Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii asks the very important question: 'How do you top a series as silly and zany as Yakuza?' The answer was found at sea by putting fan favorite Majima in command of a pirate ship, duh, but the game's chief director and producer Ryosuke Horii thought it was important to avoid outside influences.
In an interview with Automaton, Horii jokes that Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's pivot from urban maps to naval ones "was as if a construction company suddenly decided to build a ship." You might think the game's lead would want to familiarize himself with some other games set on the high seas, but as Horii explains, he didn't want to be unconsciously influenced.
