Sega has unfurled the latest game in their Ryu Ga Gotoku / Yakuza / Like A Dragon series, and it’s a wild one.
Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza In Hawaii will put you in the swashbuckling boots of one Goro Makima, the most popular Japanese character actor since Tora-san. As reported by VG 24/7, Goro has lost his memory as he washes up in a mysterious new location called Rich Island. He is promptly found and rescued by a boy named Noah Rich.
This is a standalone spinoff set in the same locations found in Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth. Goro actually deals with the fallout of the ending of that game, which we will spoil in the paragraph below so you can skip it if you don’t want to read it.
Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth ends with Ichiban Kasuga defeating the cult Palekana. As a result, you will also visit that game’s version of Hawaii, as well as the incredibly named Madlantis. You will also probably meet the new sage of Palekana, Lani Milliani, having taken her proper role as the sole surviving member of the cult’s founding family.
But really, the pitch to this one is as straightforward as it gets. A Yakuza style game where you play Majima doing pirate things, and by that we don’t mean bootlegging videotapes. It’s certainly out of left field, but also seems to be just the thing to get curious new gamers interested in this franchise.
Majima’s classic style is labeled as his Mad Dog style, but he also has a separate new style inspired by his new privateer ways called Sea Dog styles. The announcement trailer also shared a preview of what it refers to as real-time cannon battles. No word for now how the mechanics of this mode plays out, but we think Ubisoft is just as surprised as us that Skull & Bones suddenly has fresh competition.
Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza In Hawaii will release on February 28, 2025, for PS5/PS4, Xbox Series X/S/Xbox One, and PC. Considering that Yakuza Kiwami is set to release to the Nintendo Switch next month, it certainly seems possible that Sega and RGG Studio could bring this game to a Nintendo platform in the future. If not on the Nintendo Switch, maybe the one that Nintendo says they’ll be revealing soon.
In the meantime, you can check out the official trailer below, and you can already wishlist the game on Steam here.
