Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii Review (hot man)
Look, I didn't hate my time with this game. Matter of fact, I actually enjoyed a good bit of it. At the end of the day, it's Majima being Majima, and there is no universe in which that is not fun. But there are a lot of glaring issues which really can't be overlooked when trying to justify this high of a price tag.
Pirate Yakuza is priced like a full, triple A release. It is not a full triple A release. It's a DLC, much how Man Who Erased His Name was a DLC. The latter was literally planned as an Infinite Wealth DLC and later got a full release, and even then the already lower price tag was a big point of criticism (for being too high). So why did they think releasing this at full price was a good idea?
95% of the side content is recylced. 1:1. It's just the exact same content as in Infinite Wealth. They changed absolutely nothing. The story is extremely short, which again, for a fully priced RGG release is completely insane.
The story itself was possibly the weakest in the series for me, for which it's length is probably to blame in part. The characters felt very weak and poorly written, again, due to lack of time to flesh them out. I didn't hate it, but it felt secondary to everything else, which probably isn't great for an RGG game.
Like I said at the start, there are a lot of things I really enjoyed about this game. The combat felt fun, especially on the rare occasion that the game actually let you fight bosses one-on-one. The new mechanics lacked a little depth, but they were fun, well implemented and flowed with the rest of Majimas moveset. Majima was Majima, that's always fun. The ship combat was enjoyable for exactly the amount of time you are forced to do it for the story, but got extremely tedious for all the side content beyond just the story.
I don't regret the time I spent on this game in the slightest. Even having the knowledge I do now, there is no way I wouldn't have played it at some point. What I do regret is the money I spent. Get this game at half price (or lower), don't set your expectations too high, and you'll have a blast with it. If you're worried about missing important overarching plot points for the series, don't be. Nothing happens. Wait for a sale, play it whenever, it doesn't have the slightest bit of significance to the rest of the series.