At this point, if Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio tossed Like a Dragon (Yakuza) characters into a puzzle game or a hidden object game, I’d probably play it. While Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is neither of those genres, it does seem a little strange at first glance. As with all Like a Dragon titles though, it leans into what makes it strange, which works beautifully.

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii puts you in the shoes of an amnesiac Goro Majima, who washes up on a remote island after the events of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. After a few chance meetings, Majima winds up becoming the Captain of a Pirate ship, searching for his missing memories as well as a mysterious hidden treasure.

At first glance I would have said that Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is Like a Dragon’s answer to Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag. However, I would say that the pirate elements in Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii are more of a vehicle to provide what we all love about Like a Dragon games; wild action, a fun story, and unique characters.

Like the other recent spinoff in the franchise (Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name), Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii takes us back to the action combat of the series’ roots. Playing as Majima feels better than ever, and Majima’s two combat styles feel perfectly tuned for his personality and the setting he is in. Majima can now set up aerial attacks and combos, do a few ranged attacks, and execute things that feel quite similar to Like a Dragon: Isshin’s combat.

Of course, this time around Majima won’t be adventuring alone. When you are traversing islands looking for treasure (and during some story fights) you’ll have members of your crew along with you. The crew management side of things is mostly a numbers minigame, somewhat like other team-management things in past Yakuza titles.

Yet with this, it feels tangible. Your crew goes out to fight with you, they help fight during boat battles, and it all feels like you are building up a solid team of swashbucklers. This leads well into discussing Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii overall.

As a spinoff, Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii has everything you could want from a modern Like a Dragon title. There is a cast of colorful characters, including plenty of returning characters and some new ones. On top of that, dozens of mini-games will keep you entertained far beyond the simple Like a Dragon-esque beat-em-up combat.

However, this entry has some beautiful accessibility features that only serve to enhance the experience. For example, some options let you turn rapid button press requirements into holds, and auto-completion of QTEs. There are also difficulty options. On top of that, there are colorblind options, subtitle customization (both size and color) as well as a few other audio and video-based accessibility options that really enhance the experience.

In terms of mini-games, you have the Pirate-esque treasure-seeking that makes Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii feel a little bit like Wind Waker. There is also a Cooking Mama-style cooking mini-game, an explosive take on the Yakuza Batting-cage mini-game, and quite a few others that I won’t spoil for you here.

Wrapped up in a package, Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii isn’t all that long. Fitting a spinoff title, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii will only take the average player around 30-40 hours. How Long to Beat says 36 hours is for the average player and 38 is for completionists, but I can tell you that with some of the mini-games, you’ll have more than that if you really want to sink your teeth into them.

Considering Majima is one of my favorite characters in the entire Like a Dragon cast, having an entire spinoff game focused on his adventures in Hawaii is a no-brainer. I would suggest playing through Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth so that some of the character references make sense, (even better if you’re familiar with the series as a whole) but it works well enough as a spinoff that it isn’t absolutely necessary to have played Infinite Wealth first.

Overall, I don’t have any complaints about Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. It improves on the combat from the beat-em-up style games, it carries on the fun of the more recent entries, and overall it is a blast. If you’re a Like a Dragon fan, this is for you. If you’re looking to get into the series and you like pirate stuff, this is a great entry point too.

A PlayStation 5 review copy of Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii was provided by Sega for the purposes of this review.