- Jan 14, 2020
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Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza In Hawaii - 2 hour gameplay impressions
Picked up Pirate Yakuza last night. I rarely buy games brand new, but I got a big bonus from my job last week and my birthday is coming up soon, so I thought why not. I knew I would love this game and have a good time with it, and there seems to be a ton of content to dive into.
I also want to disclaim that I have not played Infinite Wealth yet. I am assuming this game is most similar to that one since they released back to back, so there could be some new gameplay mechanics introduced in IW that I am just now discovering for the first time.
At it's core, it is still very much Yakuza. One big difference I've noticed is how much smoother you can control your character. You have more precision control over the movements, it feels a lot more fluid to control Majima compared to Kiryu in Yakuza 0. Fighting random mobs is so seamless too, it doesn't play a starting cutscene at the beginning of each fight, once you get into their aggro area the fight just starts without any delay. This makes grinding mobs for money a lot faster.
The combat is so fun. Majima has some new weapons and moves this time around, with a major example being your ability to throw enemies in the air and combo them, almost like Devil May Cry. I don't think you can chain between multiple enemies in the air like DMC, as right now I've only been able to get one enemy in the air at a time. Don't think you're invincible just because you're in the air though, as enemies with long weapons like swords can easily strike you down.
There are two new minigames/activities I've encountered up to this point. There is a cooking minigame, where you must hold A and release it just in time to build a fire, then hit a sequence of buttons to chop the food. The faster and more accurate you do these things results in a higher quality dish, restoring more health as the quality goes up. There is also a tiny bit of farming, with you able to collect seeds and plant them, then use the food to cook with. Fun little side activities, and I like being able to horde a bunch of food for health items.
There are also some nice minor conveniences. I like how items now tell you the max of each that you can hold. Basic items like food and junk allows you to hold up to 999 of them. Other items like consumable weapons and health items have lower maxes. No longer do you have a strict total carry amount, but now you can carry insane amounts of each item, so in theory you will never have to worry about running out of space. You can also now save just about anywhere you'd like. The telephone booths only ever bothered me rarely, when I would be dead tired and wanting to get off the game, but the closest telephone booth was a minute run from me. It's just really nice to be able to save at any time.
The story so far is hilarious and gripping. Majima wakes up shipwrecked on an island in Hawaii with amnesia. He doesn't recall how he got there, why he was on a boat, or much of his past life. A kid named Noah saves you, and you know Majima is deathly loyal to anyone who saves his life. So now Majima wants to thank Noah in any way possible, and that way is by taking Noah on a grand pirate adventure, away from his drunk dad and boring small island town. He claims his grandpa was an adventurer, and his dad is a retired treasure hunter, so he's sad that he is forced to stay on the island all the time. The kid is like 12 years old max mind you lol. Majima is straight up going to kidnap this kid because the kid wants to be a pirate.
So far, I'm having a blast with it. I know I'm going to put a ton of hours into this, so I don't regret buying it day one.
Picked up Pirate Yakuza last night. I rarely buy games brand new, but I got a big bonus from my job last week and my birthday is coming up soon, so I thought why not. I knew I would love this game and have a good time with it, and there seems to be a ton of content to dive into.
I also want to disclaim that I have not played Infinite Wealth yet. I am assuming this game is most similar to that one since they released back to back, so there could be some new gameplay mechanics introduced in IW that I am just now discovering for the first time.
At it's core, it is still very much Yakuza. One big difference I've noticed is how much smoother you can control your character. You have more precision control over the movements, it feels a lot more fluid to control Majima compared to Kiryu in Yakuza 0. Fighting random mobs is so seamless too, it doesn't play a starting cutscene at the beginning of each fight, once you get into their aggro area the fight just starts without any delay. This makes grinding mobs for money a lot faster.
The combat is so fun. Majima has some new weapons and moves this time around, with a major example being your ability to throw enemies in the air and combo them, almost like Devil May Cry. I don't think you can chain between multiple enemies in the air like DMC, as right now I've only been able to get one enemy in the air at a time. Don't think you're invincible just because you're in the air though, as enemies with long weapons like swords can easily strike you down.
There are two new minigames/activities I've encountered up to this point. There is a cooking minigame, where you must hold A and release it just in time to build a fire, then hit a sequence of buttons to chop the food. The faster and more accurate you do these things results in a higher quality dish, restoring more health as the quality goes up. There is also a tiny bit of farming, with you able to collect seeds and plant them, then use the food to cook with. Fun little side activities, and I like being able to horde a bunch of food for health items.
There are also some nice minor conveniences. I like how items now tell you the max of each that you can hold. Basic items like food and junk allows you to hold up to 999 of them. Other items like consumable weapons and health items have lower maxes. No longer do you have a strict total carry amount, but now you can carry insane amounts of each item, so in theory you will never have to worry about running out of space. You can also now save just about anywhere you'd like. The telephone booths only ever bothered me rarely, when I would be dead tired and wanting to get off the game, but the closest telephone booth was a minute run from me. It's just really nice to be able to save at any time.
The story so far is hilarious and gripping. Majima wakes up shipwrecked on an island in Hawaii with amnesia. He doesn't recall how he got there, why he was on a boat, or much of his past life. A kid named Noah saves you, and you know Majima is deathly loyal to anyone who saves his life. So now Majima wants to thank Noah in any way possible, and that way is by taking Noah on a grand pirate adventure, away from his drunk dad and boring small island town. He claims his grandpa was an adventurer, and his dad is a retired treasure hunter, so he's sad that he is forced to stay on the island all the time. The kid is like 12 years old max mind you lol. Majima is straight up going to kidnap this kid because the kid wants to be a pirate.
So far, I'm having a blast with it. I know I'm going to put a ton of hours into this, so I don't regret buying it day one.
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