Waves crash in opposition to the hull of a ship that appears prefer it may very well be ripped proper from the Seventeenth century, gulls cry overhead, and on the helm is a determine wearing a Hawaiian print shirt. It isn’t the way you’d anticipate to be launched to Goro Majima, maybe some of the fashionable characters within the Like a Dragon sequence, nevertheless it units the tone. epicgamejourney was invited to a latest hands-on preview to get a style of what Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii would have in retailer — and it’s a narrative of Majima on the down and out, on a path to turn out to be the best pirate the world has ever seen. It’s the whole lot Like a Dragon followers might hope to anticipate.
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is as absurd as you’ll anticipate it to be — it’s a Like a Dragon sport, and Goro Majima is the protagonist, so it’s pure that Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio would lean into that. Majima is probably one of many few characters inside the sequence to obtain full character arcs laden with a few of the most emotional moments the Like a Dragon video games have seen. However not right here! At the least, not on this preview. As a substitute, Majima and crew head to the town of Madlantis, one other harmful underground fraught with violence and crammed to the brim with different ne’er-do-wells who, for essentially the most half, aren’t dressed like Social gathering Metropolis variations of Jack Sparrow from Gore Verbinski’s Pirates of the Caribbean. Like Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, characters who aren’t Japanese are an approximation of what Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios has created to roughly suit your common foray right into a Like a Dragon sport: errant vacationers, a couple of locals sprinkled right here and there, and droves of thugs able to beat you up since you’ve checked out them humorous or as a result of they wish to kick a person whereas he’s down. It’s very a lot only a online game metropolis.
By comparability to Madlantis, Honolulu isn’t all that thrilling, and through my time with the preview construct of the sport, I largely hopped across the metropolis with my intrepid youngster sidekick and his pet Bengal tiger kitten, singing the perfect of Majima’s karaoke hits — together with “24-Hour Cinderella” from Yakuza 0 — or modified up Majima’s look in a poorly constructed altering room. You possibly can run round shirtless with the grimacing white face of the hannya tattooed on the Mad Canine’s again for all to see, or perhaps you wish to slip again into that iconic snakeskin leather-based jacket, leather-based pants, and silver-tipped sneakers and all. I opted for the Yakuza 0 look, because it jogged my memory of a greater time within the sequence. I used to be additionally determined to chase that feeling after slicing up Keith, a generic-looking pirate with a tricorn hat, who had gotten on Majima’s dangerous facet for one purpose or one other. I’m positive that shall be defined within the full model of the sport and possibly have extra weight to it.
You see, whereas Majima ages like the remainder of us and has now reached the tender age of 60 years outdated, that doesn’t imply he’s any much less spry. The Mad Canine of Shimano continues to be able to studying some new tips and, with the Sea Canine combating model, he wields a pair of cutlasses and a Seventeenth-century hand cannon. All of his assaults are simply as swift as they’re lethal, and you should utilize a wire to propel your self at an enemy with reckless abandon. There are air combos, too, that are enjoyable and really feel a bit overpowered, however I’m not going to complain concerning the sport embracing the rule of cool for one in all its hottest characters. However if you need a return to the acquainted — one thing that brings you again to Yakuza 0 or that Yakuza 2 further situation — you may swap again to Majima’s signature combating model, Mad Canine, to sprint by enemies along with his tanto in hand. He doesn’t go as loopy as he does in earlier video games, however you may summon doppelgangers and use an attention-grabbing spinning assault to ship enemies flying or kill them outright. I can verify {that a} new remix of “Obtain You” does play whereas in Mad Canine model, and the music for Sea Canine isn’t dangerous both. It isn’t the identical overbearing EDM-esque OST that plagued Infinite Wealth and appears considerably toned down.
After roughing up Keith and his crew, I prowled what little I might of Madlantis. It’s in contrast to the opposite crime-ridden underground areas in earlier Like a Dragon video games. It’s dirty, rusted, and mashed collectively from ships collected in a proverbial graveyard. Neon lights illuminate the ramshackle buildings, reflecting on the floor of the water on which the whole lot is precariously floating. It isn’t like Purgatory from the unique Yakuza, or the Citadel from Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Title. It wasn’t glamorous or glitzy. Unusually sufficient, it’s a pleasant change of tempo from what I’m used to, and I used to be keen to provide Madlantis an opportunity, even when I used to be solely in a position to style a slice. I couldn’t take part in ship battles to make Majima essentially the most scary pirate on the seven seas, or steer my very own ship by the waters of Honolulu, however these choices shall be out there within the full model of the sport.
Like a Dragon: Yakuza in Hawaii really looks like a Gaiden sport, one thing meant to fill the hole between releases to satiate the starvation of a rising new viewers. Or pull again long-time followers who’ve in any other case grown fatigued with the sequence and simply wish to play as Majima one final time. There have been a number of tough edges, and a number of asset reuse, which isn’t all the time a foul factor, however the Dragon Engine (which the group first used for Yakuza 6 in 2016) is actually beginning to present its age. It’s a marvel why Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio didn’t make the leap to Unreal Engine 5 prefer it did for Like a Dragon: Ishin, which seems to be a step above Yakuza in Hawaii. On the very least, I can’t say that it’s extra of the identical, as a shift in protagonist and the return to extra action- oriented fight feels refreshing.
