Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii - Digital Deluxe Edition

I will be honest: when this was announced I expected a glorified DLC with a pirate hat slapped on existing Yakuza assets. What I got instead was a genuinely distinct action game with two full layers of combat, a ship to manage, islands to plunder, and a cooking minigame I spent an embarrassing amount of time in. RGG Studio built the naval systems from scratch, and it shows in both the ambition and the occasional rough edge. On the ground, Majima runs on a real-time brawler system rather than the turn-based mechanics introduced in Like a Dragon 7 and Infinite Wealth. He switches on the fly between Mad Dog style and Sea Dog style. Mad Dog is the knife-and-knife-tricks style series veterans know: fast, aerial, dagger throws, and a Madness Gauge that summons shadow doppelgangers when it fills. Sea Dog is the new toy: dual cutlasses, a pistol with infinite ammo, a grappling hook that zips Majima across the arena Spider-Man style, and a separate gauge that, when maxed, lets him shred a power solo on a musical instrument to summon a dark-god animal (shark, bird, monkey, or jellyfish) onto the battlefield. That last part is peak RGG and I will not apologize for loving it. A jump mechanic is also new to the series here, opening up air combos that push some larger fights toward Dynasty Warriors territory in the best possible way. The criticism that combat gets button-mashy in crowded encounters is fair, though: there is not much depth ceiling once you have your preferred style dialed in, and large fights can devolve into a flashy blur. At sea, you captain the Goromaru and engage ships using bow-mounted machine guns, port and starboard cannons, ramming, and a rocket launcher if you hand off the wheel. It is not Black Flag deep, but it is faster-paced and more immediately satisfying than most naval combat systems I have suffered through. Equipping different cannon ranges, managing crew roles, throwing feasts to raise crew morale, and boarding enemy ships to brawl on deck gives the whole thing a light management loop that fills the gaps between story beats. The revamped Coliseum at Madlantis adds crew-versus-crew land battles that can scale to genuinely Musou-sized numbers. On top of all this, there are ring slots on every finger with set bonuses for specific combinations, island treasure hunts tracked like a Wario Land collectible map, cursed items that function as spectacular (if eventually skippable) summons, and the full catalogue of Yakuza side activities: karaoke, arcade games, substories, minigames. Where the game stumbles is the main narrative. Amnesiac Majima is a functional premise, but it strips out the cunning-behind-the-chaos quality that makes the character so compelling across the wider series. For long stretches you are doing pirate things without a strong story anchor pulling you forward, and at one point the game hard-stops your progress until you have recruited enough crew and earned enough money, which is the kind of mandatory grind wall I have zero patience for in an otherwise breezy action game. The writing in the substories and character moments is still sharp, and series veterans will find payoff in the connective tissue to Infinite Wealth, but newcomers and anyone hoping for Yakuza 0-tier narrative weight should adjust expectations. The Digital Deluxe Edition bundles additional content on top of the base game. If you are a series fan who wants more Majima at the center of things, this delivers that with confidence. If you are an RPG player who came in through the turn-based era of Like a Dragon 7 and Infinite Wealth, be aware this is a different beast, and the real-time brawling may feel like a step sideways rather than forward. For everyone else: it is loud, it is ridiculous, it earns its 88% Steam rating, and the Sea Dog summons alone are worth the price of curiosity.

Monika · Scout Team

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