Majima gone wild.
Right off the bat, Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii makes its premise as clear as the name of the game does. You’re Goro Majima, the Mad Dog of Shimano… but through the wonders of retrograde amnesia, he’s a fresh slate who’s ready to pivot to a more nautical adventure. After washing ashore from a shipwreck, our eyepatch-wearing amnesiac is rescued by a young boy named Noah and becomes embroiled in the island’s local pirate issues.
Yes, as it turns out there’s a much larger pirate community around present-day Hawaii than you might’ve thought! After taking out the captain of the pirate troublemakers, the mystery man soon becomes The Captain, leading the ship on a new adventure with Noah leading the charge.
Even for the Like A Dragon franchise, this game is pretty goofy (and we just did “secret agent Kiryu” two years ago). But the thing that sets Pirate Yakuza apart is its choice of protagonist. Even without his memory, Majima is still an unpredictable wildcard at his core. He’s the perfect character to sign on to be a pirate immediately, and his energy makes him a perfect fit for the pirate community. He’s immediately compelling as Captain, and you’ll soon find him recruiting random locals to his crew left and right.
One thing the Like A Dragon series has always excelled at is making the most of what came before it. For a long time, almost every game in the franchise took place in Kamurocho, the same smallish neighbourhood the evolved in bits and pieces as time passed in the game’s world. Never willing to waste a good thing, RGG Studio brings us back to their beautiful rendition of Honolulu from 2024’s Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth.
Pirate Yakuza is set not long after the end of that game’s story, and a lot of its subquests and side events directly follow up on the ones from Infinite Wealth. This is a franchise that loves every single NPC with all its heart, so it’s always a joy to see how what came before can be bested. More often than not, this will often end with the folks involved joining your ever-expanding pirate crew, for adventure on the high seas of Hawaii. That’s where Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii really brings something new to the Like A Dragon franchise: full-on naval combat.
In a move I never expected from this particular game series, Majima’s solo adventure adds surprisingly robust systems for building up your pirate crew, and engaging in ship-to-ship combat. Much of the game will see you sailing your ship from island to island in the waters around Hawaii, and taking down any aggressive buccaneers who get in your way. The crew you recruit can be assigned to the ship’s various cannons, as well as the boarding crew – when taking on major competitors, you’ll need to disable the lead ship before boarding to knock the crew about more directly.
Throwing two squads of NPC brawlers at each other in the classic beat ’em up brawler combat of early Yakuza games is always a good time, but Pirate Yakuza’s naval combat really shines. Managing attacks from all directions and lining up your various shots is a thrill, especially as higher-level ships start diversifying their attacks to match you.
The bag of tricks you’re handed also keeps fights interesting – you can engage boosters like it’s Mario Kart, repair your ship if you can survive a few seconds without weapons, or you can switch to Majima on the deck of the ship to pop smoke and hide yourself, then fire a rocket launcher directly at the enemy ship from there.
Pirate Yakuza also makes the hits you take really matter; taking cannon fire won’t just damage the ship itself, it could knock out one of your cannoneers at the same time. You can wear the loss of firepower and try to scrape through doing less damage, or take the risk of your ship sitting prone while you sprint across the deck to wake that crewmate up again. The balance of all the elements worked really well for me, especially in the Pirate Coliseum’s ranked matches — or if you really dig it, the whole side-plot involving a tiered army of evil pirates for you to take down across the seas of Hawaii.
When you’re out and about in Hawaii, Majima returns to the classic Like A Dragon brawler combat – and ever the combat chameleon, he’s got two different fighting styles at his fingertips. Sadly the Breaker style from Yakuza 0 doesn’t return, but muscle memory does give Majima access to the Mad Dog style – agile and brutal, the Captain and his dagger can focus on a single enemy to take them down quickly.
His stint as a pirate captain also unlocks the new Sea Dog style, using two pirate cutlasses to take enemies on in groups, as well as allowing you to block from all directions at once. That last skill is a major help in the game’s frantic group battles, where attacks can crowd the screen and stop you from planning for any specific strike. Enemies crowd the streets of Hawaii, but the game’s seamless transition in and out of fights make them feel like a joy to engage in, rather than something to soldier through.
Given Majima’s loss of identity, the game also lets him reinvent himself with a full wardrobe, unlocked from stores or by joining in on the game’s many diversions. You can even give Majima two distinct looks, for daywear on the streets of Hawaii, and a more pirate-y look for captaining the ship. Much like in Like A Dragon Gaiden, it’s just good fun to play dress-ups and see your outfit of choice in the game’s more serious scenes. I eventually settled on a biker look for the streets and a business-piratical look for the oceans, and it did feel like a very personal achievement as the finale played out in my fits of choice.
I really enjoyed my time with Like A Dragon Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii as a way to get to know the character of Goro Majima better. While he’s always a fun time when he shows up, Pirate Yakuza lets RGG Studio examine what this legendary figure in the franchise would be like with his same instincts, but none of his backstory.
As it turns out, the Mad Dog of Shimano is a natural leader, by land or by sea. It’s interesting to see those same drives for justice and honour to come out, like the series’ other protagonists, but with all the safeguards off in Majima’s case. Anything goes on the high seas, and it makes for a fun victory lap through Hawaii for the Like A Dragon series.
Like A Dragon Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii was reviewed using a promotional code on PS5, as provided by the publisher. Click here to learn more about Stevivor’s scoring scale.
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Like a Dragon Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii21 February 2025PC PS5 Xbox Series S & X
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