After going through some 'wilderness years' in the 2010s, where Yakuza games were deemed too Japanese to bring out in English, it's been great to see the series so revitalized that Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio just can't stop releasing them. We've had 11 games in 10 years, and that's not even counting some spin-offs. Am I finally sick of the deluge with the latest, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii? Not even slightly.
One reason the developer is able to crank them out owes to canny re-use of assets. For many years, red light district Kamurocho was a main location in every entry, the map changing a little here and there. Last entry Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth was split between there, the recently added Yokohama, and new location in Honolulu, Hawaii. If the name of the swashbuckling entry didn't give it away, the bulk of on-foot exploration here in Pirate Yakuza re-uses Honolulu – it's the main city you'll be calling port in. Yet, despite it literally being the same environment, and somewhere you can dip in to do the odd story mission before moving on quickly, I did anything but, rinsing it for hours.
