Hot off of the reveals of both a new Virtua Fighter title as well as a brand-new IP in Project Century, Ryu ga Gotoku Studio has come back swinging in early 2025 to remind us that they’ve still got even more games in the works.
Throughout a new 13-minute Like a Dragon Direct that aired this morning, we’ve gotten a very healthy new look at the upcoming Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, the new Majima-lead spinoff of last year’s Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth that launches quite soon on February 21st.
The video, which you can watch in full below if you’d rather just see the new details and gameplay footage for yourself, showcases everything from the game’s real-time on foot combat to its compelling and shockingly detailed naval gameplay and ETC
The first section takes a look at general combat, which will look familiar to anyone that’s played the Kiryu-led Like a Dragon/Yakuza games, and this time around introduces two varied fighting styles for Majima to employ.
Mad Dog style channels his years as a violent gangster with a penchant for flurried strikes and agile combos, and filling up Majima’s Madness gauge allows him to summon a party of ethereal doppelgangers to really lay the hurt. Sea Dog style, on the other hand, sees Majima embrace the pirate captain life with cutlasses, a chain hook and pistol to really put the bruise on rival crews, and with the use of legendary Dark Instruments he can summon giant sharks, apes, birds and the like.
Next up we get our best look yet at the game’s ship-based navigation and combat, which is something I was unable to try out when I played the game last year and hasn’t really been detailed as much as this before now.
It looks like there’ll be a good amount of customisation available for your ship, from the hull to the sails and additional flair, and there’ll be over 100 folks in the world to recruit to put together your dream crew. And since this is a Like a Dragon game, that means you’ll be spending plenty of time strengthening your bonds with these people through exciting adventures, plenty of booze and of course – karaoke.
When it comes to skirmishes on the water, it’s looking to be a frenetic and appropriately over-the-top affair with the ability to affix all kinds of weapons to your ship from traditional cannons to flamethrowers, machine guns, laser cannons and… shark cannons? Enemy ships can be outright destroyed, or you can opt to board them and engage in crew-versus-crew battles on the deck.
The next section of the Like a Dragon Direct presentation centres around the various islands you’ll be able to explore in the game. There’s Rich Island, which acts as Majima’s own residence and hub location between pirate escapades, Madlantis, the huge, criminal hideout city that houses a lot of the expected Like a Dragon diversions from gambling to combat arenas, the mysterious and potentially very significant Nele Island and, of course – Hawaii.
Finally, as you could expect there’s a bit of spruiking of the game’s digital pre-order bonuses and editions to cap the presentation off.
Those who pre-order any version of the game will be able to add Ichiban Kasuga and Nancy to their pirate crew, as well as dress Majima up in Ichiban’s iconic beach outfit or suit. Those who pick up the Digital Deluxe Edition will gain access to even more legendary pirates for their crew such as Kiryu Kazama and Onomichio, along with more legendary outfits, ship customisations and more music for karaoke and listening. And if you subscribe to SEGA email’s right now using the QR code below, you’ll get a Dragon of Dojima outfit once the game launches.
And last of all there’s the Collector’s Edition, which contains all of the digital content above plus a hoard of physical goodies including an acrylic standee, eye patch, coin pin and pirate flag.
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii launches on February 21st, 2025 for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC.
What did you think of this big, new look at the game? Will you be picking up any of those fancy editions? Let us know in the comments below or over on our social media.
