Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii shows off Assassin's Creed Black Flag-style naval combat and brings release date forward a week

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Here's your first look at this wonderfully wild RPG's naval combat

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Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii has a new gameplay trailer with a release date that's a week ahead of the previous one.

Premiering during the Xbox Partner Showcase for October 2024, the new trailer offers up the first look at actual naval combat gameplay, which I presume is at the heart of Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. We've known from the cinematics in the reveal trailer, as well as just the premise of the game, that there would be ship combat, but this is our first proper glimpse of it in action.

And, well, it looks like Yakuza's take on Assassin's Creed: Black Flag. The trailer shows fan-favorite Yakuza antihero Goro Majima take the helm of a wooden battleship whose hull, sails, figurehead, and trimming can be customized, and cut through waves with his signature crazed determination for violence. An enemy ship approaches and Majima crashes into it and orders his crew to fire, with plenty of boat drifting to go around. 

The combat looks a lot faster than, say, Sea of Thieves, and indeed much more in line with Black Flag. The key difference here, of course, is that this is a Yakuza game, and you're playing as Majima instead of a normal Welsh pirate from a historically grounded alternate universe. This means you'll also stun your enemies with guitar solos, summon sharks and giant monkeys, and swing around the sails of your ship. Basically, everything you'd expect to find in a Majima-focused Like a Dragon game but with series-first naval combat, which all seems so tailor-made to my exact interests that I have trouble believing it's actually real.

Finally, the new trailer revealed that Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is now releasing on February 21, 2025, instead of February 28 as originally planned. This puts it ahead of the Monster Hunter Wilds release date, which doesn't seem like a coincidence. 

After 13 Yakuza games and 20 years, Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is finally adding a jump button that could open up some wild minigame potential.

Jordan Gerblick
Jordan Gerblick
Staff Writer

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.