midoropalace

[midoropalace]

Yakuza: Like a Dragon -Final-

The dawn of a new millennium.

It's time to wrap up all the remaining trophies in Like a Dragon.

But first... a new substory?

I head up to the floor where Ichiban Holdings is located, and Eri invites me out for drinks at Survive. Back at Survive, Eri and Ichiban talk about the future, which Eri mistakes for Ichiban flirting. Damn Ichi. I guess on the way to the top, you gotta get some bitches along the way.

Of course, Eri is misunderstanding what Ichi is saying. He wants to know what the future looks like for the business. Eri relays her grand ambition: to make Ichiban Holdings a national -- and perhaps international -- business. An ambitious goal, but one that Ichiban will support fully. Eri invites Ichi to take a nap, and while he does, she plants a big smooch on his cheek. I'm not sure how Saeko will feel about that... But completing this little event grants us a trophy for romancing two women at once. Yay...?

I also go ahead and grind out my remaining Part Time Hero points (about 10 or so) to get the trophy for reaching "Executive Hero" level. Sweet.

Finally, I go ahead and grab the Table Talk trophy while I'm at it. Incidentally, I wind up unlocking Zhao's final Drink Link, so here goes nothing...

While Ichi packs away some alcohol, Zhao asks if Ichi can serve as backup for him while reuniting with Mabuchi. Ichi is wary, but decides to tag along with Zhao.

Ichiban's initial concerns are right. As it turns out, Mabuchi sprung a trap to try and defeat Ichiban and Zhao and continue climbing up the ranks of the Omi Alliance. Zhao, somehow getting even sexier, turns feral and tells Mabuchi that he's going to have to kill him. We are then forced into a battle with Mabuchi and his cronies, which is piss easy because we're in the high 70s and he's in the low 30s.

Zhao warns Mabuchi to get out of Ijincho or risk dying at Seong-hui's hands. Mabuchi laughs at this, until Zhao points out that the only reason Seong-hui hasn't killed Mabuchi yet is because she's doing a favor for Zhao. But her patience won't last long. Zhao tells Mabuchi that even though they hate each other, he still considers Mabuchi to be his brother. With that, Ichiban and Zhao head back to Survive, where Zhao proposes to me and cooks me a fancy five star -- no... no. Never mind. We just get a trophy for maxing his bond level, that's all.

And now it's time to get these last three trophies. Now, based on the little research I did, it seems like getting the trophy for the True Final Millennium Tower might be something I should do in a New Game +, since there's a ton of job level grinding involved. So my choices are to either grind out the Kamurocho Underground for what might be hours on end, or replay the game in New Game + on a harder difficulty. I decide to think about it while I take on the Final Millennium Tower.

Ok, so my dumbass completely forgot to take screenshots of the tower... Honestly, it wasn't hard at all except for a couple of small fights. I also spammed Poundmates until I got the trophy for summoning Poundmates 30 times.

Upon reaching the tower, we are forced into fighting the "manager" -- Amon, a master assassin and the game's superboss. For the most part, this is a pretty easy fight. He doesn't hit nearly as hard as I thought he would. Joon-gi's Head Trauma is hilariously busted and does huge chunks of damage to him. For the most part the fight goes smoothly... until he busts out a bullshit insta-kill attack that targets all party members! Suddenly I got a game over and has to revive. What kind of bullshit is that? The same thing happens when I tried to redo, because I wasn't able to get Ichiban's Peerless Resolve up fast enough. For round 3, I decide to have Ichiban just spam Peerless Resolve over and over once Amon got in range to do his insta-kill move. Naturally, he never used it a single time during this interval. Cool.

With Amon defeated, we gain a shit ton of money and a nice trophy marking our completion of the Final Millennium Tower. Sweet! Kiryu appears and makes some comments about Ichiban not being a pushover or whatever. I honestly don't remember what he was talking about because I've been sick haha.

Returning to the overworld, I get a message saying that I can now take on the True Final Millennium Tower. The Final Millennium Tower wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, so maybe this one will be --

Ah.

Job level 90? That's insane. It takes so long to grind job levels even with the job exp items and the vagabonds. It's pretty obvious to me that they want you to do this on a New Game +, since apparently battle rewards are vastly increased. So I've come to my decision -- I'm going to continue to play the game. This time on New Game +.

Normally, I play this game for a couple hours a day. What I might do is spend only one hour doing the New Game +, while using the other hour to play a different game instead. I'm invested enough to get the Platinum, but I definitely want a bit of a palette cleanser. As for what I'm going to play... only time will tell, I guess?

Update: naw fuck the platinum lol not doing it. I'm going to play Yakuza 0 instead

#like a dragon #yakuza #yakuza: like a dragon #yakuza 7

[midoropalace]

Yakuza: Like a Dragon -11-

Honk if you're horny.

It's back to the Dragon Karting, and this time we're up against Jin, who--

Oh. That's it?

Though initially upset over his loss, Jin is consoled by the other rivals. Turns out, they've all come to respect Ichiban and see him as not just a rival, but a friend. Of course, that doesn't mean they don't want to kick his ass at Dragon Kart. And they just might get the chance to do it -- we are told that we can now access the final tournament: the Dragon Cup.

Now, truth be told, the Dragon Cup was pretty tough. But it wasn't because the racers were particularly amazing or anything. It was actually because the courses in the Dragon Cup are complete ass. All of the tracks are super narrow with sharp turns, and given that the controls aren't great to begin with, it makes steering through the tracks a complete clusterfuck. Thankfully, because the other competitors are just so bad, I was able to cinch victory with ease.

But beating the Dragon Cup isn't the end of Dragon Kart. Oh no -- turns out, to finish this Dragon Kart shenanigans, we have to defeat Fujisawa. As it turns out, Fujisawa is not only a kart racer himself, but he is considered a legendary, unbeatable kart racer. To be the best, we have to literally beat the best.

Fujisawa challenges us to a rival battle on the Kamurocho track, which is the last track of the Dragon Cup. Fujisawa isn't fucking around here -- he's actually quite difficult and for most of the race he was zooming ahead of me. Thankfully I got ahead of him on the last lap and managed to stay ahead for the remainder of the race. But it certainly was a close call. I don't even think it would be possible without maxed out karts.

Completing all of the Dragon Kart substories earns us a trophy (nice!) and unlocks the final kart in the minigame. It's expensive, but I decide to max it out, because you can exchange rings for "Rise Up!" -- an item that increases all of your personality traits by 50 points. Seeing as I'm close to maxing my personality out, I decide to buy one copy of the book, then max out the kart and go for another round or two on the Dragon Cup. Doing so nets me enough to buy a second copy of Rise Up!, maxing out my personality and granting me another trophy.

My final task for this block of time is to try and find all the Honk Honk NPCs.

I encountered one at the beginning of the game, but haven't seen any since. Turns out they're hidden -- and randomly appear. So I decide to bust out a guide to help me. I'm trying my best not to use guides here, but some of this content is so obtuse and fetch-questy that I think it's warranted.

With the power of GameFAQs, I find all the Honk Honk NPCs pretty easily. The only one that gave me trouble was the Honk-Honk Lady. Whereas other NPCs spawned pretty easily, for some reason the Honk-Honk Lady took a lot of time and effort to spawn into the game world. To get the Honk Honk NPCs to spawn, I needed to reload the map (i.e. travel between cities). Doing this caused the NPCs to spawn pretty much instantly except for the Honk-Honk Lady. Maybe the game saw I only had one NPC left and decided to make it impossibly difficult and time consuming. Or maybe I just got unlucky. Regardless, once I found the last Honk Honk NPC, I got a neat little trophy to add to my collection. Now all that's left to do is grind out the last few trophies... and grind out some levels.

#like a dragon #yakuza #yakuza: like a dragon #yakuza 7

[midoropalace]

Yakuza: Like a Dragon -10-

You can't put a premium on this adventure.

With the completion of the main story, I have now unlocked two options: New Game + and Premium Adventure. New Game + allows me to start the adventure over while keeping my progress for most combat-related achievements, like levels. I can also start a new game or new game + on a higher difficulty, which apparently greatly boosts my battle rewards. I've never been a huge fan of New Game + in a video game... IDK why. It's not something that's ever appealed to me, and I'm especially not sure why I'd want to do it for a game that doesn't offer me much choice to begin with. But perhaps I'll regret my decision when it comes time to do the grind.

Premium Adventure, on the other hand, is essentially an "endless play" mode. The game dumps me back into the game world in the exact state I was right before the credits started rolling, and I can do pretty much anything I want. Upon loading my Premium Adventure save, I get notified that I have unlocked the "Final Millennium Tower", which is apparently a post-game dungeon of sorts. The trophy list indicates that there is also a "True Millennium Tower", whatever that is.

Speaking of trophies, this is essentially what I am going to use Premium Adventure for: trophy hunting! I feel pretty confident that I can get the Platinum Trophy in this game, so I decide to start hunting ASAP. The first thing I do is get a trophy that I could have easily gotten earlier in the game: a trophy for changing Kasuga into eight different jobs. Oops.

The next trophy I go for is the Sheep Sheep Slapper trophy. This requires that I complete all of the Seagull Cinema movies without falling asleep. Going to the movies with a party member gives you and them bond points, so I take this opportunity to grind out Joon-gi and Zhao. The actual minigame itself isn't too hard -- the only movie I "failed" was the very last one, but I was able to get through it on my second try. With an S rank! (it wasn't displayed on the trophy screenshot, but trust me -- I got it)

With Joon-gi now at max bond level, I decide to view his final Drink Link. I go to Survive only to find that he's not here... The bartender informs Ichi that Joon-gi got a phone call and hustled out of the bar. Suspicious! Ichi assumes Joon-gi must have gotten a call from the Jingweon mafia and rushes after him.

Of course, Joon-gi knows Ichiban is following him -- and he's glad, because he actually would like for Ichiban to give him some back up. The two head to a strip club on the other side of town, where the Jingweon mafia appear. Being the haters they are, they spew haterade at Joon-gi for impersonating their late boss. Angered, they decide to give Joon-gi a piece of their mind.

But given that Joon-gi is about 40 levels ahead of the Jingweon, I'd say they picked the wrong person to mess with.

After whooping their asses, Joon-gi explains to the Jingweon why he continues to serve as the boss' body double: he wants what remains of the Jingweon to come to Ijincho so they fight the person impersonating their leader. Then, the Geomijul can take this opportunity to provide them shelter and acceptance into their family. Touched by altruism, the Jingweon mafia members shake hands, and Joon-gi's Drink Link ends.

Meanwhile, my husband is having a dilemma: Mabuchi is back in Ijincho, and Seong-hui is surely going to kill him if she finds him. Zhao relays to Ichiban that he wants to help Mabuchi escape from Ijincho and away from the Geomijul. Mabuchi might be a dick, but he's still like a brother to Zhao.

While speaking to the others in the bar, I got the offer to grab drinks with Saeko. Thinking nothing of it, I accepted, which led to a very interesting scene.

While talking over drinks, Saeko discusses Ichiban's love life. She questions if he's ever though about finding a girlfriend, to which he replies that it would be nice, though he's unsure if he'd ever find a girl that could love an ex-felon. Saeko forgoes all pretenses and makes it very clear that she really, really wants to fuck Ichiban. And Ichiban, as dense as ever, questions why Saeko doesn't have a boyfriend yet.

Ichiban heads upstairs to take a nap. While sleeping, he is visited by Saeko, who dotes over him then proceeds to give him a big kiss -- which wakes Ichiban up. Saeko expresses confusion when Ichiban asks about the kiss, leading him to think it was all just a dream. The lipstick mark on his cheek says otherwise. Very... interesting.

In any case, the other big task is to play a few rounds of Dragon Kart. This is a minigame I neglected pretty early on, so hopefully I can pick it back up pretty quickly.

Now that we're sitting on a cool 12.7m yen, I decide to just go balls out with the upgrades and get all 3 cars up to max. Cause why not?

For the most part, the tournaments aren't too difficult. In each cup, you are effectively racing against one of the three rivals introduced earlier in the story who I completely forgot about until now. But it never feels like you're truly competing against them. With my maxed out carts, I pretty consistently was getting 4-5 second leads over them and never dipped below 1st place once. The real issue I had was the controls. Maybe Mario Kart spoiled me (okay, it definitely spoiled me...) but I found the controls extremely stiff and unresponsive. But once I got used to them, the minigame became pretty easy.

The real challenge comes after completing 3 of the 4 tournaments. To unlock the final Dragon Cup, we need to defeat all of the rivals in head-to-head races. Each race takes place on a different track, with the added gimmick of there being a heavy fog effect on every track. This was really more of a test of how well I memorized each track, and I think I memorized them pretty well. I defeated each rival on my first try. Defeating the rivals unlocks new vehicles, which you have to purchase and upgrade. In total, I spent millions of yen purchasing and upgrading the vehicles. Ouch.

Defeating the Data Drifter leads to a very funny interaction between him and Akira, where the latter calls the former a virgin. The Data Drifter then complains to the Dragon Kart organizer about being a virgin... Bro, wtf is this interaction lmao.

This interaction does unlock the next rival race, however -- against Akira. The race against Akira is definitely a little more tense. It's still a fog-covered course, but Akira actually kept pace with my fully-upgraded vehicle for most of the race. He never overtook me, but it was still too close for my comfort.

Completing Akira's rival race seemingly unlocks another rival race, however. Just how many more rivals are there? This guy's manner of speaking makes me think he'll be the final one before we unlock the Dragon Cup, so that's what we'll have to do, I guess...

#like a dragon #yakuza: like a dragon #yakuza #yakuza 7

[midoropalace]

Yakuza: Like a Dragon -Ending-

Thank you, and goodbye.

With Masato defeated, Ichiban tries to reason with him and get him to end his machinations. He wants Masato to start over fresh and begin living his life anew. But Masato, as petulant as ever, admonishes Ichiban. But even if Masato hates him, Ichiban could never give up on the young master -- his last connection to his father. He begs Masato to give up, assuring him that if he swears to work his way up from the bottom, he will stand by him on his way to the top.

The police arrive, and the party spills the beans on Masato by showing them the video of his confession. The police move to arrest Masato, but are caught off guard when suddenly...

Using a shard of glass, Masato holds up the office who approaches him and grabs his gun. Ichiban tries to deescalate, but Masato refuses -- he's not going to let his dreams die, and he's certainly not going to listen to Ichiban. Especially when everything Ichiban says reminds him of his father.

Masato uses the hostage to make his escape. Out on the streets of Kamurocho, the video showing Aoki's confession is now being played on monitors across the city. As Kamurocho's citizens look on in horror, Masato makes his way to a familiar place.

Just as Masato stops to rest, Ichiban arrives, figuring the young master would return to where it all began. Frustrated, Masato pulls out a gun at Ichiban. Masato angrily derides Ichiban for considering Masato to be his family, before confessing that for his entire life he has felt inadequate and unheard by others. Realizing there is no other way out, Masato puts the gun to his head instead.

It is here that Ichiban begins to break down. He explains to Masato that though his feelings are valid, it's completely untrue that no one was hearing him -- Ichiban, Masumi, and Sawashiro all loved him like family, and were always willing to listen. It was just that Masato never bothered speaking to them. Tearfully, he asks that Masato not make Ichiban watch his brother die. Masato, moved by Ichiban's words, relents. He answers a call from his secretary, and reveals that he plans to turn himself in. But fate has other things in store.

In one of the most infuriating and -- to be honest -- surreal moments in the game, Kume shows up out of nowhere and shoves a knife into Masato's guts. He admonishes Masato for his betrayal before declaring that good will always triumph over evil. He then pulls his knife out and just... calmly walks away. What the actual fuck? The calmness of this scene is just so eerie when juxtaposed against the build up to it, and not in a good way imo. It's the one fault I have in what's otherwise a very solid ending.

And with that, Masato unceremoniously dies in Ichiban's arms as Ichiban lifts him up and rushes him to a hospital (presumably). The credits then start rolling while playing both an extremely ill-fitting J-pop/rock song and Beethoven's "Ode to Joy". I honestly can't get over how unserious the credit music selection is lmao.

With the credits over, we now get to see the aftermath of the Millennium Tower raid. Adachi meets with head bastard Horinouchi, and reveals that while no footage of Aoki ordering the hit exists, they did find evidence that the Arakawa family supplied bribes to several high-ranking political officials to help enact the Kamurocho 3K plan -- including Horinouchi himself. As he gets taken away by the cops, Adachi lights a cigarette, his revenge finally complete.

Back in Ijincho, Ichiban and Nanba are preparing to attend the funeral service for Masumi and Masato. Nanba remarks on how upsetting it is to know that Masato will never realize that Sawashiro is actually his father. Nanba then suggests that Ichiban get a DNA test to get definitive proof that Masumi is his father, but Ichiban declines. As far as he's concerned, he has two fathers: Jiro Kasuga and Masumi Arakawa.

While attending the funeral, Ichiban meets with Daigo Dojima and Goro Majima, who offer Ichiban the chance to return to Osaka with them and continue Arakawa's legacy. Ichiban appreciates the offer, but explains that Ijincho is his home now -- and that nothing could replace the people he has met on his journey. And that's why Ichiban is the second best boy (behind Zhao).

Outside, all of Ichiban's companions surround him and ask if he plans to stay in Ijincho. Ichiban lets everyone know that he needs a bit of alone time and sulks off. Of course, Nanba and Saeko are quick to let everyone know that not only does he plan on staying, but that he considers all of them to be irreplaceable. Now forever a part of Ijincho, Ichiban looks off to the sky, remarking that whenever you've hit rock bottom, the only way to go is up.

And thus ends my story playthrough of Yakuza: Like a Dragon. This game was fucking awesome. The story and characters were extremely well done, with the perfectly blend of melodramatic craziness, humor, and serious drama. Gameplay wise I have some issues -- mainly in terms of a lack of diversity among the playable characters, the easy combat, and the oversaturation of redundant skills -- but it's overall a solid RPG. I look forward to see if Infinite Wealth can improve on some of the issues I had here.

When I return, I will likely chronicle my efforts in the post game. I want to try and get the Platinum... assuming it isn't too hard or time consuming to do.

#like a dragon #yakuza #yakuza: like a dragon #yakuza 7

[midoropalace]

Yakuza: Like a Dragon -9-

It all comes tumbling down, tumbling down, tumbling down.

When I last left off, Ichiban and friends were invited to speak with Nick Ogata at Earth Angel. Before doing that, though I spent a little bit of time grinding in the Kamurocho Underground Dungeon.

Ok, so... I may have gone a little overboard. But given how spongy these recent bosses have been I think a few extra levels would be helpful here.

Over at Earth Angel, we reunite with Nick Ogata, where we reveal that Ichi's claim of there existing a recording of Aoki ordering the hit was, in fact, a bluff -- but a bluff so strong that it will compel Aoki and Tendo to raid the Omi Alliance offices.

Turns out, the bluff worked. Aoki orders Tendo to raid the Omi Alliance office at the Millennium Tower. Tendo isn't happy about this, but Aoki reminds him of their mutually beneficial relationship. Awkward.

Adachi suggests that we head to a different bar -- Bar Serena (?) -- to regroup. We do so, and we meet with Makoto Date, a character who I assume is from a different game. More incentive for me to branch out to the other RGG Studio games I guess. Nanba and Saeko warn us that we are about to enter the point of no return, and that we should prepare ourselves. Given our massive jump in levels, I think we're prepared enough.

We head to the Millennium Tower, where Nick calls and informs us that we're about to enter the Demon Lord's lair. We then get this sick shot of the Millennium Tower. Kickass.

Like the other dungeons in this game, the Millennium Tower is mostly just boring set dressing with some fairly nonthreatening encounters. The only cool part is this sweet shot of the Tokyo skyline I got with my husband.

We enter the Arakawa Family office, which Tendo has ransacked for the elusive recording. Realizing it was nonexistent all this time, he challenges us to a duel.

Tendo technically isn't the final boss, but for all intents and purposes, I consider him to be the final boss -- the next two bosses are painfully easy compared to him. My high level and strong equipment ensured that he would do little damage to me, but he still had a ton of HP to work my way through. His sole weakness -- Lightning -- being a rarity and something I am in short supply of. Little by little, I manage to whittle away his massive HP to nothing. The battle ends with Ichiban and Tendo having one final punching match before fading to the next scene...

It's official: the Citizen's Liberal Party has swept through the elections. All hope seems lost, unfortunately. But as Aoki celebrates his victory, he gets a nasty surprise on the screen behind him.

Fucking. Nick. Ogata. The true hero of this story. His machinations have ensured that the public now begin to suspect Aoki is a possible murderer. He even has the balls to probe, in the middle of the chaos, whether or not his true identity is that of Masato Arakawa, son of the recently-deceased Masumi Arakawa. This is seriously such a good fucking scene, and it's shocking just how relevant Nick has been to this entire story. Godspeed, Nick Ogata. Godspeed.

Aoki rushes to the Millennium Tower, where he finds Ichiban's crew seemingly defeated by Tendo, who is unscathed. Tendo asks Aoki what the next steps are, to which Aoki responds that it's time to squash all the people who know the truth about Aoki and are trying to expose him as the murderer he is.

Unfortunately for Aoki, he just got Punk'd. Ichiban rises and reveals the whole scene he just witnessed was a ruse -- the "Tendo" that he was speaking with was actually Mirror Face. A bit of an asspull but.. sure, whatever. To add insult to injury, Joon-gi and Saeko were recording the entire interaction from their vantage point. The video of Aoki admitting his guilt is now loose on the Internet for all to see. It seems, finally, that Aoki's plans have been foiled. With nothing to lose, it's time for the true final battle...

Everything about this intro is so fucking badass. Unfortunately, the actual battle isn't. Fitting to Aoki's personality, he is surrounded by weak Yakuza grunts. The only moves Aoki seems capable of are calling for reinforcements. Unfortunately, the reinforcements prevent you from doing any meaningful damage to him. To truly defeat Aoki, we need to get rid of the reinforcements and then wail on him. A couple shots from the Orbital Laser is more than enough to bring down his subordinates...

And Aoki doesn't last long against a barrage of blunt attacks. Seriously, he is super weak and doesn't seem to actually fight back. In fact, once his HP is low enough, he actually runs away and ends the battle!

Of course, there isn't anywhere he can run to. Ichiban chases him and winds up fighting him one-on-one. The gimmick of this battle is that Ichiban is forced into the Freelancer class. You know, the one you probably stopped leveling up once you got the Hero class. I could see this battle actually being a pain in the ass if you didn't grind out Freelancer. Thankfully, I was desperate to get Release German Suplex, so I actually did grind Freelancer out to 30. Thus making short work of Masato. With Masato down, it's time to witness the glorious ending to this glorious game.

#like a dragon #yakuza #yakuza: like a dragon #yakuza 7

[midoropalace]

Yakuza: Like a Dragon -8-

Surprise bitch... I bet you thought you saw the last of me.

At the end of the previous chapter, Ichi and his crew died from a bomb blast.

Oh, uh... nevermind.

Turns out they... didn't actually die! Though the game doesn't quite explain how they survived the explosion, Nick helped hide them from Masato and the Omi Alliance. That's cool and all, but it seems a little too convenient that Ichi and his crew managed to escape the bomb blast relatively unscathed. I say relatively, because Ichi has visible injuries on his face. Mainly a bruise and a little bandaid. Sure.

Anyway, Aoki is pissed -- understandably so. He thought he finally vanquished Ichi, but Ichi got the upper hand on him! Ichiban warns Masato that there exists footage of him ordering the hit on Masumi, and that the footage will be leaked onto the Internet tomorrow. Masato calls Ichi's bluff, but Ichi drops an "I'm not joking bitch" and walks away. Their final duel will be at the Millennium Tower, where the footage is supposedly being held.

In any case, I get a notice from the Sujimon Sensei that a new dungeon has opened up in Kamurocho: the Kamurocho Underground Dungeon! Oh yeah, by the way -- we're in Kamurocho now. I forgot to mention that I guess. Whoopsie.

Before I head toward the dungeon, I decide to shop around at some outlets. I find this cool weapon for the Host class at Ebisu Pawn, and decide to give it to Zhao for the time being.

The Kamurocho Underground Dungeon is actually the same place that Ichi and Adachi infiltrated all the way back at the beginning of the game to gain access to Heian Tower. The difference here is that the enemies are now significantly buffed and we can now access the dungeon's second floor. The dungeon only has two floors, but floor two is massive and has some pretty hard-hitting enemies.

During one battle, I decide to call Robson as a Poundmate to see what he does. He promptly turns into a tiger and mauls the poor enemy I was fighting.

On the second floor, I encounter a handful of Invested Vagabonds. I am assuming these are supposed to be like metal slimes in Dragon Quest -- difficult to take down but extremely rewarding. My attacks either miss or only do 1 point of damage. This makes them difficult to take down. Just kidding. Turns out, Joon-gi, Eri, and Saeko can make quick work of them using their gun skills. And the reward for taking them down is worth it...

Goddamn that's a lot of experience! Because there are several vagabonds on this floor, I wind up gaining millions of experience points, and my character levels wind up shooting up into the 60s. Eri also "maxes out" the Idol job. As it turns out, a job is considered maxed out once the character has learned all skills from that job, though you can still gain job levels until reaching 99. But reaching job level 99 seems like too much work tbh. Still, because grinding now seems super easy, I'm probably going to grind out some job levels down here. Or at least go until I get the trophy for reaching level 70.

At the end of the floor, I am assailed by some really powerful enemies. They were honestly annoying and I almost wiped to them, but thankfully I was able to take them down after a loooong time. As a bonus, here are some shots of Kiryu and Majima in all their glory.

#yakuza: like a dragon #yakuza #yakuza 7 #like a dragon

[midoropalace]

Yakuza: Like a Dragon -7-

Tick... tick... boom.

With Kiryu gone, our next goal is to stop Sawashiro from getting a bullet to the head. Fun! But there are a couple of pit stops first.

The first thing I do is head to Kamulop to check out the Tojo Clan medal prizes. Turns out, there are now two Poundmates I can add to my collection for 50 medals a pop: Daigo Dojima and Watase. I decide to add the cuter one to my roster.

Next, I decide to get some really annoying Part-time Hero quests out of the way. The first is Please Find My Cat 1, a terrible fetch quest that I probably should have done earlier but chose not to. Finding these damn cats blind isn't my idea of fun, so I cheat and pull up a map. Oops.

We are then given a new quest: Please Find My Cat 2, which involves finding Hiro's cat Robson. I'm not a huge fan of these Part-time Hero quests, so I decide to look this one up as well just to save time. After rushing to Hamakita Park, I find the little cutie sitting on a lantern.

My prize is getting Robson added to my selection of Poundmates. Sweet.

Next is Kappture the Kappa, another long and pointless side quest that involves snapping photos of Kappa statues. I'm not sure how I could have done this one without a guide because my brother in Christ why would you hide a statue inside the bar why why why god why.

Turns out that wasn't the worst part of this quest though. See, I assumed I found all the kappas... until I saw that I had 9. I got so annoyed and was racing to figure out which one I missed, until I realized that I never took a photo of the first one. You know, the only one that is pointed out to you and is the easiest one to take a photo of because of it? Yeah. Not a fun time finding that one out. And honestly? The rewards for these missions really have not been worth it. Well, maybe it was worth it for Robson.

Now for the main course. I head to where Seong-hui told me to go to and approach the building Ishioda entered. I then get assaulted by several of his goons, who go down without much of an issue.

And there he is. The big bastard himself: Ishioda. Side note: this screen actually has a small piece of foreshadowing! But we can talk about that later.

Before we can even get close to Ishioda, though, Adachi suddenly appears from the door and attacks... Adachi... Oh noes! It's Mirror Face! Ichi and his team have trouble discerning the fake Adachi from the real one. A classic clone dilemma. Ichi susses out the real Adachi by testing his knowledge of local traffic codes. One Adachi struggles to give even basic knowledge, while the other rattles off traffic laws verbatim.

Naturally, the real Adachi is the one who doesn't give a shit about his (former) job.

The battle against Reiji (and Mirror Face) is long and drawn out. Mirror Face himself isn't too much of a pain -- the most annoying thing about him is that he starts guarding as his HP gets really low, forcing the battle to be prolonged even further and draining my MP like a mother fucker. Ishioda, on the other hand, is genuinely dangerous. He counterattacks pretty frequently, and his Gunshot attack one-shots Saeko and Nanba if not guarded properly, which is near impossible to do. Once his HP is low enough, he enters into his second phase where his normal attacks become weak, but his counterattacks become strong -- strong enough to one shot pretty much everyone that isn't Ichiban or Adachi. Thankfully, Zhao's Essence of Deadly Beasts makes quick work of him.

After Ishioda crumples like wet newspaper, he spills the beans on Arakawa's assassination. Ishioda attemped to kill him as ordered, but Tendo suddenly appeared and sent Masumi to the big kabuki theater house in the sky. So it wasn't Ishioda who got the kill on the Omi Alliance's number one target -- it was the double-backstabber Tendo.

Ichiban and his crew demand to know where Tendo is now, but before Ishioda can answer, we discover there is a bomb under one of the desks in the office -- a bomb that can be seen in an earlier scene! Foreshadowing! Aoki and Tendo order their henchmen to detonate the bomb, and...

Well, at least we got something out of that.

#like a dragon #yakuza #yakuza: like a dragon #yakuza 7

[midoropalace]

Yakuza: Like a Dragon -6-

The one in which Ichiban goes on a Dragon Quest.

So... things aren't looking too good for Ichiban. The Tokyo Omi Alliance is on his ass, Kume is out in the wild, his long-lost father is dead, and Sawashiro threw himself into the fire like a true baddie. While Ichiban works through a pack of Newports, Nanba reminds him that they need to find Kume -- ASAP.

Their search is cut short by the Omi Alliance, who are out for blood and quickly swarm Survive. I use this opportunity to try out Night Queen Saeko's new ability, "Vital Vibration".

O-Oh.

...Anyway... On the way to Bleach Japan's office, I clean up some Part-Time Hero requests as usual. Nothing special.

I also encounter some Table Talks at a few restaurants. The one with my husband gets me to the halfway point for the "Drink Link-related "Food for Thought" trophy.

At the Bleach Japan office, Kume is nowhere to be found. Instead, we once again get swarmed by the Omi Alliance. We make quick work of them, but Ichiban's bloodlust isn't satiated -- he starts wailing on one guy, demanding to know where Kume is. The mafioso reveals Kume escaped to Kamurocho, and Ichi continues to pound on the guy -- much to his party's dismay. He is then stopped by...

It's ok, Kiryu, I'm open to being poly with you and Zhao...

Kiryu tells Ichi that he has information relating to Ryo Aoki, but expresses disgust over Ichiban's lack of control and decides to test him. He tells Ichi to meet him at the Geomijul headquarters later that night.

Speaking of Aoki, we get a scene where he and Horinouchi have a tense confrontation over Aoki's assassination plots, which he denies taking part in. Sure.

Anyway, we head to the Geomijul, where Kiryu awaits. I'm warned that there will be a tough fight ahead of me, so I take the opportunity to do a bit of grinding at Sotenbori. I get Ichiban to level 50 and get a trophy as a reward.

With that, I return to the Geomijul to confront Kiryu. He tells Ichi that if he wants to learn about Ryo Aoki's next move, he has to fight him in combat. Ichi simply has no choice but to accept, though he is bitter toward Kiryu from concealing such critical information from him. I blink, and both Kiryu's and Ichiban's suit and shirt have miraculously been peeled off in true Yakuza fashion.

Kiryu shows off his badass dragon tattoo, while Ichiban shows off his slightly less badass Gyarados tattoo.

This screenshot alone should easily set the stage for what's to come. Kiryu is no pushover in this battle; he hits like a truck and is quite fast. His main gimmick is that he switches into different fighting styles throughout the battle. He begins in the Brawler style, before moving into the Rush style, then the Beast style, and finally the Dragon of Dojima style. Entering the Rush style grants Kiryu a permanent speed boost. This leads to him getting more turns in than usual, and I find my more frail characters (Joon-gi and Nanba) have a lot of trouble staying alive here.

Thankfully, Kiryu is weak to ice attacks. After several Platter Shatters and Ice Spreaders, he goes down without too much difficulty.

Of course, because Kiryu is... well, Kiryu, he's not going to let an amateur like Ichi get the best of him. In fact, it seems like despite winning the battle, Ichi winds up losing. Cool. Ichiban then imagines that he is a hero fighting a massive dragon -- a dragon that either killed or maimed his friends. Ichiban stabs the dragon with his sword, ending his reign of terror and likely gaining tons of exp in the process

Of course, this is all just a dream -- Ichiban awakes, and Kiryu asks if he's calm. Ichi confirms that he is. Turns out, this whole incident was Kiryu's way of teaching Ichiban a valuable lesson about controlling his anger and trusting his comrades or... something. The party head deeper into the Geomijul, where Seong-hui reveals that the surveillance system is back up and running. Unfortunately, it seems there's a new threat looming on the horizon.

As it turns out, Ryo Aoki deems Sawashiro's imprisonment a threat and has hired an assassin -- Mirror Face -- to silence him. Mirror Face is a master of disguise and an experienced killer. His amazing ability to don new appearances means that Sawashiro isn't safe despite being in prison.

Ichiban and the others agree that now is the time to fight back and show Ryo Aoki that he can't throw his weight around Ijincho unchecked -- they're going to stop Sawashiro's assassination and push back against the looming threat Masato is imposing. Kiryu notes to Ichiban that their prior fight was not one in which the end result was victory or defeat, but a test of wills; and though Ichiban isn't quite on Kiryu's level yet, he will be -- one day.

With that, the torch has been passed. Now it's time to burn this motherfucker down.

#like a dragon #yakuza #yakuza: like a dragon #yakuza 7

[midoropalace]

Yakuza: Like a Dragon -5-

Politics, betrayal, and the suspension of disbelief.

It's Ichiban's wild ride and the party just doesn't stop! I head outside to take a photo using Photo Mode to set the scene, and found out that your party members actually pose for you.

😊

🥵

After snapping about 10 photos of Zhao for... future reference... I head to Isezaki Road to meet with Kume. Here, the party gets hassled by members of the Tokoy Omi Alliance, who are acting as bouncers for Kume's political rallies.

This situation is pretty dire, unfortunately. Kume seems to be popular with no particular political opponents, and Masato's pro-Bleach Japan messaging is boosting his support through the roof. Realizing the situation calls for drastic measures, Chairman Hoshino meets with Ichiban and makes a surprising offer.

Turns out, the writers didn't forget about the "rival politician plot point!" Hoshino declares that Ichiban should run against Kume instead. The party doesn't believe for a moment that Ichiban -- a convicted murderer -- could possibly win the election. Even Ichiban himself thinks its a long shot. But the chairman explains that the point isn't to defeat Kume, it's to get Kume to meet with Ichiban alone and rough him up a little. If Ichiban runs as a rival politician, it would be in bad taste for Kume to turn down offers to meet or debate with him, after all. Ichiban decides to officially declare his candidacy with the government.

Unfortunately, the Omi Alliance are one step ahead and have begun spreading the word of Ichiban's former criminal status. Thankfully, the Seiryu Clan gives Ichiban a van and a loudspeaker to help with his political campaign.

Ichiban meets up with Kume, and the two begin debating right away. Kume focuses on tearing down Ichiban's image, pointing out how deplorable it is the Ichiban is a convicted felon and that he should not have the right to campaign. Ichiban points out that it is legal for those who have served prison sentences to run for office, then points out the irony in Kume complaining about a perceived unjust law when grey zones are created by unjust laws. Ichiban's impassioned debate, funnily enough, garners the support of the entire crowd, and Kume absconds from the scene out of embarrassment. Ichiban's unexpected popularity and social media buzz infuriates Masato, who orders Sawashiro to carry out a hit on a certain person...

The game points me back in the direction of Kume's campaign van. As I head there, I decide to check out Chau's black market weapons for any good stuff, now that I'm swimming in cash again. There isn't anything of interest, but strangely, talking to him activates the end of his substory. But I don't notice this until after I leave and head toward Kume. Awesome.

After arriving at Kume's campaign stop, Ichiban finally gets the chance to meet with him in person. That is, until Joon-gi delivers some startling news -- something is going down at the Seiryu Clan HQ, and Chairman Hoshino's life is in danger. The party decides to put the Kume dilemma aside, and we are asked to rush to the Seiryu Clan ASAP.

Upon arriving at HQ, we find what appear sto be the bodies of several Seiryu Clan members. Captain Takabe is injured badly, and tells the party that the chairman is upstairs. Ichi and the others head up to the chairman's room, and--

Dammit.

Fuck you, Sawashiro.

Ichiban demands that Sawashiro tell him why he killed Hoshino, to which Sawashiro responds that it's Ichiban's fault that he died. Um, no, dude. You're the one holding the gun. You're the one who pulled the trigger. Miss me with that shit.

It's time to fight Sawashiro one more time, and this time he meant business. This guy was not only an HP sponge, but he also had a lot of very annoying attacks to deal with. This battle wasn't nearly as bad as the first round of the Majima battle, but it was still pretty rough.

The gimmick of this fight is that at set HP intervals, Sawashiro switches the weapon he's using. He begins with a sword, before moving onto using a cane. Nanba mentions the use of a cane comes from Western martial arts, and that's why Nanba uses an umbrella as a weapon. What the hell, Nanba? If you knew martial arts then why do you suck so bad at anything other than magic?

Anyway, the annoying thing about the cane is that Sawashiro effectively double teams you with it. First he knocks you to the ground, then he proceedes to twist the cane into your chest. Ouch! Given that this special attack also has a cutscene, I'm assuming this is another insta-kill attack. It seemed to work on Joon-gi, but thankfully not Ichi. Seriously, what is with this game and suddenly throwing bullshit insta kill moves on enemies? As if the HP sponge shenanigans wasn't bad enough...

His final phase consist of using the cane and sword together but I didn't get any good screenshots of it lol. So enjoy this screenshot of Nanba holding a rose instead.

After Sawashiro goes down, he tells Ichi that he is not the one who killed Masumi. There's a simple reason for it. Well, okay, it's actually convoluted.

Back in the day, Jo was with his honey and theyre making out wen the phone rigns. He ansers it n the vioce is "wut r u doing wit my daughter?" He tells his girl n she say "my dad is ded". THEN WHO WAS PHONE?

OK but seriously. Turns out as a teenage delinquent, Sawashiro got his girlfriend pregnant. It was too late to have an abortion, so she had the baby and they... stuffed it into a locker?? Whaaaat? And then it turns out that the baby that Masumi saved from the locker was actually Sawashiro's son?! In other words, Masato is Sawashiro's son???? What to heck?

Ok, honestly, A+ plot twist. I actually think this is really fucking genius. I love the idea that Masumi took Masato home thinking he was his child, when in reality it was someone else's baby. This also means that Sawashiro is more-or-less responsible for Masato being crippled and turning into a huge asshole. Great stuff. But as Sawashiro points out, this leads to one issue: what happened to Masumi's actual child? And it is at this point the story violates my suspension of disbelief the most.

As it turns out, Akane's baby was actually in a separate locker -- the one adjacent to the locker Masato was in. Masumi simply opened the wrong locker. Akane went to Shangri La and asked the manager there to find her baby, and he did. Assuming that the manager is the same man who raised Ichiban, this would make Ichiban Masumi's real son.

I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I do kinda like the idea of Ichiban being Masumi's real child and all that. But on the other hand, it seems so unbelievable that Sawashiro and Masumi would happen to have a child born on the same day, and that they each get shoved into adjacent lockers at different times. Also, if the combination of the locker and the weather is what lead to Masato being a cripple, why didn't a similar thing happen to Ichiban? It all just seems to contrived for me to buy into it.

Anyway, Sawashiro decides to turn himself into the police after revealing to the party that Ishioda is likely the one who killed Masumi. As the cops take him away, Joon-gi learns of a new piece of information to the Geomijul: it was Swashiro himself who tipped off the Geomijul about the raid on the Seiryu Clan HQ. Joon-gi speculates that Sawashiro actually wanted Ichiban to stop him from killing Hoshino. Of course, since Hoshino is dead... that means they failed. Thanks a lot, Joon-gi.

#yakuza: like a dragon #yakuza #yakuza 7 #like a dragon

[midoropalace]

Yakuza: Like a Dragon -4-

Did everyone try the chicken? I thought the chicken was lovely.

After a touching and heartfelt scene in the park between Ichiban and Masumi, we are treated to the unfortunate discovery of Masumi's death. I feel so awful for Ichiban here. He finally gets reunited with his father figure, only for him to be taken away. It's a cruel world.

Naturally, no one believes this to be a random killing; it's theorized quite heavily to be a revenge killing, with word spreading that attempts on Dojima's and Watase's lives occurred as well. Unfortunately for Masumi, he was the sole fatality.

The scene then shifts to the Kanto region, where Jo Sawashiro is groveling at the feet of several Omi Alliance leaders who express outrage over Masumi's betrayal. Ishioda (ugh) shows up and begins grandstanding before Sawashiro goes fucking ballstic and gouges out the eye of a yakuza leader in cold blood. This guy is so badass, and so, so easy to hate. Sawashiro warns Ishioda that whoever killed Masumi will be killed at his hands, but Ishioda calls out his bluff by claiming that it was Sawashiro who killed Masumi -- on Masato's orders, no less. Yikes.

Back at Survive, Ichi gets a call from Hoshino, who offers a fancy dinner at Heian Tower -- specifically, Masumi's final meal before his killing. Ichi agrees, and we are given control of the party. I can see on the map some Part-Time Hero requests, but I decide to hold off on them for now -- it just wouldn't feel right given what happened.

At Heian Tower, Hoshino expresses regret over allowing Masumi to leave that night. He explains to Ichi that Masumi's murder was likely orchestrated by his son, Masato, using the Kanto Omi Alliance as his means of assassination. He offers to let Ichi kill Masato with the help of some of the Seiryu clan's men, but Ichi refuses. Despite everything, all Ichiban wants is for Masato to stop his mad grabs for power. It's clear that Ichiban sees Masato as a brother of sorts -- but maybe that feeling isn't quite reciprocated.

Back outside, the Ichiban explains to the party that he plans on meeting with Masato, and that he's going to use Kume as a means to do so. Speaking of Kume -- what happened to the whole "get a rival politician" subplot that was the focus of the previous chapter?? Right now it seems like this little point has just been dropped, unless they're planning on bringing it back up later on...

In any case, we have to go to Isezaki Road to confront Kume. But before that, there are some tasks that need to be done.

First up is cleaning up some Part-Time Hero requests, namely two rescue requests in different parts of Ijincho. The enemies go down without too much trouble, and I am rewarded moderately well for my efforts.

Second, I decide to head to Hello Work to change jobs so I can grind out some job levels at the Sotenbori Arena. Almost everyone gets a new job here: Ichi gets Freelancer, Nanba gets Host, Saeko goes back to Night Queen, Eri becomes a Dealer again, Joon-gi goes for Bodyguard, and Zhao becomes a Musician. I also go ahead and pick up the job exp boosting accessory for the Musician class at the hidden casino in Chinatown before heading off to Sotenbori for some grinding.

Finally, after grinding out some job levels, I head to Survive to catch up on some Drink Links. The first step is to finish up Nanba's Drink Link. Nanba is excited for the "party" Ichi and the barkeep are throwing. The barkeep tells Ichi that Nanba and Mizue's former co-worker is apparently stealing money from her boss at the hostess club, so Ichi decides to. confront her.

When he does, Ichi discovers that the former co-worker is none other than Mizue herself. The stories that Mizue sold Nanba to convince him to take the fall for her were complete fabrications -- the only reason she stole the medicine from the hospital was to help pay for her gambling addiciton. Ichiban chastizes her, which prompts her boyfriend to fight him... and lose. With her boyfriend's ass kicked, Mizue gives Ichiban the money she stole. But it isn't enough for Ichiban -- he has one request for her.

Back at Survive, Ichiban surprises Nanba with a visit from Mizue, who tells Nanba that she is leaving to go overseas for good. She thanks Nanba for his support before leaving forever. Nanba thanks Ichiban for helping reunite the two of them before revealing that he already knew of Mizue's true nature; he overheard the barkeep talking about her on the phone. When Ichiban asks why he didn't mention anything sooner, Nanba replies that it just felt good to have people be nice to him, and he thanks Ichi for being a true bro. What a sweet ending! It's a shame that it feels so disconnected from the "expensive whisky" subplot from earlier in the game. I sort of wish it was all one contiguous story, rather than two separate ones.

Anyway, we're now back with the best boy, Zhao. Ichiban and Zhao take turns trying to drink each other under the table, and Zhao talks to Ichi about how he never truly desired to be a gang leader in the first place. He simply wanted to carry on his family's legacy.

This extremely sweet, character building moment is dampened by my own immaturity -- I manage to get Ichiban and Zhao talking about stripping themselves down because of how good looking they are. Now, I wouldn't mind if they tried to explore each other's bodies... but I guess now isn't the time to talk like that. :-(

Finally, we meet with Joon-gi Han, who talks about... well, the real Joon-gi Han. Fake Joon-gi sheds some light on his own background: he was physically abused by his father, who eventually forced Joon-gi to undergo plastic surgery and become the real Joon-gi's body double in a vain attempt to garner brownie points with the Jingweon Mafia. Yikes! That's actually really fucked up. I feel bad for Joon-gi, but again -- it really feels like his character is just too centered on the original Joon-gi for this to have much impact on me. He reveals, though, that his original name is Yeonsu Kim, though he won't go by that name anymore. Cause of course he won't.

#yakuza: like a dragon #yakuza #yakuza 7 #like a dragon

[midoropalace]

Yakuza: Like a Dragon -3-

After getting my ass thoroughly whooped, it's off to the grind at Sotenbori Arena before we give Majima that work.

Okay, so Majima kicked my ass last time. But this time will be different! For one, I made it to the very end of the Sotenbori Arena. My average party level is now 45. I read suggestions from others to get as close to 50 as possible, but I figured I might as well try at level 45 to start.

I started off with Nanba, Joon-gi, and Eri in my party. After fiddling around, I found that Majima seemed weak to fire, so I let Nanba and Eri burn him hard while I let Joon-gi burn through his MP with a variety of skills.

Soon, Majima sent out his Doppelgängers. I knew from the previous attempt that these were the most dangerous part of the fight, so I started busting out some Poundmates and, of course, Essence of Orbital Laser to make short work of them. With Majima by himself, I started busting out some essence skills. I swapped out the MP-less Joon-gi with Zhao and used Essence of Human Grating, a skill that gave me massive ick but helped whittle Majima down to a little under 50% health. Little did I know that getting Majima's health down to about 50% led to an even nastier surprise...

Now it's a double battle. Majima is much less of a threat compared to this guy. He hit like a truck and even took out the majority of Ichi's health with every special move used. This is where the fight started to really drag out. I used pretty much every healing item at my disposal as things just started getting dicey.

They even have a bullshit special move that I'm preeeeetty sure might actually have been an instant kill move, but thankfully Ichiban was resistant to it? Still, this cutscene scared the hell out of me when I got it.

Thankfully, I had enough Taurinier and fire/ice skills to make short work of these two. The real challenge was just making sure I kept my HP and MP up. What was once a formidable obstacle is now just a stepping stone to the next story beat. I just wish the rest of the bosses up until this point were as challenging as this fight was.

Sweet, sweet victory.

Just as Majima and Saejima prep for round two, I get a visit from Arakawa and -- much to the party's surprise -- Daigo Dojima, the sixth chairman of the Tojo Clan. They call for a stop to the violence, much to Majima's disgust.

Arakawa and Dojima invite Ichi and his crew into the Dragon Chamber, where they outline their grand master plan: apparently, Arakawa's grand betrayal of the Tojo clan was devised by Dojima himself. After taking office, Masato began blackmailing his own father into selling him Tojo secrets; Masumi, in turn, went to Dojima for help. Dojima and the Omi Alliance chair, Masaru Watase, saw Aoki's implementation of the Kamurocho 3K plan as a major threat to the Yakuza way of life; the anti-yakuza laws were so broad and open-ended that it threatened to make the Tojo -- and eventually, the Omi -- slaves of the state. Rather than allowing this to happen, Watase and Dojima agreed to a plan that would allow the Omi and the Tojo to disband relatively amicably: have Arakawa sell out the Tojo clan to his son in exchange for allowing the Omi Alliance unfettered access to Kamurocho. This would force the Tojo clan to go underground while also spreading the Omi thinly between Tokyo and Kansai. With Watase's release from prison, both he and Dojima can now formalize the dissolution of the two clans without major blowback from either organization -- both would simply be too decentralized to seriously fight back.

But for the plan to succeed, allies are needed to quell any potential rebellion -- Majima and Saejima being some of them. Arakawa, on the other hand, put into motion a series of events that would allow for Ichiban to see the true threat to the yakuza and become a potent ally for him. Determined to help the man who saved his life, Ichiban agrees to help.

The next day, Watase arrives at the Omi Alliance HQ and formally announces the dissolution of the Omi Alliance alongside Dojima's dissolution of the Tojo Clan. Several members of the Omi Alliance, recognizing that they have been sold out, begin to revolt. Thankfully, Ichiban and his friends are here to stop them.

They succeed, but a lone yakuza attempts to take Watase's life on stage. However, he is quickly stopped by a familiar figure...

Sex incarnate, to be honest.

Anyway, Ichiban finally collapses under the weight of all the yakuza members he fought. Dojima leaves with Watase, Majima, and Saejima. Kiryu follows close behind, but not before giving some encouraging words to Ichiban. Arakawa thanks Ichiban for everything he's done.

And with that, the Omi Alliance is officially dissolved.

The next day, we learn that Nick Ogata was the one who gave protection to the Dojima family -- including Majima and Saejima -- after the collapse of the Tojo clan. Nick congratulates Ichi for reuniting with Masumi, and asks that Ichi tell Nick all about how his "date" with Masumi goes that night.

Ichi meets with Masumi, now just an ordinary man. But Masumi apologizes to Ichi, stating that Chairman Hoshino made plans with him as well. Ichiban understands, but as Masumi leaves, he asks to be considered part of the Arakawa family again. Masumi breaks down, and wonders why Ichiban continues to believe in him after everything that has happened. Masumi then admits that he sometimes dreams that it was Masato who was born in the soapland, rather than Ichiban. Acknowledging Ichi's loyalty, he bids Ichiban farewell and tells him that he will see him tomorrow.

But unfortunately for Masumi Arakawa, it seems tomorrow will never come.

#yakuza: like a dragon #yakuza #yakuza 7 #like a dragon

[midoropalace]

Yakuza: Like a Dragon -2-

Previously, I made it to Sotenbori and participated in the Sotenbori Arena. With a few arena levels under my belt, it's time to storm the Omi Alliance HQ.

Just kidding! I decide to grind out some more levels in the Sotenbori Arena. I make it to about level 10 before I decide to dip. And I'm glad I do, because I get a nice new weapon for Joon-gi Han. Truthfully, I miss using the electric-affinity knuckles, but this seems like a nice weapon to use instead.

As I grind out the arena, I notice that my bond experience is maxing out with several characters. I decide to head back to Ijincho to participate in some Drink Links.

First up is the best boy, Zhao. The discussion centers around Mabuchi's betrayal -- and his fate. Ichiban questions what happened to Mabuchi after the Omi Alliance fiasco, to which Zhao replies that traitors to the Liumang get turned into meat buns. This leads to a really funny moment where Ichiban remarks that Lao Ma got turned into Bao Ma. Zhao, of course, is just messing with Ichiban -- he has a soft spot for Mabuchi despite what has happened. Zhao has such a big soft spot that he actually helps sneak Mabuchi out of Ijincho to protect him for Seong-hui. The complexity behind Zhao's character is appreciated, and it's nice to see that the first impression he gave earlier in the game is actually nothing more than an act. It's a very interesting dynamic that I don't see a ton of games do often -- or well, for that matter.

Nanba is next, though he isn't in this Drink Link for too long -- the barkeep asks him to go shopping. This, of course, is a misdirection on the barkeep's part. In truth, he wanted to get Nanba out of the bar so he could invite a former nurse from Nanba's hospital to discuss Nanba's wheelings and dealings with Ichiban. The former nurse does show up, but seems both ignorant to her drug-smuggling co-worker's identity and uninterested in discussing further. After getting a call that there's a pachinko machine with a big jackpot, she promptly departs. Nanba arrives just in time to see her and question the men about her, but he gets no answers. He assumes this means Ichiban and the barkeep are planning to throw him a surprise party. A surprisingly cute interaction.

Finally, we have Joon-gi. Honestly, his Drink Link this time wasn't that interesting, though he does mention that the Jingweon are looking for him. I don't dislike Joon-gi, but I wish his character was just a tad bit more interesting. At least he's a powerhouse in battle.

While I'm here, I decide to check out the karaoke machine to see which songs Joon-gi and Zhao brought with them. Interesting, Joon-gi has no song assigned to him. Maybe he's not a big karaoke fan? I decide to try out Zhao's song instead -- "Hell Stew".

As expected, the song is silly but fits Zhao to a T. The karaoke layout continues to give me motion sickness, however. I seriously don't understand why I find this version of the karaoke minigame so hard to follow. It feels like my eyes strain every time I play it.

With new bond levels come new jobs. I decide to play around and swap out some new jobs for most characters. I put Joon-gi into the Enforcer job, mainly so I can build some of his defenses. Meanwhile, I put Zhao into the Chef job, mainly because I think it suits him lore-wise, but also so that he can eventually get Peppermill Blow. Meanwhile, I swapped Eri and Saeko into Idol and Dealer, respectively, just so I can get their second character skills. I then swapped Adachi into Foreman to start grinding that one out. In retrospect, I probably should have done this before grinding out Sotenbori Arena, but alas.

Before heading back to Sotenbori, I notice that there's a substory available on the north side of the city. When I arrive, I find a man crying in pain sitting on a folding chair.

It's traffic census sensei! The man claims to be a traffic census worker, I job I've never heard of. He explains that his job is to count the number of pedestrians passing by a given street. As it turns out, such a thing does exist -- but it's mostly handled electronically in the modern day. He offers to let Ichiban be a traffic census worker for a bit, allowing us to play a pretty simple minigame. Essentially, we have to count how many men walk by on screen for a few seconds. Doing so, and providing him the correct headcount, nets a 10,000 yen reward. Cool.

Speaking to traffic census sensei allows us to play the minigame again. The second task requires us to pay attention to the women on screen, while the third tasks requires us to separately count men and women. Task two wasn't hard, but for some reason I had a lot of difficulty with task three. Keeping track of two separate variables isn't great for my anti-math brain. When I realized I counted eight men and that none of the answers had "eight men" as a choice, I decided to give up and look up the answer instead. I just don't have the time or patience.

Completing task three nets us this small counter, and an assurance that we are next in line to inherit traffic census sensei's title. What an honor. But before we can officially take that title, we have to deal with the Omi Alliance.

Ichi and his crew infiltrate the Omi Alliance HQ by pretending to be caterers. The disguises are paper thin, of course, and when we get to the second floor, the crew insists on using stealth to avoid Omi Alliance members as opposed to fighting them. Which is exactly what I do as I run around the second floor like a lunatic looking for safes.

Arakawa is apparently holed up in the so-called "Dragon Chamber", which we encounter the door to pretty quickly. Making my way to the chamber, however, I encounter a group of Omi Alliance members who readily expose our disguises and do battle with us. Just when we think it's over, however, we are greeted by...

The only other Yakuza I've played in Yakuza 0, and truthfully I never even finished it... But I can imagine the surprise on everyone's faces seeing these two. Majima I am very familiar with because of 0, and I'm assuming Saejima is similarly highly-regarded. Maybe? Idk.

Majima decides to battle us one-to-one to start. He is level 50... significantly higher than our current levels. But I am surprised at the amount of damage I am able to deal to him. Even though he is dealing strong damage in return, I can easily heal through it. As long as the battle keeps up like this, I should be --

Fuck.

And within minutes, I am completely wiped out by Majima and his horde of doppelgängers. Seriously, what the hell is this massive difficulty spike? The doppelgangers are stupid strong and fast, being able to attack twice in the time it takes for any of my characters to go through one round of combat. It becomes abundantly clear that I am outmatched and lose pretty soundly. Rather than attempting the dungeon over, I decide to load the autosave, which graciously happened right before wandering into the Omi Alliance HQ.

Clearly out-leveled and outmatched, I decide to head back to Sotenbori Arena for a bit of grinding. As of the time of this writing, I reached level 40 with most of the cast. I'm not sure if it's worth it to go to 50, but next time I will try Majima one more time. While grinding out the arena, I made it to level 15 and got these two accessories, both of which seem useful. I also got wiped out on floor 16, where I learned the hard way that the game actually ends when Ichiban gets knocked out. Fun

#yakuza: like a dragon #yakuza #like a dragon #ryu ga gotoku #yakuza 7

[midoropalace]

Yakuza: Like a Dragon -1-

To help me feel connected to, and immersed in, the games I play, I've decided to start a blog that is part diary, part let's play. My first post will be about Yakuza: Like a Dragon! I've already poured 40 hours into this game, so this blog is going to pick up right from where I left off. Hopefully it makes sense...

When I last left off, I defeated the Omi Alliance in Chapter 11 and began Chapter 12. Ichi meets with the leaders of the Ijin Three to discuss how to deal with Masato's political machinations. Ichi declares that the Ijin Three should prevent Kume from taking office at all costs, and suggests that they run a counter campaign against him instead. Chairman Hoshino agrees to help find a suitable candidate, assuming Ichi can muster up 3 million yen to cover campaign costs. Which means...

...we're back to the grind at Ichiban Holdings! I had about 6 billion yen in capital the last time I played, and I decided to grind out the 10 billion yen needed to get the "Make That Money" trophy. Sweet. The frequent earnings from the shareholder meetings shot me up from just shy of 3 million to about 12 million yen. Hopefully this is the last time I need to do Management Mode. The grind was fun, but being at the top makes the minigame feel more tedious than anything.

With the 3 million yen in tow, Ichi head back to Survive, where he gets a call from his aniki telling him to meet with Masumi Arakawa in Sotenbori. Ichi insists on going alone, but his friends insist on tagging along with him, much to his displeasure. Despite what Ichiban feels, his fight truly is his comrades' fight. We're instructed to head back to the Seiryu Clan HQ, but we deal with some stray Part-Time Hero Missions on the way there. The mission in Chinatown was particularly annoying, with high-level enemies soaking up damage like it's nothing. Not even the mighty Orbital Laser could take care of it.

After delivering the cash to Hoshino, Ichi and his gang head to Sotenbori, where Masumi Arakawa will be meeting with the newly-freed chair of the Omi Alliance. The party hangs out at Grand Cabaret, where Ichi waits for a call from his aniki. He does get a call, but it's from Nick Ogata -- he expresses delight over finally meeting Kamulop. So cute! Ichi loses his patience and hangs up on him. What the hell, Ichi? No need to be so rude to the best character. Frustrated over waiting, Ichiban decides to storm the Omi Alliance HQ unannounced.

We are then dumped in Sotenbori, which is a touch smaller than Ijincho, but still has plenty to do. After ordering everything off the menu at a nearby restaurant and getting triple EXP up buffs, my first encounter was with a golf range. I never tried out the one in Ijincho, so I decided to give it a go here.

The controls are... interesting, but not nearly as awful as the batting cage minigame. The only confusing part for me was the inconsistency between the wind simulation and the distance units used. The wind is measured in terms of meters (I assume?) but the distance to the hole is measured in yards. I wish they stuck with one or the other. Either way, though, I manage to get a hole-in-one at one point, and I get 100 points pretty consistently. I guess you could say I'm a master at--

Nevermind.

The next stop is the nearby SEGA Club, where I decide to try and get some UFO catcher prizes. A Part-Time Hero request asks for these bird things, which I see in the UFO catcher. I managed to get them with little effort.

The enemies in Sotenbori are pretty standard fare, but the real delight is that the music changes from dubstep to... I guess jazz fusion would be the best description. I also completely forgot that Eri was still in the Night Queen class. Her pole dancing attack makes quick work of the relatively weak enemies. Strangely, I encountered some baseball players on the south side of town that hit like trucks.

Zhao tells the party to head to a shopping center on the south side of Sotenbori. When they arrive, they are greeted by a Maria the robot knock-off who introduces the party to the Sotenbori Arena, a multi-floor "dungeon" that consists purely of fighting. Each fight contains a special objective that can be completed for extra rewards, and the game indicates that special equipment can be found here. I decide to try it out for a bit.

For the most part, the battles in the arena aren't too much trouble, and completing the "special objectives" aren't that difficult. What is pretty insane about this place is the amount of EXP and job points I got per battle. By the end of the arena, everyone jumped up a couple of levels. The free healing made the battles easier as well. I made it to my first checkpoint at floor 5 before exiting to continue exploring. Incidentally, I got a pretty nice sword for Zhao from doing this.

The story points me in the direction of a nearby taxi, telling me to head to the Omi Alliance HQ. I decide to hold off on now, and wrapped up my remaining playtime by hunting down several gold safes around the city. There are a lot of hidden nooks and crannies with secrets in them. My favorite was this multistory apartment building that had treasures on every floor. I also gained a lot of Tojo Clan crests, though I still contend that the prizes available for trade-in don't seem all that worth it.

#yakuza: like a dragon #yakuza #like a dragon