What you need to know
- SEGA reveals a new trailer for the next entry in its long-running Like a Dragon franchise, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii.
- This gameplay trailer gives viewers an in-depth look at the story, the characters and locales you will encounter, the beat 'em up and ship-to-ship combat systems, and the various mini-games players can indulge in.
- Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii will be released on February 21, 2025, for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam.
During Microsoft's Xbox Partner Preview Showcase October 2024 event, SEGA made an appearance to show off a new gameplay trailer for their newly announced action game, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. This latest installment in the Like a Dragon franchise will have players embark on an insane, over-the-top swashbuckling pirate adventure in search of ancient treasure and lost memories as the series' fan-favorite anti-hero, Goro Majima.
Here's everything you need to know about the new trailer for Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii and what exciting gameplay features this upcoming Xbox title/upcoming PC title will offer.
The trailer starts with a recap of the game's premise. You play as Gora Majima, ex-Yakuza who finds himself stranded on an island off the coast of Hawaii and losing his memories of who he was and how he got here. Your goal in this game will be to guide Goro Majima on a quest to reclaim his lost memories (and grab ancient treasure along the way) by recruiting the island's residents to form a pirate crew, building a ship to traverse the seven seas, and fighting rival pirate crews impeding your path.
The trailer then cuts to a montage of Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii's general gameplay loop. You will use your ship (which you can customize the look of) to explore several locales including Hawaii, Rich Island, Madlantis, and more for clues on how to regain your memories. Along the way, you will be forced to contend with evil pirates looking to plunder your ship of treasure and taking your life while they're at it.
To combat these threats you will engage in naval battles where you will maneuver your ship to avoid cannon fire from enemy vessels and firing back at them to sink to the bottom of the ocean. Alternatively, you can ram into ships and board them to directly take on the pirates with your crew in hand-to-hand combat.
The combat system is akin to classic third-person Beat em' Up Like Dragon titles rather than more recent titles like Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth which uses turn-based combat. Except the combat will be more over-the-top than in previous games with new aerial combo attacks, mixing attacks from Goro Majima's traditional 'Mad Dog' style with the new 'Sea Dog' style that lets you fight like a pirate, and being able to summon NPCs to aid you in battle like giant monkeys.
However, it wouldn't be a Like a Dragon game without tons of side activities to unwind from the main story and the new trailer confirms that Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii will have them. The only one that's been shown off so far is the Pirate Coliseum which looks like a battle arena where you fight hordes of bad guys in naval battle and Beat 'em Up battle game modes.
There also appear to be ranking scores within the Pirate Coliseum's game mode menu which suggests that this activity will offer lucrative rewards depending on how fast you dispatch enemies and without getting hit.
The trailer then concludes with showing off various important characters you will meet on your journey and that Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii's release date has now been changed from February 28, 2025, to February 21, 2025.
🎃The best early Black Friday deals🦃
- 💻Dell XPS 16 (RTX 4060) | $2,299.99 at Best Buy (Save $750!)
- 📺LG Curved OLED Monitor (32-inches) | $898.20 at Amazon (Save $602!)
- 🎮Amazon Fire TV Xbox Game Pass bundle | $74.99 at Amazon (Save $62!)
- 🔊2.1ch Soundbar for TVs & Monitors | $44.99 at Walmart (Save $55!)
- 💻Dell G16 Gaming Laptop (RTX 4070) | $1,299.99 at Dell (Save $450!)
- 🎧Sennheiser Momentum 4 ANC | $274.95 at Amazon (Save $125!)
- 📺LG C4 OLED 4K TV (42-inches) | $949.99 at Best Buy (Save $450!)
- 💻Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge (X Elite) | $799.99 at Best Buy (Save $550!)
This could be the craziest Like a Dragon title in the franchise's history
SEGA's Like a Dragon is rather famous for mixing played-straight serious crime drama with over-the-top action scenes and with goofy, comedic sidequests as a palette cleanser for the dark moments. However, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii aims to take the series' action and twisted sense of humor to astronomical levels of insanity, which is very fitting for Goro Majima as he is one of the craziest characters in the whole franchise.
I can't wait to join Goro Majima's wacky pirate adventures and see if this wacky take on the Like a Dragon has what it takes to become one of the best Xbox games and best PC games when it sets sail on February 21, 2025.
