8 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza In Hawaii

As per usual with Yakuza/Like A Dragon games, the opening minutes are quite generous when it comes to showing you the ropes of the combat, but even though Pirate Yakuza shows you how to do Majima’s air juggle combos, they don’t quite emphasize just how much of a boon it is to your entire moveset. For the first two chapters or so, use it because it’s cool. Later chapters, though—especially on those Devil King islands where there’s 100 dudes attempting to shove a cutlass up where dead men tell no tales—getting an enemy up in the air is the linchpin of your fights when it comes to creating some distance.

Compared to a bunch of the other titles in the series, Pirate Yakuza is pretty generous early on when it comes to giving you enough money and Reputation to enhance yourself. Obviously, boosting Majima’s attacks and health are no-brainer purchases you’ll never regret, but the lure of the awesome-looking Heat attacks isn’t easy to ignore. We’re not saying don’t buy any of those, but firstly, many of the other enhancements are far more crucial (and cheaper) early on, and secondly, Heat actions are bound by highly specific situations here. A fair few are only really applicable when you’re raiding an enemy ship, in fact. If there’s a very specific combat situation/button press you find yourself in, go for it. But shop smart.

Once you get some shore leave in Honolulu, you’re basically going to be awash in recruits for your ship within about an hour. There’s no downside to letting everybody aboard, but when it comes to who you should squad up with, you’re gonna need to plan for the future.

Early on, Jason Rich and Masaru are gonna be permanent fixtures in your crew. You’ll get them the earliest, but their stats stay relatively strong through the entire game. More importantly, though, is that they’re the first characters who can be boosted up to level 40. The problem with a lot of the randos you find out in the world is that even the ones with high stats might cap off at level 20. Those are crewmates who you want in there for a good time, not a long time. Have a backup character you can evolve. If you can be patient, and grind a bit before continuing the main story (the Coliseum in Madlantis is perfect for this) I recommend having a crew of all lvl 40-capables before getting into the weeds of Chapter 3, where the difficulty spikes. Speaking of…

Once you finally land in Honolulu, the more typical Like A Dragon experience takes over for a while. Most of it’s a direct copy-paste from Infinite Wealth, but in terms of sheer money-making potential, the bounties are the best and most reliable money maker in the game. You’ll see the pink handcuffs dotted around the map, but right off the bat, after you take down your first one and leave the bar, there’ll be a guy worth $16,000 right down the block. You’d think with that high a price tag, you’re about to face Malenia, Blade of Miquella, but in reality, the price tags tend to correspond with the amount of health they have rather than difficulty. Hell, there are bounties worth $4k that are more of a pain in the ass due to the sheer numbers of enemies. Point being, don’t be afraid to go on safari for these guys when you’re low on cash, and don’t be afraid to take on big fish.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a proper pirate game without some great ship-to-ship combat on the high seas, and sure, you could just position your flank and fire away like a loser, but this is Like A Dragon, things can get so much wilder than that. For starters, yes, anyone who played Assassin’s Creed Black Flag will have no problem picking up on the fact that you can ram straight into other ships for massive damage, only here they’re actually boosted by fuel tanks that can t-bone other boats to pieces in a heartbeat.

The real fun begins when you start messing with weapon loadouts, where the typical pirate ship cannons can get upgraded, and in terms of bang for buck, the flamethrowers are ridiculously overpowered in the early chapters, able to melt down most enemy ships in seconds.

About halfway through the game, you’re introduced to one of the other major threats roaming the waters around Hawaii: The Devil Kings. Once you beat their initial quest, all of their hideouts open up to be raided. It’s gonna be tempting, especially after the first too-easy ones to just take whatever’s available, and sweet baby Jesus you need to slow your roll, because the difference in difficulty from the early hideouts vs the four-skull ones is vast, without leveling up way above normal. If you’re gonna pump some time into that quest line, do yourself a favor and tackle them in order of difficulty, and don’t get too ambitious.

It’s never really emphasized after the brief bit of tutorial in which it’s introduced, but the rocket launcher is one of the most underrated pieces of gear in your arsenal. Yes, it requires Majima leaving the captain’s wheel to fire, but given just how much range it has, using the rockets as a bespoke sniper rifle has more utility than you think, especially later on when you start seeing ships with depth charges, and distance is much more at a premium. By that point, as well, you should have Majima’s grappling hook, which gives you a grapple point on your ship up to the crow’s nest, where you can get an even better view.

The critical path of Pirate Yakuza will endear you plenty to your main ride-or-die characters like Jason, Noah, and Masaru, but as mentioned before, these are also the characters you’re gonna carry with you the entire game. As such, giving them priority attention above everyone else pays dividends like crazy. That’s not just because they have the best-written storylines, but they start out with such high stats that prioritizing them early generally means you can stick them in one position right from jump, and they’ll evolve faster the rest. For most of them, it means keeping them happy and fed while on the ship, and bringing them on raids. For Noah, that means taking in the optional conversations dotted around Honolulu early and often. For Noah’s tiger cat, Goro, though, that means visiting Nele Island just as early and often with the fancy pet food.

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