Thoughts on: Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii

Ever since I’ve started my Like a Dragon journey with Yakuza 0 release on PC, every new release from the Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio would be at least curious. Some of them were a genuine joy to play. Some were just fun. Some I didn’t like that much, but they usually had something about them that I’d grab onto. Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is the first game in this run where I’m not sure what I was supposed to even get out of it. It’s certainly not bad, but also… What was the point?

As is the case with the majority of Like a Dragon titles (at least for now), this is an action adventure beat ’em up title within an open world style map. Being a yet another side-story game (despite lacking Gaiden in its title this time around), it reuses a lot of the content originally created for the Infinite Wealth. So, once again the main setting is Hawaii, a map I didn’t enjoy the first time around, it’s just that this time you don’t have turn-based combat. But there are a couple of new locations as well and on top of that several huge new systems and mechanics. One big change is that you can now jump, which… doesn’t do that much in practical terms, actually, other than being slightly confusing in terms of controls if you’re already familiar with the series. I mean, you can air-juggle enemies, but this is no Devil May Cry and the overall beat em up nature of the combat remains relatively simple.

Far bigger addition is the idea of sailing a ship and participating in sea battles. Some of the on-foot elements here are reusing the mechanics from Gaiden and Ishin, but the naval combat is entirely new. And also incredibly boring. The basis here is similar to the now 12 year old Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, but it’s so much more primitive and uninteresting, that for a while I thought I was playing the game wrong. But after checking others play the game I have confirmed that – no, it’s just not very good. To the point where even the equally uninteresting naval combat in Ys X was less boring, because at least it was faster paced. You do need to engage in it along the main path, while the main side-path of the game is all about this tedious sea exploration and boring battles. Though, weirdly enough, you can get overleveled quite easily and quickly.

So, is the story at least any good? Also no. As has been the case with all RGG titles lately, the beginning and ending parts are quite strong, but all the several dozen hours in between are just pointless filler. Characters don’t play to their strengths for the sake of unfunny gags or just due to the lack of direction. Things happen. You often get asked to do pointless tasks just to stretch the play time… It’s not good and ultimately disposable. With the only potentially “important” thing being an eventual expansion on the several previously unexplained plot points from Infinite Wealth.

The game also suffers from serious technical issues. Almost all RGG titles are known to randomly crash depending on some particular conditions, but most of them do it only in some rare instances and are best known by speedrunners. But Pirate Yakuza just crashes regularly when you play it for long enough. It also yet again showcases just how poorly Dragon Engine (the in-house engine used for these titles) handles daylight, especially with natural environments. Most locations in the game look straight up hideous and reminiscent of the Xbox 360 era early Unreal Engine 3 titles (minus the brown tint). And only during night time or indoors with lots of artificial lighting the game starts looking gorgeous.

But yeah… I don’t know what was the point of this game. The idea sounds fun. But in practice, no element of the game is interesting, even if none of them are outright terrible. Titles like Gaiden, Infinite Wealth or Lost Judgement had many separate things that would make the game feel worth it for one reason or the other. Be it story, fun combat or whatever else. Yet Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, despite such an insane premise, feels like the most bland and uninteresting game RGG could make.