RGG ends Like A Dragon Direct by proudly announcing they won't charge for New Game+ this time, something most games don't do anyway

Sea change

"Oh, and one last thing..." teased the narration for yesterday's Like A Dragon Direct showcase on Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza In Hawaii, before announcing that the RPG will be getting New Game+ mode as part of a free post-launch update. It then cut to Majima and his crew making celebratory noises on deck. This follows last year's Infinite Wealth catching some backlash for the decision to lock the mode behind a £15/€15/$15 edition upgrade.

Unrelated, but I've decided to stop putting angry spiders through your letterbox every morning. I know, I know. Come on now. Hero is such a strong word.

The very talented scallywags at RGG also showed off some more of Majima's escapades, including his 'Mad Dog' and 'Sea Dog' fighting styles, making every pirate pun imaginable in the process. I mean, you'd have to. There will of course be ship customisation and crew gathering, and I especially like the look of 'Madlantis' - a seedy den of swashbucklers stuffed with minigames. Naturally, a lot of the other environments will be familiar to anyone who explored Infinite Wealth's Hawaii. I know I'm not alone in admiring RGG's approach to asset and location reuse, freeing them up to focus on quirkier additions, and also letting you get familiar with their virtual cities over the course of several games.

I was not personally affected by the decision to charge for New Game+ last time around, because the last thing I felt like doing after finishing 70 hours of Infinite Wealth was immediately playing another 70. Pirate Yakuza In Hawaii is a Gaiden entry, so it'll run shorter than the full-fat games - supposedly around 15 hours or so. I still thought it was a stinky choice, mind. Aside from new difficulty levels that effectively just made numbers go up, it was unambitious and uninteresting as far as NG+ modes go - 'unambitious' and 'uninteresting' being two words I usually wouldn't associate with the series at all. This one's out on the 21st of February.