You can aspire to do a lot of things in this life time, but one thing you will never, ever do is accuse RGG Studios of being subtle. Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii does exactly what it says on the tin, and does it so, so much better than it has any right to. This brilliant spin-off chronologically follows the last mainline game in the Like a Dragon series, Infinite Wealth, so make sure you play one of 2024’s best games before heading into the briny deep of Pirate Yakuza.
Around three months after the end of Infinite Wealth, beloved series veteran Goro Majima washes up on the shore of a tiny island in Hawaii. When he wakes, he has no memory of his past with the Yakuza, as the Mad Dog of Shimano, as the vice-chairman of the Tojo Clan before its dissolution, as a key figure in ending the Yakuza. Yes, the amnesia thing is old hat, but it’s probably the only way that you could get Majima to be a Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, as the title promises, and it’s done in a non-annoying way where he finds out his identity within the first hour of the game.
After being discovered by 10-year-old Noah and his pet baby tiger (who he is convinced is a house cat), Majima makes fast friends with some former pirates on the island. Noah has a unique medical condition that requires him to live in a specific climate, and out of worry his father Jason has never allowed him to leave the tiny island. While initially hostile and aggressive, Jason eventually reveals he was a treasure hunter a decade ago and agrees that it’s time for Noah to see the world.
Noah and his pet tiger Lil Goro accompany Majima on this adventure as his faithful companions, simply fighting towards the goal of becoming the greatest pirates in the seven seas. You’ll collect a new friend with every stop on the journey, like the pirate chef Masura and the teenage sharpshooter Mitsuki. Yes, it’s very One Piece, and it’s heartwarming and great.
Unlike its predecessors, Pirate Yakuza is an action game, not a turn-based RPG. While the combat takes a lot of inspiration from the older titles like Yakuza Kiwami, it brings its own fresh take with tons of new abilities and upgrades. Majima can switch quickly between two styles: Mad Dog (pulling in his old abilities from the early Like a Dragon games) or Sea Dog, going full in on the pirate stuff.
Equipped with swords, pistols, a grappling hook, and more over-the-top kill screens than you could fit in the brig, the energy is always at 100. You can also upgrade and unlock dozens of new abilities and combos throughout the game with Pirate Points. Plus, Majima can summon ghost pirates and ocean spirits to fight for him by discovering magical artifacts! While I do enjoy the turn-based Like a Dragon games a bit more, this is the most I have ever enjoyed the action combat for the series.
Pirate Points are gained every time you do a pirate-y thing, such as raiding a treasure island, engaging in ship combat, defeating an enemy pirate crew, or finding valuable treasures scattered across the ocean. Your pirate rank will increase to up to four stars across your journey, symbolizing your notoriety among the modern pirate world. The best way to build it up is to head to the pirate capital of the Pacific, a wretched hive of scum and villainy called Madlantis.
The story will guide Majima and his faithful crew to Madlantis, a island in international waters that’s got it all – gambling, booze, drugs, prostitution, and most of all the Pirate Coliseum. As pirates are a lot less common in the year 2025 and can’t do a whole lot of raiding and pillaging villages, the Pirate Coliseum is the definitive way for seafaring fellows to prove their worth as scallywags. The Coliseum has several different challenges, ranging from ship combat to boarding attacks to flat out large-scale wars, all of which are pretty damn fun. Madlantis plays a major part in the story, introducing the Queen and her f-boy lieutenant Mortimer, who serve as the primary antagonists for our heroes.
While the ship combat is super fun and enjoyable, I must confess it is too easy. Naval battles are usually over in a matter of a minute, but that’s probably for the best to keep the pacing of the game going. The bow of your ship is equipped with a machine gun, while the port and starboard sides are equipped with different kinds of cannons. All upgradable of course, and everything from fire to laser cannons are available to purchase.
You can also assign specific crew members to specific positions on the ship and the boarding squad based on their stats to maximize effectiveness, but it’s not really more intricate than choosing the characters with the highest stats for the most important role. Still, it makes the crew feel more like people and less like random NPCs when you see them leaping into battle alongside you. And when in doubt, just ram the hull of the other ship for massive damage.
The gameplay loop is very simple and fun. Sail the open oceans, engaging in ship combat, stop by mysterious island dungeons to fight off hordes of pirates and find unique treasures, head to Honolulu for the classic top-notch writing substories you expect from Like a Dragon, upgrade your weapons and ship with your rewards, and become the best pirate crew the 21st century has ever seen.
While not on par with or nearly as serious as Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Infinite Wealth, the story is great and lighthearted. Sure, you’re not trying to manage the dissolution of the Yakuza or re-integrate 30,000 criminals back into society or find your birth mother. Majima’s only real overarching goal is to be the best pirate captain in the world, while the supporting characters provide the more serious character arcs like avenging a murdered father or reconnecting with an estranged daughter.
Pirate Yakuza almost effortlessly retains the franchise’s title as king of mini-games, not only bringing back the mini-games from Infinite Wealth, but expanding them and adding a dozen new ones as well. Super Crazy Delivery makes a big return with double the courses, and remains my favorite of the games, while new ones like the Batting Cages and Darts sucking me in until I got S ranks.
Plus, gather animal companions around the archipelago to join the Goro Kingdom, the cutest menagerie of all time, and use the food ingredients they gather to cook meals to power up. Karaoke is available everywhere, even on your ship, and you can have parties and feasts with the crew to raise morale and level up your buccaneers!
Many of the excellent substories feature returning minor characters from Infinite Wealth, and you can see how their lives have progressed over the past three months which is so rewarding in its own right. The Honolulu map from the last game is still gorgeous, but with little upgrades here and there, and of course new areas to explore on the rooftops via your grappling hook. Fan favorites likes Julie the Engineer, the Barkeeper, and Daigo return in a big way, but this game really lets the new supporting cast shine.
The music is, once again, incredible. Saori Yoshida continues her amazing work from the past decade of Like a Dragon games, incorporating hard hitting EDM beats, Hawaiian ukuleles, and rousing sea shanties as well as a Disney-style musical number that made me extraordinarily happy. It’s indicative of not only how campy this game is, but how shamelessly joyful it is at embracing the insanity that is being a Jack Sparrow-style pirate in the year 2025. All the style and hilarity, like knocking gold doubloons out of enemies when you kill them, genuinely makes you simultaneously feel like both a pirate and a yakuza.
Matt Mercer returns for his fourth game as the voice of Goro Majima, the first time in a major role, and knocks it out of the park. His performance is nuanced, loud, loving, and slightly psychotic all at once, and is complimented beautifully by Maya Aoki Tuttle’s performance as our main supporting character Noah. None of the voices are auto-tuned for the musical numbers or karaoke, and it’s actually a hundred times more fun because of it. A well earned shout out to RGG Studios for finding talented Hawaiian actors to play these Hawaiian characters; every last one of them crushes it.
This game is also a technological marvel – on PlayStation 5, I have never had a single frame drop below 60, even during battles with hundreds of independently rendered characters on screen performing crazy magical attacks. There are beautiful particle effects, excellent facial and body animations, and realistic water physics out on the open ocean.
You should be aware Pirate Yakuza’s ocean is not fully open world, but is made up of many open zones, which certainly helps with performance and scaling, but in practice does hurt the experience a good deal. My biggest complaint is the amount of times you need to fast travel between open zones to move around; you basically sail in a straight line for a few minutes before teleporting to another part of the ocean.
While it doesn’t reach the impossible highs of its predecessors Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Pirate Yakuza delivers an unforgettable experience that never forgets to be fun and never lets up on the throttle. I can’t think of a studio that’s delivered this good of a three-game streak since Arkane Studios with Dishonored, Dishonored 2, and Prey, and yet this time I’m not even a tiny bit worried that RGG Studios will break that streak with their upcoming slate of the Virtua Fighter remake, Project Century, and Like a Dragon 9. Pirate Yakuza is one of those rare AAA games that is worth every penny at full price, and if you’re a fan of Pirates of the Caribbean or especially One Piece, you’ll find all the swashbuckling joy you could ask for right here. Anchors aweigh!
Nirav reviewed Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii on PlayStation 5 with his own copy.
