's Dark Ties expansion is a roguelite mode that lets you beat up hordes of thugs copy-pasted from the streets of Kamurochō. Even so, there's something cleverly meta in building an entirely new and compulsively replayable randomized mode out of spare parts.

It's almost a flex on games that do just one thing. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth contained within itself a whole Pokémon subsystem and Animal Crossing-style island building as mere side activities; why shouldn't Dark Ties tempt you to spend 20 hours doing runs to level up sidekicks, unlock new weapons, and earn stat-boosting gear like you would in any other roguelite?

That's the gist of Hell's Arena, a new underground fight club hiding down a Kamurochō back street in the expansion starring Yakuza 3 villain (antihero?) Yoshitaka Mine. Despite being a series baddie, the bit of the Dark Ties plot I got to play at a recent Sega preview event seems to suggest Mine will spend most of his expansion going around doing good deeds, not unlike Kiryu in the main game. "Most," of course, depending on how hard you get hooked on the new roguelite mode.

Where the two yakuza differ most is in combat: Kiryu fights with a bruising heft while Mine is snappy and light on his feet, with a marquee move that I instantly fell in love with. While performing a heavy attack, a well-timed button press lets Mine leap off the chest of an enemy and ping-pong to another.

It's a really fun "offense is the best defense" trick for avoiding an incoming attack or seeing how quickly you can make it through a brawl. It also reminded me of the rhythm of the Batman Arkham combat, even if Yakuza welcomes a bit more frantic mashing than the more measured timing of Batman's punches and parries.

Mine's the ideal character, in other words, to steer through a fast-paced combat dungeon that spurs you from floor to floor with a constantly ticking timer. Hell's Arena consists of Brawler Hell, a basic cage match situation, and Survival Hell, which is where the real meat is. There's a real Squid Game air to the setup, with masked VIPs watching

Source: PC Gamer