Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii just converted me into a series fan

digitaltrends.com:

Before anyone decides to throw a tomato at my face, I have to admit that I’ve never played a single Yakuza/Like a Dragon game in my life. While I’ve always been intrigued by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s action-adventure franchise, I didn’t really know where to begin. The mere thought of starting a series with over a dozen games already released felt like a daunting task. And so it was with an open mind that I tried out the next — and possibly strangest — entry in the series, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, during Tokyo Game Show. What a way to start, right?

As I played the 20-minute-long demo, I was grinning from ear to ear. It’s so joyously ridiculous and loaded with promising side content that I’m left wondering why I waited so long to get into the franchise. This may not be the ideal starting point for newcomers from a story perspective, but it might be the game that finally gets anyone who’s been on the fence about starting the series to dive in.

Majima and mayhem

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii stars Goro Majima, the “Mad Dog of Shimano” and one of the most iconic characters in the long-running series. His misadventures have taken him on a wild journey to the high seas, where a bout with amnesia leads him to believe that he’s a pirate captain in search of treasure. Seeing him appear on screen for the first time in the demo, I couldn’t help but be reminded of a rowdy and rambunctious uncle who taught me how to drink and smoke when I was 8 years old.

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When I saw how he dealt with a dozen muscle heads on the Hawaiian beachfront, I had to chuckle out loud. Majima’s moveset consists of fast-paced actions that make for frenetic and dynamic combat (a return to the traditional brawling formula of Yakuza games past). For his fighting stances, there’s Mad