Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii review: not quite gold, but definitely still shiny

Perhaps you're like me, playing on PS5 and desperately hoping for pirates to crest that wave towards having their moment in the sun again. Unfortunately, between Skull and Bones' underwhelming anchor weighing and Flint: Treasure of Oblivion's failure to make a splash, pirate fans haven't unearthed any bountiful booty in some time. Enter Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, adding a nautical spin to a series usually about Japanese gangsters and their shadowy criminal underworld.

Under mysterious circumstances Goro Majima - a yakuza both feared and respected back home - finds himself washed ashore on a remote island with neither the shirt on his impressively tatted back, or his memories. Series fans recently enjoyed spin-off Like a Dragon: The Man Who Erased His Name, now get ready for the man who can't even remember his own name.

When cosplaying dweebs fancying themselves as bonafide swashbucklers threaten not just Majima, but a sheltered young boy called Noah who takes in the amnesiac yakuza, crossing cutlasses becomes inevitable. Soon after commandeering the ruffians' ship, Majima hears tell of a treasure harbouring the secret to eternal life, plus a whole pirate underworld full of dastardly marauders who'll stop at nothing to get their mitts on it. Memoryless though he may be, Majima's fearless attitude remains - and this is just one more criminal underbelly for him to sink his jaws into, even if looking out for new sidekick Noah is marginally more selfless than he's been in the past.

This spin-off is the first-time Majima has taken the helm since co-starring in 2017's prequel Yakuza 0. The contrivance of retrograde amnesia removes the pressure on newcomers to bone up, and paves the way for a modern day, pirate-flavoured crime caper - yet at the same time makes this new adventure feel more than a little inconsequential until the eleventh-and-a-bit hour. In other words, if you're longing for the heavy drama and big buff men emoting so beloved in the main series, Pirate Yakuza is a different school of fish.

Pirate Yakuza offers a treasure trove of gameplay

For the uninitiated, Like a Dragon is a series earnest as it is silly; earlier games offer deadly serious crime drama punctuated by downright zany side-quests, featuring highlights that include (but are certainly not limited to) filling in as a costumed mascot, giving a dominatrix a pep talk, and pacifying a gang of hardmen dressed up as babies. On paper, this zig-zagging tone shouldn't work but has endeared fans for the last twenty years.

Pounding the pavements of Honolulu plays all of the hits from its last appearance in 2024's Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, including window-shopping chats with your crew, emulated classic retro arcade games, plus a particularly bizarre take on Pokemon Snap that is best stumbled upon yourself. A new grappling hook gets you looking high and low for treasure, but otherwise this familiar space is far from dramatically recontextualised.

Even with such a side content smorgasbord, it's hard not to miss Infinite Wealth's full party dynamic. Sure, new character Noah is a sweetheart, but a youngster whose seen nothing of the outside world paired with an amnesiac hardman doesn't really offer a dynamic anywhere near as memorable. Compared to Infinite Wealth where Kazuma Kiryu takes a stroll down memory lane recounting literally every adventure he's had before, Majima - by design - has nothing to reflect on.

Gathering a crew collectathon-style doesn't really bridge the gap, but this stab at a team-building minigame offers a little extra flavour compared to earlier series entries. By stumbling upon side-stories and getting surprisingly involved in strangers' problems, you can recruit fresh faced landlubbers to back you up in ship battles and treasure hunting mini dungeons. Once they're on board, there's little left to say, but it's still neat to see them storming the deck and busting heads alongside you.

Speaking of, though the mainline games have plunged headfirst into turn-based fights, Pirate Yakuza sees a return to real-time action. That means many, many throwdowns to blast through, complete with lovingly animated special moves that wouldn't feel out of place in a more traditional 1-v-1 fighting game. Style-switching also makes a comeback, seeing Majima swap between the knife-tacular Mad Dog stance, or the dual cutlass wielding Sea Dog style.

With blades cutting trails of light through the air, combatants' muscles glowing with power, and clouds of doubloons exploding from the bodies of defeated enemies, it's flashy, over-the-top action.

Alas, the incredible Breaker style from Yakuza 0 doesn't get a look in on this punchy party save for being referenced by the odd contextual Heat action. As a peace offering perhaps, Pirate Yakuza instead gives you a whole other meter on top of Heat for style-specific special moves.

Running on the excellent Dragon Engine, Pirate Yakuza makes smart reuse of pre-existing assets throughout (the stuffed to the gills Honolulu map is just one case in point), but the special moves unlocked by sniffing out a selection of haunted instruments feature fresh animations that'll see you willing the relevant metre to fill faster. Regardless of how you like to fight, adversaries are quickly cut down to size in some of the breeziest bouts fans will have gotten to grips with for some time. Still, you won't just be throwing down with assholes on the street, but arrr-seholes on the high seas too.

Set sail for breezy ship-based combat

Big boat bashes are similarly straightforward, with canny upgrades being what gives you the edge rather than tactics. Sloop scuffles on the open sea are fairly samey, even when foes start to introduce an incendiary edge to their arsenal. When everything goes up in flames, you're meant to release the wheel and scurry around on deck, putting out both literal and metaphorical fires - but it's just as easy to power through, letting victory extinguish the flames. This does give you less opportunity to whip out your rocket launcher (did I forget to mention the captain's perk of heavy artillery?), but due to the lacking impact of these propelled shells, I didn't find myself missing it.

Much of the archipelago you sail around is hardly holiday snap worthy either, with the more varied biomes hoarded behind involved treasure-hunting side quests. Honolulu's white sand beaches are just as breathtaking bathed in the deep orange rays of sunset as our visit last year, but the sea you're most likely to sail around Hawaii comes with a side of salt splash that feels distinctly last generation.

To be fair to swashbuckling stories of yore, ship combat here is definitely not as weighty or nearly as dangerous-feeling as, say, Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag. But while fraught feeling clashes are few and far between in Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza (nor are there even proper sea shanties) this outing's own take on seafaring is hard to put down. Just for a start, Black Flag would never let you strap a masthead that looks like a mains powered 'magic wand' to your bow.

Welcome to pirate heaven

Ship customisation is just one merry rabbit hole you can lose yourself down, though a costly one at that. You'll also need dosh to upgrade Majima's fighting abilities, upgrade your onboard equipment, buy food for you and the crew, not to mention hide your nakedness with an impressive wardrobe selection. Besides bullying bitty boats out on the open water, the pirate underworld offers many opportunities to turn a quick buck - so long as you can provide a bit of spectacle.

Inside a cathedral-esque cavern there lies a boat graveyard called - and I'm not kidding - Madlantis. It's a pirate playground where seadogs duke it out both on the water and on deck in high-stakes, high-paying tournaments. The physical confines of these boat bashes offer some much needed friction, but by design they don't outstay their welcome either - likely because you will be doing a lot of them. Hey, the coconut gatling gun that makes that delightful popping sound with every shot isn't going to craft itself.

Beyond this pirate coliseum, fighting salty dogs treading the boards, and a scant few minigames, Madlantis doesn't offer much else in the way of debauchery. The introduction of its ruler Queen Michele, a woman seen literally salivating as her debtors are messily eaten by sharks (I promise I'm not making this up), had perhaps rather gotten my hopes up.

If I've not already made it abundantly clear, this is silly swashbuckling fun welcoming one and all among a mature audience. Though this treasure hunt is decidedly goofy, it pulls into port just shy of being entirely disposable; even with the handy reset button of a memory-less Majima, the reveal of what may be truly motivating this treasure hunt is designed to hit series fans where they live.

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii: verdict

Like a Dragon's swashbuckling adventure welcomes all for seafaring silliness. Whether you're beating up landlubbers or storming the deck, modern day marauding proves surprisingly easy - and difficult to put down.

Will you be joining in Sega's new pirate adventure? Are you an old salt when it comes to the Yakuza series, and what do you think of this spin-off? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.