The Like a Dragon series (originally known as Yakuza in the West) is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. In that time they’ve had countless mainline games but also spin-offs that depict detective mysteries, Edo period samurai and a zombie apocalypse. There’s little the franchise has done at this point, short of going to space. So where’s there to go next in the latest venture A sea-faring jaunt that sees pirates and yakuza collide in Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, of course. How does it fare? Well, pretty much exactly how you expect.

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii stars Goro Majima, the charming psychopathic Mad Dog of Shimano. Washed up ashore on an island with his memories gone, he finds himself drawn to and engaging in a new life as a pirate with friends new and old. Can they find the elusive Esperanza treasure and can Majima restore his memories?

Let’s get this out of the way first. It’s a joy to have Majima as the sole starring role in a Like a Dragon game. Though he captured and also broke hearts with his origin backstory role he was sharing with Kiryu in Yakuza 0, and had his own chapters in Yakuza: Dead Souls and Yakuza Kiwami, this is the first time the eyepatch and snakeskin-wearing beloved freak has had his own fully fledged game. Does the story here hold up when compared to the likes of the recent Ichiban games or a half dozen Kiryu titles? Of course not. It’s a silly side adventure where you play a pirate. Was I hoping the story would at least try a little bit more? Well, yeah.

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is a shorter game for the franchise, only a little longer than The Man Who Erased His Name. It suffers from its scope. I didn’t want a dozens-of-hours-long epic, but I also wanted its cast and the plot developments to have a little more oomph and matter more. Majima is thrust into the world of pirate gangs and islanders with their own history. One of these includes a young child by the name of Noah, a sickly individual with an undetermined illness who wants more than what he’s currently getting in life, convincing his father and Majima to join them on a sail across the Hawaiian seas and seeing more of the world. He’s one of the stronger new characters, sort of getting that father-and-child relationship thing going that Kiryu and Haruka have in the original games. Those who are desperately asking for more development are the villains of the game: a trio of pirate rulers who take charge of the seedy pirate underbelly that lies hidden in Hawaii.

If all else, it’s a damn good time living the pirate life. Once you’re up and running on your ship, you’re engaging in plenty of pirate mischief and mayhem. You can recruit a wide array of characters from your crew, from minor sidequests NPCs to key characters. You can partake in parties and feasts with your crew, befriend exotic animals and get into some hectic ship combat. You can even customise how your vessel looks. The vibes are unmatched. You’re sailing the high open seas delightfully using your in-game MP3 player to play songs from previous SEGA games. You haven’t experienced the best of video game vibes until you’ve sailed with your pirate crew with your vessel that has an anime girl painting plastered on its side while Dreams Dreams from NiGHTS Into Dreams plays.

Ship combat is, as expected, akin to big titles like Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag as you frantically battle the tides and currents and gunfire to align your craft parallel with another vessel to let off a powerful cannon blast. At the very least it has its own Like a Dragon coat of paint here as you can purchase and equip cannons that share the trademark crass the franchise is known for. Y’know, cannons that use dung as ammunition. That kind of thing. These battles build and escalate, often coalescing into boarding enemy crafts and engaging in on-deck battles. Though never on the scale of this, these feel akin to a lite version of Dynasty Warriors where about two dozen friendly pirates are taking on two dozen enemy pirates in real-time brawler sword-slashing glory. These are incredibly bite-sized and sadly never all that long but it is far and above one of my favourite parts of the game. Playing as a Like a Dragon protagonist and taking on dozens upon dozens of enemies is never not satisfying. SEGA and RGG Studios if you are reading this: make a Like a Dragon Musou!

This combat is also exciting when you’re on shore. Majima has two stances in his traditional feet, fists and daggers approach with the Mad Dog style and the cutlass boomerang, pistol and grapple hook wielding that comes with the Sea Dog style. Both are wildly fun, fast and fluid combat. For the first time in a Like a Dragon game, you can jump and therefore do some body juggling in the sky, perfect for Devil May Cry and character action game freaks like myself. Animations are beautiful and smooth whether it’s via the combos you’re partaking in or a heat action cutscene. In one heat action, Majima catches a sword with his teeth, spins around and throws it with his strong jaw back at the foe. Beautiful. Combine this with the special Limit Break-esque abilities (summoning shadow clones in Mad Dog or using magical instruments to summon sharks, a monkey, a parrot and the like in Sea Dog) you can do once your Madness gauge is full, and it’s some of the best real-time combat the series has seen to date.

The pirate theme and activities mesh well with the collectathon do-every-single-little-thing nature of the Like a Dragon franchise. Majima can take with him a small portion of his crew on raids of islands, resulting in brief runs with waves of enemies and treasure awaiting at the end. Obtaining these items adds to your completion metrics, allowing for purchasing valuable upgrades and so on. Another thrilling jaunt to add to the long list of things to do, but of course that’s not even accounting for all the stuff you can see and do ashore Madlantis and the returning gigantic map that is Honolulu. What’s on the plate this time around is everything you know and love with a few slight new additions.

Yes, there are your expected arcades and Karaoke. Dragon Kart, the Mario Kart-esque minigame returns after being introduced in Ichiban’s first adventure but notably missing in Infinite Wealth. Batting ranges have more of a pirate theme to them as you knock out barrels. A new cooking minigame lets you engage in some Cooking Mama-style gameplay where you cook and prepare dishes for your crew. Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii may be a shorter game for the series, but it still does a good job of leaving a wealth of activities and making the world feel like your oyster. What it is missing is the substantial ‘mini’ game that is so long it could arguably be its own standalone experience. Your Dondoko Islands.

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii has 31 substories to play. There are winners in there. In one you learn of a girl’s insecurities about secret kinks she holds. Showing how forward-thinking the franchise can be, Majima engages in a sex-positive talk with the individual, helping her become more confident. Mind you I did this while dressed as Majima’s dragsona Goromi. Incredible. Familiar substory freaks return such as the travelling circus man who consistently keeps accidentally letting his imprisoned wildlife loose. I mainly mention these as they’re some of the only strong ones of the bunch. Some substories are only one or two cutscenes long and quickly resolved while being uneventful, leaving you wondering why they were included in the first place.

Even the one that’s the biggest event of them all could’ve been more involved and exciting. Late in the game, you can watch one of your main crewmates Masaru try to find love by going on dates with several women. These are done in FMV (Full Motion Video) cutscenes and have the same actor and his likeness playing out these dates. How these are teased and introduced leads you to believe they are more involved than they are, perhaps having you make choices or having it be its sizable minigame. It isn’t quite. The choices are very light and though the dates that play out are charming and Masaru is an enchanting figure in the flesh, it’s begging for more interactivity.

It’s just a bit of a shame when you recall how unbelievably good the substories have been over the years. Stories that unexpectedly make you cry with their surprise sincerity, even when the story involves a bunch of adult men in diapers. Tales that show you the true compassion and strength of the human heart. There are glimmers of that but they’re not here all that much this time around.

So Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza sits between a rock and a hard place. Its combat and side activities are stellar, even better than other pirate adventures I played as recently as a few months ago. However, the stuff that’s usually the series’ strong suit: memorable soapy stories and quality over-the-top side stories that’ll have you in stitches or even emotional is just… lacking. You can tell me that it doesn’t matter all that much. It’s just a pirate game. You’re largely right. However, it’s still a good albeit sorer mark on a series that is more often than not firing on all cylinders.