Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii—The Clue’s in the Name

New year, new Yakuza. This February 21^st  sees the next release in the frankly indomitable Like a Dragon game series, with Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. After the fun the team had taking Kasuga and Kiryu to Hawaii in 2024’s Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, they’ve leaned fully into the island life this time, albeit with a focus on the character Goro Majima for a change. Intel Gaming Access downed a rum punch with original team member Hiroyuki Sakamoto, Series Chief Producer at Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, to try and figure out how we ended up on a pirate ship.

With such a prodigious output of universally acclaimed games, it seems the team has more than enough material on hand in-house to inspire each next iteration. “After creating Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, an epic title that featured Kasuga and Kiryu as the main characters, we thought the fans would be happy to see what happened to popular characters like Majima, who didn’t appear much in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth,” says Sakamoto. “That is what prompted us to create Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii.”

The story of Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii begins with Goro Majima losing his memory and drifting ashore on a remote South Sea island. He’s saved by a boy called Noah, and along with others they take off on a great adventure across the ocean to recover his lost memories. The whole amnesia thing is a familiar hook, which feels somewhat tongue-in-cheek here. But, in the end, there’s nothing wrong with a cozy trope to make anyone feel at home. “This is a story that can be enjoyed by a wide range of people, so I hope that fans of the series as well as those who have never played a Like a Dragon game will give it a try,” says Sakamoto.

Unburdened by his Yakuza past, amnesiac Majima is free to don full pirate garb and totally let rip as a budding lord of the sea. Bringing Majima center stage also gave the team license to go wild in delivering unexpected mayhem. “With Majima as the main character, not only is the action the most extreme and exhilarating, but since he is completely unpredictable, we wanted to create game content that fans could not predict either,” says Sakamoto. “From there, we incorporated elements that could only be realized with Majima—such as the concept of modern-day pirates—and we aimed to give players a more exciting experience in a different worldview than before.”

No Like a Dragon game would be complete without the requisite rich variety of gameplay and attendant chaos, all of which naturally takes a piratical turn this time round. “In addition to being able to explore one of the world’s most famous resorts, you can also search for treasure by captaining a pirate ship, and enjoy fierce naval battles between ships,” says Sakamoto. “Of course, there are also exhilarating action scenes, comedic sub-stories, and many other mini-games, so there is plenty to play and enjoy.”

The Like a Dragon series has always been a mainstay of PlayStation platforms, but in recent years the games have been finding their way to PC and enjoying spectacular success. The series’ strong PC adoption is a reality that’s reflected in the team’s commitment to the platform. “We’re putting a lot of care into the PC version, so we’d love for PC users to give it a try too,” Sakamoto says, going on to mention “a language patch will be added on the release date, including English voiceover.”

As any scholar of sea battles in gaming will know, creating convincing and satisfying ship-to-ship combat is no walk in the park. On top of that, it was the team’s first foray into the genre, which required some new thinking under pressure. “This studio is particularly good at developing things in a short amount of time, but the pirate ship battle was controlled in a way that we had never done before, so it was a big challenge to figure out how to put it all together,” reveals Sakamoto. “To reduce trial-and-error to the absolute minimum and implement each element one by one, it was important to improve the accuracy of the production process, such as deciding what to work on first, and where to prioritize tuning, and thanks to that we were able to create it in time.”

The team is also coming on in leaps and bounds in terms of visual fidelity, with a bullish take on where they’re at with Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. “In the case of action games, frame rate is arguably the most important factor, as it affects the feel of the game,” says Sakamoto. “However, until now, there was a dilemma that increasing frame rate would sacrifice the visuals, but we believe it is now possible to achieve both.” Additionally, Intel tech has played an important role in their graphical advances since the PC release of spin-off title Judgment in 2022. “We have supported Intel^Ⓡ X^eSS since the early days, having adopted it in the PC versions since Judgment and Lost Judgment,” Sakamoto confirms.

Expectant fans can get to grips with the fresh yo-ho-ho take on Majima very soon, with Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii set to launch on 21 February, 2025. Given the series’ recent streak, it feels inevitable that there will be more Like a Dragon fun in our futures, but for now the team is remaining honorably tight-lipped. “Unfortunately, there is nothing we can announce here yet,” says Sakamoto. “However, I believe it will be something that will surprise everyone, so please look forward to it.” Who are we to disobey?

Pre-purchase Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii on Steam