Yakuza/Like A Dragon Series Discussion Thread

[neogunhero]

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.

 

[neogunhero]

About 8 hours into Pirate Yakuza. I'm going to make a bold claim here, but this may be the most fun Yakuza game in terms of gameplay. The combat is so incredibly fun, I run into enemies just to beat them up for my own enjoyment. The minigames are abundant, and there are a lot of great ones. I haven't tried everything yet, and there is a ton more to come as I keep progressing, but so far this game is amazing.

RGG really held no punches when it came to making this game. The pirate mechanics are very well done and can keep you hooked for a long time sailing the seas and looking for treasure. Of course it's not pirate ship simulation, it's quite simplified, but I feel like it is to ensure you are having a good time and not struggling to maintain a realistic simulation or hard to learn controls. Even getting into ship battles is quite easy, as long as you have a clear shot, your cannons lock onto the enemy's ship. You can carry large amount of every item, so you never need to worry about running out of space. Money is fairly easy to come by, so you're able to go shopping quite quickly. The game so far hasn't thrown any arbitrary roadblocks to keep me from getting to the fun parts, it moves along quite quickly in that sense.

Story wise it did take a bit of time to get out on the sea, but I wouldn't say it was very slow and boring. You can be on your boat sailing the seas within about 1-2 hours if you don't spend too much time exploring or doing the beginning side activities. The story so far is pretty great and has made me laugh many times. I thought at first that Majima having amnesia was just a cheap way to clean slate for the lore, but that is far from the truth. The whole time the crew and Majima seem pretty content and trying to figure out his past, so the whole amnesia thing is really just a starting point for the game's story. You are trying to figure out what he was doing and why he was on that ship that wrecked.

As far as locations go, Madlantis is a spectacular place. It is a pirate resort, a shanty town full of lights and attractions built inside a massive cave. Parts of it are blocked off early in the story so I haven't explored all of it yet, and so far I haven't found any substories there, but it was still a lot of fun to run around in. There is a modified version of the batting cage minigame here, where you are aiming for barrels, with some of them exploding. Once you clear the barrels, you have to then hit the locks off a massive treasure chest, from which you win points to spend on prizes. That's another thing about a lot of minigames that I've noticed: you aren't playing for money, you are playing for specialized tokens to spend on prizes, which can be very useful with things like crewmates and gifts for your crew.

The main theme I'm picking up on with this game is that it is designed to be as fun as possible. As much as I really liked the crime drama the earlier games offered, I'm not mad at all with the direction the series is going when they are still making bangers as fun as this.

 

[Johnway]

I'll get pirate Yakuza. Eventually. Still waiting for the Judgement and Lost judgement games to drop in price even further. Will take a while methinks. Still need to play yakuza 5, maybe in autumn like Y4. Heard the subgames are much better in Y5, but we'll see...

 

[neogunhero]

Dragon Kart in Pirate Yakuza is janky as hell but a ton of fun. The drifting barely works, the physics aren't made to handle racing minigames so you can easily hit a wall then flip the hell around, but I was having a blast playing it. The cast of characters you have to beat in order to win the grand prize are hilarious also.

I'm really enjoying this game a lot.

 

[Zloth]

The robot on the right was in Like a Dragon!

 

[neogunhero]

The robot on the right was in Like a Dragon!

There has been a lot of throwback references, even some more obscure/lesser known references. Minami and Nishida from the Majima Family make appearances, I had to look them up because I knew they looked familiar. Minami only ever appeared in Yakuza 4, so that’s a bit lesser known character lol.

 

[neogunhero]

Sitting at 12 hours in Pirate Yakuza. Been messing around in Honolulu a ton, finally got to the point where I can sail again. Also I can now customize my ship! A great way to make money is by unlocking the bounties in the story, you basically work for the Honolulu PD to fight criminals that are too strong for the police. I won't lie, my hand was cramping after grinding a few last night, especially the harder ones. Each criminal is rated for their strength and how much money you get, so stronger guys give more money for beating them. They have way more health and do a lot more damage than the lower level guys, but easy to do if you have enough healing items. Just made my hand cramp a lot mashing X and Y over and over...

Noah mentioned to do some shopping and get some essentials before leaving, so that's what I did. Dropped 30K on food items, healing, clothing, ship customizations, crew member gifts, pet food and fertilizer. Probably didn't need to go so hard, but the game lets you carry a huge amount of most items, so I made sure to really stock up. At some point later in the game I believe you can sail between all locations freely, so I'm guessing he told me that because it will be a while before I can do that.

So far my favorite minigame is Crazy Eats. Looks like that was in Infinite Wealth as well. It's basically if Crazy Taxi was a bicycle food delivery game, you have to ride around collecting different types of food and once you have enough you find a person to deliver it to. You can pull off moves to build up a combo to net you more points. It's a ton of fun and I had to stop myself from S-Ranking all the stages too quickly, I want to come back to it later lol. So far there are only 4 stages, not sure if I unlock more.

 

[neogunhero]

Still making progress. Finally got to the point where I'm getting into 100-man fights and making my way through the Pirates Coliseum. I think I've finished all bounties in Honolulu, unless more pop up over time, and there are a couple in Madlantis that I need to take care of. IMO they're an easier way to make money than the coliseum, but I'm happy to know of my alternatives once I finish those up. I'm spending money just as fast as I'm getting it.

 

[neogunhero]

Having some issues with beating the last guy on Sicko Snap, the Crystal Papillion. The main part of the level itself isn’t hard, but when you get to the end you have to keep taking photos of the Crystal Papillion to reduce his “health” gauge and capture him. You can only take photos of him when his shiny crystal crotch is exposed.

He moves so damn fast, and his health bar is so big, and each photo only does a little bit of damage. I really want to beat this because you get a ring that shows you all treasures and paper fortunes on the map, which would be very nice to grind out for some money and prizes.