Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio recently released a new demo for Yakuza 3 Kiwami, an upcoming remake of the original PS3-era Yakuza 3. And a single alleyway in the demo has become the center of an online debate about whether Yakuza 3 Kiwami is a visual downgrade when compared to the OG game.
On January 21, Sega released a demo for Yakuza 3 Kiwami for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, and PC. It didn’t take long after the demo’s launch for people to start complaining about the remake. Some aren’t happy that, like in the OG game, every character you fight is an expert at blocking. Others claim that the remake’s map is smaller than the original’s and are unhappy about it. There’s also the crappy decision by RGG to recast a character with actor Teruyuki Kagawa, a man who has been accused of sexual assault against a hostess in 2019. While he apologized in 2022, people are still upset that he’s included in the remake. But the newest and biggest controversy surrounding Kiwami 3 involves an alleyway found in the demo.
— Yakuza Spain 🐉 (@SpainYakuza) January 21, 2026
On January 21, a user on Twitter shared a post comparing an alley in the OG Yakuza 3 on PS3 with how it looks in the remake’s demo. While the original looks realistic and inviting, the remake’s version looks garish and ugly. However, the original account claimed that the rest of the demo looked better and was on par with recent RGG games. Another user pointed out that the alleyway looks fine when you aren’t inside of it, and someone else suggested it was tied to a technical issue involving the game’s lighting. This is a problem that has plagued past Yakuza/Like a Dragon games, including Pirates in Hawaii.
Yakuza Kiwami 3 lighting issues are an auto-exposure bug.
When in a dark area, the game brightens to make things easier to see, which overexposes bright areas and makes things look fullbright.
The fix is as easy as disabling this, but Pirates in Hawaii had the same issue. pic.twitter.com/hVu5OaUYzw
— MeovvCAT (@osu_MeovvCAT) January 22, 2026
That information didn’t stop the original post comparing the old and new game from going viral online, leading to more people sharing footage and screenshots of the ugly alleyway on social media sites like Twitter and BlueSky as well as Reddit.
Thankfully, the playerbase is already fixing the ugly lighting issues in Yakuza 3 Kiwami. There’s already a mod for the demo online that apparently removes a visual filter RGG has implemented in the game and in other recent Yakuza titles. And yeah, seeing the game both with and without the filter makes it clear that this isn’t an ugly game. Instead, it seems that the filter, as well as some shading issues, are causing it to look worse than the OG Yakuza 3 in some specific circumstances. Hopefully the devs add a toggle to remove the filter, but considering they are shipping Kiwami 3 with an actor who allegedly sexually assaulted a woman, I’m not going to hold my breath.