marks the first time side character Goro Majima has ever starred in his very own game. However, the Mad Dog of Shimano may be different from how most players remember him: the game begins with Majima washing up ashore on a remote Polynesian island with a bad case of retrograde amnesia, unable to remember where he comes from or where he was going.
In short order, he makes friends with the islanders and commandeers a pirate ship, and together they set sail to discover the lost treasure of the Esperanza. [Warning: This article contains major spoilers for Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii.] Picking up where 's ending left off, also ropes in the Nele Island cleanup efforts, run by a group of ex-Yakuza attempting to reform.
Perhaps more so than anyone else, though, the story belongs to Majima's first crewmates, the retired pirate-turned-overbearing father Jason, and his adventure-seeking son Noah.
Amid the Esperanza stash, they hope to find an elixir of youth that will cure Noah's mysterious illness. Along the way, they run afoul of various pirate crews, New York financiers, and even ghosts of Majima's past as they race for the treasure.
After discovering that the treasure is, in fact, on Nele Island, Majima recruits the help of the ex-Yakuza involved in the cleanup there, as well as the remaining Palekana devotees, to help him find it.