Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii | Review

Introduction

So I’ve managed to beaten six or seven Yakuza/Like a Dragon video games to completion including both Judgment titles. I played at least four more Yakuza titles not to completion. So yea, I know this series pretty good.

At this point you’d think I’d be fatigue with the likes of Goro Majima and the rest of this series but I’m not. Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is a shorter game compared to it’s past series’ predecessors yet I ended up enjoying Pirate Yakuza for what it was. A fun pirate video game.

Presentation

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii features less story cutscenes than other “Like a Dragon” games minus “Gaiden” which was a shorter Yakuza game. Pirate Yakuza is more focused and centered around Hawaii and Madlantis. You have plenty of time in the seas on the Goro pirate ship if that’s your thing.

Presentation was good here. No real bugs or glitches unless you want to point out constant NPC lines being repeated. But I digress. The game looked and ran very good on my Playstation 5. Atmosphere revolving around Piracy mixed in with some Yakuza themes rounded things out.

Story

The plot was better than I thought i’d be yet it was pretty readable. It goes former Yakuza Captain and series main stay character Goro Majima washes up on shore where he meets Noah Rich.

Soon after, Goro becomes a pirate captain and learns of a special treasure which holds an elixir of life that can help Noah. Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth’s story is intertwined in this game as many secrets take place on Nele Island.

Gameplay

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza is action adventure third person melee hack n’ slash with swords’ and pistol. Goro Majima has a fast fighting style compared to Kazuma Kiryu who’s a tank for the most part. You can upgrade Goro Majima’s abilities such as health and unlock new special attacks via XP.

Pirate ship battles were a bit of a let down as I enjoyed Assassins Creed Black Flag and Skull & Bones more due to them being more in-depth gameplay mechanics-wise. The pirate battles were just too simplistic in this. Upgrading your ship does make a big difference and deck battles were a fun spectacle.

Goro can craft his own food in Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii which features a cooking mini-game. You can travel to islands via your ship and capture the island’s treasure which seemed kinda flat and lacked depth.

Unlike other Like a Dragon games there are less cutscenes along with substories here. You can unlock plenty of outfits for Majima and Goro, Noah’s pet tiger.

Visuals

This is the best looking Like a Dragon/Yakuza video game I played. I played this on my Playstation 5 for reference. Madlantis visually was a standout with it’s map setting design from a visual standpoint yet had slow down issues.

Character models were really good. Hawaii was pretty to visit once again. Particle effects in Madlantis and the fast paced action looked crisp and fast. Lighting was pretty fixed but got the job done.

Sound

Music was pretty good featuring swashbuckling metal, Japanese beats with nice pitch perfect ambiance noises rounded out the sound design. Voice actors and actresses spoke cheesy lines most of the time had a good performance.