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Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii – First Preview

Irishu
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii – First Preview

In the trailer for Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, Yakuza fan favorite Goro Majima wakes up on a beach with his memories erased. A boy with a tiger cub friend named Noah finds him, and soon Majima finds himself beating up a pirate captain and taking over his ship (or so it’s implied). I’ve had my first hands-on experience with the latest installment in the Yakuza series, and I’d love to tell you about it.

I played a brief portion of Pirate Yakuza when Majima, Noah, and friends arrived in Infinite Wealth’s familiar territory of Honolulu, but it was set up more as a demo, so I can’t be sure how similar the next series of events will be. Be ready for the entire game. First, a brief combat tutorial on mechanics that are probably unfamiliar to Infinite Wealth players: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is not a turn-based RPG like Infinite Wealth, but instead an action-packed fighting game like the original Yakuza games. This short tutorial primarily described Majima’s two fighting styles: Majima’s classic Mad Dog Style and his new, appropriately pirate-themed Sea Dog Style.

In Sea Dog Style, Majima wields dual scimitars, a long-range hand cannon, and a wire hook that allows you to close in on the targeted enemy. A machete can also be thrown like a boomerang when a button is held down. The combat is engaging and fun, and with just two different styles I can see it being varied enough to keep things interesting.

The Dragon Kart minigame is basically Yakuza Mario Kart; Complete with power-ups, drifts, coins and items.

After basic training, I could choose to go to the legendary Madlantis to continue the story, or do one of several side activities: Karaoke, Dragon Kart, Crazy Delivery, and form control (clothing changing).

I don’t have enough experience with these minigames in previous Yakuza games, so I can’t comment on whether anything significant has changed about them, but they were all fun and worth your time for the fun factor alone. However, I can say that long-time Yakuza fans will definitely recognize at least some of the songs in the karaoke.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon’s minigame, Dragon Kart, was not in Infinite Wealth, making it the furthest away of the side activities available during the demo. This immersive mini-game is beautifully designed in its own right and is basically Yakuza Mario Kart; Complete with power-ups, drifts, tokens and items. You can also go to the dressing room to change Majima’s clothes into both regular and pirate styles.

In between side activities, I made best friends with a little bird named Joseph and used the new Wire Hook while scouting high to collect a butterfly. Apparently you can spin around Hawaii with it, but when I played I didn’t see any obvious point to trigger it.

I finally got to see a little bit of Madlantis’ brand new venue for the main event. This old but lively ship cemetery in the cave in the middle of the ocean looks like a valuable center. At least it’s home to the Pirate Colosseum; here you can engage in “intense ship battles” as the Goro Pirates in the full game.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to try out any ship combat in the demo, which was a bit disappointing to say the least, but Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii features ship sculpting as a seaworthy spin-off. At the helm is the fins’ favorite. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)