Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza is so much more than a silly diversion

Since 2018, Like a Dragon (previously Yakuza) has been present process a complete model transformation, transferring away from its singular give attention to Japan’s most well-known legal underworld group and towards one thing much less dour and po-faced. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth was a cheerful, decided celebration of the brand new sequence paradigm through Ichiban Kasuga and his merry band of middle-aged misfits, whereas additionally offering a becoming and emotional send-off for longtime franchise protagonist Kazuma Kiryu. By the point we rolled credit on the sport, it appeared like an ideal place to bookend what as soon as was with a view to make room for what comes subsequent.

At the least, that’s what we thought Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio was going to do, till they introduced Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. This sidequel to Infinite Wealth options ex-Tojo govt Goro Majima befriending a child, donning a pirate hat, and crusing the seven seas after an accident strips him of his reminiscence — and all of the attendant sequence baggage that goes with it. For the primary time since Yakuza Kiwami 2, gamers get to play as Majima, and for the primary time since Yakuza 0, we study what the person is admittedly like beneath all of the yakuza-themed guff. Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is one remaining unfastened thread to put within the tapestry of the outdated Yakuza video games, and it’s a wild trip certainly.

Sega marketed this sport as a “aspect story,” which is an fascinating alternative given the sheer quantity of stuff to do. Along with a roughly 20-hour major storyline, there are 31 sidequests, a B-plot involving a very totally different group of rogue and ruthless pirates from the primary story’s group, 4 land-based explorable places, and 9 totally different water areas to sail by means of. Majima can accumulate Honolulu PD bounties on criminals too harmful for the cops to apprehend, construct up relationships together with his most prized crewmembers by means of the Drink Hyperlinks system, or change into a social butterfly by means of Aloha Hyperlinks, and seek for buried and hidden treasure in all places — even on rooftops. And that checklist of actions isn’t even actually scratching the floor of what’s obtainable. Somebody with the time might simply put 50 to 70 hours into enjoying simply all of the aspect content material, together with repeatable actions like karaoke, darts, all of the Sega arcade classics dotted across the map, and the 15-game Grasp System emulator in Majima’s hideouts.

The principle sport is fairly neatly divided into two separate modes throughout 4 or 5 chapters: traditional Yakuza brawling and Varied Pirate Actions™. When Majima is engaged within the former, fists are flying in a reasonably acquainted trend. However when the crew of the Goromaru units sail, that’s when the sport actually kicks into excessive gear and reveals us what it’s doing to set itself other than the remainder of the franchise.

To begin, the sport tries to impress upon gamers {that a} captain is simply pretty much as good as his ship — and vice versa. You’ll put a major period of time into discovering crewmembers and grinding for cash and supplies to improve Majima’s abilities and the Goromaru’s sturdiness and weapons methods. Potential crewmembers is not going to at all times routinely be a part of your ship; they may sometimes need to see you do one thing like attain a sure notoriety stage, or demand one thing like “get me a extremely uncommon merchandise to point out me yow will discover distinctive and helpful treasure,” or “battle me to show your value.” When you do what they inform you, they be a part of your crew completely, however that’s simply step one. Then you definitely really should battle different pirate ships with a view to stage the crew up, finally elevating a squad of hardened fighters and ship operators.

The naval fight itself actually shines. To be clear, this isn’t a simulator in the best way one thing like Sea of Thieves is, the place crusing requires you to take care of a fairly weighty stage of management over a bunch of various interconnected methods and cooperate with different actual individuals to make issues work. As an alternative, Majima steers the boat and offers orders to fireside weapons and make repairs when obligatory. More often than not you’re crusing, the angle is a reasonably distant third individual, however you’ll be able to swap to Majima’s standpoint in emergencies, like placing out fires on deck or elevating knocked-out crewmembers.

This straightforward management scheme does quite a bit to make the precise fight aspect of crusing in Pirate Yakuza really feel glorious. The ship itself is nimble and extremely maneuverable; Julie, from Julie’s Autoworks (she’s been within the latest Like a Dragon video games because the weapons artificer), put in rocket boosters to the underside of the boat to permit your ship to attain bursts of pace and the flexibility to float like a BMX bike down on the outdated wash. In some naval battles, you’ll be able to really take a boarding occasion aboard the enemy ship and have interaction in fight that feels much like musou battles, and this sort of preventing even extends to treasure hunts and extra in depth land battles with Satan Flags pirates (the group of rogue and ruthless pirates concerned within the B-plot).

Reality be advised, I just like the fight higher in Pirate mode than when Majima is simply strolling round by himself, dealing harm to a random bunch of strangers with notions. Hand-to-hand fight in Pirate Yakuza began off simple and obtained even much less difficult as I upgraded Majima’s abilities. Whereas this was nice for protecting most common fights fast and clear with a view to get from level A to level B with out having to cease on a regular basis, I by no means discovered myself dealing with a very formidable boss. Whereas I made up an in-world justification for this energy differential as I used to be enjoying – Majima’s nonetheless a god amongst ex-Yakuza, having cast himself within the crucible of a lifelong rivalry with Kiryu, and all these wannabe pirates ain’t shit, comparatively – the extra I mirror on it, I notice I had an analogous drawback with the fight in Misplaced Judgment and different latest Like a Dragon titles. New pirate profession or not, amnesia or not, Majima is 60 goddamn years outdated, for Pete’s sake, and he’s transferring round with the agility and lethality of a person a 3rd his age. He even has his personal type of Spidey-sense when weapons are drawn on him! Simply completely overpowered.

There’s a lot to like in Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. It’s so way more than a foolish diversion to tide followers over between mainline entries. It presents gamers with complicated methods in a really matter-of-fact manner. It simply nonchalantly options a complete naval fight system that might make sure “AAAA” sport designers jealous. And it deepens our understanding of one of many Like a Dragon sequence’ most beloved and complex guys proper as he sails into the sundown.

What sort of man is Majima? The reply is easy: He’s the form of man who would placed on a pirate hat and steal a pirate ship to make a child’s dream of seeing the world come true. He’s the form of man who would battle to the loss of life in your behalf if he likes you sufficient. He’s the identical Majima we’ve at all times recognized, however in Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii he has the liberty to be the perfect model of that he may be. And if Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii accomplishes something, it’s this: It asks what the builders at Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio are going to do with this franchise now that they’ve moved past focusing solely on the Yakuza. And I believe the reply is now fairly easy and clear. They’re going to do something they need, and it’ll most likely be a blast.

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza In Hawaii will probably be launched Feb. 21 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Home windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Sequence X. The sport was reviewed on Xbox Sequence X utilizing a pre-release obtain code offered by Sega. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These don’t affect editorial content material, although Vox Media could earn commissions for merchandise bought through affiliate hyperlinks. You could find extra details about epicgamejourney’s ethics coverage right here.