Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii might seems like an incredibly outlandish idea at first glance, but once you think about it for a minute, you realise just how easily it slots into the Yakuza/Like A Dragon universe. Sure, the series is a serious crime drama, but each game has wacky encounters and over the top characters. Goro Majima, our protagonist in Pirate Yakuza, is probably the most outlandish of the main cast of the franchise, to the point that sticking him on a pirate ship and making him a captain barely even raises an eyebrow.
Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is set after the events of Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth and, despite being a spin off, does contain major spoilers for that game. So if you have not played Infinite Wealth and want to experience the story without spoilers, get to that before Pirate Yakuza.
The plot in Pirate Yakuza begins with Majima washing up on a small island with a nasty case of amnesia. A young boy called Noah finds him and is set on helping Majima, but very quickly you realise that this is no ordinary island, what with all the pirates. We are talking about pirates with wooden ships armed with cannons, tricorn hats, and lots of treasure. This nautical throwback is down to the pirates searching for treasures in the waters around Hawaii, and taking refuge in the pirate cove of Madlantis – again, this is like an only slightly abnormal situation for Majima. Madlantis is a pure pirate heaven, as an NPC constantly shouts when you are docked there, full of bars, brothels, brawls, and battles. After his run in with the pirates on Rich Island – the island he washed up on – Majima makes his way to Madlantis with a crew in tow.
Piracy has a bit of depth to it. You can go around recruiting people to the crew, if you meet their requirements. These can range from having a sufficient pirate rank to beating them in a fight. Once someone is recruited, you can assign them to a job on your crew, matching their skill rating to a post. Crew can be assigned to the cannons, the ship’s machine guns, or to be part of the boarding party. As you find success in battles on the open sea, and in the Coliseum, experience will be earned by your crew and it does not take too long until they have an A Rank or even S Rank in their skills. The ship itself can be upgraded too with improvements to the hull and through better weapons, visiting Julie’s store once you have the right materials to have her craft things like coconut machine guns and shark cannons.
Once you’re feeling confident, you can sail the waters around Hawaii and other islands to search for treasure and engage in battles with other ships and crews. At first, this is fun. Firing off cannons and machine guns at incoming ships, instructing your crew to repair the ship, switching to deck mode to heal characters and fire a rocket launcher at enemy ships is decent. Then, where it is possible, boarding an enemy ship with your chosen crew to fight a large enemy group is great to see and experience too. However, eventually it all gets a bit samey and when your ship is suitably powered up and your crew levelled up, most challenges become easy enough to sweep aside. The ship’s speed on the water is rather slow too, and even the boost doesn’t feel like it speeds up that much.
The Pirate Coliseum is a great spectacle to witness, where you fight another ship in a massive arena, but all the glitz and glamour can’t hold off that repetitiveness for long. There is a side story here where you hunt dangerous pirates to get hold of cursed instruments, which grant Majima access to new powers to use in fights, but you can make do without them.
In fact, exploring Honolulu as Majima and diving into the classic Yakuza formula was much more fun. While there are much fewer sub stories than the bigger games, Honolulu still has enough to keep you entertained. You can search for treasure in the city, take on a load of bounties (which are also available in Madlantis), complete the challenges, and really dive into the silliness for which the substories are known for – My Dream Minato Girl is a particular highlight. You also have side activities returning such as Dragon Kart and Crazy Eats.
Pirate Yakuza’s combat is fun, with the ability to switch between two styles. You have Majima’s pirate style combat which sees him armed with two cutlasses, a hook rope, and a pistol. You also have a classic brawler style as well, which doesn’t have access to the tools and weapons of pirate style. Having played pretty much all the Yakuza games, I did notice a reduction of Heat move options, which do add an entertaining element to fights. Over the years, Majima has proven to be a creative and chaotic fighter, so a few more options to tap into that would have been welcome.
There is also still the issue around crafting. To get some of the new weapons you need to have the right components, and sometimes you need to craft those components. Unfortunately, you can only craft one component at a time instead doing a batch. If you need 20 quality components, for example, and have the resources to make them, you will be pressing craft 20 times. You can also reach Legends of the Sea rank very easily, and without having to set sail much at all. Just complete the standard challenges, most of which you will do without thinking, and you’ll rise up those ranks. Having it tied to the pirate side alone would have made achieving that rank an accomplishment.
The story is not peak Like A Dragon but it serves its purpose, giving an outlandish yet fitting reason for why Majima has lost his memory, and why so many people are searching for a lost treasure. It has both silly and serious moments, with Majima dishing out a lot of good advice to his young protégé, Noah. The new characters are a welcome addition to the franchise, and I hope that we see them appear in a mainline entry.