Introduction
Believe it not, the newest game from Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio really is called Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii and it stars series regular Goro Majima in one of the best pirate games I’ve ever played. This new entry in the series brings back the beat ’em up style gameplay of the earlier Yakuza games with a bunch of pirate themed mechanics and updated minigames. Be aware of some early story spoilers ahead.
Cannon Event
Pirate Yakuza hits the ground running with Majima waking up having washed up on a beach with no memory at all. He is saved by a young boy called Noah and his tiger cub and jumps in to save them from a bunch of pirate wannabes. After managing to drive the pirates off the island several times, Majima finds himself the new captain of a pirate ship, hoping to fulfill Noah’s dream of adventure away from his island home by seeking a long lost treasure. They also try to help Majima get his memory back by visiting the yakuza working on Nele Island and visit the pirate haven known as Madlantis (honestly one of my favourite names that I have ever come across!).
The plot is wonderfully mad and while it does have some of the usual Like a Dragon tropes, I found this entry to have one of the more original stories thanks to the pirate theme. It also manages to get the ball rolling far quicker than Infinite Wealth – I love that game but it takes a far while to get fully going! For those who haven’t played all of the other games in the series, Pirate Yakuza is less reliant on knowledge of previous games thanks to Majima losing his memories
Introduction
Believe it not, the newest game from Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio really is called Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii and it stars series regular Goro Majima in one of the best pirate games I’ve ever played. This new entry in the series brings back the beat ’em up style gameplay of the earlier Yakuza games with a bunch of pirate themed mechanics and updated minigames. Be aware of some early story spoilers ahead.
Cannon Event
Pirate Yakuza hits the ground running with Majima waking up having washed up on a beach with no memory at all. He is saved by a young boy called Noah and his tiger cub and jumps in to save them from a bunch of pirate wannabes. After managing to drive the pirates off the island several times, Majima finds himself the new captain of a pirate ship, hoping to fulfill Noah’s dream of adventure away from his island home by seeking a long lost treasure. They also try to help Majima get his memory back by visiting the yakuza working on Nele Island and visit the pirate haven known as Madlantis (honestly one of my favourite names that I have ever come across!).
The plot is wonderfully mad and while it does have some of the usual Like a Dragon tropes, I found this entry to have one of the more original stories thanks to the pirate theme. It also manages to get the ball rolling far quicker than Infinite Wealth – I love that game but it takes a far while to get fully going! For those who haven’t played all of the other games in the series, Pirate Yakuza is less reliant on knowledge of previous games thanks to Majima losing his memories
before the game kicks off. Naturally there are callbacks and a few returning characters but this is a surprisingly good starting point for newcomers to the series. This is a shorter entry than the RPG styled games but I think there is plenty of content here on offer.
Draw Your Steel
While Infinite Wealth’s turn-based combat is one of my favourite systems in recent games, it is refreshing to return to the beat ’em up gameplay. Majima has two different fighting styles, Mad Dog that uses his original fighting style with daggers and doppelgängers, and Sea Dog where he leans into his new pirate lifestyle with a pair of cutlasses and various pirate sidearms that he unlocks. These are both very fast paced and the battles are wonderfully over the top with heat actions – over the top finishing moves that can be triggered after certain conditions are met. I found both styles fun to play and switching between them is very smooth so you can use whichever is most appropriate.
The other main gameplay system is the pirate ship combat which has quite an arcade feeling to it. You have cannons on either side and machine guns that are used to fire directly in front – all relatively normal so far. Your ship is equipped with jet boosters so my main tactic was to boost and drift alongside enemy ships and unload the cannons and guns mid-drift. Oh, you also can switch back to Majima on deck to fire a rocket launcher at enemy ships. These ship battles are then usually concluded with a boarding phase where you and your crew swing across to beat the enemy crew in hand-to-hand combat. These are quite a chaotic affair with the number of characters on the ship but generally in the first half of the game I found these and the ship battles to be entertaining but not overly difficult.
Essence of Piracy
Now I mentioned that you have a crew for your ship and this is something you have direct control over. From completing side quests, minigames and general exploration, you will unlock new crew members and include some returning characters – I found it genuinely hilarious when I realised that I could recruit some returning side characters from Infinite Wealth! These are then assigned to ship slots to increase the ship’s durability and weapon damage or on to the boarding crew to allow them to join you in battle. You can also pick a first mate who gives you a bonus effect. There is a crazy amount of crew members available and generally the more effort it took to get them, the better their stats are. The Coliseum in Madlantis gives you plenty of matches to test your might against other crews and your crew is an essential part of this. You can sail around various open water locations in your ship to find treasure islands, enemy fleets and materials which is another nice change of pace as well. I really enjoyed the pirate side of the gameplay but it did begin to get a little repetitive by the time I was mopping up the last few islands.
Shore Leave
Naturally this is a Like a Dragon game so it has to have a city packed with side content and minigames to get your teeth stuck into. Hawaii returns from Infinite Wealth and I had a blast exploring the city again to see what had returned and what had been added. There is far too much to cover here but rest assured that Pirate Yakuza has some of the best side quests that the series has yet – from doing a corporate compliance session to visiting the Miracle Aquarium. I won’t spoil the Minato girls questline but that is easily the weirdest segment I’ve seen in a game so far. My favourite minigames, Dragon Kart and Super Crazy Delivery, also return with new courses. Virtually all the minigames have a points system for rewards and these can include crew members, treasure, and cosmetics so they are very much worth playing. Of course, karaoke returns and there are a bunch of returning and brand new songs from Majima’s repertoire to enjoy.
Speaking of cosmetics, one of the features of Pirate Yakuza that needs to be discussed is the costumes and accessories you can get for Majima, as well as getting to customise your ship. There are all sorts of options on offer and you are generally given free reign to mix and match, with the exception of full outfit sets, plus you have a pirate and Hawaii set. You can even give little Goro the tiger cub a pirate hat! Impressively, your outfits and customised ship remain in cutscenes which is always a nice touch. Pirate Yakuza continues to impress with its customisation as the gear system is tied to rings. This is the first game I’ve ever played that has let me wear 10 rings at once, with thumb and pinky rings being separately designed! These all offer stat boosts and some bonus effects, like increasing your attack speed or showing chests on your map.
Life on the seas
Getting to return to Hawaii was brilliant as I still think it is the most varied and visually appealing of all the cities that have been in the series to date. Madlantis is very small in comparison, but it does provide a dark and seedy atmosphere that makes a good contrast to the beaches of Hawaii. As is the case for the series, there is good variety in the soundtrack and some of the new songs for karaoke are very catchy. You can also collect CDs to add to your playlist for when you are exploring the city or waves.
Conclusion
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is one of the most unique games I have played and it clearly shows that the series has the ability to keep leaning into the eccentricity that it has become known for. There were plenty of moments that had me laughing out loud at how bonkers it was. There are a lot of specific parts and side quests I’ve not written about here as knowing about them spoils the surprise. The return to the beat ’em style is refreshing and quicker paced than the turn-based combat and the piracy side is another fantastic addition, albeit one that can get a little repetitive after a while. I would strongly recommend this to anyone who played Infinite Wealth or to newcomers that want to see what the series is capable of.
