How much fun can you pack in a game before going overboard? The latest title in Sega’s Yakuza franchise, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, cleverly fuses landlubber gangster and sea-faring pirate adventures with a generous dose of wholesomeness and Japanese-style humour.
Set in Hawaii, you get to explore plenty of islands, sunny beaches, pirate havens as well as the big touristy city of Honolulu.
Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is an action adventure game that combines elements from open-world gangster games like Grand Theft Auto or Mafia with sailing pirate games like Skull and Bones.
The Yakuza game takes place after the events of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth which was released last year and also featured Honolulu as one of the playable locations.
Like an onsen egg
You play Goro Majima, a recurring character from the Yakuza franchise, who has found washed up on a beach in Hawaii with amnesia. He was rescued by ten-year-old Noah and his feline companion.
While trying to recover his memory and his purpose, he helps out Noah’s family, becomes a captain of a ship affectionately named Goromaru, and enlists quirky characters as his crew who dub themselves as the Goro Pirates.
Sporting an eye patch and tattoos, Majima looks intimidating on the outside but is actually a soft and sensitive soul inside, kind of like an onsen egg.
As you play through the game, Majima is seen as a righteous and honorable yakuza who helps out people in need, lends a listening ear to young Noah’s growing pains, and even rescues and adopts stray animals.
Most problems in the game can be resolved by Majima slugging it out, and he can switch between gangster “Mad Dog” and pirate “Sea Dog” modes. Each mode has its own unique attacks, combos as well as limited Heat finishers that dole out devastating damage.
In Mad Dog mode, Majima attacks with his fists, legs and a short sword, while in Sea Dog mode, he can use dual cutlasses, pistols or a grappling hook to attack distant enemies. In spite of his age and all the ageist jokes, Majima has over-the-top powers like blocking bullets, superhuman combos and incredibly powerful finishers.
Despite using violence to solve problems, Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is actually a pretty wholesome game with strong lessons in courage, righteousness and friendship. Unlike Grand Theft Auto games, Majima does not attack NPCs (non-playable characters), rob stores or steal cars, and does not get arrested by cops.
Ahoy there! Aloha! Konnichiwa!
Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii takes Majima to various treasure islands, small seaside villages as well as the bustling big city of Honolulu. The game features loads of side quests known as substories that gives Majima a chance to earn reputation points, friends and crew members.
Majima can also build closer relationships with Noah and other crew members by having in-depth conversations with them. These encounters can be triggered by simply walking around, making every venture an adventure!
Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii’s substories are well-developed and balanced, peppered with serious messages, character development or hilarious scenarios. For instance, taking the trolley tram will trigger an interesting conversation and a hilarious minigame where you try to snap photos of masked scantily-clad perverts in order to score points and exchange them for rewards.
Another memorable substory has Majima joining some fanboys on a tour led by a kawaii celebrity, and learning to be confident in themselves. These substories can run for quite a while with long cutscenes that expound the characters’ backstories and motivations at length, but it makes the characters so much more memorable.
Although some of the random NPC chatter can get repetitive, there are unique and quirky individuals to talk to as well. One complaint I have is that the NPCs’ speech bubbles tend to overlap, making it hard to read. That said, since they tend to repeat the same lines, I could always catch it another time.
Instead of getting into punch-ups with random NPCs, Majima can greet and befriend them on a social app on his mobile phone. He can also feed stray animals who will also count as friends!
While completing quests and substories, scoring collectibles, winning minigames, finding treasures and of course, beating up baddies, Majima gains Reputation points and money which are needed to unlock combos and perks to upgrade his combat prowess, making him tougher to beat.
The game’s attention to detail is exceptional, even for enemies. Random hoodlums you encounter on the street have personalised names, which is a nice touch knowing whose butt you are kicking.
The language they use is also accurate to their names and appearance. When I hear “I’m going to kill you” in Mandarin, I know that Majima will be up against some Chinese hooligans.
Pirate’s paradise
What’s a pirate game without treasure-hunting and swashbuckling adventures in the sea? In Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, Majima and the Goro Pirates can go island-hopping aboard the Goromaru to look for treasure as well as conduct naval warfare on enemy ships and crew.
The Goromaru has cannons on the port and starboard sides, machine guns on the bow and handheld rocket launchers, which can deal serious damage on enemy ships. These can also be upgraded to pack even more firepower.
What I really enjoy is the opportunity to board the enemy ships for some up close and personal melee combat. Your crew’s stats and experience levels will increase after every successful battle, and you can even boost their morale by gifting them presents, cooking them a feast or throwing a party onboard the Goromaru.
Sailing is very straightforward — there’s no need to meddle with sails, wind direction or speed. For ease of travel, there are arches to guide the Goromaru to places of interest quickly, with floating treasures to be picked up along the way to minimise the need to steer and navigate.
Fast travel can also be unlocked at lighthouses scattered across the map. When approaching land, Majima and a small crew can disembark to beat up enemies and find treasures and do some limited exploration.
Apart from enemy ships, there are other hazards to overcome at sea, including whirlpools, storms and lightning that can damage the ship. The ship can be patched up on the move but seeking refuge near lighthouses will fully replenish the ship’s health.
Majima also has to invest on upgrading the ship with better firepower and defense, which is critical when battling competitively with tougher enemy ships in the Pirate Coliseum.
For a pirate, it is strange that Majima does not swim or explore underwater, but there is already a lot to do and explore on land so it isn’t really a big deal.
Exploration galore
Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii offers superb exploration in the touristy city of Honolulu, with shopping malls, shops and F&B establishments that Majima can patronise.
He can order food and drinks from restaurants, cafes and food vans to boost his health and heat gauge, buy touristy gifts from souvenir shops for his crew, and purchase apparel to customise his appearance at fashion boutiques.
Although not all interiors can be accessed, simply window shopping is surprisingly enjoyable — interiors of shops, hotels and cafes are painstakingly detailed and full of activity. For instance, a Chinese restaurant has the familiar decor of red lanterns, round tables with lazy Susans and calligraphy scrolls.
Unlike other gangster games, Majima cannot steal or drive the fancy cars in the game. Instead, he can acquire a Segway-like transporter called the Street Surfer that lets him zip around quickly while still being able to collect loot on the go, or he can fast travel using taxis at a cost.
Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii offers plenty of rewarding activities, minigames, treasure, loot and collectibles that give you a dopamine rush. For collectors, there are 65 unique treasures to be found, and some can even be equipped or used in combat.
For those who love to play dress up, there are customisations for almost everything that Majima touches, including the Street Surfer, the ship Goromaru, outfits and accessories, and even wearables for Noah’s feline companion.
The game has a mind-blowing variety of minigames including poker, pool, cooking, food delivery, karaoke and mahjong, just to name a few. There are even arcade machines that feature some classic Sega games like Virtua Fighter, Racing Classic 2 and The Ocean Hunter. Personally, I spent way too much time playing mahjong and the claw machines for plushies since they are so much fun!
Easy on the eyes
With plenty of detail and activity, Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii’s visuals can get very busy. What I find impressive are the lighting effects with realistic reflections on glass and wet surfaces, and suitably ambient interior lighting for malls and cafes.
Although night and day cycles are dictated by the story and not in-game timing, it does showcase the beautiful scenery in a different light. Daytime at the sunny beaches can get quite blinding, so I had to adjust the graphics settings to tone it down, but the city lights in the evenings look sublime.
The game performed well on my PC’s AMD Radeon RX 7900XTX graphics card, although I did encounter some issues with saved games that refused to load, which made me lose some progress. Thankfully, the game can be saved manually frequently and cutscenes can be skipped, so I didn’t lose too much time with the minor hiccup.
Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii sacrifices realism for fun by taking away the tedium of open-world games with fast travel both in the city and at sea, unlimited inventory using a remote cache and an optional mode to execute combos automatically.
One minor gripe is that the user interface can do with some improvement — using the main menu to consume a health item during combat is unwieldy and inelegant.
TL;DR
With a detailed amphibious world for exploration and trademark Japanese-styled humour, Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii features addictive gameplay packed with lots of minigames, collectibles, interesting characters and side quests for constant dopamine rush.
If you love open-world games like Grand Theft Auto minus the guns and cars, and swashbuckling pirate adventures without dealing with tedious gameplay, I highly recommend Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. Even though the game takes a liberal dose of “unrealism”, it is a fair tradeoff for a fun and engaging experience.
Although Majima is accompanied by young Noah constantly, there is still plenty of vulgar language, sleazy scenarios and over-the-top violence, which makes this game somewhat unsuitable for younger gamers.
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is available for the PC on Steam, PlayStation 5 and 4, and Xbox Series X|S for S$53.90. It’s a pretty decent price at launch for a game with so much fun packed into it!
