The page picture shows the final boss of the spearfishing minigame: the Bloody Shark, which manages to sneak up on Kiryu and bite down on him, dragging him around the ocean and trying to tear him apart. What does Kiryu do? It's Kiryu, what the hell do you think he does?
TheYamato Mark II, the true identity of the Secret of Onomichi, finally being revealed. Amidst the blaring alarms and flashing lights of the shipyard, the ship is given an absolute abundance of shots showing it in all its glory while it rises out from a hidden hangar underneath the harbour, and remains an imposing presence throughout the cutscenes that follow. Once you're given free reign to explore Onomichi at the start of the finale, you can go to the docks to get a closer look at the super-battleship yourself, and it's clear just how much it utterly dwarfs everything else there.
The Substory "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time?" is about a girl who may have time travelling powers trying to stop her family coming apart by saving her father from a beat down. Naturally, Kiryu lends a hand, giving a rare Badass Boast:
Kiryu: I'm the one who's going to change history.
Unable to act come the finale as Haruka and Haruto are held hostage, Kiryu is at the mercy of Tojo chairman Sugai, who proceeds to take out years of frustration at not being taken seriously by repeatedly smashing Kiryu's face with a length of pipe. Landing a final hit and screaming for Kiryu to die, he expects the Dragon of Dojima to drop in defeat; instead, Kiryu merely returns his gaze to the chairman with a glare that is perhaps the finest ever captured in a game and the pipe has bent; Sugai is visibly shaken, prompting wannabe yakuza Tsuneo to take over.
Tsuneo for his part does not fare much better, only getting in a few cheap shots as Kiryu still can't fight back; as the situation suddenly turns against him, Tsuneo moves to finish Kiryu off only to have his punch blocked and basically be told he has no idea who he's dealing with.
The final battle with Iwami, easy though it may be, is still awesome in its own way. It may be easy, but then again, Kiryu can absolutely clean the floor with Iwami's sorry ass. In the end, when it came time to fight, Iwami was all talk. And Kiryu proved that beautifully. As did his thoughts on the objective.
Defeat Tsuneo Iwami He is nothing to me.
It gets better even after the fight is done. Iwami is flat on his ass, backing away from Kiryu and begging for him to stop. Kiryu shuts him down perfectly.
Kiryu: I've waited long enough. People are expecting you in hell.
And in a sense, it serves as a wonderful send off for the Dragon of Dojima, ending his arc by doing what he's done on the streets for 7 games... pummeling the shit out of an overconfident punk who should have known better than to pick a fight with the Dragon of Dojima.
Most impressively, he gets shot by Sugai three times, twice in the chest and once in the leg, but despite the pain and damage he had suffered, utterly refuses to give in and walks forward, clearly still having it in him to kill Sugai like he had intended. It was only when Sugai had been defeated by one of his subordinates instead and with no way out that Kiryu finally stopped and let himself collapse. Even then, the fact that he was still conscious after being shot three times and having just been beaten up (Sure, it doesn't do much damage on him, but it did leave him bleeding) was able to say his goodbye to Haruka and Yuta and ultimately survive after just falling into a coma reminds us just how tough he is after having survived other would-be fatal wounds.
Kiryu and Akiyama teaming up against Ed in the early chapter.
The cool strut where Kiryu, escorted by Akiyama and Hirose's family, go to the Millenium tower. Kiryu makes it clear he is done with the Tojo disrespecting the former Chairman as he punches a cocky lieutnant asking his business.
Kiryu: I need to talk to Sugai. But... I can show myself up.
Toru Hirose being revealed as the strongest man in Hiroshima, despite his old age. Even after so many years, he still has more than enough skill to be able to make a fool of the Saio Triad and his presence as an assassin is such that he intimidates Big Lo casually and makes it clear that he can kill all the Saio Triad by himself.
Bonus points for Kiryu by not being intimidated at all by Hirose and demonstrating he is the Dragon of Dojima for being the strongest yakuza alive by delivering to that same confident assassin a Curb Stomp Cushion fight. To be fair, he is the only one in the game who even draws a sweat from Kiryu, but Kiryu comes out without any actual injuries.
The end of the Return of the Pocket Circuit Fighter substory. Not only is there a Back-to-Back Badasses moment when violence inevitably erupts as usual, you finally see him regain his old confidence, repair the relationships between his son and wife, AND you get him as part of your clan, too!
Even though he's signed his own death warrant in doing so, and knows as much, Big Lo denounces Yuta as his successor so he, Haruka, and his new grandson can live in peace. And he chooses to Face Death with Dignity, giving Kiryu a final clue to find the secret of Onomichi.
Haruka's Mama Bear moment when we see Tatsukawa's failed attempt to kidnap Haruto. When he tries taking the baby from her, she knees him right in the bag and books it. Even her getting run down right after has its awesomeness, as its later noted if she relaxed her grip even slightly during the running over, Haruto would have been roadkill. Even getting full on slammed by a speeding car, she didn't lose her grip for an instant.
Even Karaoke got a Moment of Awesome. Beating the game unlocks Handsnote the only song to be unlocked after beating the game, as a matter of fact, a song about how Kiryu has to let go of Haruto so he can live a peaceful life. The awesome part? It's the full song - three and a half minutes of Karaoke. Getting a perfect score definitively solidifies you as the master of Karaoke.
