Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is… Not What I Hoped For

 Reviews, Video games  No Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Jun 192026
 

All right. It’s time to talk about Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii.

The winner of my last contest picked the review prize and had me play Pirate Yakuza, and…

Wait, I know what you’re thinking. I didn’t do contests this past February or May. Yes, I’m talking about the winner of my Celebrating All Things Spooky contest, back in October.

So how did it take me this long to finish one of the shorter games in the series? Two reasons: first, I had to finish Infinite Wealth before starting Pirate Yakuza, and second…

I hate to say it, but I honestly found Pirate Yakuza to be a bit of a slog.

If you follow my blog regularly, you might remember I had mixed feelings about Pirate Yakuza early on. Its premise felt too silly to me, and I would have preferred a historical pirate spin-off instead. That said, I started to warm up to the idea after a while and hoped I would at least enjoy it as a fun, silly adventure.

(Don’t forget, I’m a Dead Souls defender, after all.)

Let me start with the positives. There are some great substories in this game. The substory about Majima and the other pirate captain going through training about workplace compliance ranks up there with the funniest in the series, and Masaru’s Love Journey, which I’d worried I’d find boring, was so uncomfortable that it circled around to being hilarious.

The story, however, falls flat, and not just because of suspension of disbelief.

First of all, it’s not actually “a swashbuckling adventure on the high seas” like I described it when anticipating it in my earlier blog post. I imagined Majima and his crew sailing from island to island, searching for the location of a treasure they know is out there somewhere… but that’s not really the direction the main story takes. The main narrative focuses on a few locations you travel between.

This includes Madlantis, a haven for all these modern-day pirates who act like old-fashioned pirates… and some of the most boring antagonists I’ve seen.

I thought Infinite Wealth’s antagonists, aside from Yamai, were pretty boring, but they’ve got nothing on these guys. Maybe it’s because there were too many of them, forcing the already-thin story to be spread even thinner across its villains, but I just didn’t find them compelling at all.

On top of that, there is something strange about Pirate Yakuza’s tone, and not just because its premise requires such suspension of disbelief. I’m a fan of romanticized treasure hunter pirates like in Skies of Arcadia, and I love how the Yakuza series usually has moral protagonists despite the crime drama focus, but this game feels like it goes out of its way to emphasize that we’re the wholesome good guy pirates. It just feels a little off. Meanwhile, Majima’s amnesia feels nearly pointless, and I really think they could have told a more interesting story without it.

Click for Pirate Yakuza spoilers
Especially with the post-credits reveal that Majima wanted to find a cure for Kiryu, having Majima keep/regain his memories and actively search for the treasure because of that might have made the plot feel more compelling.

His amnesia feels like it’s just an excuse for him to not care about abandoning his duties, but wouldn’t him abandoning his duties on a desperate hope that he could save Kiryu be even stronger?

Instead of the Saejima scenes having a general tone of “Bro, you have responsibilities,” “Quit calling me bro! I don’t know what you’re talking about,” it could instead have been Saejima being more level-headed and rational about the likelihood of finding a magical cure while Majima is dead set on trying.

I don’t know, the amnesia just felt to me to be pointless at best, damaging to the plot at worst.

Now, you might think I’m being too harsh on the silly Majima pirate game. Who cares if it has a weak plot, right?

Unfortunately, when I mentioned the game feeling like a slog, that also extends to my feelings about the gameplay. I did find the combat fun, though; I’ll give it credit for that. I wasn’t sure about the combat system at first, especially since I didn’t like how jumping felt, but once Majima’s Sea Dog style got expanded with the gun and grappling hook, I started to have a lot of fun with it. It’s more focused on taking down large groups of enemies, but it has a lot of fun features.

Ship combat, however, I didn’t enjoy. This is partly because of a complaint that I also extend to the general gameplay: why is the ship so slow?

Why is the ship so slow??

Why is the ship so slow???

Maybe it’s for realism (in this, of all games), but the ship felt painfully slow to me whenever I wasn’t boosting… or sailing through the rings that boost your speed and carefully guide you down the paths from island-to-island that the game clearly wants you to take. Island exploration should have been interesting, at least… except it isn’t island exploration, not really; the optional islands are more like combat arenas that reward you with treasure for completing them.

The more I played, the more I started to feel nostalgic for Kingdom Hearts III, actually. In the Pirates of the Caribbean world, you got to sail around the map stopping at little islands to explore and find treasure, and I realized what I really wanted was a Yakuza version of that.

I loved customizing my ship. I loved being able to see all my crew members. But I didn’t love the actual ship gameplay.

My save file says I finished Pirate Yakuza in about 30 hours. I’m not sure I believe it. It felt like I was playing this game forever, although maybe that’s because it struggled to hold my interest. When I started Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, I worried I wouldn’t be able to take it seriously, but I never thought I just wouldn’t be having fun. More than anything else, it feels haunted by the specter of what it could have been, the sort of game that’s disappointing because you’d hoped for more from it.

It did have some great substories, and the combat was fun, and the post-credits scene was good, so I can’t completely complain about it. But Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii might be my least favorite Yakuza game now, and glad I’m done.

Pirate Yakuza – The Unreliable Narrator Theory

 Video games  1 Response »  Tagged with: ,
Sep 232024
 

When we discussed the newly-released Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii on Friday, I had mixed feelings about the game’s premise.

One of my criticisms was that everything has the trappings of classic historical pirates even though the game is set in the present day, which contributes to the sense of it being too silly compared to the rest of the series.

But now I’ve seen a few fans toss around a theory that could explain everything – and it makes a lot of sense.

The start of the trailer implies that this is a frame story in which Majima is telling someone else about what happened to him. In that case, we need to take into account the possibility that Majima is an unreliable narrator. And if he is, these anachronisms and sillier aspects could be considered his embellishments to the actual events.

(It wouldn’t be the first time they’ve done something like this. Notably, the enemy transformations in Yakuza: Like a Dragon are just Ichiban’s imagination because he’s a big JRPG fan.)

So I’m calling it now – the first time we see that pirate ship, it’s going to cut back to the frame story to have someone object that pirates don’t use galleons anymore, and Majima will tell them to shut up because it’s his story and he’s going to tell it the way he wants.

If that’s actually what’s happening here, I’m much less critical of it. Realistic modern-day pirates, while more suitable for a serious story, probably wouldn’t be nearly as much fun as a swashbuckling adventure on the high seas. Choosing the fun option for the player to experience while having it actually be an embellished version of the “real” events would actually be a great way to do it.

Meanwhile, Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii was confirmed to be much longer than Gaiden, with the main story stated to be around 1.3 to 1.5 times longer. That would explain the higher price point ($60 compared to Gaiden’s $50), especially if it has a sizable amount of side content.

All in all, I’m feeling more positive toward the idea of Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii than I was on Friday, especially since there are ways it could all make sense. Of course, this theory could be wrong and they just actually have pirates in galleons firing cannons at each other and fighting with cutlasses in 2024. What do you think about the unreliable narrator theory?

The Pirate Majima Game is Real! (Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii Revealed)

 Video games  5 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Sep 202024
 

Earlier this week, we discussed the rumors of a pirate-themed Like a Dragon game.

I thought the story premise sounded questionable and hoped it would be a historical spin-off instead.

But no, the leak was accurate! Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii has been announced for February 28, 2025. It is set after Infinite Wealth and stars Majima, who loses his memory and becomes a pirate captain while trying to remember who he is.

The RGG Summit was held this morning at 6 AM Eastern Time, which was too early for me to normally be up. But by chance, I woke up at exactly 6 AM, so I tuned in a few minutes late to watch the rest of the Summit. I’ve seen people say the trailer contains spoilers for Infinite Wealth, which I didn’t pick up on at all, so I’m guessing they were in those first few minutes that I missed. To be safe, I won’t watch the trailer again until I’m caught up.

I still think the premise of Majima getting amnesia and becoming a pirate is a bit too silly. And… even though they’re modern-day pirates, they look like classic pirates?! They’ve got a galleon! They’re firing cannons! It feels a bit too goofy to me for a series where the main stories are usually pretty serious despite all the wacky side content, but I have my fingers crossed that the story will still be good.

It features brawler combat, now with the ability to jump, and you can switch between two combat styles: “Mad Dog” and “Sea Dog.” Despite my skepticism about the game’s premise, I love those names.

They also showed off a handful of mini-games, and this is the game the auditions were for. Instead of hostesses, they’re part of a new live-action scenario called “Masaru’s Love Journey: My Dream Minato Girl,” in which the new supporting character Masaru searches for romance. I’m not sure why it’s about Masaru instead of Majima or what it means for gameplay (will we be playing as Masaru? are we giving him love advice as Majima? is this a wingman Majima mini-game?), but it has the potential to be interesting.

Now, the Japanese title is is Like a Dragon 8 Gaiden: Pirates in Hawaii, so it’s strange that they both dropped the “Gaiden” and shoehorned “Yakuza” into the English title.

With it being another Gaiden title, I’d worried that it would be a digital-only release in the west like Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, but not only are we getting a physical standard addition, but they also announced a physical Collector’s Edition that includes an acrylic standee of Majima, a pirate flag, a coin pin, an eye patch, and a voucher for the digital deluxe content.

(Where was this energy when Judgment came out?? Do you know how much I wanted a Judgment Collector’s Edition?)

It’s kind of ironic for me that the first Like a Dragon game I’m skeptical about is getting a Collector’s Edition. I’ll probably get it anyway since I love the series so much, but I wish one of the games I’d been super excited for had gotten that treatment.

I have to admit, I’m a little disappointed that they didn’t tease another game at the Summit. They really spoiled us with that first Summit in 2022, and since I have some mixed feelings about the pirate game, I was really hoping they’d announce at least one more. Instead, the only other things they showed were the upcoming show, the Kiwami Switch port, and a new merchandise line. It just goes to show that even though they did it once, we can’t expect multiple announcements every time.

Anyway, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is a reality, and it’s coming next February. Are you excited for it, or do you have doubts?