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Like a Dragon Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii Reveal Trailer (Goro Majima as the protagonist; release date February 28, 2025)

Thick Thighs Save Lives

NeoGAF's Physical Games Advocate Extraordinaire
THIS. Sega went full retard with the Gaiden game’s release.
Day 1 as always, just please SEGA, release this in retail form.
Hope this won't come to bite me in the ass later on, but I think they learned. This is from Gematsu:

■ Game Editions

Standard Edition
(physical / digital) – $59.99 / £54.99 / €59.99 / 6,930 yen
  • A copy of Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii


I'll update the OP with more details in the next hour or so.
 

EDMIX

Writes a lot, says very little
Oh wow, apparently someone leaked this all the way back in May on 4chan, but no one believed it cause it sounded too absurd, lol.


GX6lGdvWUAAJO32.jpg:large

We need to now look up their other post! lol

Let Yakuza 3 be a remake, its not its full self until its...REMADE in that dragon engine!
 

cripterion

Member
Hahaha what?! So this series is a parody now??

Series has been dead to me for a while now. It's become a joke. (and not a in a good way)
I long for the days when we had real fucking good games like Shenmue, feels like Japan has lost that magic touch.

In my opinion South Korea and China is where it's at nowadays. Hell most japanese players are playing China made games too nowadays.
 
Why would this be considered a parody? Have you played the other Yakuza games? On the contrary, given Majima's eccentricities, this is very much in line with his character.
I played more Yakuza games, not all 20+ titles if counting spin-offs. Humor was a thing that was always there in early titles, but not in your face as the main plate.
 
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StereoVsn

Member
Another thought I had while watching this trailer is that Hawaii will be the new Kamurocho and I'm honestly sick of that location. For 3-4 games it was novel, like revisiting an old friend and finding out what's changed but man, every fucking game (though it developed into not being the "main" location) is overkill, hope they don't give Hawaii the same treatment (they will lol).
That’s a good point, I am not a fan of Hawaii as a location. It’s fine and all if you go there on vacation for a week or two.

Having that as the main locale for a series of games is crazy. I would have much rather they did another city in Japan or another location in Asia.

Hawaii is just not dense enough in an interesting sense, even Oahu/Honolulu.
 

Comandr

Member
Looks dumb as shit. Toshihiro would of never let this happen. Been a fan since day 1 on ps2. This isnt the Yakuza games i used to play.
L4THcRf.jpeg

Out of curiosity, what games did you play?

More than 10% of Kiwami 1's side stories revolve around:
maxresdefault.jpg

9 out of 78 substories involve you fighting little kids at an arcade in Mesuking.

Did you forget how wacky things got in Kiwami 2?
maxresdefault.jpg


I guess we can just ignore all of Yakuza 0.
97CDF37EEEF22C4E88DC2941D9E07E9D29E82BE2

Yakuza-Dancing-Friday-Night-Majima-Kiryu.jpg

03-bad-e.jpg

It continues all the way to Yakuza 6...
Kiryu-chan-3-1440x810.jpg

Even the newer Yakuza 7.
B04AD984CD2DB5E5F6046C771B2AAA7ACB0504A0

Yakuza-Like-A-Dragon-Preparing-To-Suck.jpg

Yakuza-Like-A-Dragon-Baby-Dont-Cry.jpg


Many of these substories are unavoidable. Someone will catch you on a main street and you'll get dragged into something silly. So it's not like we can just blow it off saying that this is 100% optional content. And even if that were the case, it's still part of the game.

Let me illustrate that ALL of these games were directed by the same guy.
Nagoshi-Taiwan.jpg

Toshihiro Nagoshi. The one you said would never let this happen.
 
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TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
Out of curiosity, what games did you play?

More than 10% of Kiwami 1's side stories revolve around:
maxresdefault.jpg

9 out of 78 substories involve you fighting little kids at an arcade in Mesuking.

Did you forget how wacky things got in Kiwami 2?
maxresdefault.jpg


I guess we can just ignore all of Yakuza 0.
97CDF37EEEF22C4E88DC2941D9E07E9D29E82BE2

Yakuza-Dancing-Friday-Night-Majima-Kiryu.jpg

03-bad-e.jpg

It continues all the way to Yakuza 6...
Kiryu-chan-3-1440x810.jpg

Even the newer Yakuza 7.
B04AD984CD2DB5E5F6046C771B2AAA7ACB0504A0

Yakuza-Like-A-Dragon-Preparing-To-Suck.jpg

Yakuza-Like-A-Dragon-Baby-Dont-Cry.jpg


Let me illustrate that ALL of these games were directed by the same guy.
Nagoshi-Taiwan.jpg

Toshihiro Nagoshi. The one you said would never let this happen.
That's some cherry picking man. Sure, side-stories and minigames could be wacky as hell but the main stories were always serious.

That's something I loved about those games, the contrast between drama and comedy.
 

TheDarkPhantom

Gold Member
That’s a good point, I am not a fan of Hawaii as a location. It’s fine and all if you go there on vacation for a week or two.

Having that as the main locale for a series of games is crazy. I would have much rather they did another city in Japan or another location in Asia.

Hawaii is just not dense enough in an interesting sense, even Oahu/Honolulu.

I think with this one in particular there will be a fair amount of variation with the sailing/island hopping aspect but yeah, let's see what they do with the next Like A Dragon.
 

El Muerto

Gold Member
Out of curiosity, what games did you play?

More than 10% of Kiwami 1's side stories revolve around:
maxresdefault.jpg

9 out of 78 substories involve you fighting little kids at an arcade in Mesuking.

Did you forget how wacky things got in Kiwami 2?
maxresdefault.jpg


I guess we can just ignore all of Yakuza 0.
97CDF37EEEF22C4E88DC2941D9E07E9D29E82BE2

Yakuza-Dancing-Friday-Night-Majima-Kiryu.jpg

03-bad-e.jpg

It continues all the way to Yakuza 6...
Kiryu-chan-3-1440x810.jpg

Even the newer Yakuza 7.
B04AD984CD2DB5E5F6046C771B2AAA7ACB0504A0

Yakuza-Like-A-Dragon-Preparing-To-Suck.jpg

Yakuza-Like-A-Dragon-Baby-Dont-Cry.jpg


Many of these substories are unavoidable. Someone will catch you on a main street and you'll get dragged into something silly. So it's not like we can just blow it off saying that this is 100% optional content. And even if that were the case, it's still part of the game.

Let me illustrate that ALL of these games were directed by the same guy.
Nagoshi-Taiwan.jpg

Toshihiro Nagoshi. The one you said would never let this happen.
That's all the mini games and side stories. They were enjoyable and a nice break from the story. But the main story was not goofy and had a serious tone. There were no stupid gadgets or summoning spirits to help you in a fight.
 

Comandr

Member
That's all the mini games and side stories. They were enjoyable and a nice break from the story. But the main story was not goofy and had a serious tone. There were no stupid gadgets or summoning spirits to help you in a fight.
What? Yes you do.

maxresdefault.jpg



You literally summon all sorts of shit in Yakuza 7, again, which Nagoshi directed.

The whole central story involved the main character seeing bad guys as wacky stuff.

Since I'm cherry picking here...

Pocket Circuit Fighter is a character established in Yakuza 0 that Kiryu meets to play a racing game against children.
NlF5FVwJ_400x400.jpg

But Fighter keeps showing up in the other games. His story continues all the the way through Yakuza 8. And honestly, this was one of the most impactful and emotional ones for me. If you know, you know. Writing off side content as not part of the story is really doing a disservice to not only the characters, but the creators of the game that have poured hundreds of thousands of collective hours into the games over time crafting this narrative.
 
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TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
As someone who just wants Lost Judgment 3 I'm just gonna say it.

This feels too random and stupid, sorry.

I might jump in, but I'm extremely disappointed.
Honestly, the more time goes by, the more I'm convinced Judgment is better than Yakuza, both in gameplay and story-telling.

Lost Judgment imo is their best game.
 

Hypereides

Gold Member
Yokoyama is a hack, bring back Nagoshi, this just look like wacky trash shovelware, and i say this as someone that bought Yakuza Dead Souls day one. Yakuza 0 influx of "wacky" fans ruined the series. The series used to have a modicum of seriousness, now its just wacky. instead of seriousnes with a mix of wacky.

Nothing seems compelling storywise about this game, its also worse that its seemingly canon.
I have to agree. Man, as an OG fan, I can't believe what this series has turned into. This series is getting really whack.
 
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Majukun

Member
my guess is that some director and high suit got really high one night and one of them said "you know...Majima has an eyepatch right?How about..."

and the rest was history
 

Nankatsu

Member
Honestly, the more time goes by, the more I'm convinced Judgment is better than Yakuza, both in gameplay and story-telling.

Lost Judgment imo is their best game.

100% agree. Lost Judgment is their top tier hands-on combat + storytelling.

Like a Dragon is becoming more and more goofiness with mid storytelling.

Yakuza is my favorite series in video games and I legit don't like where it's going.

This just feels like another mid expansion until they are ready to announce yet another Like a Dragon with Ichiban 🤷‍♂️
 
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RavageX

Member
Right. So I'm sure most of you are fine with this, and I am 50/50.

I also see this as a trend (that I am not fond of) where it seems like its getting too silly overall. I don't mind silly side missions or characters, but the main story...not so much.

They have also really started using the same music, etc over and over which bothers me...but I get it.

And they really let me down with the collector's editions for a while now.
 

Fbh

Member
Is this the first AAAA Sega game?.

Looks fun, don't know why everyone is so down on it. Yeah it looks a bit too over the top and dumb but we just got Infinite Wealth this year, so I see this more as a fun spinoff in between the next main entry.

They have also really started using the same music, etc over and over which bothers me...but I get it.

Yakuza has always aggressively recycled assets in between games
 
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