Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, a sequel to the action-adventure Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, is due to set sail tomorrow, February 21 for PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4. We recently had a conversation with Masayoshi Yokoyama, RGG Studio Director and the Like a Dragon Series Executive Producer, about what went on behind the scenes during the development of the Pirate Battle system, as well as why he thinks Goro Majima remains a fan-favorite to this day.
Masayoshi Yokoyama
A narrative-driven game design
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii introduces a new combat system called Pirate Battles, where players can engage in cannon battles aboard their ships. Was it your plan all along to create a game that was vastly different from the rest of the series? How did the idea come about?
To be honest, we weren’t sure where the game would end up when we first kicked off development. We had a story that we wanted to tell, and we started from there. There were still a number of unanswered questions after Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, like what would happen to Hawaii and how the former yakuza, after their complete dissolution, would continue with their lives. We thought the best way to answer these questions was to create a spin-off game. That being said, at the start of development, we had no idea that we’d end up implementing Pirate Battles into the game.
Did you develop the Pirate Battle system from the ground up, specifically for this game?
Yes. The Like a Dragon team excels at reworking existing assets to build new systems, but we did create the Pirate Battle system from scratch.
The canon battle that is part of the Pirate Battle is essentially a shooting game, and shooters can end up being too complex and difficult for players who aren’t used to action games. We ideated various concepts to avoid increasing the difficulty too much, like creating a mini-game where you shoot enemy ships from a 2D bird’s-eye view. However, our development team worked hard to implement realistic 3D pirate ships that the player can steer to engage in cannon battles. It did make the game slightly more challenging though, so we spent extra time making sure the difficulty level was just right for a Like a Dragon game.
It’s easy to make something as effortless as possible, but if it’s not challenging or rewarding, it’s not a lot of fun. In the end, we decided to make naval battles in the main story easier to play, and at the same time came up with the Pirates’ Coliseum, an arena perfect for players looking to challenge themselves with back-to-back fights with powerful enemies. There are only a few battles that are required to progress the main story, but we also wanted to cater to players looking for a challenge. This is similar to what we did with the Coliseum in Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, so we’ve taken this kind of dual approach more often with our recent games.
Read more