Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii review – What a plunderful life

When the Yakuza series–now known as Like a Dragon–first kicked off in the early 2000s, it gave players a confined sandbox in which to experience a crime saga within Japan’s criminal underbelly. Over the years, the series has showcased a chameleonic talent for taking on other genres, and Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is the wildest spin-off to feature the cast since they faced the zombie apocalypse in Yakuza: Dead Souls. While the idea of tackling modern-day pirates as everyone’s favourite Mad Dog of Shimano, Goro Majima, sounds downright wacky, Pirate Yakuza sticks the landing with a compact tale of treasure, family, and beating the snot out of a former AEW champion.

Kicking off a few months after the events of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Pirate Yakuza sees Majima washed up on a strange island and stricken with a case of retrograde amnesia. This being a LAD game, it’s not long before he’s running into fights, making new friends along the way, and introducing his fist to the faces of local bullies as he sets off on a quest to claim a long-lost treasure. The antihero of the LAD series, this is the first time that Majima has been given the chance to headline a game in the series, and the end result is a swashbuckling adventure that fully commits to its theme with wild new locations, thrilling fights of the two-fisted variety, and a cast of memorable characters all vying to get their hands on the ultimate booty.

It’s that dedication to a corsair quest that makes Pirate Yakuza’s madcap premise work. It’s so ridiculous that it has to make sense, and thanks to the thrilling gameplay, there’s plenty of fun to be had on the high seas. The meat-and-potatoes of Pirate Yakuza is its galleon of ass-kicking content, as Majima flexes his buccaneer muscles with a pair of meaty fighting styles. Mad Dog turns him into a quick-footed brawler who can weave in and out of danger while sending in shadow-clones to annihilate tough foes. Meanwhile, Sea Dog sees him unleash cutlasses, pistols, and hooks into any bilgewater rat foolish enough to cross paths with his Yaarrrr-rated arsenal.

Similar to Like a Dragon Gaiden, Pirate Yakuza returns to the beat-’em-up roots of the series, giving you a wide variety of tools with which to dodge-and-demolish hordes of local thugs. By the time you’ve invested in a few of these skills, Majima will eliminate more pirates than scurvy ever did, as he becomes a sword-swinging force of nature on the high seas.

But when Pirate Yakuza gets gleefully ridiculous, that’s when you really start to have fun. Want to infiltrate a pirate nest and steal their ill-gotten gains? Done. Want to explore a pirate cove set inside a ship graveyard that also serves as an arena for nautical battles? Done and done. Want to decorate your battleship with an anime waifu wrap and outfit the vessel with laser cannons? You better believe that you can do just that.

Beneath the absurdity, Pirate Yakuza still offers a digestible tale full of melodramatic moments and double-crosses, and while it won’t leave you in tears like Kiryu’s story did in Like a Dragon Gaiden, there’s still a feeling of satisfaction to be had by the time the end credits roll. Majima’s a sadistic bastard with a rogue’s charm, and with the weight of a solo game on his shoulders, he carries that burden with surprising ease. A few familiar faces show up as well, so if you’re a longtime LAD fan, there are plenty of callouts to the series if you pay attention.

As you’d expect, there’s also plenty of recycling going on here. The Hawaiian location of Honolulu is back alongside a few minigames, and admittedly, almost all of the pirate lairs share the same décor. That’s a fairly substantial chunk of gameplay to revisit, but the new naval battles, treasure hunts, and a wealth of weird-as-hell side-stories keep the experience interesting without feeling like you’re going through the motions. Pirate Yakuza is also a manageably lean game, as with just a handful of story chapters, you can easily smash your way through the main campaign in around 12-15 hours.

Doing everything else so that you can grab that Platinum trophy? That’ll take much longer, and thanks to the captivating one-eyed sea dog leading the charge, it’s a task you’ll be happy to accept as you set sail for adventure.

Released on 21 February, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is available now for PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One.