For a long time, theYakuzaseries was the anti-Assassin’s Creed. WithUbisoft’s open-world juggernaut, each new entry has been an opportunity to explore a fresh location. The first game took players to the Holy Land of the Middle Ages, and the next game will dig deep on Sengoku-era Japan. In between, Ubisoft has spirited players all over the world, exploring locations like Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt, different eras of British history, and colonial America. Even sequels that follow the same characters, likeAssassin’s Creed 2’s successors Brotherhood and Revelations, took the action to new cities across Italy. It’s a series that absolutely refuses to reuse locations.
Globe-Hopping Vs. Exploring Your Own Backyard
That’s antithetical to the Like a Dragon series' approach. From the first Yakuza game through the most recent,Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, the games have almost always featured the fictional Tokyo district Kamurochō. Revisiting the area in different games allows you to see how the same areas grow and change over time. In fact, the plot of prequel Yakuza 0 revolves around the empty plot of land that would eventually house series mainstay Millennium Tower.Yakuzahas, historically, been laser-focused on one setting, and has worked to squeeze every ounce of juice possible out of it. It is Warren Spector’s “one city block game,” but as a decades-spanning series.
Which is why I find it interesting that, lately, the Like a Dragon series is slowly morphing into something different. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth took the series outside Japan, with Hawaii playing a major role in both Ichiban and Kiryu’s stories. With the recently announcedLike a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio is taking it further. Though (as the beautifully silly title indicates) the action is staying around Hawaii, the game is adding the ocean to the mix. There are shots in the trailer of Majima fighting on land, but much of the action is set at sea. There’s a great introductory shot of a pirate cove, and the game is adding ship-based combat — both battering between the boats, and brawls on the poop deck.
How Like A Dragon Has Followed In Assassin’s Creed’s Footsteps
If you’ve followed Assassin’s Creed for long, this should sound familiar. The stealth series introduced ship combat in Assassin’s Creed 3, and expanded on it for the pirate-themed Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag. Twelve years later, Like a Dragon will do the same. But the pirate connection is less important than the fact that Yakuza, a series that used to be about one place, is now a series that can change setting from entry to entry. Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name took Kiryu from Tokyo to Osaka. 2023’s Like a Dragon: Ishin! was a remake of a PS3 game, but it likewise took the action far afield, all the way back to 1860s Japan. Yakuza: Like a Dragon introduced Ichiban and the new city of Yokohama, Infinite Wealth took Kiryu and Ichiban to Hawaii, and now Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is taking Majima to the sea. As a series, it clearly isn’t just about one Tokyo district anymore.
It’s also like Assassin’s Creed in that the entries are on an annualized (sometimes more often than annualized, actually) basis now. Since 2018, RGG has released Judgment, remasters of Yakuza 4 and 5, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Lost Judgment, a remaster of Judgment, Like a Dragon: Ishin!, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. All told, that’s nine Yakuza games in six years. Take out the remasters and remakes, and you’re still left with five all-new games. It’s the pace Assassin’s Creed was at before it took a two year break after Syndicate, with at least one game each year from 2009 through 2015. It eventually burned out the series’ fans, and Like a Dragon runs the risk of something similar happening here.
Personally, I’m very into this direction. As someone who has flirted with the series but never finished one of the games, Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii seems like an attractive entry point. But I’m curious to know how fans feel about the once rooted series leaving its home behind.
