Platform(s): PlayStation 5 (version reviewed), PC, Xbox Series
Genre: Action, Adventure, Pirates, Swashbuckling, Yakuza

You have to hand it to Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, the in-house Sega game developers handling the Like A Dragon/Yakuza series. The devs know how to make new action-adventure-slash-RPG entries consistently while also being efficient with their resources; if you already have all these assets made and they still look great half a decade later, just touch it up and present them in a new light and context, right?

Unsurprisingly, the studio hit it out of the ballpark yet again with what appears to be a “side story/gaiden” type affair with this year’s Like A Dragon entry, Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza In Hawaii.

A Pirate’s Life For Me

Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza In Hawaii marks the return of fan-favourite character Goro Majima, the Mad Dog of Shimano, now in his own story after Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth. Long story short: Majima ends up stranded on an island in Hawaii and has amnesia.

To get his memory back, he helps a boy named Noah to go adventuring and take up classic pirating 101 like in those Johnny Depp films: dress up as a swashbuckler with the hat and jacket ensemble, fight rival pirates and scourges of the Hawaiian seas in real-time brawling action, man your own pirate ship and crew, and also go questing and side-questing either at sea or on land. Specifically on Honolulu which has its own adventures and side-games ranging from a Mario Kart clone (but with “real-life” weapons) to karaoke-ing. Oh, and also searching for “Minato Girls” to help out your down-in-the-dumps first mate. And participating in coliseum battles in a pirate haven called Madlantis which is what happens when Las Vegas and that Disney Pirates of the Caribbean ride had a love child and is tailored for actual thrill-seeking adults.

What’s really cool about your Like A Dragon games is that you can either beeline through the story mode (about 15 hours tops) or just get lost in Chapters 2 or 3 and do all the sidequests and minigames, all of them great. Batting cannonballs onto targets for treasure? That’s a thing. The many side stories each with their own funny and insightful conclusions lovingly crafted by the RGG team? That’s all in spades; my personal favourite involves a throwback to the cabaret questionnaire dating bits, but with a very funny and unexpected twist that got be splitting my sides from laughter. The ship-sailing and pirating on-sea gameplay has you steering your sheep, destroying rogue pirate ships and boarding them, and invading islands with treasures and top brass pirates hoarding said treasure troves for you to plunder.

It’s essentially Assassin’s Creed Black Flag but with the Like A Dragon engine and assets, and all the better and wackier for it. You haven’t played a pirate game that lets you equip flamethrowers and Onomichi mascot busts on your ship’s front while you play 24-Hour Cinderalla on full blast sailing the Hawaiian seas. And also drift to outmaneuver enemy ships; it doesn’t make sense physics-wise, but damn if it isn’t fun positioning your ship to line up your shots continuously and hitting the mark.

The on-ground combat, a staple in most of the Like A Dragon games, is your third-person action brawler where you play the fastest and hardest-hitting yakuza of the Like A Dragon bunch. Majima can switch between two styles: Mad Dog and Sea Dog style. Mad Dog lets him dodge fast, hits fast, do air combos, and summon Majima clones to help even the odds. Sea Dog lets you use cutlasses you can throw as boomerangs, flintlock pistols for long-ranged attacks, and grapple hook to get closer to enemies and ranged foes. This eliminates the need to equip weapons as Majima only needs cash and Pirate Points to unlock skills, moves, and techniques for both styles (along with health and strength/damage buffs). Which is why you’ll need to do a ton of events and sidequests (most particularly bounties on crooks and tough enemies chilling in Hawaii and elsewhere) to get the scratch needed to be more powerful. I personally took two to three hours doing a lot just to get myself geared up for the Story Mode challenges. As for optional and high-level battles? You might spend more getting wrapped up in this awesome version of Hawaii.

And it’s all fun to play because the controls are great, the user interface and options to getting around are made convenient and easy to use, and the premise and characters alone are zany enough to see what fun nonsense you can unravel through the lens of an amnesiac psychopathic gangster with a heart of gold. If you’re new to the series, you don’t need to pay attention to the trappings and lore too much as it’s just a tale of treasure-hunting and deceit. Veterans who played Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth might get a lot more out of it. Compared to Like A Dragon Gaiden, there’s less stakes and emotional pathos storywise, but it’s still a treat to see Majima bonding with the new pirate family he’s bonding with through thick and thin.

Sea Of Thieves

There’s nothing quite like playing a yakuza sailing around Hawaii, plundering enemy ships and just sailing for treasure while Friday Night is playing. And with your crewmates ranging from former crooks to a polar bear named Stephanie-chan backing you up as you waylay enemy ships with your arsenal of machine gun bullets that freezes ships on contact, cannons that launches sharks, flamethrowers, and laser guns. The current gaming market is short on single-player focused pirate games; Skull & Bones had its chances and blew it, so naturally it takes a Sega in-house studio to show Western devs how it’s done with flying colours. And on presumably years-old tech and assets to boot; if that isn’t embarrassing for studios like Ubisoft, I don’t know what is.

But back on point: Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza In Hawaii is a ball of a time if you want a free-form action-adventure pirate game featuring a likeable-if-eccentric main character and his colourful crewmates taking place in contemporary times. Granted, the second half of the 15+ hour (minimum at best) playthrough may require some context from past Like A Dragon/Yakuza games, but if you can shut your brain off from the deeper lore bits, this title won’t leave you high and dry. At least when it comes to the combat, the plethora of things you can do, and the pirate simulation and battle coliseum bits, it’s all smooth-sailing.

Pros

• Great combat featuring two awesome styles.
• Majima and his ballsy attitude.
• Pirate elements and sailing feel good to play, while not being too complicated.
• Expansive-yet-not-too-lengthy big maps & seas to explore & do sidequests in.

Cons

• Newbies might get lost in the second half of the plot.

Final Score: 90/100

Review code provided by publisher.