0
0
There have been quite a few side stories in the Like a Dragon universe, but there’s been nothing like Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. Not one. The game is balls to the walls gonzo. When I played the game for the first time at last year’s Tokyo Game Show (which was in September), I knew that waiting till it came out in February this year would be hell.
From its premise to its cast to its gameplay…this is the weirdest Like a Dragon game so far.
Its kookiness aside, does that make Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii a good game?
What is Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii?
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is 3rd person action title with some RPG mechanics. It’s developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and published by SEGA. It’s available right now on the Playstation and PC.
Our review copy was graciously provided by SEGA.
Set a few months after Ichiban’s adventure in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is both a side story and an epilogue to the events of Infinite Wealth.
It stars Goro Majima, the Mad Dog of Shimano.
Majima’s lost his memory, but instead of trying to get it back, he goes off to be a pirate and hunts for legendary treasure instead. Honestly, I’m not surprised at this turn of events. It’s exactly what Majima would do.
The trail for the legendary treasure of the Esperanza takes Majima to various (fictional) islands near Hawaii, including a secret pirate haven called Madlantis. Eschewing Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth’s multiple towns, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii only lets you explore Honolulu, Rich Island and Madlantis.
Honolulu is the same as it was in Infinite Wealth. Rich Island and Madlantis are new, but are really small. Not much to explore at all. Most of the on-foot content is on Honolulu, which is a hit or miss, depending on how you liked it in the previous game.
Me? I found it boring.
Like I’ve said before, Honolulu is a pale shadow when compared to Kamurocho. It’s was boring to explore in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth and it’s still a chore to explore in this game too. Unfortunate then that you have to explore it to trigger side missions and quests.
While I can’t say I loved running around the city, I can say that I love catching up with past personalities that Ichiban dealt with while he was in the city. The game is heavily banking that you’ve played Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth with its wealth of callbacks. Without prior experience, all of the winks and nods and inside jokes will fly over your head.
It’s also fun to run around looking for bounties to fight (to earn money) or characters you can recruit to crew your ship. A ton of them are from past Yakuza games, so if you’ve been with the series for a while, be prepared to see some familiar faces.
Once you have a crew, that’s where things get fun. You can place them on the gunnery side (where their stats will contribute to your ship’s weapons effectiveness) or on boarding parties that accompany you when you board enemy ships (the stats will contribute to the strength of the boarding party they’re assigned to).
Due to some people being better at gunnery and some being better at melee combat, you can’t just slot in your crew willy nilly. In fact, there’s even crew rarity to consider! The top tier crew members all have a level 40 level cap, while the mid tier have a level 30 cap and the rest a paltry level 20 cap.
Hell, that’s not all.
You can also recruit animals to stay at Majima’s animal sanctuary on Rich Island. Cats, dogs, birds…you name it. Fulfill their requirements and Majima can bring them back home with him. The animal sanctuary serves as a way for Majima to get free items as feeding the animals there gets you stuff!
Unfortunately, the Dondoko Island mini-game that was so fun in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is completely missing here. You can return to Dondoko Island, but it’s through the Sicko Snap mini-game instead of a proper visit.
I’m really disappointed by this and I know many will feel the same way.
While the main plot is somewhat standalone (I’d still argue that you need to know what happened in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth to truly appreciate it), the side missions rarely are. Most of them are closely tied to Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth’s side missions.
It’s great fanservice (which I really appreciate) but I can’t help but feel that it’ll alienate gamers who never played the previous games.
This isn’t as standalone the other Like a Dragon side story, The Man Who Erased His Name.
Nonetheless, the side missions are still one of the best parts of the game.
They’re kooky, they’re funny and they’re heartwarming. You never feel like it’s a chore to take one on because you never really know what’s going to happen. It’s even better for returning players, because you never know who might make a guest appearance!
All the other distractions from Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth return too. The Sicko Snap and Crazy Eats mini-games, the SEGA Master System games you can play, making friends with Aloha Links, finding fortunes to redeem for goodies…even the Alo-Happy photo hunts.
While they’re still the same mechanically, the narrative for them is a continuation of the events that Ichiban experienced previously.
In fact, that’s pretty much the pervading feel of the game.
It’s supposed to be a brand new story, but it feels like it’s an epilogue to Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. The main plot itself is related to what happened previously, expanding on the Yakuza cleanup efforts on Nele Island and what happened to the Palekana cult after Bryce’s downfall.
It’s fine if you played and like the previous game, but what about newcomers?
Despite piracy and pirates being in the forefront for the game, there’s not much in the way of pirating.
There’s the rub for the game…it’s a bit of a smoke and mirrors game.
Sure, you get a new pirate infamy rank to level up, but with only 5 levels, it’s way too short. I wasn’t even halfway through the game when I reached Rank 5! At the very least, there should’ve been 10 ranks instead of 5.
You’d think being able to crew a pirate ship and captain it mean you get to do piratey things, right?
Not really.
The first stumble; ship navigation is slow and cumbersome.
For those thinking the seas will be a wide open affair that’s ripe for exploration, you’ll be disappointed as hell. This isn’t Assassin’s Creed Black Flag.
There’s no open world to explore.
You get a handful of maps and you play around in them. Marked on the maps are treasure locations, Devil Flags fleet locations (a rival pirate gang that you can exterminate as part of a side mission) and lighthouses (which serve as quick travel locations once you visit them).
Treasure locations let you explore a very limiting dungeon on foot.
It’s usually just a couple of rooms (with a fight in each), and ending with a boss at the end. Some don’t even have multiple rooms, it’s just straight to the boss. Needless to say, the island battles could’ve been done much much better. Not only do they look the same (unless you’re doing the Devil Flags quest) but they end the same way too. A couple (I think three) have a poison mechanic where your life is constantly draining, but other than that, there’s really nothing to set them apart from each other.
After the first few treasure excursions, I started to dread going to these locations. It gets mind numbing boring fast!
Speaking of boring, that applies to the game’s seas as well.
The maps are a decent size (which is good) but the cumbersome navigation makes moving around a chore (which is bad). The ship (called the Goromaru) moves super slowly and you’re forced to rely on the wind currents (marked by luminous blue arches) to propel it at acceptable speeds.
You can trigger a turbo boost to move faster, but it wears off too fast and takes much too long to refill. There’s also no way to upgrade it, despite you being able to upgrade other aspects of your ship!
You see the issue here right? That means any other exploration takes a backseat because you’re basically forced to go the routes the developers want you to take.
Not that there’s stuff to explore in the first place.
Other than the marked locations, you can’t do anything else. That makes poking around in nooks and crannies of the maps worthless. There aren’t any secrets or hidden things to discover!
It makes sailing to locations without markers a waste of time.
Then there’s another issue…no shanties.
Forget about hearing your crew sing as you navigate the waves. It’s not happening. They’ll hum a tune or two but that’s it. As somebody who really enjoyed the sea shanties in Black Flag (and even in Animal Crossing), this disappoints me on so many levels.
So far, I’ve mentioned that you can’t land on any island you want, the world map is segregated instead of open and no sea shanties. Those are certainly issues but not the biggest one so far. That’s reserved for the lack of shipborne viable weapons.
While the enemy ships you’ll face will have a variety of weapons(from homing missiles to mines to artillery), all you get are machine guns, cannons, flamethrowers and laser beams. Oh and Majima can carry a missile launcher (which I’ve never found a time to use outside the tutorial).
To make matters worse (yes, they can be worse), you can’t even see what’s in front of you most of the time without moving the camera to the side. The game only offers 2 camera views; one behind Majima’s shoulder as he’s steering the ship or a view that’s behind the ship.
The problem here is that the sails are blocking your view. You need to constantly move the camera left or right to see what’s coming at you. You can’t even see if your machine gun fire is in the right direction without moving the camera!
It’s that bad. I don’t know how the playtesting didn’t highlight the issue!
Since you’re so hamstrung (the upgraded laser beams are far and away the best weapons) in how you fight, most battles simple devolve into ramming the other ship and then going around in circles to unleash your lasers.
That’s especially important in fleet battles since taking down the main ship (and initiating boarding action) means you move on to the next phase (melee combat) without needing to defeat its guards.
These melee battles are fun, but it also lays bare the inadequacies of the combat engine when you go up against huge numbers of enemies.
It’s way too easy to get stunlocked when you’re surrounded. All it takes is an NPC to hit you once from behind and you’ll get pinballed around until you fall down.
On the flipside, you can do the same to enemy bosses too (one of Majima’s special attacks creates shadow clones of him) and it’s super fun to pretty much destroy their health bar with concerted attacks. If it sounds so button mashy and brainless, it is because it is.
Unlike previous games in the series, the normal combos here have little variety.
Apart from a launcher (which lifts enemies up into the air), most of the regular combos are similar. There are no specific guard breaker combos (which sucks when your enemies constantly block) though you can unlock special moves that can initiate counter hits and parries.
Majima is relegated to only two fighting styles now (Sea Dog and Mad Dog), which also hampers the combat system’s flexibility.
Mad Dog is pretty much his regular fighting style, while Sea Dog is his piratey fighting style with dual cutlasses and the grappling hook. Mad Dog is pretty good in the early going, but once you start to unlock skills for Sea Dog, there’s pretty much no going back.
Sea Dog is so overpowered when compared to Mad Dog that there’s no point to using it!
Sea Dog’s faster, has insane reach with its grappling hook and it has the potential to do super damaging combo juggles if you time your moves right. On top of that, Sea Dog also lets you use the Dark Instruments, special cursed musical instruments you can use to unleashed a super damaging special attack.
The only time I found myself changing to Mad Dog (you can swap any time in battles) is when I want to use the Majima Shadow Clones special attack to decimate a boss. Even then, I found myself switching lesser and lesser as the game goes on.
I honestly feel that the pirate theme is sorely underused.
There’s a pirate ship and crew and Majima wears a pirate getup and goes treasure hunting but what about the other aspects of being a pirate? Raiding merchants, taking hostages, going up against the law or even smuggling.
Hell, even the sexual aspects usually associated with being a pirate (tavern wenches and whoring) isn’t in the game. I don’t expect nudity in a Yakuza/ Like a Dragon game but previous entries in the series have had Japanese pornstars in them, along with gravure videos you can view. The titillation factor in the game is pretty much zero now.
Here we are with a game with a pirate theme and we’re missing out on the sex side of things.
What a bummer.
Personally though, the biggest issue in the game are the claw machine physics. I play claw machines (burning hundreds of SG dollars on them every time I go to Japan) so believe me when I say that I’m really into them.
The ones in the game though…suck hard.
The physics engine being used is unrealistic as hell. You can’t nudge the boxes, or twist them or push them like you would be able to in the real world. It makes getting some of the in-game prizes a super chore.
It wasn’t so bad in past games but Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii (as did Infinite Wealth), used a different, more modern machine style. It’s similar to the machines you can find in Akihabara or pretty much every arcade you can go to in Japan.
Compounding the physics issues, there’s no way to speed up the claw machine’s return rate. It’s super annoying wasting valuable seconds if you missed grabbing something and just want another shot. Even real claw machines don’t take as long to reset!
This is an issue that’s been present since the very first game…and it’s still not addressed! Why SEGA?! Every single time I play a new Like a Dragon I rush to Club SEGA to try out the claw machines…and every damn time I get disappointed when I see this issue.
Isn’t it about time for a fix? Or at the very least, an option to fast forward?
Seems like there’s a ton of issues with the game isn’t there?
There are. Boatloads of them in fact.
Here’s the kicker though; Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is still fun in spite of them.
The story is basic and a bit too short for me, but it gets the job done.
Goro Majima being the main character is a stroke of genius too, especially as his whereabouts haven’t been talked about much following the dissolution of the Yakuza.
Majima’s character arc has always fascinated me, and him being an amnesiac gives it a weird twist. Still, the star of the show is undoubtedly the boy, Noah.
Without him, Majima’s quest wouldn’t have the same kick as it does. It wouldn’t be as captivating or as heartwarming. Noah brings to the game a much needed sense of wonder and excitement.
Him being so adamant that Goro is a cat (he’s actually a tiger cub) is incredibly endearing, especially in the face of so many vocal opposition. It got to the point that I couldn’t wait for the crew to encounter somebody new, just so I can see how they reacted to Goro.
In fact, one of the best (and funniest) side missions in the game involves Goro, Majima and a helmet that supposedly lets you communicate with an animal. I won’t say more because I don’t want to spoil it, but it’s far and away the best encounter in the game.
It’s hilarious!
It’s safe to say then that Goro and Noah steal the show from the others. I really wouldn’t mind seeing them show up in other games too. I’m really glad to see the humorous writing from the last few games is back for more in this one too.
Apart from the story and characters, the game has a truly incredible soundtrack. The best new track, with zero room for dissention, is the Goro Pirates Theme. It is simply a smasher.
Not the English version (that one sucks), but the Japanese version. It really fits with the game.
I love it so much that it’s dethroned Storm of Blood (from FFXIV Stormblood) as my ringtone now.
However, I do have a bone to pick with SEGA when it comes to the other songs you can find (and buy) in-game. They are seriously lacking. SEGA has a ton of awesome and memorable music from their huge catalogue of games, yet they pick some of the lamest songs to use in the game.
I mean, what’s up with the multiple Angry Birds songs? SERIOUSLY?! Angry Birds gets time in the sun while tunes from the Bare Knuckle games or Shining Force or Burning Rangers or Phantasy Star Online or Sonic the Hedgehog get shafted?
It’s a travesty when we only get Sonic Adventure 2’s ‘Escape from the City’, and not the excellent ‘Live and Learn’ from the original Sonic Adventure! How about Metaphor’s ‘Warriors in Arms’ or ‘Warriors in Valor’? We don’t even get Persona 4’s ‘Reach Out to the Truth’.
Oh but we do get multiple Angry Birds songs.
Come on. Just…come on!
Speaking of songs, the karaoke selection is a bit limiting too. The all-time great Baka Mitai is missing in action.
I realize it’s Kiryu who sings it, but why can’t Majima sing it for once? I think he’d be great for it!
Finally, let’s talk about the visuals.
I really don’t have much to say about them honestly.
They’re passable but I think the engine is showing its age. First appearing in Yakuza 6, it’s been through multiple games now over the years…and it shows.
While the facial models for the game’s still one of the best in gaming, there’s weird slowdown (the golf minigame especially has them) here and there throughout the game that doesn’t seem to correspond to engine load at all.
It’s impressive how many enemies the game can throw at you at once now, but that’s also tempered by how inefficient the combat system is.
Both need overhauls (alongside the physics and lighting) if SEGA is going to pursue this type of massive brawling in the future.
As for the performance on the ROG Ally X, it’s surprisingly pleasant. I used 1080p, with the refresh set to 120Hz and the FPS locked to 60, on the game’s Highest setting. I also used FSR 3.1 on the Balanced setting.
I didn’t experience much slowdown, though the game certainly wasn’t locked at 60FPS. It hovered about 40 – 50FPS on average, which was OK enough to play with. Considering the portability factor, that’s a decent tradeoff methinks.
You can get to 60FPS though, I don’t feel the visual tradeoffs are worth it. The game looks reasonably worse on lower settings and the increase of just a handful of framerates just doesn’t cut it for what you’re losing.
My advice? Play how I play and you’ll be fine! I know I was!
The Bottom Line.
Will Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii scratch that pirate itch most gamers have?
Nope, not likely.
It doesn’t go far enough to be a decent pirate game to fill that void. Ship to ship battles are tiresome, ship controls are sluggish and cumbersome and the boarding battles are button mashing affairs instead of tests of skills. You barely do any piratey stuff and what you do get to do, is pretty shallow and boring.
That however (fortunately) doesn’t overshadow how fun the game is. At the end of the day, this is still a Like a Dragon title…and it shows. Awesome side stories, incredibly well written dialogue and characters with real heart…even if the plot is terribly cliched. Plus, it also helps ties up loose ends from Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth and even promises the series will continue after the credits roll!
Does the game need improvement?
Hell yes.
The battle system needs to be rejiggered for the big melee battles if SEGA wants them to stick around. The game engine could use an overhaul too.
But…and I do mean this…that still doesn’t mean I won’t recommend Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii to gamers who are looking for a fun time.
TLDR:
A flawed pirate game, but a great Like a Dragon title.
The Good:
- Side stories are great and full of fanservice.
- Offers an epilogue to the events of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, including an update on Kiryu.
- Decent plot.
- Huge battles are fun.
- Recruiting crew is awesome.
- Hilarious dialogue.
- Plays great on the ROG Ally X.
The Bad:
- Reuses a lot of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth content.
- Bafflingly bad CD music selection.
- Ship combat is boring.
- No exploration aspects.
- No piratey enough.
Salehuddin Husin, EIC
Sal's been in the industry since the early 2000s. He's written for a ton of gaming and tech publications including Playworks, Hardwarezone, HWM and GameAxis. Recently, Sal served as a juror for the Indie Game Awards at Taipei Game Show 2020. A geek and hardcore gamer, Sal will play everything, on any platform.
You must be logged in to post a comment.