I must admit that a pirate game featuring the Mad Dog of Shimano was not on my bingo list for the latest RGG Summit. Frankly, I was expecting Like a Dragon 10 or maybe even a new Judgement installment—but I’m not disappointed. With the recent AAAA game debacle featuring pirates, I find it wild that Goro Majima is the one that will finally give us a proper voyage in Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. I’m not sure how many A’s it will have, but if I trust a studio with an adventure full of piracy, that’s Ryu ga Gotoku.
I know it might be too early to start claiming Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii might be the promised AAAA pirate game we deserve. After all, we only got a few glimpses of its gameplay. From the first look, there are some mini-games returning from Infinite Wealth. Furthermore, Hawaii is the locale we’ll visit again, which is fine by me. But beyond that, it seems that we’ll delve into the underworld of modern piracy, which looks way better than any other “historically accurate” pirate game out there. Or, well, at least it seems we can properly board a boat, which should be a win on everyone’s book.
While it may seem like I’m bashing another pirate-themed game, that is not the case. On the contrary, I’m always happy to see competition. Pirate-themed games have always been fun, but they are a genre or style we rarely see. The fact that there’s another one on the market from a studio that knows how to deliver high-quality content is precisely what we need. Hopefully, we’ll see more Majima shenanigans as the release date approaches. With Hawaii ripe for the taking and the Mad Dog taking the helm of a ship full of scallywags, I only wonder how wild this escapade will get.
