REVIEW: Pirate ships but with lasers: Pirate Yakuza's wackiness delivers so much joy

Tight gameplay mechanics Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii reach new heights and make a strong case for more fast-following spin-offs that recycle assets.

The first trailer for Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii confounded me. After jumping into the series last year with Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, I wondered if the franchise was doing a historic game – set in an era where pirates were rife and apparently in Hawaii.

But no. I was wrong.

This is a game set in the present time. Where a realistic portrayal of Waikiki plays host to a seedy underbelly of pirate activity. Where grown adults literally battle each other in wooden ships with actual cannons, dressed like they are early for Halloween. Where there’s a pirate capital city, hierarchy and long-lost buried treasure.

That really sets the scene for this game. From the minute you boot up Pirate Yakuza, it asks you to not only suspend disbelief, but throw it out the window. But a few hours in, you can’t help but go along for the ride because it’s so damn fun.

Get your pirate on

Pirate Yakuza is the latest instalment in the Like A Dragon series – formally known as Yakuza. It’s a long-running, soap opera-esque franchise that started back in 2005 and has been going strong ever since. Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and publisher Sega have helmed the series since its inception, and for all the weirdness they inject into what feels like Japan’s response to Grand Theft Auto, boy do they know how to make a good game.

This game stars Goro Majima, a main character in the overall series. Don’t know who he is? Good news. He doesn’t either. Struck down with amnesia and washed up on a beach at the start of the game, you meet up with a child Noah and his baby tiger (who he insists is a cat) and embark on a quest to regain your memory.

That somehow leads you to becoming a pirate captain. And then towards finding long-rumoured buried treasure. It’s not the most nuanced plot. While Majima is the star of the show, the story is largely driven by Noah, his desire for adventure and to do the “right thing”. It leads to some sappy moments for sure, and some broad questions around parental oversight – given Noah’s Dad is happy to let him hang out with a known, self-confessed criminal. But it serviceably gets you from A to B, and for this game, that’s enough.

In this world, pirates battle each other like gladiators in a giant water-filled arena. Just go with it.

Gather your motely crew

What Like A Dragon games are known for are their minigames and tight systems. Pirate Yakuza is no exception. Not since Assassin’s Creed Black Flag has ship combat felt this good or fun. It’s not all about delivering a broadside blast as it was in that game. Sometimes ramming is the best option, or gunning them down with your machine guns. Towards the end of the game, status effects come to the fore. You can freeze ships to immobilise them, or set them ablaze to drain their health over time. Earlier vessels won’t pose much of a challenge, but enemies on late game boats will sink you without hesitation. But don’t worry. You eventually up the ante yourself, donning your ship with flamethrowers and yes, laser cannons.

Defeat a major vessel and you have an opportunity to board and eliminate its crew. To this end, you recruit your own motley band of pirates for battle. But they are far from the usual suspects, consisting of: actors, ninjas, mechanics, children, adult performers, merchants, the homeless or really anyone you can find. It leads to some incredible, very snappable moments, where you are ending the lives of others at sea with what looks like a bad cover band of The Village People. This game was, without doubt, designed for social media; it even pauses at certain points for that extra half second to give you a moment to capture the insanity of it all.

Boat battles tie into a deeper system revolving around character upgrades and collectables. Playing through the game regularly, it’s incredible how deep the systems are yet how seamlessly they mesh together – and how little effort the player needs to put in to be rewarded. As long as you remember to do so, you’ll gradually upgrade Majima’s ability suite and his boat quite naturally throughout the game. Most of it is tied to earning money, and that naturally accrues over the course of the Pirates Yakuza.

Beyond the boat battles

But this is just one game within a game. Pirate Yakuza also plays host to a petting zoo, a batting cage, a ship-battling tournament, and a bounty-hunting system (likely inspired by Dog, The Bounty Hunter). All the systems here are deeper than you think they are, and true to the franchise’s reputation are great distractions within the main game. Beating them often rewards with an item or ability that again loops back into that main mechanic.

Bored of blowing up ships? You can befriend and feed animals.

If there is one letdown, it’s the base combat system. Majima fights enemies in real-time, dishing out combos like he’s auditioning for a role in the next Virtua Fighter game. It’s not terribly deep or difficult to grasp and it leads to a lot of button mashing. Yes, Majima can switch between two distinct styles – one focused on martial arts, and another focused on pirate stuff – and work towards fancy finisher moves. But most encounters revolve around repeating one combo till satisfaction.

Titles like God of War: Ragnarok have really pushed this style of gameplay, successfully adding friction and challenge to what could have been a finger-smashing contest. The Like A Dragon series however has hedged its bets. Its mainline games are now turn-based combat titles, and fantastic ones at that. Perhaps that split focus has seen its other systems suffer, but it may be down to personal preference.

Good use of recycling

The only other point, that also perhaps redeems the combat system a bit, is that this title was released a year after the franchise’s last main game. That’s a huge feat given that most spin-off titles – or downloadable content – can release up to two years after the initial game’s release.

A lot has been recycled here, including the engine and rendering of Hawaii which debuted in Infinite Wealth. But the game is not worse off for it. It still looks great and runs smoothly, with fewer technical glitches than I’ve seen in other new release titles. In fact, if more AAA games reused assets and came out at a faster clip, I’d be down for it.

Coming in at around the 30-hour mark, and priced below your average game too, Pirate Yakuza doesn’t overstay its welcome. Humour is rife. Everything is a send-up and beggars belief. And I just can’t help but smile at it all, and laugh out loud on occasion too.

Having finished the game, I’m now glad it’s not a period piece. It’s hard to imagine a world where Hawaii tolerates grown men running around town with cutlasses and blunderbusses. But hey, there are weirder things going on in America right now, so who’s to say.

Reviewed on: PlayStation 5

Worth trying if you like: Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag, Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, and other action role-playing games, like Dragon Age and Mass Effect.

Available on: PlayStation 5, PlayStat