Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is Excellent on Steam Deck and ROG Ally

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Prior to its release this week, I’ve been enjoying Sega and RGG Studio’s “Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii” on Steam Deck, ROG Ally, and PlayStation Portal (accessed via PS5) to assess its performance across these handheld devices. Over the past few weeks, I’ve invested over 30 hours into the game across platforms, completing it entirely on Steam Deck with my current progress well into finishing all tasks in Premium Adventure. The majority of my gaming time has been spent on Steam Deck, but I also revisited older saves and played various sections to evaluate how Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii performs on the ROG Ally. For testing on PlayStation Portal, I had access to both the PS5 and PS4 versions, but I focused on the PS5 version for my tests.

Before diving into the handheld version, let me first discuss the remarkable PC port of Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. This port is not just good overall, but it stands out when compared to previous Like a Dragon and Yakuza games. Despite the team’s improvement over the years in terms of PC-focused features and optimization, the team has managed to address some minor issues that I encountered with the PC release of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth as well.

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii PC graphics options

Over time, the Yakuza and Like a Dragon series have received richly-equipped PC versions, particularly for games that launched simultaneously with consoles. I’d like to draw attention to the well-structured user interface in this release. Previous RGG Studio PC ports have offered various upscaling options, some newer ones included, but the menus and layout are improved here for a smoother experience.

As a gamer, I can customize my visual experience in Yakuza-Like: Pirates in Hawaii like never before! You’ve got the freedom to adjust HDR settings (even on Steam Deck OLED), tweak the HDR peak luminance and white contrast, set your desired brightness level, enable Color Vision Assistance, and flip on a High Contrast mode. The graphics options are meticulously detailed, but what truly stands out is how well they’re organized compared to Yakuza: Infinite Wealth.






In the visual settings of Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, you can personalize your gaming experience by selecting display options such as windowed, borderless, or fullscreen mode, resolutions ranging from 800×600 to 4K with support for 16:10 and 800p on Steam Deck, adjustable refresh rates, toggling v-sync, capping frame rates at 30, 60, 120, or unlimited FPS, FOV adjustment, choosing a graphics preset (lowest to highest, with custom options available), fine-tuning detailed graphic settings, and optimizing performance settings.

Improvements in performance settings encompass various upscaling features like FSR 1, FSR 2, FSR 3.1.2, and Intel XeSS, which are compatible with the Steam Deck and ROG Ally. Additionally, the game offers DLSS support, although I’m unable to determine the specific version on your devices. Each of these upscaling techniques comes with their own quality adjustments and, in some instances, sharpness settings as well. Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii also incorporates FSR 3 Frame Generation and offers a low-latency mode, although this particular feature may not be usable on the ROG Ally or Steam Deck.

Customizing the advanced graphic settings allows you to tweak texture sharpness, shadow detail, model complexity, reflection clarity, motion blur effects, screen space ambient occlusion, edge smoothing, and activate depth focus.

In Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, you’ll appreciate the novelty of customizing your button prompts – a first for the series on PC! Previous games only displayed prompts based on the controller detected by the game, which meant Xbox buttons for gaming on Steam Deck or ROG Ally. However, in this new adventure, you have the flexibility to switch to PlayStation DualShock or DualSense button prompts if that’s your preference. This customization has proven beneficial during quick-time events (QTEs) and mini-games such as Karaoke and cooking, making the gameplay experience more comfortable for those accustomed to PlayStation controls.

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii Steam Deck performance

On Steam Deck, the out-of-the-box experience for Yakuza: Like a Dragon – Hawaii Pirate Edition performs well without any adjustments. During gameplay, it runs in a 16:10 aspect ratio, except for some menus and cutscenes. The 16:9 scenes and menus have a pattern to fill the black bars on top and bottom. However, it’s important to note that the demo version of Like a Dragon – Hawaii Pirate Edition may not fully represent the final game because there are certain demanding situations in the main story, which unfortunately I can’t discuss for spoiler reasons. These demanding scenes appear closer to the end and involve heavy use of particle effects and intense combat with multiple characters.

Over the past while, I’ve completed the entire Yakuza: Like a Dragon game on Steam Deck, delving deep into the Premium Adventure mode to tie up loose ends and strengthen my team for content missed during my initial playthrough. Throughout this journey, I encountered no crashes whatsoever, with only a minor hiccup – the game occasionally took 3-4 seconds after a battle to load subsequent cutscenes, which appeared as if it might crash but was merely a delay in loading certain scenes. Interestingly, my colleague Josh faced occasional crashes during story cutscenes, particularly towards the latter stages of the game.






















































In various scenarios, including karaoke, naval battles, boss fights (except for two instances where there were minor glitches), cut-scenes, exploration, Crazy Eats, Sicko Snap, and numerous mini-games, the suggested settings performed admirably. Even cooking and other crafting games ran flawlessly. Over the years, I’ve played most RGG Studio PC games on Steam Deck, either pre-release or at launch. Among them, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii stands out as the smoothest PC release by Valve’s handheld, based on my personal experience.

I encountered an issue with the sleep mode on Steam Deck. I seldom use sleep/suspend, but since others have inquired about it, I decided to test it using Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. The problem was similar to what I’ve experienced in other games – the audio gets distorted or crackles when waking from sleep and resuming play. However, if you save and exit the game before reopening it and loading your save, the issue goes away.

Another issue I encountered is that the game requires an internet connection for its initial launch. A few days after playing, my Steam Deck wouldn’t run the game offline. To get it to work outside of my house, I had to tether it to my phone. Since then, I haven’t faced this problem again, but be aware of this potential issue for your first playthrough and if you take a break from the game for a few weeks.

For the best experience when playing Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii on your TV or monitor, be aware that it may struggle with resolution adjustments. To avoid this issue, set the resolution manually to 720p or any 16:9 aspect ratio as it tends to launch at 800p and becomes distorted. Additionally, don’t forget to check your HDR settings since it stays active even when your external display doesn’t support HDR.

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii Steam Deck recommended settings

If you’re using the Steam Deck OLED, I suggest aiming for a smooth 40 or 45 frames per second at 90Hz. Keep in mind that achieving the full 90Hz might be challenging in certain parts of the final levels. To get a decent 40fps experience on your Steam Deck, try running it with medium settings and reducing shadows to low. I personally set texture filtering to 8x, turned off real-time reflections, SSAO, and kept shadows at low. This setting allowed for almost flawless performance across various gameplay scenarios like naval battles, exploring Honolulu, Madlantis, boss fights, except for a brief dip in some final chapter battles.

To get the best performance, consider employing upscaling techniques. I suggest you choose between XeSS Quality or FSR 3.1.2 at Quality, depending on your preference for the visuals in both. However, be aware that XeSS may encounter issues with hair rendering in Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. If you prioritize a more stable gameplay experience, I recommend opting for FSR 3.1.2 at balanced. Although it’s softer, it guarantees a more consistent performance. Keep in mind that aiming for 60fps on Steam Deck might result in significant visual compromises and is not advisable at this time.

For an optimal docked gaming session, I suggest trying out FSR 3.1.2 at the Performance setting, with a fixed resolution of 1080p. Alternatively, you could go for 1440p and experiment with Ultra Performance FSR 3.1.2. This configuration maintains clear visuals for UI and menus, while offering a reasonable frame rate for gameplay. I didn’t spend much time in this mode, but it is playable. Keep in mind that heavy upscaling might cause some issues with the hair when playing docked.





















Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii ROG Ally impressions

To discover if Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii could run smoothly at 60fps on the ROG Ally, I decided to push its limits. Having already tested it extensively on Steam Deck, I loaded saves from Madlantis and Honolulu, as well as some naval battles, to check how the game would perform on the more potent ROG Ally. In my tests, I kept the GPU at 5 GB VRAM while leaving other settings unchanged. I was running the latest version of Windows 11 with everything updated. The testing was done in the 25W (not 30W) turbo mode.



















Playing at 1080p resolution, employing AMD FSR 3.1.2 or XeSS on the low settings can yield frame rates exceeding 50 frames per second, even during intense combat and bustling exploration scenes filled with numerous NPCs. However, keep in mind that adjusting presets will also modify the upscaling settings; therefore, remember to manually alter the upscaling after using any graphics preset.

If you’re comfortable with some delay in performance, you might want to consider activating AMD FSR 3 Frame Generation for a frame rate exceeding 80fps. However, do note that there will be a slight ‘ghosting’ effect while using this feature, so be aware of it.

To achieve a lower gameplay speed with enhanced visuals, consider using the high preset and either FSR 3.1.2 or XeSS quality (or balanced mode) based on your device’s VRR screen frame rate. However, keep in mind that the appearance of hair during upscaling may be a point of discussion.

Lowering the resolution to 720p, running on the low settings with FSR 3.1.2, you’ll find that frame rates consistently exceed 60fps during bustling city exploration and battles. In summary, the ROG Ally performs exceptionally well compared to the Steam Deck, offering a higher resolution without compromising performance.

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii PS5 and PlayStation Portal impressions

As a gamer, I was eager to compare my gaming experience with Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii between my monitor and the PlayStation Portal, given that I had both PS5 and Portal versions at hand. My home setup includes my PS5 connected directly to the router while the Portal operates on the 5Ghz wireless band. In general, there were no significant streaming issues except for a couple of audio problems stemming from my headset.

In the game “Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii”, the DualSense controller delivers impressive haptic feedback during exploration and combat. The game runs at 60fps on PlayStation 5 without any other visual options. However, there seems to be an issue with hair rendering in the PS5 version, giving the appearance of upscaling. I played for around 3 hours on PS5 via the Portal, and it functioned smoothly. If you own a PlayStation 5, “Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii” is excellent for portable gaming due to its responsiveness and general smooth performance on the console.

In due time, I’ll tackle the Xbox version too, just like I usually do with Yakuza and Like a Dragon games. However, at present, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii shines on Steam Deck, impresses on ROG Ally, and performs well on PS Portal. This PC port surpasses its earlier versions on handhelds, and it’s delightful to see a contemporary game run flawlessly on the Steam Deck from the get-go. Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii truly lives up to its Steam Deck Verified rating and is an ideal match for Valve’s portable device.

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2025-02-18 18:27