Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio isn’t stopping from churning out Like A Dragon (aka Yakuza) games. The studio and publisher Sega have announced that the next installment will be released on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Steam on February 28th, just 13 months after the debut of Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth. The latest spinoff has the usual quirky twist that’s not entirely hidden by its title: Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii.
The seven-minute announcement trailer, released at the studio’s RGG Summit, features series regular Goro Majima explaining what he’s been up to lately. About six months ago, Majima washed up on an island near Hawaii with no memory of how he got there and was rescued by a child with a pet tiger cub. It wasn’t long before Majima ran afoul of pirates and soon became the captain of a pirate ship.
Pirates Yakuza in Hawaii is set one year after Infinite Wealth and the events of that game’s Kasuga Ichiban. Players will assemble a crew, upgrade their ship, engage enemy ships, and discover hidden islands. Majima has two fighting styles he can switch between on the fly. According to the press release, he can choose the Mad Dog option to plague foes with “speed, agility, and flair,” then switch to Sea Dog to dual-wield daggers and “pirate tools.” By any standards, Pirates Yakuza in Hawaii looks a lot more fun than the 45 minutes I spent playing Skull and Bones.
February 28 isn’t that far away in the grand scheme of things, but there’s plenty of other Yakuza-related things to keep you busy until then. A live-action TV show based on the series, Yakuza: Gotoku, will debut on Prime Video on October 24. The series will also debut on Nintendo Switch the same day, along with a port of Yakuza Kiwami, a remake of the first game.
