Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is a Yakuza game dressed as a pirate for Halloween. Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio have taken the classic elements of being a swashbuckling buccaneer and made them work within the familiar Yakuza structure.
All the hallmarks of a good Yakuza game are there: wacky characters, thrilling combat and bucketloads of mini-games. While it hasn’t gone super deep on its pirating mechanics, the game still weaves a grand tale that no Yakuza fan should miss!
Pirate Yakuza
After waking up on the beach of a secluded island with no memory of who he is or how he got there, Goro Majima befriends Noah, the local boy who saved him. In return for saving his life, the ex-yakuza makes a promise to get Noah off the island and into his first adventure. After a few run-ins with some local wannabe pirates and lots of ass kicking later, Majima finds himself the captain of his own pirate ship. He sets off with his new crew to uncover his lost memories and legendary treasure to boot.
Upon leaving the island, during the opening credits, Noah and Majima lead a pirate-styled musical number. The sea shanty is the perfect mood setter for the high seas adventure you’re about to set out on.
Of course it’s not all smooth sailing for Captain Majima, crossing swords with all sorts of criminals and ne’er-do-wells as he uncovers a deep mystery entangling the lost treasure of Esperanza, the pirate refuge Madlantis, and Nele Island — the old base of the big bad guy from Infinite Wealth.
READ MORE: Review | Avowed: ‘Be A Bad Guy – The Best Way To Play’ (Xbox Series X)
It wouldn’t be a Yakuza game without plenty of action, drama, and silly moments, and Pirate Yakuza has those in spades. It’s another ripper story, with fantastically over-the-top characters, that had me wiping away tears of both laughter and pain.
Majima brings an air of chaos to the story, a sense that literally anything could happen. It’s a different feeling to Kiryu or Ichiban, who would also get themselves into ridiculous situations, but often not by choice. Majima seems to just pick whatever seems the most fun!
Aye Aye, Captain
Like any good Yakuza game, there’s a bunch of side stories to experience while helping the locals with their (often ridiculous) problems — many of which are familiar faces from Infinite Wealth. From accompanying an otaku on a bus tour with a J-pop Idol, helping a human statue with a bullying problem, assisting a travelling showman capture his escaped tiger (by punching it into submission)… There’s an impressive variety of quests to partake in.
One really chunky sidequest has you sailing around the Hawaiian islands, taking on the Devil Flags, a pirate crew so feared that they’re even banned from Madlantis! You’ll engage in naval battles and huge land skirmishes as you dismantle the massive crew bit by bit, cutting your way to Captain Zeus.
The cringey live-action dating-sim mini-game makes a return, though in a much more palatable form. This time you’re throwing a ‘The Bachelor’ styled party, so your ship’s cook Masaru can find the woman of his dreams. After befriending each of the girls in-game, you invite them all to the gathering for him to try his luck chatting them up. The party is portrayed with real-life footage, the video game characters replaced by their real-life counterparts.
It’s a pretty hilarious scene; actor Ryuji Akiyama does an excellent job of making each interaction super awkward and embarrassing, as Masaru comically strikes out with woman after woman.
READ MORE: Review | Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth ‘Goofy, heartfelt and exciting’ (PlayStation 5)
Déjà Vu
Majima may have amnesia, but at times, I was feeling the déjà vu! Pirate Yakuza often feels like a mash-up of Infinite Wealth and The Man Who Erased his Name.
For those who played Infinite Wealth this time last year, the Hawaiian setting will be pretty familiar. A large chunk of the game is spent exploring Honolulu, on what feels like the exact same map, with many of the same characters and mini-games making a reappearance. Swimming, segway riding, Sicko Snap, Crazy Delivery,picture scavenger hunts, the Aloha Links app, crew bonding moments, and more — all feel almost identical to how they were in Infinite Wealth.
There are plenty of returning characters too, like Julie from Julie’s Gearworks, Kamulop the shrine mascot, or Jeff from Jeff’s Tacos (the dude who was buying and selling black passports out of his food truck)! The cool thing is that almost every NPC you help out in Honolulu can be recruited onto your pirate crew, providing even more reason to interact with the quirky island locals.
When it comes to combat, I couldn’t help but be reminded of The Man Who Erased his Name. Running around brawling with gangs of thugs, switching between two distinct fighting styles, one that excels in crowd controls, the other that’s more suited to 1-on-1 situations. Majima can even use a hook shot that feels reminiscent of Kiryu’s zipline watch.
READ MORE: Review | Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name (PS5)
While the heavy influence (or carbon copying) of some elements might be seen in a negative light, it didn’t really bother me most of the time. Being back in Honolulu so soon after Infinite Wealth had a familiarity to it which actually felt nice; I knew my way around already and wasn’t overwhelmed when stepping into the massive city for the first time.
If you played Infinite Wealth, you probably don’t need to explore every nook and cranny (or play twenty games of darts and shogi) you can streamline your time in Honolulu and focus more on the story and sidequests, getting back to the swashbuckling action faster. For everyone else, the game offers plenty of addictive distractions. I spent at least half of my 50-hour playthrough running around Honolulu, getting lost in side activities.
Treasure Hunt
The gameplay of Pirate Yakuza can be broken up into three main sections: the larger free-roaming areas like Madlantis and Honolulu, smaller arcade-like treasure hunting islands, and then sailing the ocean itself.
Much of the game is spent exploring the open-zone of Honolulu and the more linear areas of Madlantis and Rich Island. Here you’ll find plenty of side quests, mini-games, and enemies to battle.
READ MORE: Review | Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector (Switch)
Rich Island is where you begin your journey, and you’re quickly introduced to the cooking mini-game, allowing you to whip up valuable consumables. There’s dishes that restore your health and stamina, banquets that improve crew morale and pet treats to deepen your bonds with your animal friends.
The quality of the ingredients you use will affect the overall star rating of the dish, and the more dishes you make at once, the harder it gets. You’ll need to perform a series of mini-games to actually cook the meals and further improve the rating of the dish.
Ingredients can be found around the map, be bought from shops, or grown and caught by yourself. Goro, the tiger cub is particularly helpful, bringing you various bugs and fruits they find around the map. Also on Rich Island is a safe haven for the animals that you rescue on your adventures. The cats, dogs, chickens, and more can be regularly fed, rewarding you with rare cooking ingredients.
Madlantis is… well, mad! A place where people are fed to man-eating sharks for the entertainment of the crowd! A refuge for criminals and thrillseekers to gamble, blow off steam, and compete in the pirate coliseum (more on that later). It’s ruled by a pair of racketeering royals: the master of whispers, Queen Michele, and the king of pirates, Raymond Law.
There’s a really cool batting cage on Madlantis, where you need to bat back cannon shots and destroy stacks of barrels. With exploding barrels, directional rockets and other modifiers to hit with your shots, there’s a bit of strategy as to where you should be aiming for maximum carnage.
READ MORE: PlayStation State of Play — Feb 2025 | Everything announced
As mentioned, Honolulu is very similar to how it was in Infinite Wealth, but there are some new additions to the area that help keep things fresh.
As soon as you get to the Revolver bar, you can customise Majimas outfits — one for each combat style — which is usually reserved as an endgame option in the series. There’s a tonne of options to mix and match, with clothes, masks, and accessories hidden around the map, or available in stores.
While it was fun to dress Majima as a cowboy, a samurai, or a working girl, I usually just rocked the default ‘Captain Majima’ outfit when in pirate style and a basketball singlet, sweatpants and flip-flops combo when in mad dog style. You can also bling out your segway and pirate ship, which is neat.
Another new addition to the island is Dragon Kart racing. RGG Studio already spoofed Pokémon and Pokémon Snap in the last game, so why not Mario Kart as well! The racer is fun and even has its own version of a destruction derby, but it lacks the variety to stay engaging for more than a few hours.
The smaller islands are designed as arcade-style combat challenges, rather than free-roaming areas. You’ll pick a few crewmates to back you up in battle, make landfall and attempt the challenge; that might be fighting past multiple groups of pirates as you progress along a path, or battling a hundred enemies that come at you in waves. Successfully completing a challenge rewards you with a piece of treasure.
I found many of these smaller islands to be repetitive in layout, but short and fun enough that it didn’t matter too much.
READ MORE: South of Midnight: ‘Dark, Twisted, Fairy Tale Fun’
When behind the wheel of your ship, you won’t be sailing on one big open-world map, instead you’ll be navigating around various smaller sections of ocean. There are plenty of other pirate crews around for you to take on in naval combat, and as you traverse the seas, you’ll also come across floating cargo filled with materials to craft new weapons for your ship.
Sailing at regular speed can feel quite slow at times, though there are air currents you can catch to get you on your way faster, indicated by visual rings on the ocean. While this is the best way to get around, it does show how the game has arcade-ified sailing by steering you along specific pathways instead of encouraging you to plot your own course. The maps are pretty basic, with no real need to explore away from the set pathways anyway, and your ship also has a rocket boost function, but you do have a limited fuel supply.
It’s not all clear skies and plain sailing either. If a storm hits, there’ll be giant whirlpools and waterspouts to navigate, and lightning strikes to dodge.
Avast, Ye Matey
There are two distinct styles of combat that Majima utilises within the game: ‘Mad Dog’ and ‘Sea Dog’.
Mad Dog is a classic brawler style of combat, with Majima wielding his signature dagger and the ability to summon shadow clones of himself to beat down enemies.
Sea Dog brings out Majimas inner corsair, with twin cutlasses which he can boomerang around the battlefield. Later in the game, he can use dark instruments to summon shadow animals to fight for him.
While both styles kick ass, Mad Dog is more suited to one-on-one brawling, while Sea Dog excels at crowd control.
Naval combat is a new addition to the franchise. Equipped with a forward machine gun, port and starboard cannons, and the ability to ram into the sides of rival ships; there’s a little bit of strategy when it comes to the sea skirmishes. You can upgrade your ship and its weapons, swapping your cannons out for flamethrowers or lasers, which brings a little variety. Adding additional crewmates improves your overall ship strength.
READ MORE: Review | Kingdom Come: Deliverance II — Fortune Favours The Bold (PS5)
The ship can feel overly slow to maneuver unless you’re using one of your limited speed boosts, which can quickly run out during prolonged sea battles. Some enemy attacks felt impossible to escape without using up a boost. You also can’t just board any ship you’d like and attack its crew, that mechanic is restricted to coliseum battles and a few story missions, which was a bit disappointing.
Though fun, the naval combat is arcadey and a bit shallow, feeling more like a mini-game than a meaningful feature of the game. Which is probably why it fits so well into the pirate coliseum on Madlantis.
The coliseum offers a variety of pirate battles to partake in. Quick Clash has you sailing against a rival crew, then boarding their ship. Madlantis Mania is like a crew-rush mode where you fight multiple groups back to back without the naval combat. Tournament of Champions is like multiple Quick Clashes in a row. And Swashbuckler Showdown is a mode that recreates the big, 100-man beach battles that you encounter on your adventure.
While there were some wacky pirate crews, themed around things like sumo wrestlers, Ninjas, or killer robots, enemies in the rest of the game were a little bland — especially when compared to the variety on offer in Infinite Wealth. For a game that’s reusing a lot of assets from its predecessor, I’m not sure why enemy variety wasn’t one of them. I do love how defeated enemies erupt with a fountain of coins, though. It’s very Scott Pilgrim.
When running around Honolulu, I felt like I was fighting the same gang of thugs almost every time, which got old pretty quickly. It’s made more noticeable by the sheer amount of combat encounters — it felt like I was being attacked every minute.
The overload of these clashes would be more bearable if they gave more meaningful rewards, but you soon outgrow the need for the paltry bit of cash you get from the encounters.
There’s also a little delay when entering and exiting the street combat encounters that can grow tedious with so many of them in the game. Here’s hoping the next brawler style Yakuza game can find a way to make the action happen in real-time without any noticeable loading.
READ MORE: ‘Dynasty Warriors: Origins bought back my childlike wonder’
Should you buy Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii?
Pirate Yakuza does have some rough edges. Character models can look a little stiff and oddly animated at times, there’s a noticeable difference in quality between the main characters and most other NPCs. The lag when getting in and out of combat encounters can get annoying. The naval combat elements are a little shallow, and the recycling of much of Honolulu might not sit well with some players.
But that’s all easily ignored when you have such a great swashbuckling high-seas adventure in front of you.It’s a game packed full of quirky characters, over-the-top sidequests, and dozens of mini-games to pour your free time into. The combat is fun and action-packed, and the addition of naval combat is a welcome one.
With The Man Who Erased his Name starting out as DLC for Infinite Wealth before being broken out into a full release, and now Pirate Yakuza building off that foundation, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio has been able to build a successful business model by bookending their big tentpole releases with smaller titles.
We don’t need the wheel to be reinvented every single time; it’s okay to reuse locations and assets to streamline the process, as long as you have enough new content in there to balance it all out. It’s pretty hard to be angry at getting three awesome Yakuza games within fifteen months!
Quest Daily scores Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
8.5/10
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 8.5 out of 10.
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii sails onto on screens on the 21st of February for PlayStation and Xbox consoles, and PC.
Quest Daily was supplied with an early review copy of Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii thanks to the publisher.
