The delightfully named Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii will be a little bigger than the series' latest spin-off, but that's no fault of the developer. Adding more things to Yakuza games is too irresistible.
RGG Studios head Masayoshi Yokoyama has acknowledged that Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name was hailed in part for its more compact structure and focused story, but despite the team's best efforts, Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is breaking that streak.
“It's more like the volume ends up increasing because of the story,” Yokoyama said in an interview with Automaton, referring to the length of the main story, which is supposedly 30% longer than the 13-hour gameplay of The Man Who erased his name. . In true Yakuza style, the upcoming pirate-themed entry is also packed with zany side activities and mini-games, including the first port of an arcade classic, returning pizza deliveries, and what appears to be another overly realistic dating sim, so Going through everything could easily take us more than approximately 30 hours.
Yokoyama also explained that the developer could have increased the playtime even further by adding fetch quests or other time-wasting detours, but Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is already big enough without such tactics. “The map is huge, there are many places to visit and there are still features that we haven't announced yet. The volume increased on its own.”
Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii reuses some parts of the huge summer map from Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth and adds all new areas of the surrounding islands that we never got to see, so its inflated size is no surprise here.
The next Yakuza game is the most newcomer-friendly and “least tied to past events in the Like A Dragon series,” all because protagonist Majima has dementia this time.