Like a Dragon has a 20-year legacy of balancing melodrama. The series formally known, in the West at least, as Yakuza is part hard-hitting soap opera, part boot-stomping gangster brawler, and part offbeat goofball caper, with developer RGG Studio, initially taken aback by the series resonance outside of Japan in the mid-oughts, now fully embracing both the caustic and the sober sides of Japanese nightlife of which the games are built upon to push the series in surprising directions. Weve seen the switch from knuckle-cracking fisticuffs to turn-based battling in reboot Yakuza: Like a Dragon, replayed seminal eras in Japanese history via Like a Dragon: Ishin!, and tried our hand at secret agent gadgetry in Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name all titles delivered with a trademark blend of gusto and sincerity.If youve played through all Yakuza and Like a Dragons games, you may find it tough to pinpoint exactly where most of their memorability lies; is it the drama or the comedy? Well, the title of Like a Dragons upcoming spin-off should leave you under no illusion that RGG Studio are banking on the series inherent silliness to bring memorability. Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii sounds bonkers. Again, that title: Pirate Yakuza. In Hawaii. Yes, Goro wears an eye patch, but a pirate? Is this a joke that go out of hand? When leaks emerged a few months after Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealths release that villainous jester Goro Majima would be starring in his very own spin-off, a game where he plunders treasure in command of a pirate ship, the rumours were brushed under the carpet. It seemed too absurd to be true. But fast forward to January 2025 and were a month away from taking to the high seas in what is surely going to be a shoo-in for the daftest Like a Dragon game ever, and perhaps the craziest game to release this year.Viewing preview footage, whats remarkable here is the confidence RGG Studio exude in their newfound comedic focus. Within the first few minutes we see Goro dual-wielding cutlasses, performing on violins to summon psychedelic sharks mid-battle, and dressing his tiger cub companion in cute outfits. There isnt much to know about narrative thus far; Goro, in a time shortly after the events of Like a Dragon, mysteriously washes up on a Hawaiian shoreline, his memory in tatters, believing himself to be a pirate. His yearning to set sail in search of treasure coincides with desires to reinstate his memories. Captaining a crew of shanty crooners, pummelling rival galleons, and ransacking idyllic island resorts whilst searching for clues to unlock Goros amnesia will provide the bulk of your entertainment in Pirate Yakuza. Galleons here are outfitted with cannons, machine guns, and flamethrowers, with Majima and his crew encountering numerous hostile craft scuttling Hawaiis waters. Captain Majima doesnt need to keep his feet planted at the galleons helm during naval battles though for he can take potshots from an RPG before he and his crew board enemy vessels for a good old punch up which, given the abundance of tricorn hats and wooden legs, looks akin to a drunken brawl at a Peter Pan convention. Rival pirates can be recruited, with both Majimas crew and his seafaring ship subject to a slate of RPG-alike upgrades.Fist fighting in Pirate Yakuza returns to the series beat em up roots, but seeing as this is Majimas adventure RGG Studio have injected a swashbuckling twist to keep the slugfests fresh. Here, Majima can hurl his fists via two distinct fighting styles Mad Dog and Sea Dog with the former being the more traditional option closely aligned to his gangster heyday. The latter has him swinging those aforesaid cutlasses alongside a minor arsenal of pirate themed weaponry think pistols and boomerangs with new aerial combo attacks adding a flashy Metal Gear Rising flavour to all the hacking and slashing. Its just a hunch but Goros gangster style might prove useful when picking off foes one-by-one whilst switching it up to his pirate form could come in handy when hes overwhelmed due to the cutlass area of effect potential.Saying that, both fighting styles harbour time-limited special manoeuvres that are rechargeable via a meter. Mad Dogs special move sees Majima conjure doppelgangers of himself, with their over-numerousness levelling the odds during mismatches. Those aforementioned sharks summoned via musical instrument are a special manoeuvre of the Sea Dog variety, and theres a jellyfish, parrot, and a monkey in addition to the electric blue jaws which Majima can raise to assist in swashbuckling his way out of a tight situation.If you ever grow tiresome of hightailing it across the seven seas, then you can angle Majimas sails to the mainland and anchor up outside port. In Honolulu the environment so intricately constructed for Infinite Wealth reused here Goro dons a suitably tropical Hawaiian shirt to explore the sun-baked concrete streets, getting into fistfights, completing tasks for strangers, and partaking in any number of side activities including, of course, buying animals to raise on a farm.In keeping with every Yakuza and Like a Dragon title thus far, therell be access to plenty of distractions throughout Pirate Yakuza in Hawaiis runtime. Staples such as karaoke, cooking, golf, and hitting home runs against a pile of barrels feature alongside arcades with claw games and ports of classic Sega titles with gambling a further option to boost your coinage at the Pirates Colosseum. The latter functions like a buccaneers Las Vegas whereby pirates can engage in ship-to-ship matchups whilst betting on the results. Like a Dragon has featured numerous side activities throughout its history which could arguably function as their own standalone game, but none more so than the Pirates Colosseum whereby numerous battle modes, mostly comprising naval combat, take centre stage.Setting has always been an integral part of any Yakuza or Like a Dragon experience. As stated at the outset, RGG Studio were initially surprised at how well their window into Japanese sleaze was understood by players in the Western hemisphere. The virtual playgrounds of Kamarucho, Osaka, and Yokohama, plus balmy Okinawa and now Hawaii portray an earnest authenticity which provides necessary grounding for the series to function as both a vehicle for emotional drama and slapstick comedy. The fact Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is leaning so far towards humour risks the series unique atmosphere being little too strayed. Will Pirate Yakuza feel like a Yakuza game? Is this spinoff a little too theatrical to balance out what is sure to include some heavy narrative threads?Maybe. But, underpinning every Like a Dragon title has been its characters, whether theyre functioning with aloofness or barroom brawling seriousness. These are stories of people with something to strive for; fight for, even. Theyre about forging connections, about hardship, and struggle. Infinite Wealth explored the cerebral implications of a life in violence deeper than most Like a Dragon titles which came before, so whilst Pirate Yakuza does appear to be a departure in favour of silliness, theres nothing here to suggest that these characters wont bond over the same themes of hardship, loyalty, trust, and betrayal. Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, it seems, is striking a new balance between the offbeat and the sincere.Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.