Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii – Madness, Mayhem, and Majima

Majima’s Life of Piracy Claim.

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii feels like being tossed into an energy hurricane. An absurdist Goro Majima-branded chaos storm. But beneath the surface, this is no mere Yakuza game with tropical skin. It’s a dizzyingly over-the-top brawler that drags you across sun-soaked beaches, throws you into demolition-derby-style car wrecks, and lets you pilot something that resembles a semi-sinking naval fortress. It’s absurd, loud, and an unhinged Majima experience.

From the moment the game is booted up, the world does not merely welcome you - it seizes you by the collar, laughs maniacally, and challenges you to keep pace. Breathtaking Hawaii is certainly beautiful, but underneath the postcard-perfect greens and blues lies a world filled with insanity. The type of lunacy that has a legendary yakuza captain commanding a pirate crew while engaging in street fight-style cannons naval warfare and somehow manages to make it all a Yakuza game.

Majima's High Seas Rampage

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth makes you feel like you were on a vacation soaking up the sun with Ichiban, while Yakuza Pirate showcases everything off the rails. Majima's back to being an action brawler, and the game instantly reminds you that he was built for this style of combat. The second you throw a punch, it is Eagle’s Claw, not just a return to form, it is RGG Studio perfecting what made their old-school beat-em-up formula so addicting in the first place.

Every brawl is a dramatic display. Majima behaves as if he is a feral beast—accelerated, capricious, and lethal. One moment he is carving foes with a ragged saber, and the next, he is twirling on the floor and sending thugs flying into the open ocean. Every single punch, slash, and outrageous heat move is executed with staggering intensity as if the theater were his profession. It’s a dancing slaughterhouse, and Majima is the lead actor.

And don’t forget the ship battle. It’s not only fighting on solid ground; it’s literally fighting in the water. Majima’s ship—a dilapidated, makeshift vessel he “acquired” through channels safest not mentioned—feels like an extension of his fighting style. Stripped of civility and modification, it's aggressive and breaks apart during combat, but nothing else matters during intense clashes. Cannonballs are shot, ships are destroyed, and amid it all, Majima is cackling like a child reveling in his favorite playground.

Activities

But combat is not the only thing offered in Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii because there are other activities to engage in. In Yakuza fashion, those activities come in droves to distract you from the sheer chaos happening around you.

The return of Dragon Kart is quite a sight to behold, but this time it comes paired with an arena battle mode that turns every race into a hellish demolition derby. Zooming through the streets of Honolulu, bashing enemies off the road, sidestepping rocket launcher fire—it’s pure chaos, carnage, and so addicting.

Aiming for the weirdest and most inappropriate angles of the paradise - either photographing a man grappling a gargantuan fish or capturing a surfboard-dueling yakuza - the game encompasses the most deranged streaks of Hawaii in the form of a minigame named Sicko Snap.

What about Super Crazy Delivery? If you thought that delivering ramen in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth was crazy, wait until you see the delivery consists of a tower of flaming pineapples while trying to avoid feral chickens and outrunning a rival gang on mopeds.

The World, in all Its Strange Glory

Hawaii in itself is an island in a state of spectacle. RGG studio has outdone itself bringing the islands to life, creating stunning visuals of tropical paradises. From Honolulu, the streets are alive, neon lights sparkling off the rain that floods the pavement. Madlantis, the ship graveyard with an alluring casino takes a dark twist, as it now serves as the city of rust and graveyard excess. On the other side of beauty, the game isn't afraid to show the other side of paradise. All of the glossy exteriors hold desperate stories, of crime, and people intertwined in the chaos. Although Majima, for all his madness is right in the middle of all of this.

A Controlled Storm of Madness

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is contradictory in the best of ways, and this can only entice players who buy PS5 games. It is a game that makes zero sense on paper replacing pirate battles with demolition derby kart racing mixed with yakuza antics set in a tropical island. But for some reason works effortlessly in execution. It is not just another Yakuza game, but rather, it is the Yakuza game that takes the absurdity of the series and cranks it up to eleven.

Unlike Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, it is not a game about ‘freedom.’ You are not sailing the open seas with unrestrained freedom. But that’s ok—what it is instead, is a finely polished, ever so fun, and at times, absolutely surreal adventure.

And at the center of it all is Majima—cackling, unrestrained, more vibrant than ever. This is not just a game where you step into a new world. It is about stepping into his world, his chaos, his insanity.