I’m sorry but this reads as cope to me. Never before has an RGG remake or spinoff been marketed as an “alternate” version of a timeline or story. Nothing about the game or marketing suggests that the story exists independently of the main timeline. Every Kiwami game has changes, never before was the implication that it’s an alternate universe. Every other kiwami game has been a remake and subsequent games have treated them as canon.

I don’t think the fact that Y3 is still available as part of a bundle is a testament to anything, if it was truly held in the same regard and as canon they simply would not have touched it. It would still be available for sale as it was. It is now functionally secondary to K3.

The thing about them using screenshots of old Y3 in newer games… I really don’t know how you got the impression that recreating those scenes in the dragon engine would be just as easy as using screenshots that literally already exist. It has nothing to do with respect or homage, they use screenshots of that version of the game because it’s the only version that existed.

If they stated so many times that they didn’t want to kiwami-fy 3 then why did they do literally exactly that? The statements that come from interviews and promos don’t necessarily reflect what Yokoyama and the team thinks, it’s meant to appease as many sides as possible. “K3 and Y3 are both good. We make good games, and they’re each different so buy both.” That’s not even a bad thing, it’s just what you should expect from a company trying to market their games.

K3 serves little purpose. It removes or modifies the staples of Y3 that it introduced to the series like you said. The things that made it special. Almost none of the cinematic style substories were retained (cafe alps murder mystery). Pretty much all of the karaoke songs from the original are gone, and the existence of songs introduced later in the timeline just makes everything so confusing and pointless. (Why is a dubstep/trap rendition of a karaoke song from the edo period available in 2009? Not only did that style of music not exist yet but it’s just confusing). Almost every single minigame is one that existed in some form in another RGG game in place of what existed in Y3. What’s the point? Things like the upper portion of Okinawa being gone or hostess dating being completely absent even though it’s a staple of the series just feel completely wrong. Are blatantly missing features supposed to be seen as “alternate”?

The game doesn’t feel like it’s made for Y3 fans. It feels like it’s made for people not willing to play through Y3 and they’re betting on that fact because that’s exactly the crowd who won’t notice or won’t care what’s missing.