The Yakuza franchise has long offered a unique gaming experience that mixes action-adventure, beat ’em up, and RPG elements into a glorious blend – generally with an over-the-top aesthetic to enjoy. There’s a long list of games in the series at this point, and it has relatively recently rebranded to ‘Like a Dragon’ to align with the original Japanese title. In any case, the latest entry to the series is called Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii.

Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii will be released on February 20th, but you already have a chance to play the trial version. Over on the Steam store page, you can now download a demo for the game, so we thought we’d give it a try on our Steam Deck. Yakuza in Hawaii has already been Steam Deck Verified, so let’s see how it performs.

How does Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii perform on Steam Deck?

The first thing we tried to do was run the game at max settings with upscaling and frame generation turned off. As expected, this didn’t return the best results, with the gaming running at a choppy sub-30 FPS. Either way, it was worth a try. Switching down to the medium preset seems like an easy sweet spot to start things off. However, we did some further tinkering and settled on the settings below.

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With the settings above and frame generation turned off, the game ran pretty well around the 50 FPS range without suffering from stuttering – like we recently saw in Monster Hunter Wilds. However, with frame generation on, the FPS is boosted to around the 80 FPS mark. The first disclaimer is that input lag was immediately noticeable when using AMD’s FSR 3 frame-gen technology, but this may not bother you quite as much.

Another option available to you, if you want to boost frames even higher, is by altering the resolution. Even just dropping down to 1280 x 720 can make a noticeable difference, but we were happy enough with native-res performance already.

Overall, the game is worthy of its Steam Deck Verified title – it seems well optimized for the handheld based on first impressions, and just a few settings tweaks will have you well on your way. As far as personal preference goes, we opted to play without frame generation, sticking to a 60 FPS limit with V-Sync turned on. The input lag just wasn’t worth the added frames, and the battery was quickly draining while trying to maximize the performance.

About the Author

Charlie Noon

Charlie is the Affiliate manager for PC Guide. He has a vast understanding of most PC hardware and consumer essentials, using his knowledge to provide the best products and the biggest deals.