REVIEW: Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
Here’s my Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii review which is from SEGA and RGG Studio SEA. The game is available on the PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PS4 and PC via Steam!
SEGA and RGG Studios return to the tropics and the high seas fresh from their crazy and fun Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth last year with Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii this time starring everybody’s favorite Yakuza madman, Majima Goro!
In this game, we say goodbye to Ichiban and Kiryu, the two protagonists for 2024’s Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth and say hello to Majima Goro. In this new adventure, we find Majima washed up in a remote island in Hawaii with no memory of his past. He quickly gets to work to return to a place that may jot down his memory and that’s Nele Island along the way though, he ends up becoming a captain of his own ship, befriending a young boy named Noah and his pet “cat” coincidentally named Goro. Along the way, he has to look for lost treasures, help his friends and ultimately regain his lost memory.
There’s just so many things in this game that I just found myself strapped in for hours just like Infinite Wealth before it. One thing I liked about this one is that it goes straightforward with the main story with only one character to follow namely Majima Goro aka the Mad Dog of Shimano. And being that its Majima we’re talking about here, the dialogue is crazy and the humor is as crazy as can be.
Honestly speaking I thought this worked a lot; like among the popular and main characters from the Yakuza/ LAD line would be crazy enough to cosplay as a pirate in modern day and surround himself with wacky and crazy characters. Plus it helps to solidify Majima as the all around anti-hero not that he needed that. He’s been fan-favorite for a long time now but it always helps to cater to new audiences and that’s where RGG and SEGA hit gold.
Gameplay
“Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii” returns to the fondly remembered button mashing action which we’re all familiar with up until RGG swapped it into turn-based combat at the start of the Like A Dragon franchise. It feels nice to do combinations and time your button pressing to unleash several deadly attacks and the game continues to make Majima break the law of physics the deeper you get into the game. I was also divided on whether to continue with improving the stats for Mad Dog but the Sea Dog fighting style on later levels made the action so, so so much fun.
Fighting styles are divided into two namely Mad Dog and Sea Dog.
Majima Goro in Sea Dog mode
Majima in Mad Dog mode
Combat Mechanics
As Majima Goro, you have to go through each chapters ready to beat down and throw hands at any given time. This has already been a long established formula for the Yakuza and later the Like A Dragon game. The controls are standard and if you’ve already played any LAD/ Yakuza game in the past, it’s easy to get your groove in busting heads and stabbing people with Majima’s signature knife. If you’re a newbie into the action-adventure game then don’t worry, there’s a built-in guide to help you understand the buttons.
Combat tutorial at the beginning of Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
Majima Goro doing jump attacks
Speaking of new attacks, it might be weird that there’s jumping involved in this game; I liked that and its something that resonates with Majima as a character. The Mad Dog is agile and quick and uses speed most of the time to hit his enemies and take them down so adding in jump attacks helps sweeten the deal. And as you progress through the game, it goes more and more insane too.
To speed things up in kicking enemy asses, players can also look out for the Madness Gauge which is in top left corner. When that gauge fills up in pink, it’s time to unleash hell in Mad Dog mode with the Mad Kennel, where Majima summons two doppelgangers who assist in striking opponents down.
the mad kennel in full effect in Like A Dragon Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
When using Sea Dog, your Madness Gauge gets completely overhauled as it lets you access to the Dark Gods, basically you get to summon 4 destructive beasts that will appear in the field for a set number of times. As you progress through the story you will have the chance to get the other three dark gods instruments. It’s optional but wouldn’t you want to make fights a little fun with a giant shark or a giant monkey god?
Not only do these look cool, they wipe the enemies almost instantly unless of course you’re dealing with bosses with larger chunks of life in them. But in that scenario, know that these bad boys will take a HUGE portion of the bosses’ life so that’s still a win.
Upgrading abilities and stats is also a breeze here and you can do all of that from the menu screen.
You may need to do some grinding for this game both in land while beating up thugs and assholes for cash or doing minigames and going back to the high seas and being a crazy badass pirate for the pirate points.
In certain situations, you can also take down a number of enemies using special attacks with Sea Dog where Majima performs a cutlass throw which ends back at him and stabs two enemies in stylish fashion. There’s a few variations of this Quick Time attack when you’re using the Mad Dog style which for me is a lot physical and brutal like this move below:
Pirated Stuff
One of the highlights for me anyway was the pirate action in Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. There’s a lot of things you can do here but the coolest one I love is the naval battles. In this setting, you pilot your very own ship, the Goromaru, explore the vast ocean to look for treasure, take down enemy pirates and earn gold AND point which opens exciting items and relics. There’s also several treasures that you need to pick up and search for that nets you big items and loot with some even improving your performance towards the end game and powerful enemies in later chapters of the game.
Another fun aspect here is collecting and recruiting crewmates that will also help you beat the game. Some are given to you automatically like the stupid fun Captain Beef while others you have to recruit and meet their requirements. These individuals help improve your ship’s performance or give additional bonus with some even providing solid buffs when you turn them into your ship’s first mate.
Some requirements including having X amount of friends on the friend app
While other crewmembers join automatically once you beat them
Like Captain Beef here
There are also a number of potential crewmates who will join you when you finish their substory.
You can also get going with your boarding party who joins you as you hack and slash your way in the enemy’s deck. Choosing the right boarding team will make a big difference as they are able to wrap things up faster so you can focus on the ship’s captain and subsequently get the “W”. The Goromaru is also fun to build and improve; as you progress through the game you encounter stronger and believe me you’ll need that upgrade as you venture deeper into the story and obtain glory in Madlantis.
The naval battles are also a lot of fun and simple to be honest. In open water, you steer the Goromaru just like a normal vehicle from other games. You can press on a button (Y on PC) to speed up and press LS+B when you want to hit the brakes. There are also a ton of portal looking stuff that’s actually headwinds that naturally speed up your travel by boat.
It’s also through travelling by sea that you pick up items and components that can help strengthen your boat and that’s classified either as rare or common components. Some components you can even use to trade with goods with the seafaring merchants sailing around these waters.
And when you encounter enemies, you bust out a shoulder button to attack using the ship’s machine guns and press the R Trigger or L Trigger to blast them to Davy Jones’ locker with your cannons.
You also have to option to disengage from controlling the ship and use stuff like Smoke Bombs and even an RPG to blast enemies to smithereens. However, I’m not a fan of that and instead opt to use the traditional pirate ship weaponry which is fun. As you progress, you will also be able to use your pirate ranking to get more advanced weapons for the Goromaru and that comes in handy for the bosses and enemies down the line.
During boarding battles you can also select up to 15 crewmembers who you can pick out and refine to help you take down enemy pirate crews. It’s also fun to see all those weirdoes in your team battle normal looking pirates like this one salaryman in my team.
I swear to god it was a good choice to bring him in the front and center.
Colorful Bosses
As you go through the story, Majima has to go through A LOT of bosses that goes more crazier as we progress starting with the generic pirate named Jack the Collector all the way to the big bad at the end of the game. I am over the moon with the addition of former WWE superstar and AEW talent Samoa Joe in the game.
And there’s also that pesky pirate wannabe Keith who seems to be the “archenemy” of Majima for this adventure. Dude keeps popping up everywhere. You actually have to fight him thrice in the first chapter alone.
Familiar Places with some big changes
Since we’ll be returning to Honolulu a few years after the events of “Infinite Wealth” there will be some places that you can revisit or you’ll be forced to work with. There’s the Alo-Happy Travel Agency from the last game which brings back the photo rally event.
And since we’re back to button mashing and Majima’s roles are pretty limited, we are doing away with the Job Changes in this locale and instead, we’re there to reap the rewards of taking photos all around Hawaii and possibly get manager Liz to join the pirate crew of the Goromaru.
There’s also the Julie’s Gearworks which was the place to buy weapons, get new ones and so on and so forth. For “Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii“, owner Julie returns and so do we back to the shop and it also serves a new purpose helping out in repairs and improvements on the Goromaru.
Lastly there’s Revolve Bar, which was Kasuga and Kiryu’s base of operations back in Infinite Wealth.
The Bartender, Revolve Bar and Kei (aka K-Son) return in Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
Kei’s back in this game and she’s still the person to talk to with Aloha Links
Bounty Hunter World
Earning money might be grind-y in this game but I thank RGG for introducing the Bounty Hunting element in the game. Colorful characters are marked on your map with a red handcuff and you just have to swing by the location and check these bad boys out. If you feel confident then you can initiate a fight and if you take them down then you get more moolah.
Bounties are marked with stars with one and two star bounties having around $1000 to 4000 while 4-star bounties can net you up to $16000 and more. And when you have enough money you can use to that to improve your stats or improve the Goromaru.
Transportation
New fans and players of the series should know that there are several ways of saving time and traveling around Hawaii and that would be through cab and through those in-game segways called Street Surfers.
The long running cabs in Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
Street Surfers also make a return in Pirate Yakuza
Minigames extra stuff and substories
A new game means that you get some new stuff and for Majima’s solo adventure in the high seas, we are getting some good old fashion cooking games.
In this minigame you are required to prepare the fire, chop up ingredients and scoop up the scum that comes out of the dishes you prepare. Every meal preparation gives you points that increases your level and opens up new food to cook and prepare. The food gets added to your inventory and comes in handy when in a pickle during fights with some restoring HP or the Heat gauge while others give you buffs but that’s downplayed a little bit more since we’re not doing Infinite Wealth’s turn-based mechanics. It does help in battling stronger bosses.
Ingredients are also something to look around for and initially you can get them as you traverse the field, or given to you by that adorable tiger cub Goro or you can purchase them from stores all around the game. I personally love it when Goro gives me one.
Just like in Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, you can also customize Majima Goro‘s look as he runs around Hawaii and the customization is sparse.
The karaoke minigame is also back and it’s time for Majima Goro to shine.
Substories are also returning with some of the most insane scenarios and as usual, it’s going to go from normal to insane before you end your first run.
And what’s a SEGA game without some retro games? For “Pirate Yakuza” you can buy a number of ROMS that you can also play with. It’s not that much but you can use it to pass the time.
ROM games take over for arcade games from the past Yakuza games. You can buy games from stores all over Honolulu.
Fans of Mario Kart and other racing games would also be happy to know that Dragon Kart returns here in this game and it’s actually fun and very straightforward. It’s not as technical as other games but it’s super fun.
Madlantis also has a few games like that Batting game which replaces the conventional game and gives it a pirate twist.
VERDICT
Like A Dragon’s latest installment, Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii offers all the same fun stuff from the previous game and not only points to continuing an overarching story but also introduces new locales that we could be used in future games. The combat system is fun and intuitive and upgrading skills is also a breeze. There’s so many things to do in the game that its going to take you hours and hours of fun whether you’re getting all the achievements or wanting to unlock stronger and powerful attacks. The naval battles by itself is great but also it’s not as expansive as what we got in the pinnacle of the genre, Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag. Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii aims to bring more depth and more lore to the tragic character that is Majima Goro. It also introduces Goro to a brand new generation of audience and that’s perfectly fine. The landscapes and locales are character designs are great too whether its one of your crew or even the bad guys. The fights are also very impressive and you’ll definitely enjoy this game especially with so much content at release date and a few more surprises via DLCs down the line.
10/10
