It’s barely been a 12 months since we had Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, and now after enjoying Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, I hope it’s a couple of extra years earlier than we get Yakuza 9.
That’s to not say that Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is a foul recreation, or that I had a foul time with it. I simply that I do know I’d have gotten way more out of it had been I given extra respiratory room earlier than exploring the identical areas, speaking to the identical characters, and even enjoying the identical mini-games I did 12 months in the past.
On this providing, ex-Yakuza and development tycoon Goro Majima wakes up on a seaside, 6 months after the occasions of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. By assembling a band of pirates, crusing the seven seas and taking down a pirate syndicate, Majima should each recuperate his recollections and discover a rumored treasure.
Watch our Like a Dragon Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii evaluate video:
The sport takes place throughout Madlantis – a pirate colony that’s basically Las Vegas-on-Sea – in addition to some smaller islands that function story areas, and the complete Hawaii map from Infinite Wealth. Pirate Yakuza’s brisk marketing campaign is a serviceable Captain Hook ’em up, however regressive motion and disappointingly undercooked pirate gameplay make it an expertise that’ll be cherished by hardcore followers, however can most likely be skipped by fly-by-night Yakuza enjoyers.
Loads of your enjoyment of the sport will derive from how invested you might be within the Like a Dragon sequence up to now, and the way a lot of that particular model of zany humour you may put up with. Whereas, for me, the prospect of breaking apart the motion for a number of full-blown dance sequences is joyous, if this can be a participant’s introduction to the sequence, I can completely see the entire thing feeling like a 15-hour inside joke.
The wackiness has at all times been part of the Like A Dragon franchise, however it’s often the salve to the acute melodrama that holds the narrative collectively. When the narrative itself goes totally weird, there’s nothing to stability it out. It’s pleasant and constantly humorous, however you’ll battle to recollect the finer particulars when the credit roll. The weird aspect characters are often the spoonful of sugar to assist the medication go down, Pirate Yakuza is like consuming 50 Creme Eggs in an hour.
Considered one of my predominant conflicts concerning the recreation is its inclusion of the Hawaii map from the earlier Yakuza entry. On the one hand, it’s an awesome surroundings to discover and makes use of loads of the characters from Infinite Wealth for callbacks, references, and easter eggs. On the opposite, it feels very clearly included within the recreation to pad out its size, particularly given how small the opposite areas of the sport are.
The one caveat to that is that the Like A Dragon sequence is legendary for reusing areas throughout a number of video games, not solely as a way of storytelling however to hurry up improvement. Maybe the return to Hawaii simply feels too quickly due to the practically 100 hours one was more likely to spend there throughout 2024’s Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.
The beforehand talked about Madlantis is reasonably sized, if small for a Like A Dragon map, and the opposite two areas are largely small cease gaps for story cutscenes to happen. There are islands dotted round every of the areas, however these are very restricted fight arenas that each one tackle largely the identical visible language and have little or no selection.
“The wackiness has at all times been part of the Like A Dragon franchise, however it’s often the salve to the acute melodrama that holds the narrative collectively. When the narrative itself goes totally weird, there’s nothing to stability it out.”
That’s Pirate Yakuza’s drawback in a nutshell: by returning to the motion fight type moderately than the RPG type that the primary recreation has adopted, just about all depth has been misplaced. You’re utilizing the very same strikes time and again, preventing largely the identical enemy types, and it rapidly turns into tiresome. Each gameplay second funnels in the direction of hack-and-slash battles in opposition to hordes of enemies, even the sport’s naval fight.
The pirate a part of Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is moderately fundamental. Whereas the ship-to-ship fight is ok, it’s much less superior than that of 2014’s Murderer’s Creed: Black Flag. Enemy ship AI is braindead, and each single encounter performs out precisely the identical, with the one actual distinction being the quantity of well being different ships have.
While you’ve broken the enemy ship sufficient, it’s time to leap aboard and do one other hack-and-slash area struggle. This time you’re joined by your crew mates, who you may recruit from throughout the sport world. These will be discovered as rewards for aspect tales, or related small duties. These characters don’t serve a lot story goal after they’re recruited, however it’s at all times humorous while you’re launching onto one other ship to see wage males, robots and former Yakuza protagonists working into battle by your aspect.
Outdoors of fight, the ship exploration is boring in a really non-Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio manner. There are the aforementioned smaller islands to discover, however a lot of your time is spent going from Madlantis to Hawaii and again once more that the time spent within the ship feels laborious. The sport appears to acknowledge this by how liberally it means that you can quick journey. What aspect quests do exist at sea are simply battles in opposition to barely harder ships, however even these will be dispatched with out a lot thought.
Listening to Goro Majima learn a cellphone guide can be entertaining, at the very least for a short time. As such, Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is an effective time, which is often elevated to a good time if you happen to’re a giant fan of the sequence. For individuals who’ve but to be satisfied, or maybe those that jumped on board when the sequence moved to its new RPG type, this can be a stumble.
I put up with the shallow fight and flagrant overuse of a location I simply spent 100 hours in as a result of I like this sequence and these characters. I’ll play something RGG makes, however even I can see that this appears like Like A Dragon saturation.
When the sequence was nonetheless known as Yakuza and the video games took round 30 hours to beat, I might get on board with a brand new entry yearly or two, however since 2020 we’ve had two 100-plus hour RPGs, Like A Dragon: Ishin, The Man Who Erased His Identify and now Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. It’s lots. Pirate Yakuza itself even serves as a lead-in for the subsequent mainline recreation, so it’s not like RGG has any plans to decelerate.
Except you’re a Like A Dragon completionist, you may most likely skip Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii for now. The characters stay fantastic, even when the brand new gameplay itself isn’t. Hawaii is the very best location in sequence historical past behind Kamurochō, however you’ve most likely simply spent a hell of a number of time there already.
