Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza In Hawaii refreshes the Yakuza combat formula with a fresh and fluid take on Majima’s iconic style. The Mad Dog of Shimano is known for fast, lethal movements, and his signature blade, both of which are perfectly at your fingertips in Majima’s agile but ruthless Mad Dog style.
However, in this story, Majima makes his name as a pirate captain, so naturally, he has a controlled, dangerous side to strike fear into his pirate peers: the Sea Dog style. The Sea Dog style hones in on Majima’s arsenal of weapons, putting his cutlasses, pistol, and Chain Hook to good use, specializing in clearing the decks of all enemy pirates in a few flourishes.
What Is The Mad Dog Style?
The Mad Dog style focuses on Majima’s legacy as a deranged, dagger-wielding assassin capable of unparalleled quickness and lethality. The major attacks are as follows:
Attack Name |
Attack Type |
Controls |
---|---|---|
Mad Dog Trick: Serpent |
Uppercut |
Hold X/Square |
Mad Dog Trick: Chomp |
Charge/Dash |
Hold Y/Triangle |
Mad Dog Trick: Frenzy |
Spin Splash |
Hold B/Circle |
In addition to these major attacks, Majima can throw several daggers using his Demonfire Rain, activated by pressing B/Circle while you’re in midair.
The Mad Dog Trick: Savage combo attack consists of four slash attacks followed by a fifth one, or a Y/Triangle input.
Majima’s Mad Dog Style Madness attack is called Doppelgangers, which summons several copies of Majima to fight alongside him for a brief time. While the copies are alive, they will mirror Majima’s attacks and help him by ganging up on the same enemy.
When you’re not attacking, you can use Majima’s quickstep and combine them to quickly dash away from your opponents
The consecutive evasions are not exclusive to Mad Dog Majima, but they are particularly quick in this style compared to Sea Dog Style.
Overall, this form focuses on chaining KOs from one enemy to another, bursting down a single target’s HP before moving on to the next.
When To Use The Mad Dog Style
Since the Mad Dog style excels when given a single target or small group to fight against, you’ll find the most success in the following scenarios.
- While adventuring in Honolulu
- Against boss enemies
- To finish deck battles
- In close quarters
Keep these scenarios in mind and remember that the Mad Dog style is ideal for spamming dodges to evade enemy attacks while possessing the ability to strike back using deadly, focused force.
What Is The Sea Dog Style?
The Sea Dog Style draws on Majima’s wild side, focusing primarily on weaponry to form a deadly combination using Majima’s expertise with his fists and a pirate’s arsenal.
The essential tools in your locker are:
Attack Name |
Attack Type |
Controls |
---|---|---|
Sea Dog Trick: Cutlass Heave-Ho |
Cutlass Boomerang |
Hold X/Square |
Sea Dog Trick: Charge ‘n’ Shoot |
Pistol Shot |
Hold Y/Triangle |
Sea Dog Trick: Chain Readiness |
Grapple Hook Combo |
Hold B/Circle |
Sea Dog Style is adept at spreading damage against multiple targets, especially using Majima’s Madness attack.
This Sea Dog Madness Attack can change depending on which of the four Dark Instruments you select:
- Dark God’s Violin – Summons several sharks to attack your foes.
- Dark God’s Ocarina – Summons a school of Jellyfish to shock and Stun your enemies, damaging them as well.
- Dark God’s Guitar – Summons a large ape to cause chaos and attack your foes.
- Dark God’s Saxophone – Summons a large parrot to sweep your enemies away in a gust of wind and debuff the stragglers.
Given the array of available options, the Sea Dog style offers superior versatility over the Mad Dog Style.
Once you gain access to all four of these Dark Instruments, you’ll be equipped to deal damage to several opponents at once.
Aside from the Madness attack, Majima’s cutlasses and pistols both do well in medium and long-range, respectively. However, Majima’s most versatile attack is his Chain Hook, which is the best part of the Sea Dog style.
Practice toying with your foes by using your Chain Hook, then attacking right as you reach your enemy, repeating this process until victory.
When To Use The Sea Dog Style
Given Majima’s access to the four Dark Instruments, cutlasses, a pistol, and a Chain Hook to help him get across the battlefield in the blind of an eye, Sea Dog style is best equipped for:
While Sea Dog can still be used against one or two opponents, this style lends itself to flying around from group to group and unleashing area-of-effect (AoE) attacks on them to deal spread damage with your cutlass and pistol.
Aside from the tools you have available to deal with groups, Sea Dog’s Chain Hook could arguably be called the best single-target weapon in the game, so this style does offer options.
You can repeatedly use the Chain Hook grapple and Run Through (Y or Triangle) enemies over and over again in a pattern that will keep them locked in place and unable to counter you.
Is Mad Dog Or Sea Dog Style Better?
It’s difficult to suggest relying only on one style as the best in Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza In Hawaii, as both Mad Dog and Sea Dog have noticeable niches.
Let’s review the major pros and cons of each.
Mad Dog |
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Pros |
Cons |
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Sea Dog |
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Pros |
Cons |
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While you can argue for either style as superior, the ease with which you can defeat difficult bosses like Taiyo Amon using the Chain Hook makes Majima’s Sea Dog style the better choice in many cases.

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