Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii Review – Sea of Thieves

Here we are, at the start of another year with another brand new title by RGG Studios. With most of the rest of the industry struggling to contain budgets and balance the increase in scope and player expectations with keeping budgets and development periods in length, RGG Studios has been dutifully putting out, on average, a major new release a year. And they have managed to do this without really compromising on the quality or scope of the games they put out – those games are bigger and arguably better than ever, depending on whom you ask.

All of which is to say that Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii! (Another absurdly convoluted title from Sega and RGG – I’m going to just call it Pirate Yakuza from here on out) follows up on the beloved and massive Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth from last year with another quality outing. Building on the map, assets, and systems from that game, and infusing it with a pirate themed swashbuckling flair all of its own, Pirate Yakuza is a really fun, high octane outing for the series that should appeal to series long-time fans, and those who came on board amidst the hype for Infinite Wealth last year, alike.

"Over on the gameplay side, Pirate Yakuza is, like all but the last two mainline Like A Dragon games, a brawler."

The game, which is set after the events of Infinite Wealth, follows the exploits of fan-favourite Goro Majiima. A series of capers following the events set during the conclusion of Infinite Wealth sees him washed aboard, waking up on a deserted beach with very thorough amnesia. With little to no memory as to what he was doing or how he got here, he pretty much decides to make it up as he goes along, which sees him, in short order, commandeering a crew of a pirate ship in the seas surrounding Hawaii.

Now if that sounds like the flimsiest possible pretext for the setup, it is. A far cry from the heyday of the Kiryu saga, and much like Infinite Wealth, Pirate Yakuza is less about the overarching story and more about the moment-to-moment character interactions and exchanges.

The narrative justification for the things that happen are cursory at best, and the game doesn’t really pretend to be much about the story either. Over the course of the story, things do end up cohering more than they appear at the start, and the stakes do get higher – but ultimately, the actual story in Pirate Yakuza follows on from the story of Infinite Wealth in being just enough to get the job done – that being, facilitating the multitude of gameplay systems and content within it, and allowing for some great character moments.

Over on the gameplay side, Pirate Yakuza is, like all but the last two mainline Like A Dragon games, a brawler. Much like Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, Pirate Yakuza gives its protagonist two fighting styles – a Mad Dog style that is meant to encapsulate Majima’s famed fighting style and techniques from the older games, and a new Pirate themed Sea Dog fighting style, which sees him wielding and throwing around cutlasses as he fights his way through hordes of enemies like a pirate. Both styles are great fun – the Mad Dog style allows for aerial juggles and for summoning doppelgängers to beat on enemies with you, while the Sea Dog style has Majima chaining throws and swipes with his cutlasses, gun, and eventually a hook, as well as summoning ancient sea spirits to do your bidding, for all sorts of crazy environmental effects and buffs.

"Of course, the combat is good enough to get the job done, and works well with the whole nautical side of things."

Even with the two fighting styles, the combat never really reaches the same heights as the Majima combat did in Yakuza 0 (which was the previous release that starred a playable Majima), nor does it reach the heights that the combat of Lost Judgment (the best combat in the new Dragon Engine that the series uses) did.

It remains fun, allows for customization via the upgrades and the Rings-based equipment system (that lets Majima wear a different ring on each finger, each for different buffs and effects), allows for a lot of great moves and spectacle (both Majima-themed and pirate-themed), and I am sure high level players will find a lot of expressiveness within especially the Mad Dog style. It is, however, disappointing that it doesn’t particularly reach the heights that we know the character, the dev team, and this engine can reach from previous outings.

Of course, the combat is good enough to get the job done and works well with the whole nautical side of things. I confess to initially being bemused by how the developers were planning on taking the Yakuza/Like A Dragon framework and bolting on a pirate game to it. The answer is, surprisingly well. The pirate side of things works shockingly well here – you have a ship (that you can upgrade and expand), you have your crew, each with their own temperament, backstory, and strengths and weaknesses, that you assign to different parts of the boat. While on the sea, you can disembark on islands to try and hunt for treasure there, engage in naval battles with other ships you come across on the sea, and rest up in safe areas surrounding lighthouses, that also let you repair your ship, take stock of your crew, and try to increase their morale if it has fallen after all their time on the sea. Lighthouses are also used to quick travel to other parts of the sea.

"Combat is quick and snappy, whether you are choosing to shoot your foes to their watery deaths or to board them and claim their loot."

Actually, moving through the sea can be a bit boring (which is a problem that other nautical themed games, from Assassin’s Creed Black Flag to The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker have all faced and unsuccessfully tried to address as well). The top movement speed never quite feels quick enough, even after upgrades, and while wind tunnels, collectibles strewn in debris, and environmental hazards all show up to switch things up, on the whole, sailing can feel largely automatic, outside of the naval combat.

Combat is quick and snappy, whether you are choosing to shoot your foes to their watery deaths or to board them and claim their loot.  It all works well – sea combat is fun and sidesteps a lot of the clunkiness that the naval portions in other games have often been known to have, and exploring the seas for treasure definitely fulfils the whole pirate fantasy that few other games really address. You get a lot of ground to live out this fantasy too – Pirate Yakuza gives players several smaller nautical maps that are stitched together via lighthouse quick travel, to allow for a surpassingly large and varied sea for players to loot and plunder. This is on top of the entire Hawaii map from Infinite Wealth which makes it over pretty much wholesale (and that was a big map), and of course, there is Madlantis.

Much like the Castle in Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, Madlantis here is a theme park style destination where you get to take place in a whole series of pirate themed activities (chiefly the Pirate Coliseum). As you bolster up your ship and crew, you work your way through the top pirates in Madlantis to eventually take on the mantle of the Pirate King. The Madlantis side of things ties into a story tied to legendary treasure that the characters Majima befriends are on the heels of and sees him come across some truly colourful characters – even for a Majima story, that is.

"Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii benefits from great execution of an absurd premise that the game never questions."

Over in Hawaii (and other land maps), you get a massive amount of side content, a lot of it brought over from Infinite Wealth – walk and talk bonding events, a truly frightening number of absurd side stories, a photo rally, collectibles, a whole friendship social media system, an entire new mini-zoo where you can keep various animal friends you find on your travels, and a surprisingly involved cooking system. You also have a Pirate rank that ties into pretty much everything you do, which helps tie the naval and land-based gameplay stems together, and helps ensure that no matter what you’re doing, you’re still contributing towards your overall progress with your ship and crew.

Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii benefits from great execution of an absurd premise that the game never questions and just goes with; it benefits from being a good enough Like A Dragon game, and a good enough pirate game, even though it never quite gets as great at either as you’d hope for. And it even benefits from foregoing the serious crime drama and high stakes stories that previous RGG Studios games have gone for, opting for, instead, a rip-roaring swashbuckling outing that barely attempts to justify or contextualize the things it says or does, and instead chooses to focus on the moment-to-moment fun of the adventure.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.