While I was looking forward to simply having some good old pirate fun in Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, I was particularly keen to see what would happen with an amnesiac Majima. There’s always been a debate about his true personality and whether he really is the Mad Dog of Shimano, or whether his wild and violent side was more of an act. Pirate Yakuza was the perfect time to find out.
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Ending spoilers ahead, you’ve been warned.
I mentioned in my review that at the start of the game, we see a vulnerable, blank slate Majima. It breaks your heart to see him so fragile. The Mad Dog so revered in Japan is now a trembling shell of a man, afraid of a few lousy pirates. It’s a very stark contrast to the confident and quirky Majima we know and love, and these opening scenes emphasise this adventure is going to show us new sides of Majima.
There are plot spoilers in this article.
Less Mad Dog, More Scaredy Pup
Of course, shaky nervous Majima doesn’t stick around for long as finds his inner fire and goes on to kick butt. Once he realises what he’s capable of, there’s no stopping him. His unleashed flurry of violence causes flashes of Mad Dog memories to surface, and he almost crosses the line in beating a pirate to a pulp before Noah stops him. It’s here he realises and voices to Noah that he’s “probably not a good person”, even though he still doesn’t really remember who he is.
It’s not too far into Pirate Yakuza before Majima is told who he is, or at least, who he used to be, because it’s clear he’s not that person any more. More than once he’s told the old version of himself wouldn’t be doing what he’s doing, such as abandoning his work for the Great Dissolution helping ex-yakuza find jobs to instead play pirate with a kid. But he doesn’t care and even says “What, it’s on me to get a buncha pain-in-the-ass bums a job?”.
One of the best ways that the game conveys how different he is now is by how little Majima cares for his old yakuza buddies. It’s not that he treats them particularly badly, he’s just not fussed by them or their goals. His loyal followers Minami and Nishida are left to the wayside as he doesn’t remember them, but the real kicker is when Saejima shows up. Despite being Majima’s blood brother that old Majima would do anything for, amnesiac Majima doesn’t give two hoots about him and detests that Saejima keeps referring to him as ‘bro’.
The Majima vs Saejima showdown is one of the best moments in the game. We finally get the answer of which of these two legendary yakuza is the strongest considering they’re both going at it with no holds barred. Unsurprisingly, our main man wins. Sorry Saejima, as Majima says, there’s just one too many tigers on this island.
Surprising moments like this are fascinating. We witness a Majima untethered by everything that made him who he was. He doesn’t hold himself to the same values and rules he did previously. If we thought he was a dog unleashed before, this is the true Majima unrestrained by his history and pre-existing bonds to others, regardless of whether he used to hold them dear or not.
And it’s not all wild showdowns. Did we ever think we’d see Majima take on this fatherly role to a young boy? I certainly didn’t bet on it, but I loved it. And while we’ve seen tender and emotional moments of Majima before, especially in Yakuza 0, in Pirate Yakuza he seems to wear his heart on his sleeve far more and is less afraid to show his softer side. While he’s still adept at punching down those who stand in his way and maintains his rough mannerisms, he’s very forgiving throughout, offering friendship and alliances to those who have wronged him or those he cares about.
I can’t help but doubt that ex-yakuza Majima would be as forgiving, especially after so many years of being part of a syndicate where you pay for your mistakes, usually with a pinky, and everyone is held accountable. While Majima has always fallen under the umbrella of RGG characters who have never really killed anyone, and therefore is never truly a bad guy, he’s certainly taken part in his fair share of violence over the years. Think back to the Majima of the early games who beat his subordinates and was only too willing to kidnap Haruka when she was a kid. Captain Majima who is disgusted by pirates kidnapping Noah is a far cry from the man he used to be.
Despite the amnesia, there are moments of pure Majima where he does something very typical of his known character, proving that while you can take away our memories and histories that shape us, but there is a large part of us that’s ingrained in our DNA. We are who we are.
Mad Dog Vs Captain
By the time Majima regains his memories, he keeps that fact hidden so that he can finish his adventures with Noah, but that doesn’t feel like the only reason. Even after he regains his memory, during a tough powderkeg of moment when Shigaki digs his heels in and refuses to give up the treasure to save Moana, Majima says “Whatcha want? I ain’t got nothin’ for ya. Lost my memories, remember?”
This seems like a time to come clean and settle things properly, but he’s still clinging to the excuse he doesn’t remember, and in doing so, it conveys he may feel conflicted about who he is. At that moment, he doesn’t want to face Shigaki as the Mad Dog of Shimano who is held to yakuza rules and standards, but as Captain Majima of the Goromaru, and maybe that’s because then he has license to be more forgiving.
Shigaki tells Majima he was “yakuza royalty” and “a work of art”, someone that he and the other ex-yakuza looked up to. But Majima is quick to shoot down Shigaki’s idea of what it means to be a great yakuza, and distances himself by saying “the yakuza told y’all”, referring to the group he was a part of as a separate entity rather than “us yakuza”, as if he wasn’t one himself, and ultimately tells Shigaki what he’s doing just “makes you a mutt”.
Before they stop running their mouths and start talking with their fists, Majima says about Shigaki “He ain’t bad. Just makin’ a bad call.” and even after Shigaki does the unforgivable, Majima doesn’t lose it or get violent. He’s very balanced and practical in his response when it matters. Not to say that he doesn’t still have his wild side. He then goes on to strap a bomb to himself to help his friends, so he’ll always have that eccentric side to him that we all love.
Was The Mad Dog Always An Act?
When it comes down to the question of how much of the Mad Dog persona was an act and how much was true personality, I think Pirate Yakuza shows us that Majima has always had that side to him to some degree. He’s adept at violence, he loves to fight, and he’s not afraid to throw himself into the thick of things, but he certainly dialled much of himself up to 11.
The Mad Dog is the perfect yakuza who Majima wanted to mould himself into at the end of Yakuza 0. There are elements of himself in that role, but I think the unpredictability is hyped up, with him presenting as more unhinged than he truly is to instill fear in others. Once he achieved this legendary yakuza status with others looking up to him, he had to uphold this gold standard he had created.
At the end of Pirate Yakuza, Saejima tells Majima he knows he has his memory back because of a slip of the tongue where Majima calls him ‘bro’. Afterwards, Saejima hands Majima his tanto, his signature knife from his days of a yakuza, and then immediately hands him his pirate hat, the symbol of his recent captaincy. It’s all too easy to see this as Saejima encouraging Majima to embrace both sides of himself rather than only picking one. Majima doesn’t need to return to being this legendary feared yakuza and forget all about the man he has become during his pirate adventures with Noah, he can be both.
In the closing scenes, see Majima regales his adventures while being filmed by Ichiban, Minami, and Nishida when Noah comes in to chat with his old captain. Ichiban is surprised by this, shocked to find this little kid isn’t afraid of the big bad yakuza, and that’s because that’s not who he was when Noah met him. More importantly, it’s not who he is now.
- Released
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February 21, 2025
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ // Blood, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Use of Alcohol
- Developer(s)
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Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio