When it comes to Goro Majima having his very own game, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii wasn't quite what I expected it to look like. After being briefly playable in Yakuza: Dead Souls and sharing the spotlight with series lead Kazuma Kiryu in Yakuza 0, the Mad Dog of Shimano now has a whole swashbuckling adventure to call his own - and it's already shaping up to be something quite special. I was recently able to visit Sega's London offices for a preview of Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii.
While my time with the game amounted to a relatively short vertical slice lasting around 45 minutes, I still got to see and do a healthy amount in that time. Pop-up pirate My preview began with Majima and the crew of the Goromaru (his pirate ship) arriving at the US island state. We've barely made landfall and already, a group of hoodlums want to beat us up and steal our lunch money - as is eternally the style of this series.
This serves as the quick combat tutorial for Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii and introduces you to Majima's two fighting styles. First, we got to grips with the 'Mad Dog' style, which is akin to Majima move sets of prior games, making use of rapid punches and his iconic knife. However, the Mad Dog style in this game feels like a true evolution, being more fluid and ferocious than ever.
Majima can now launch enemies upwards, jumping after them to perform slick air combos. His knife attacks can also be woven into standard combos in a manner that all f.