What you need to know
- During RGG Summit 2024, SEGA announced a new entry in the Like a Dragon franchise titled Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii.
- This game will be an action-adventure affair in which players control the series’ beloved recurring character, Goro Majima, and embark on an over-the-top journey to restore his lost memories, loot buried treasure, and slice up any crook that gets in their way.
- Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii will be released on February 28, 2025, for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam.
On September 20, 2024, SEGA hosted its latest RGG Summit live stream. This event focuses on announcing new games and updates for SEGA’s Like a Dragon franchise, and it just revealed possibly one of the craziest entries in the series to date: Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii.
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is an action-adventure title starring a crazy ex-member of the yakuza named Goro Majima, one of the series’ most popular characters, as its main protagonist. The premise for this title is that Goro Majima wakes up one day to find himself stranded on a remote island in the Pacific Ocean, has no idea how he got there, and has lost memories of who he is.
After being saved by a young boy named Noah, Goro Majima sets out to recover his lost memories while gathering a crew to help him on this swashbuckling adventure. However, Goro Majima will be more than he bargained for as he and his crew will have to contend with modern-day pirates and be pulled into a race to find long-lost legendary treasure.
The gameplay of Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii will task players to explore various locales of the Pacific, including Hawaii, coastal islands, pirate towns, and more, to recruit potential crewmates for your ship and find buried treasure. Along the way, you will fight many cutthroat pirates in action-packed ship battles and third-person beat-em-up sections that the LIke a Dragon series is famous for.
The ship battles will have you steer your vessel to blast enemy ships with your cannons and then board them to engage in beat-em-up sections, where you will take on dozens of crooks using Goro Majima’s insane fighting styles.
Dance around foes and cut them down with Goro Majima’s signature ‘Mad Dog’ style, where you can unleash lightning-quick attacks with a knife. Then chop them up into fish food with Goro Majima’s new ‘Sea Dog’ style, where you unleash a whirlwind of mayhem with cutlasses, pistols, and more pirate-themed tools. You can also switch back and forth between these styles mid-attack to create devasting combo attacks that will send enemies flying overboard.
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After all these years, Goro Majima finally gets his solo Like a Dragon adventure.
Longtime Like a Dragon fans are undoubtedly happy to finally see Goro Majima star in his own standalone title after all this time. For those unaware, Goro Majima has been a part of the Like a Dragon franchise since the very first game on the PlayStation 2 in 2005.
This man has captured the hearts of many players for his wild personality, hosting memorable and crazy sidequests, over-the-top yet brutal combat style, and a dark, tragic past that will tug at your heartstrings.
However, Goro Majima has only been playable in a few Like a Dragon titles, including Yakuza 0, Yakuza 2, and the non-canon zombie-themed Yakuza: Dead Souls. Even then, Goro Majima was relegated to being a deuteragonist or, even worse, a non-playable side character for most of the series, which acts as a foil for the franchise’s iconic protagonist, Kiryu Kazuma.
Now in Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, Goro Majima can finally cut loose on his own wacky solo adventures without having to share the spotlight with Kiryu Kazuma or the series’ new protagonist, Ichiban Kasuga, and take players along for the ride.
Will Goro Majima’s very first standalone game have it takes to be one of the best Xbox titles and one of the best PC titles in the Like a Dragon franchise? Join Majima’s crew next year to find out when Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii releases on February 28, 2025, for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam.