In a recent interview with the Japanese PlayStation.Blog, RGG Studio director and Like a Dragon series executive producer Masayoshi Yokoyama talked about the characterization of Goro Majima in Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii.
Yakuza fans were thrilled when they found out that Infinite Wealth’s spin off would feature the beloved Goro Majima as a solo protagonist. But (as one should expect from RGG Studio) Majima’s appearance came with a big twist – turning the series’ antagonist into an amnesiac pirate. Majima’s lack of memories and new surroundings resulted in a portrayal of his character that we haven’t seen before. While some fans adored this fresh take on Majima and found him interesting, others weren’t fans of how he was changed. However, Yokoyama stresses that all of the “Majimas” are the real Majima, and the new side he shows is just him being a multifaceted human being.
“In the end, every Majima is the real Majima. I think everyone has different versions of themselves that they show at say, their company, versus in private. But both of these versions are their real selves – I believe humans are creatures whose “selves” change depending on the environment. So, whenever there’s a dramatic change in our environment, we show a different side of ourselves. For example, when you get married and have a child, you start showing a different ‘you’ to your kid.”
According to Yokoyama, this applies to Goro Majima too. “In a similar way, Majima shows a different side of himself after meeting the young boy Noah in Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. He’s forgotten who he is, but he’s seen the tattoos – he knows he hasn’t been an upstanding person till now. In the midst of all this, he meets Noah and develops something like a parental desire to help him make his dream come true.”
RGG Studio’s director confirms that the Majima we see in Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is somewhat more neutral than the Majima of past games, and this has to do with his role as the game’s sole protagonist, which the player is supposed to project themselves onto. “I’ve mentioned this before, but Majima is a character who’s hard to turn into a protagonist. He is objectively crazy, and he is an entertaining character, but his sensibility is very different to that of the average player, which makes it difficult to empathize with him as a protagonist. However, in Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, Majima has lost his memory – so he’s more likely to get angry or sad at the same time as the player. He’s portrayed as a fairly neutral character, especially at the beginning of the game.”
While acknowledging that Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii’s portrayal of Majima “definitely shows a new side to him,” Yokoyama concludes that “This Majima is the real Majima, and the pre-amnesia Majima is also the real Majima.”
Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is out now for the PC (Steam), PS4/PS5, and Xbox One/Xbox Series X|S.
