LCSnoogs Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii Review

A ridiculous spin-off of the Like a Dragon series starring Kiryu Kazuma's rival Goro Majima. The games starts with him washing up on shore of a small island near Hawaii with amnesia. He's revived by a young boy named Noah. He helps the kid and the rest of the island out by beating the local thugs parading as pirates. After defeating their leader, he decides to be the pirate crews new captain, and joins the men on a hunt for legendary treasure. He even brings Noah and his father along for the trip. This jarring, silly pivot in the Like a Dragon series ends up being a surprisingly heartfelt story about following your dreams and leading by example for the next generation. The game takes place in Honolulu, Noah's home Nele Island, and a pirate hub called Madlantis along with the waters around these locations. Madlantis is similar to the big gambling ship from The Man with No Name. It's a lot of neon lights, gambling, games, and a ship combat arena. In the waters around these areas, there are enemy pirate ships to fight and small islands where pirates are guarding treasure for the taking. Combat goes back to the real-time brawler style the original Yakuza games are known for. There are two fighting styles: a traditional brawler style where Majima fights with his fists and a knife and a new pirate-themed fighting style where he dual-wields cutlasses. The former is best for one-on-one fights while the other has several attacks for taking down multiple enemies at once. The brawler-style will never not be satisfying as the animations of the punches and dodges look so cool. I preferred it for a while, but then the pirate style becomes more fun as they introduce new items like the pistol and the grappling hook. Hitting multiple enemies with a charge shot feels good, and the grappling hook is useful for closing the distance between Majima and enemies with guns for quick takedowns of the most annoying enemies. The one issue I have with the combat is the sprint and jump buttons are the same button. Pretty often, I would end up jumping when I was trying to sprint. The major new addition to combat is ship battles. These are faster, more arcade-like than what the Assassin's Creed games offer. Goro Majima's ship, the Goromaru, has two mounted machine guns on the front, a set of cannons on each side. The cannons can be swapped out for different types of fire power such as flamethrowers. I stuck with cannons the whole time for the range and damage. The only set back was the reload time after firing. The Goromaru also has a boost which can help to catch up to enemies, ram into other ships to do damage, and allow the Goromaru to drift. The drift is the major game-changer here. Turning in a ship can be frustratingly slow without it, so that drift feels amazing. I can quickly put myself in an advantageous position to do some real damage to the enemy or quickly dodge an enemy attack. It's also a good way to fire your cannons from one side to quickly turn around and hit your enemy with your cannons from the other side. There is a deck mode during combat where Majima lets go of the wheel to move freely around the ship. It's useful in battle because in deck mode, Majima pulls out a rocket launcher. It's a good way to quickly deal with weak foes without having to maneuver your ship to line up your shot. It's also how you have to heal your ship from status effects like frozen or poison. Things get tense here because it takes time to recover the ship, and the Goromaru is a sitting duck when this is going on. The Goromaru's crew is customizable. Player's can choose their first mate, who mans the cannons and the machine guns, and who joins them in big deck battles for crew vs. crew fights. These fights happen at the end of major ship battles. The crew is broken up into squads with squad leaders providing stat bonuses specific to their characters making who the squad leader is matter to strategy. Animals can also be assigned to the crew to provide further buffs that can be triggered after defeating enough enemies to build up the meter. Everyone recruit has stats for attack, defense, ship recovery, and cannon power to help determine who to place where. Pirates are recruited for main quests, side quests, and people around Honolulu and Madlantis who will join the Goromaru if their criteria is met. It's funny to see shots of the full crew because the pirates who join the Goromaru can be some random weirdos. This game never meets the heights set by the previous game, Infinite Wealth, but it's a fun side story with major changes from the traditional Like a Dragon games to make it a standout for the long-running franchise. It also might be the best pirate game ever made.