In an era where video games sacrifice either quality or length for the other, RGG Studio is the gift that keeps on giving with their Yakuza franchise. It’s made me a firm believer in them with nearly a thousand hours across their vast catalog of games.

With Kiryu’s official departure, I wondered where the series would go after that bittersweet ending of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, and oh boy, they answered back in style at that 2024 Summit livestream.

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is the latest entry in the series, an eccentric tale with the long-awaited return of Goro Majima as the playable protagonist. This was an answered prayer for many who wanted him back as the lead since Yakuza 0.

Let me tell you something, they couldn’t have chosen a better guy than our adored one-eyed Mad Dog to be the lead in an adventurous pirate tale that spans across the treacherous oceans of Hawaii.

Knowing you’re a fan like me, you’ll arguably eat this up, but for those with burning questions about how it fares against previous entries, I’m here today to answer that and also tell you why it’s the ideal fan-service title for all Majima fans.

The Mad Dog’s Amnesiac Resurgence

They say curiosity killed the cat, but in the case of Goro Majima, I’d insert something along the lines of amnesia putting Old Yeller to pasture.

When I first saw that Majima’s supposed amnesia was an integral plot thread in this game for the opening hours, I immediately doubted how this new charade in the series would unfold, given it felt lazily inserted to me on paper.

Surprisingly, it doesn’t feel as forced as I’d expected. Majima’s amnesia actually works well in his favor, as it (kind of) gives his character a temporary reset and a new outlook—one that’s free of his regretful past in the Yakuza.

That new outlook is easily evident when Majima meets Noah and his family on Rich Island. Sure, that amnesia wiped away his character’s core lunacy, but it brought us a long-dormant nurturing side via his bonding with Noah.

Majima’s relationship with Noah is nothing short of pure and heartfelt. They are like best friends on a joyful voyage from start to end, even if that voyage is a glorified treasure hunt that checkmarks all the major components in an Indiana Jones flick.

In most cases, it’s easy for one to assume that a child deuteragonist like Noah might seem annoying, but from his Drink Link sessions and all the Bond Chats with Majima you get to see during the exploration, he’s immediately someone you’d protect at all costs.

Even aside from Noah, the game does a great job of invoking the adventurous spirit of pirates you’d come to expect, with the involvement of characters like Masaru, the skilled chef of the crew, and Noah’s dad, Jason.

Though it’s not your traditional party-based JRPG, the camaraderie between Majima, his Goro Pirates crew, and Noah throughout the game tells you enough of how much care and attention was poured into making them feel imperative, just like Majima.

Re-witnessing Majima’s iconic overzealous character after the back-and-forth we’ve seen with Ichiban and Kiryu is such a refreshing experience for me. It makes that enduring wait since Yakuza 0 for his own game a full-circle moment.

A Tale Of Cannons, Plunder & Sea Shanties

Given the game I’m reviewing, it may sound convenient to say but Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag was one of my favorite titles growing up on the Xbox 360. The naval combat was one of its most praised features that everyone talks about to this day.

Even though a ‘AAAA’ game like Skull & Bones tried to replicate it and managed poorly, believe me when I say that RGG Studio, of all developers, has achieved that better than anyone else with Pirate Yakuza’s thrill-seeking naval combat on the perilous waters of Hawaii.

RGG went out of their way to make this one of the most overly joyful aspects of the game, even if it gets tiring towards the end. Let me break the naval combat down a bit to explain.

Your Goromaru ship can be outfitted with several upgrades to strengthen it: new cannons, tons of crew members, and, just like Majima’s outfit, a plethora of visual customization options to help make it stand out.

The real fun begins after that: taking down enemy ships across the seas or the arena of Madlantis with laser cannons, shark cannons, freezing machine guns, rocket launchers, or even a barrage of flamethrowers.

Considering this is the Yakuza series, it’s clear that RGG had their imagination run wild, giving you near limitless freedom here, as you can traverse the seas and take down any enemy ship with your crazy arsenal of weaponry.

These goofy options don’t mean you just head in guns blazing. Strategy still matters as you carefully maneuver and commandeer the Goromaru in a way that doesn’t get you sandwiched between enemy broadsides.

That strategic mindset is crucial in higher-level battles with beefier enemy ships since you’ll need to consider how you’ve assigned your crew members across Goromaru’s different sections to dish out and withstand the most damage possible.

The Black Flag familiarity doesn’t end here. If you take down an enemy boss ship, you can initiate a Deck Boarding sequence where Majima and his separate crew take on the enemy in a spectacular all-out brawl.

Besides the combat, you’ve got your basic exploration out in the sea, filled with numerous patrolling enemy ships and dungeon-based islands where you can unearth treasure chests or conquer enemy territories.

What helps make the traversal feel fluid is the numerous speed gates patterned around each subsection of the map, which makes getting from each point quicker outside the usual fast-travel option from the Lighthouse checkpoints.

For the slightly irritating bit, the naval combat can start to feel repetitive toward the end when you’re trying to complete every challenge in the Madlantis Coliseum with tougher opposing fleets every step of the way.

Even when just generally exploring the ocean, there were times when I just wanted to skip to the end of my destination and run away from most of the random ship battles that spawned every half a mile on the map.

No Sugar Coating From The Captain

I could never have imagined I’d see Majima, who’s in his 60s, doing air juggle combos and tossing cutlasses as Boomerangs like nothing. But RGG, without any care for logic, has done just that. It’s glorious.

The Mad Dog fighting style, one that went from flashy but still lacking substance in Yakuza 0 to being straight up an afterthought in Kiwami 2, is now a fighting style that can give Dante from DMC a run for his money for being fluid and responsive.

On the flip side, you’ve got the brand-new Sea Dog style, which lets you chop up enemies with Majima’s cutlasses, mow them down with your sidearm, and crazily fling yourself across the battle using the grappling hook.

If you love the intricate layers in the series’ combat system, there are quite a few techs you can master to pull off infinite ground juggle combos or even cancel out a few attacks to keep strings going.

Both styles and the heights you can achieve with them were built on the brilliant foundations of Like a Dragon Gaiden and Lost Judgment, two RGG games with the best beat-em-up brawler combat systems.

It wouldn’t be a Yakuza game without the obnoxious amount of side content to help contrast the main storytelling. LAD Infinite Wealth players like myself, will be familiar with most of the activities and even be happy with some cameos here.

Almost every single mini-game from it returns in Pirate Yakuza, from having Majima run laps as an Uber Eats delivery guy on steroids in Crazy Eats to burning rubber once again in the intense races of Dragon Kart.

It feels like a sweet little reunion of what each mini-game NPC or from other major substories has been up to since the events of Infinite Wealth. But these returning mini-games themselves? Mixed thoughts, honestly.

I love that mini-games like Sicko Snap got slightly remixed to feel fresh, but it just all feels more of the same that I’ve already experienced last year. And in Pirate Majima, I hardly bothered to finish most of their higher levels or difficulties.

I got to spend most of my time enjoying the new content instead, such as the stacked Pirate Coliseum in Madlantis or hunting down all the Minato Girls for Masaharu’s hilarious love story angle.

Plenty Of Freedom In The Seas

With so many entries in the series now, it’s never easy for newcomers to digest everything the Yakuza series offers. Unfortunately, with this being a direct follow-up from Infinite Wealth, you may need to play that to understand some of the context.

There’s some leeway here to play this game as an entry point, as most of the story is its own thing with Majima and his crew with a similar plot structure to an Indiana Jones movie.

Don’t expect a Yakuza game that’ll bawl your eyes out or at least the emotional depth that Gaiden had. Is that a bad thing? Not really; at least, I don’t mind that RGG went with a more heroic tone.

Although the story backseats some of the villains for a while, you’ll still have a jolly time unraveling and hunting that fabled lost treasure, with consistency in the writing that’s better in some parts than Infinite Wealth.

Even if that main narrative of hunting down that elusive treasure turns into a cat-and-mouse hunt, this game has some personal depth to enjoy, especially for the returning characters from previous entries who are close to Majima.

Without outright spoiling them, they add a fair bit of charm to this game on their own. Partaking in the Bond Chats with Majima out on the open seas is a fan service for most players since we never saw them interact in that manner with him.

To further exemplify this game’s light-hearted underlying tone, the sub-stories are surprisingly rich in quality, filled with comedic moments and even some dramatic ones, far better than whatever we had in Gaiden, which isn’t a difficult feat to pull off.

The original soundtrack, which includes an array of Karaoke songs, the Goro Pirate anthem itself, and a few boss fight tracks, has me eagerly looking forward to what RGG’s composer and director/producer Ryosuke Horii and his team will create for their next titles.

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza is a love letter to Majima’s loyal fanbase, who’ve been in awe of his character since his original appearances. RGG has done a marvelous job capturing the old-school Pirate era with naval combat that feels arcade-like and simplistic to have fun with and sea exploration to get lost in for a few hours. Despite some reused stuff from Infinite Wealth, there’s enough unique nuance to be found here from its plethora of well-written substories and the Madlantis Pirate Coliseum. Although the main story falls victim to some pacing setbacks, Majima’s incredibly charismatic character, along with his merry band of Goro Pirates, keep you hooked until the end of this whimsical adventure and proves to you how he’s truly special when compared to the likes of Kiryu Kazuma or Ichiban Kasuga.

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii

Systems

Released February 21, 2025

ESRB Mature 17+ // Blood, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Use of Alcohol

Engine Dragon Engine

Pros & Cons

An adventerous and exhilarating storyExtremely fun naval and brawler combat designTreasure trove of side activities both on sea and in HawaiiTons of fan-service for Goro Majima fans

Minor pacing issues in early chaptersNaval combat and exploration slowly get repetitive