Combat Tips For Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza In Hawaii

From sailing the seas to cooking exquisite meals, Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza In Hawaii is a game that has a number of gameplay elements, but the primary thrust of the game is fist-to-face combat. While there is a lot of familiar stuff here, Majima has a few surprisingly game-changing tricks up his sleeve as well.

This guide will take you through the ins and outs of the combat system, how to defeat tricky enemies, and how to make the most of the new mechanics that have been added. Whether you’re fresh on the boat or a seasoned scallywag, we’ll have something here that will help you thrive in these encounters.

Making The Most Of Your Jump Maneuver

Easily the biggest addition to Pirate Yakuza is the inclusion of the jump. This isn’t a minor mechanic; not only does Majima get the ability to combo his opponents in the air, he also has a number of attacks that he can use in the air from his jump. These attacks change depending on what stance he is in when he leaps into the air, of course. The attacks you can perform are…

In both stances, the aerial attacks performed with the weak attack and power attack buttons deal a fair amount of damage, but they both leave you fairly vulnerable afterward. This makes them poorly suited for fighting groups of enemies. You can get away with using these attacks, but you are rolling the dice every time you do so.

The Mad Dog’s downward stab attack can be used as the final attack in an aerial combo. This is its primary purpose.

The much, much safer option is to use the dodge maneuver in the air, which will allow you to reposition yourself. This maneuver will be a staple of your moveset throughout the game. The Mad Dog stance’s tanto throw is another great option, as it will hit a large swath of enemies. The Sea Dog’s spinning attack is less useful. It does hit a number of foes, but it feels pretty awkward. You’d be better off just staying grounded.

The most important aspect of the jump is that you can cancel regular attacks directly into it. This will help you leap over a number of attacks. Pair that with the air-dodge, and you have the perfect tool for repositioning Majima if he is getting swarmed.

It is important to note that while there is invincibility from the mid-air dodge, there is no invincibility during the jump itself.

Dealing With Ranged Foes Effectively

As it always has been, ranged weapons are a massive headache in Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. Thankfully, we have more tools than ever to deal with them. First things first, I’d recommend not reacting with the jump to evade projectiles. If you use the dodge in the air, you will pass through the bullet, but if they take the shot as you are leaping into the air, you’ll be hit. Personally, I found that this got me shot more often than I would have liked.

Preempting the gunfire with a jump and a dodge is more effective.

However, what does work is the quickstep. And Pirate Yakuza has done you a solid here as it has provided you with an auditory cue that indicates when you are about to be shot. If there is a foe with a ranged weapon, you’ll be able to hear a loud sound that will indicate when it is time to dodge.

If you see that there is a character with a ranged weapon, they should be your top priority. Use the midair dodge to approach them from the air, the Mad Dog’s charged strong attack to cut through foes in a direct line towards the ranged attacker, or, the Sea Dog’s Hook Chain attack to launch Majima towards your ranged foe. Both the Mad Dog’s charged attack and the Sea Dog’s Hook Chain require a little charging, which does mean you’ll be a touch vulnerable, but if you use these attacks the moment after dodging a ranged attack, they work quite consistently.

Know When To Use Your “Fighting Stance”

As is often the case in the action-focused Like A Dragon games, the quasi-lock-on strafe button (referred to as the “fighting stance” in controls menu) comes at a cost. In every Like A Dragon game you will lose your ability to sprint, and that is most certainly also true in Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, but exclusive to this game is the strafe stripping you of your jump command. So, not only do you lose your ability to reposition yourself quickly, but you’ll also lose one of your best methods of crowd control.

You will be better off saving the strafe button for encounters with particularly tough enemies in smaller numbers. This isn’t to say that you will never want to use the strafe button when facing more than one foe, there will certainly be instances where you will want to take advantage of your quick side-step maneuver, which is only accessible when strafing.

That being said, you’ll want to be holding that strafe button down far more frequently when fighting boss’s, as the quickstep is king in those encounters. It isn’t necessarily a binary situation, just be mindful of the current threat you are facing, and be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of holding down the “fighting stance” button too much.

Have Your Pockets Stuffed With Recovery Items

One of the primary ways to assure victory is to have a healthy supply of healing items. You can open the menu at any point and heal. There is no delay, nor are you locked into an eating animation or anything. You can even open your menu and use an item when Majima is otherwise stuck in place and about to get hit by a giant attack. Even if you are being flung through the air you can pop open the status menu and heal!

The exception to this rule is when you are raiding an enemy pirate’s base for treasure. You are unable to use recovery items during those raids.

Your best bet for acquiring healing items is to engage in the cooking minigame, as it is a cheap source of potent consumables. You can also purchase healing items from shops, but they are actually pretty pricey, and in a game where money is your path to leveling up, you’re better off not spending money where you don’t need to.

Fight Powerful Foes Reactively

Majima has access to a number of attacks that will pop enemies into the air, send baddies flying, and generally cancel out what an opponent is doing. However, there is one very big exception to this; if an enemy uses a charged attack, they can absorb any of Majima’s skills. This will frequently leave Majima completely vulnerable. Worst of all, these attacks can dish out a considerable amount of damage. The answer to this is to be much more deliberate in your approach. Keep your distance, and attack primarily when your enemy has been left open after they’ve over-committed to an attack of their own.

This will also put you in line to effectively counter a bosses super attack. Some of those attacks are pretty snappy and they hit unbelievably hard. So, you definitely want to dodge them (which will give you that juicy counter-attack). When you see them starting to use it, don’t attack at all. Focus exclusively on dodging. Once again, the last thing you want is to be committed to an attack of your own.

The Secret To Never Missing A QTE

While fighting bosses, you will typically have at least one cinematic break. Typically, these will throw one random quick time events (QTE) your way. The Like A Dragon series has largely moved away from using QTEs (outside of minigames, at least), but the few that are present can still catch you off guard. Worse yet, if you fail a QTE you will take a substantial amount of damage.

However, there is a trick to beating them: the QTEs in Pirate Yakuza almost exclusively use the dodge button. So, while a mid-battle cutscene is playing, just make sure your thumb is hovering over the dodge button, and you should be golden.

Utilizing Heat Actions Effectively

Heat Attacks are extremely powerful, but they aren’t something you can use whenever you want, you need to set them up. This makes some of them pretty hard to utilize. What aggravates this issue is that you only have a limited time to react to the heat action prompt when it appears on the screen. This is why your best bet is to intentionally set them up, as opposed to simply mashing the power attack button when it pops up.

For Bosses And Powerful Enemies

The most effective heat action you’ll have access to in the early game is the Mad Dog stance’s choke attack, which is performed by pressing the heavy attack when facing an enemy’s back. This is great against tougher enemies. Setting this attack up is pretty simple, as using the quickstep to dash through an enemy’s attack will often lead to you facing their back.

For Groups Of Foes

If you want to clear out a group, both stances have a group attack that is initiated by sprinting at a cluster of three enemies and then pressing the heavy attack when the prompt appears. To position yourself for this one, simply use the air dodge to position yourself as far away as possible from the group of enemies you are fighting.

Heat Actions become less effective when the same heat action is used repeatedly. So try to use a variety of heat actions during combat.

Making The Most Of The Sea Dog Style

Majima starts the game having access to the Mad Dog style. It has a versatile set of attacks, takes full advantage of the new air combo system, and basically feels complete right from the beginning. The Sea Dog style starts off a little more basic. While it is fun to play around with, I’d say that in the early stretch of the game, his Mad Dog style is just overall better. However, once you have the hook and pistol unlocked, and you start to build your pirate reputation (which makes more skills available to you), you’ll gain access to some abilities that make the Sea Dog style more useful.

The Perfect Guard is an instant game changer. While this ability is usable in the Mad Dog style as well, it is far stronger when used in the Sea Dog stance, as the Sea Dog stance will allow you to perform it with your back turned to your opponent. This allows you to disrupt most attacks coming from any direction.

Additionally, the Sea Dog style has some particularly easy to execute Heat Actions. Essence of Piracy: Rain of Blood is a brilliant Heat Action for fighting groups of enemies. It is easy to pull off, as you initiate it by charging your pistol shot, and it hits five opponents. When you are just fighting a single strong opponent, the Sidearm Shuffle is a fantastic heat action to use. Not only does it pack a heavy punch (it hits unimaginably hard), but its only requirement is that you land the chain hook on your opponent, making it easy to utilize in a tense encounter.

Additionally, while you unlock them quite a bit further into the game (late in chapter 2), Majima’s Dark Instruments act as his special ability in the Sea Dog style and these are incredibly powerful. They are easily your best option for dealing with large groups of enemies – the Mad Dog’s dopplegangers are probably still the better option for dealing with individual opponents.