YMMV / Yakuza 4

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• Accidental Innuendo: Just before their battle, Saejima tells Kido to go "Balls Out". That the two size each other up in a way that makes them look like they're about to kiss doesn't help.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: This video gives an interesting alternative perspective for Katsuragi. Once the truth behind the Ueno Seiwa hit is revealed and the consequences it entailed, we see not a power-hungry and cutthroat yakuza, but a man desperately trying to regain control of his own life after spending over two decades as Munakata's lapdog.
• Anti-Climax Boss:
  • Tanimura's final boss once you equip the Sacred Tree Armour, which negates the damage of gunfire. This makes dealing with Munakata's goons a lot easier, to the point it comes off as extremely anticlimactic. In fact, once you deal with his goons, all he does is try and run away.
  • The other three Final Bosses are relatively easy to defeat with predictable attack patterns. This is largely a result of the Sequel Difficulty Drop. They have health bars equal to if not surpassing several pretty resilient bosses from the last game but because they take more damage than the bosses in 3, they feel noticeably easier or rather quicker to beat.
  • Tanimura's portion of the Amon Boss Rush is simplicity with the Sacred Tree armour, as his foe spends most of the time using a submachine gun. All his attacks do for the first stage is give Tanimura free Heat.
• Ass Pull:
  • Hamazaki somehow managing to wash up literally at Kiryu's doorstep, despite being out at sea for a few days and being severely injured.
  • Arai showing up at the top of Millennium Tower with absolutely no fuss after shooting Munakata in the police station. Unless everyone in the police station was in on Munakata's plan, he should've been hounded at least by every police officer in the station on the way out if not throughout all of Kamurocho, and we are given absolutely no explanation for why this doesn't happen.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Saejima is beloved by many for his monstrous strength, his iconic verbal takedown of a bloodthirsty mob, and his close relationship to fan-favourite Majima. However, his multitude of frustrating gameplay elements, the truth behind the Ueno Seiwa hit and how it arguably detracts from the most interesting part of his character, and his No Yay scene with Haruka have spawned their amount of detractors. This would only get worse when the next game smoothed out Saejima's rough edges, leading to debate as to whether this iteration of Saejima was more interesting than what came later.
  • Tanimura, both in terms of character and gameplay:
    • Detractors believe him to be the least interesting of the three new playable characters, and often consider his replacement in 5, Shinada, to be a more vibrant personality that's better deserving of being brought back. His fans argue that his connection to Little Asia actually makes him one of the more interesting protagonists, and lament that so much of Tanimura's character is relegated to side content. Any conversation about returning characters will inevitably bring up Tanimura as one of the most desired, followed by just as many people saying that he's too boring to bring back.
    • Fans of Tanimura's defensive playstyle consider it to be one of the most unique in the series, love the presentation of his bone-snapping Heat Actions, and enjoy how broken the style can get once it's mastered. Just as many players find the style to be frustrating and poorly implemented, specifically in how it's tailored to 1-vs-1 matches despite Tanimura receiving the most group fights in the game (up to and including his final boss). Tier lists will frequently put Tanimura at the very bottom or the very top for these reasons.
• Broken Base:
  • The truth behind the Ueno Seiwa hit, and that Saejima didn't kill anyone. It completely redeemed him, or it was a shoehorned twist that also robbed him of his badassery or moral complexity and also undermined the emotional impact of his Shaming the Mob speech. Defenders argue that even though Saejima didn't kill anyone, he still had full intent of killing them regardless of whether those were actual rounds or not.
  • The infamous rubber bullets twist. For the longest time, fans saw it as a complete contrivance that relied on multiple characters carrying the Idiot Ball. However, it has since then been argued that the twist is actually completely justified within the context of the Ueno Seiwa hit, being that Saejima and Majima were two young yakuza who simply put too much trust in their bosses and had never even handled firearms before. Not to mention, as soon as he reads Sugiuchi's fake report, Munakata wastes no time at all picking apart each and every hole in the plan; the only reason the faked hit even worked is because Munakata offered his silence in exchange for taking over with their scheme. The divide now is whether the contrivances of the twist work within the in-universe context, or whether it's still too outlandish to be taken seriously.
  • Saejima's first meeting with Haruka, which has created two very polarized camps with little in-between. With the context of him having just escaped a 25 year stay on death row, he accidentally falls on top of Haruka and appears to contemplate making a sexual advance on the 13 year old girl, before recognising the horror of the situation and experiencing a Freak Out. The scene's defenders point out its role in illustrating Saejima's emotional trauma, social isolation and vulnerability, and how it rightfully highlights the ugly discomfort of the situation. Just as many people find the scene exploitative, unnecessary, and both completely Out of Character for Saejima while giving little thought or care to Haruka's perspective.
  • Kiryu's role in the story, particularly in Part 4 where he becomes a playable character. There's one group who enjoys playing as the Dragon of Dojima once more, which is helped by Kiryu retaining a good chunk of his moves. There are others, however, who view his role in the story as one of the game's weaker aspects. Detractors argue that outside of the 10 billion yen conspiracy from the first game, Kiryu felt shoehorned into the story compared to the other playable characters whose stories felt more narratively integrated.
  • Even leaving aside the controversial circumstances for the recast, which version of Tanimura is better? Narimiya's youthful looking portrayal is certainly closer to the game's original intent for the character, and fans generally think it is a better fit for his rebellious streak along with giving him a unique visual profile among the generally much older cast of Yakuza protagonists. But there are also fans who think that Masuda is more convincing in both performance and appearance as an experienced, world-weary police officer, and don't mind the recast for that reason.
• Complete Monster:
  • The final boss, Seishiro Munakata, is the corrupt Deputy Commissioner of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department who desires control over the Tokyo Underworld. Upon discovering that Katsuragi was the one responsible for the Ueno Seiwa Massacre and that he framed Taiga Saejima, Munakata blackmails Katsuragi and Sugiuchi into becoming his pawns in exchange for keeping the truth a secret, while also having Tanimura's father killed by Sugiuchi when he discovers the truth. Munakata also has secret illegal prisons built for disposing of Yakuza and political enemies, with one of these prisons having a sadistic prison guard who tortures many prisoners to death. Munakata also plans to release some of the inmates to create artificial crime to make his police force look good. When Tanimura discovers the truth of the conspiracy from Sugiuchi, Munakata has Hisai kill Sugiuchi, before trying to make him kill Tanimura and his friends as well. Upon recovering a file that was stolen from one of prisons with the help of Arai, Munakata attempts to have Arai kidnap or kill Haruka and the orphans from Morning Glory to force Kiryu to give him Akiyama's 100 billion yen that he needs to fund his prisons. When that fails, he attempts to have his enemies killed and take the money for himself. Upon having his crimes exposed, Munakata attempts to kill Akiyama out of spite.
  • Isao Katsuragi is the slimy and cowardly lieutenant of the Ueno Seiwa clan. Starting off as an officer of the clan, Katsuragi conspires with Shibata to ascend the ranks by staging a massacre and framing Taiga Saejima by tricking him into shooting 18 men and Chairman Yoshiharu Ueno with rubber bullets, before Katsuragi kills the 18 men with headshots after Saejima leaves, leaving Ueno alive so he can become captain. Forced to become Munakata's pawn to prevent the truth of the conspiracy from being revealed, Katsuragi manipulates Saejima's sister, Yasuko, into murdering anyone who knows the truth, while later having Shibata killed by Arai for blackmailing him with the truth. Katsuragi later attempts to have Tanimura killed for trying to discover the truth, while also attempting to have his friends and the town of Little Asia massacred out of spite. After kidnapping Saejima and Yasuko, and stealing Akiyama's 100 billion yen, Katsuragi makes a deal with Kiryu that if hands him the file that Katsuragi plans to use to blackmail Munakata into giving him control over the Tokyo underworld, he would hand over Saejima, Yasuko, and the money safely, only to go back on his deal after retrieving the file, and attempts to kill the heroes, mortally wounding Yasuko in the process.
  • Yuji Katsuura, establishing an association under the guise of helping migrant workers, sells counterfeit passports and visas to women across Asia, and forces them into prostitution in order to pay off their debts. Katsuura regularly has his prostitutes killed for reasons such as hiding any connection to them if the police discover their status as illegals, or having no further use for them when they finally pay of their debts. When he discovers that a detective, Yusuke Kaga, helped a prostitute escape to her home and hid her child in Little Asia, Katsuura murders Kaga, and attempts to kidnap and use the child's life as a bargaining chip to force the woman back into working for him.
• Contested Sequel: The game is either seen as an improvement to its predecessor or inferior to it. Some fans believed the series would begin to go stale if it continued to focus solely on Kiryu, and found that introducing more protagonists was a needed breath of fresh air, and enjoyed what they had to offer to the story. On the other hand, the plot of the game was seen by many as a convoluted mess filled with Chronic Backstabbing Disorder and twists galore, and were torn on how the game's story played out between the four characters, who each have their fans and detractors.
• Crossing the Line Twice: One of Tanimura's substories has him encountering and fighting a man to prevent him from committing suicide by jumping off a building. Of course, there's nothing stopping you from using the Heat Action where Tanimura throws the man off the building himself.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Akiyama's assistant Hana, who's rather popular for being adorable, a surprising Action Girl, having fun banter and romantic tension with Akiyama, and having Hidden Depths. Fans were disappointed at her lack of appearances in later games aside from the non-canon Dead Souls and her Expy in Ishin!.
  • Daisaku Minami is equally loved for his hilarious karaoke antics, implied adoration for his boss Majima, memorable personality, peculiar fighting skills, and catchy battle theme. This is despite only being there for 2 or 3 scenes and then never appearing again. Fans were confused and worried as to why didn't he appear in Yakuza 5 despite Majima's disappearance being quite a major plot point in the game. He returned in the mobile gacha game Yakuza Online at least, if that's any consolation.
• Evil Is Cool: Hiroaki Arai. Out of all the main villains in 4, he has one of the more compelling and fleshed out characterizations as he has the most screentime, an established friendship with Akiyama, a polite respectful demeanor, a tendency to off loathsome characters, and rivals Daigo as one of the least evil and most justified of the villains once he makes clear his motivations. He also has arguably the most interesting Final Boss fight in 4, with a stunning Dynamic Intro, an impressive display of fighting skills eerily similar to Akiyama who fights him, and an equally stunning Quick Time Event that's especially satisfying when used to finish him off. Lastly, he's notable as one of the earliest of many instances of a major character, and in this case major villain, having their face modeled after their voice actor.
• Fan-Disliked Explanation: The infamous "rubber bullets" reveal is an aspect that still gets heat for a variety of reasons. One thing felt by many players was that it was a cheap and silly attempt to downplay Saejima's actions by having him not actually be responsible for the bloodshed that happened. Not only does it undermine the seriousness of his role in the event, but it basically washes away responsibility on his part for going to do the hit, a fact the game basically ignores and treats as Saejima being an innocent man, when many players feel that it ignores that he still went to go murder people. Even ignoring that, some feel it ruins Saejima's character arc, as the guilt he felt for doing the hit lead to one of the most famous moments in the series, but the rubber bullets twist undermines his actions by revealing he was innocent of the crime, and making his guilt no longer needed. While the series has tried its hardest to not downplay some of the morally dubious things the heroes do, the rubber bullets twist is often seen as the worst example of the series' awkward attempts at writing the heroes as morally good people despite the sometimes questionable nature of their actions.
• Fanon Discontinuity: The infamous scene between Haruka and Saejima is largely ignored/forgotten by players and the fandom at large when it's not being criticized. So much that the PC version has a fan-made mod to remove the scene from the game entirely, along with Kiryu and Saejima's brief commentary on it afterwards being altered to not reference it at all. It also helps that it's never touched upon again with Saejima effectively being a Celibate Hero, too concerned with evading the law to engage in any sort of unnecessary sexual endeavors.
• Game-Breaker:
  • Most Game Breakers are game-spanning, but this one is exclusively for endgame That One Boss territory in the form of the Sacred Tree Armor. You have to complete each of the training/personal side stories of the cast before Kiryu, which most players would probably do anyway, and your reward is three pieces of armor that are not only really good in defense, but completely No-Sell all guns. This is notable, and used exclusively by most players, for Tanimura because both the Final Boss and his specific Amon battle make excessive use of firearm spam; being a basic completionist almost completely nullifies the majority of the threat in both encounters.
  • Akiyama's "Triple Dash Kick", which is unlocked once you've completed the "Suicidal Running" training with Saigo. Unless the enemy has resistance to knockdowns, it very quickly launches enemies into the air while dealing decent damage. With proper usage, it can be spammed infinitely to juggle a foe until they either run out of health or they hit a wall cancelling the juggle. It even works on all of Akiyama's boss fights or at least until they heat up.
  • Tanimura's humble backfist combo finisher, performed with a simple Light > Heavy command. If you manage to knock an enemy to the ground, you can use this backfist to smack them as they get up, sending them stumbling back to the ground... at which point you can use the same hit them again as they get back up. Repeat until the enemy's defeated. Much like Akiyama's "Triple Dash Kick", this is effective on the vast majority of enemies Tanimura will be facing. That you can get further damage on stumbling enemies either through Triangle/Y kick Juggles or Wall Splat combos makes it an even more powerful tool.
• Goddamned Boss: The sparring sessions with Nair. She never has that much health but her fighting abilities are incredibly difficult to deal with using more conventional methods that work on most other enemies. Just like Tanimura, she can parry melee attacks from any angle on top of being fairly quick and aggressive too. The only reliable way to take her down without suffering too much is to parry her into the walls and then spam the Triangle/Y kick to juggle her for extra damage. Rinse and repeat.
• Harsher in Hindsight: One of Kiryu's substories revolves around helping a woman find her lost love, only for said flame to reveal he has cancer and only has a month left to live. 13 years later, and now it's Kiryu who is on his last legs, having been diagnosed with cancer himself.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The "Kiryu the Babysitter" substory, which involves a baby being left behind at New Serena and found by Kiryu, would end up being the plot of his final adventure.
  • In the "Kotaro Gets a Job" substory, a trio of punks are causing an uproar with Kotaro, a former member of the Reapers from 3, who's trying to toss them out of a ramen shop for acting troublesome. When Kiryu tries to break up the conflict, one of the thugs calls Kiryu a "disco reject" long before the release of the prequel 0 set in the late 80's in which Kiryu could engage in disco dancing.
• Ho Yay: Majima is intensely devoted to Saejima, to the point of enduring serious harm for his sake. For a more concrete example, after Saejima beats him in a boss fight, he leans in close to Saejima's face asking for another round. Granted, he's talking about fighting, but this is Majima we're talking about...
• Low-Tier Letdown: For those shooting for all S ranks in the Fighter Maker subgame, Makoto Tokita is the bane of their existence. For starters, his moveset is awful. Even at max levels, he tends to only throw a very slow and very easy to avoid one-two punch combo. And that's even if he throws it at all, as he seems almost afraid to fight. Even at max stats, his matches are usually 90% him backing away. And outside the ring, he's one of the hardest fighters to motivate. Even one loss tends to plummet his trust and motivation to rock bottom.
• Memetic Mutation: Shares a page with the rest of the series here.
• Narm: Quite a fair bit:
  • The growing number of twists and backstabbings stop being shocking and instead become tiresome or even laughable by the end.
  • The game's death fake-outs can become unintentionally hilarious for how many there are between different characters.
  • Late in the game, Kido comes into an unexpected windfall that allows him to push forward with his own plan. This sudden influx of cash is revealed to have been stolen from Akiyama, who kept his ludicrous fortune in an unlocked safe that was easily found by complete accident while Kido was waiting in his office. While some defend the event as being in-character for the person involved, many more found themselves unable to suspend disbelief and take the scene seriously given how bone-headed of a decision it was - made worse since the scene happens in the middle of the game's pileup of Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, meaning that the audience's expectations are already fraught.
  • Saejima's final boss: Takeshi Kido. Not many were buying the idea that he could stand toe-to-toe with Saejima, and thought he should've gone down in a single hit.
  • The infamous reveal that Saejima shot rubber bullets during the Ueno Seiwa hit, killing no one, retroactively turns the scene of the hit itself into this. Good luck watching the hit again in all its dramatic glory knowing no one was actually dying at his hands.
  • The deaths of Yasuko and Katsuragi. The scene tries to portray her as strong and brave for standing up to Katsuragi after being shot by him, despite her otherwise unintimidating presence, which triggers his sudden Villainous Breakdown when he wasn't even intimidated by Kiryu of all people. There are also those who saw Yasuko's death coming (considering each game so far had an important character die in the climax), and believe her death was the equivalent of being Stuffed into the Fridge just to motivate the male protagonists for the finale.
• Narm Charm:
  • How some people feel about the rubber bullets twist. It's such a ludicrous moment in a plot that takes itself very seriously that it ascends to So Bad, It's Good levels and befits the zaniness of the franchise.
  • The song "Butterfly City" in the Japanese opening has such lyrics like "Me so horny, cuz you so nasty". Honestly, it's hard to tell if the song itself is complete garbage or absolutely slaps.
  • The Engrish lyrics in "For Faith" would have made it very hard to take seriously, but the singer does their damndest and sings their heart out with pure spirit that it becomes an absolute banger despite the singer most likely not even knowing the English lyrics they are singing. It helps that the song itself is already a banger.
  • Fans that don't criticize or defend the increasingly ludicrous amount of backstabbings, Disney Deaths, plot twists, and other leaps of logic will instead enjoy them for the overly dramatic, soap opera-esque quality that they bring to the final portion of the game.
    Youtube comment regarding For Faith: Just like Yakuza 4 itself, this song makes no sense but it's fucking epic anyway
• No Yay: The infamous scene where Saejima accidentally falls on top of Haruka, partly due to the massive age gap between the two (Saejima being older than her adoptive father Kiryu) and partly because Haruka is still a thirteen year old girl. Making matters worse is his later conversation with Kiryu implying that Saejima, having not seen a woman for nearly three decades, was having sexual thoughts during that moment, which only adds to the Squick factor.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Some players found themselves instantly hating Taiga Saejima the moment he was introduced as a mass murderer in the Ueno Seiwa hit. But then he fought in the Underground Coliseum and shot back at the audience calling for him to finish his opponent, tearfully denouncing the horrors of killing. Not only did he redeem himself in the eyes of the same players who hated him, they also considered it his Moment of Awesome. If that wasn't enough, it was later revealed that he actually didn't kill a single person in the Ueno Seiwa hit since all the guns were loaded with rubber bullets, though that aspect was far more divisive.
• The Scrappy:
  • Lily, who is revealed to be an assassin behind many deaths in the game. The narrative tries to present her as a Femme Fatale, but she carries such a frail and demure personality that it comes off as an Informed Attribute, and anything she does that supports the claim is never shown on-screen with one exception. She's especially disliked by fans of Kaoru Sayama and Yayoi Dojima who were considered far better and more convincing Action Girls, as well as fans of Hana who is more well-liked both in terms of being a more believable Action Girl and having better chemistry with Akiyama despite him showing more romantic interest in Lily. Not helping matters is that her staunch devotion to Saejima along with the emotional impact of her losing her life and perishing in the arms of a distraught Saejima is lessened by how we never see any meaningful interaction between them on-screen. While there is a point in the plot where the two of them are captured by Katsuragi's men and, according to Yasuko, the two siblings are able to catch up with one another after all their years of separation, absolutely none of it is actually shown and she dies not much later.
  • The Big Bad is considered by many to be the worst of the franchise. Due to only appearing at the end of the game's third act as the true mastermind and making scant appearances until the endgame, Munakata has very little characterisation aside from being a run-of-the-mill power-hungry bad guy. His boss fight - if you could call it that - is also considered to be one of the most frustrating in the series, as he runs away while leaving his goons to deal with you as he takes potshots from a distance.
• Sequel Difficulty Drop: Aside from certain exceptions, combat is far less grueling to deal with than in the immediate previous game in the series, a change which has been met with general approval. Your attacks and heat moves deal more damage to enemies despite them having the same sized health bars as enemies from 3. Most of the enemies in the story don't block attacks nearly as often as they did in the last game. The "Feel The Heat" sequences from boss fights in 3, which required mashing R2, have been effectively replaced by "Essence of Counterattack" sequences in QTE's, which are easier and more unique and cinematic. The Final Boss Rush in particular is considered one of the easiest to deal with in the entire series, though that has been more contentious.
• Signature Scene:
  • For better or worse, the flashback that reveals the now infamous rubber bullets twist is probably the most anyone will remember about this game. This might also extend to the ramen shop shoot-out that chronologically precedes it since that's also a very memorable and dramatic scene for Saejima, with the rubber bullets twist technically being an addendum.
  • For the character of Saejima, his Shaming the Mob scene after defeating Ivan Ibrahmovic in the Purgatory Coliseum. It's probably his most prominent character moment in the game, if not the entire series, that really hits home the sort of person Saejima really is as he breaks down into tears, silences and verbally lays into the murderous chanting audience, and then makes an impassioned speech about how horrifying it was for him to kill people and the guilt and nightmares that have plagued him ever since.
  • The substory "A Dangerous Game", specifically the cutscene where the old man and Tanimura tensely go through a round of Russian Roulette, is one of the most iconic substory moments in the series for how starkly dark it is in comparison to how light-hearted or feel-good most substories are.
• Stress-Relieving Gameplay: After the miserable fights with Saito in Saejima's opening chapter, Kiryu's opening chapter has you refight Saito almost right out of the gate. What should be a real pain in the ass all over again is tempered by the simple fact that Kiryu has a good chunk of his returning moves already, can easily afford certain utility upgrades like Re-Guard, and was notably enhanced in speed and power over Yakuza 3. While not easy, Kiryu has a less rough time of a battle with him and it isn't surrounded by a gauntlet of absolute bullshit either.
• That One Boss:
  • Saejima has an unfortunate habit of attracting these, especially as all of his bosses are made to exploit his low speed:
    • Saito, the sadistic prison guard from Okinawa Penitentiary 2, is Saejima's first boss and with his skillset, you're bound to hate him a lot more than you did already. Saito is a lot faster than Saejima, allowing him to dodge most of his hits and bring Saejima into a damaging combo. This speed difference also makes his hits hard for Saejima to dodge and he strikes hard enough to break guards, so unless you bought Re-Guard with the skill points you got after your first few fights, Saito will likely decimate your health. Then he returns later as a Flunky Boss, having his skillset from your previous fights along with a bunch of Mooks, one of which has a gun. Oh, and this is after a tiring segment that's likely to leave you without full health and, if you're lucky, only one healing item to your name. The main saving grace is that the arena is more spacious than last time and the Mooks drop healing items when you beat them. He later returns in Kiryu's chapter 1, where you bump into similar problems as you did with Saejima, having just started off with Kiryu.
    • The boss of Saejima's Chapter 2, Kazuma Kiryu. While he's only got one health bar, that doesn't change the fact that you're gonna have a hard time bringing it down. Like Saito above, Kiryu is a lot faster than Saejima, being able to dodge his Charged hits even if you manage to land a hit on him, and bring you into one of his faster combos, with the only saving grace being that they aren't Armor-Piercing Attack like Saito's baton strikes. While he starts off easy enough, with you being able to grab and throw him for some easy damage, he'll eventually enter blue Heat Mode, which not only makes him hit a lot quicker, but also makes him immune to grab moves, which limits your options to basic strikes that he's likely to block nine times out of ten. Then eventually, he'll enter Red Heat mode, which not only makes him hit even faster and harder, but also gives him access to the Tiger Drop, and he can even do it when you're attacking him from behind, which fans of the series can confirm is not possible when you play as him. Not helping matters is that the only way to bring him out of Heat Mode is to let him do a Heat Action on you, which will deal a lot of damage and potentially even kill you anyway.
    • Saejima's Superboss during the Amon subquest, Jiro. Compared to the others, Jiro is usually seen as the hardest Amon, even harder than Jo himself. Jiro has an explosive hammer that detonates whenever it makes contact with Saejima, but he's slow enough that whittling him down to his final health bar seems easy... until he pops Heat and gains an insane health regeneration buff that means unless you can stunlock him and smash him down to half his final health bar (where he unlocks a second Heat stage with a slower regen effect in favour of being faster) or use a string of weapons and Heat Moves, it's easy to get caught in a loop of doing damage, falling back to avoid the hammer, and watching your progress be undone by the regen.
  • Tanimura's final boss. If you don't have the Sacred Tree Armor equipped, Munakata is an absolute slog of a final boss. He's surrounded by multiple bodyguards, some of whom possess knives that can cut right through Tanimura's defense and stun him. And several of them possess multiple health bars as well. Meanwhile, Munakata stands on the out rim of the arena, taking potshots at Tanimura with a hitscanning pistol. It's a matter of slowly whittling away at multiple opponents while constantly having your combos interrupted, meaning that getting in Tanimura's more damaging attacks is close to impossible until the ranks start thinning out. That said, utilizing Tanimura's arm bar grapple throw for i-frames and crowd control damage does help quite a bit, though it's still a pretty grueling fight and this tactic doesn't work when grabbing the Bodyguard Captain.
• That One Level: The prison break from Saejima's Chapter 1. Considering how weak Saejima starts off as and the fact that you just finished playing as the much quicker Akiyama, this section can be an absolute nightmare, especially on hard mode. While the first group of enemies are easy enough to deal with, the subsequent one-on-one fight with Saito is likely to kill you a few times, with him moving a lot faster than Saejima, allowing to dodge Charged Attacks and get him into a combo. You then have to run through the yard, defeating enemies and breaking through doors while avoiding sniper fire, which is a lot easier said than done considering the lack of places to take cover in without being cornered. The enemies you encounter during this also includes guards who will frequently grab you and ones with flashbangs, who will stun/lock Saejima in place and leave him open to attacks by the other guards and the sniper. Then after you get to end, you fight Saito again, only this time he's a Flunky Boss and one of his Mooks has a gun, the only saving grace being that they drop healing items for Saejima to use as he deals with Saito.
• That One Sidequest: Akiyama's training with Saigo, specifically the combat training portions where Akiyama has to defeat Saigo while he's carrying around a submachine gun with "non-lethal" rounds. He's resistant to knockdowns, his gun attacks will deal a ton of damage from a distance and his shooting attacks even track Akiyama if you try to run around him to avoid the bullets. Just about the only useful unarmed tactic is to repeat a specific combo double finisher (XXXYY on Xbox controllers) that will stunlock him until he's down but it's not exactly an easy task. It's even worse during the harder "Suicidal" version of combat training where he has the assistance of two of his students armed with pistols of their own. Make sure to go into battle with a ton of healing... or better yet overpowered weapons like the super spicy knife.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • Lily. The game presents her as a sympathetic figure who's forced to kill several people to save her brother, and her death just as she finally reunites with Saejima was meant to be seen as tragic. But players found it hard to shed tears because the circumstances that led to her death were arguably the result of her own stupidity, such as ignoring Kiryu's warnings and running straight into Katsuragi's trap. There was also her conversation with Tanimura where she accuses him of being selfish for wanting to find the truth behind the Uena Seiwa hit, which makes her a complete hypocrite considering that she killed several people for arguably even more selfish reasons.
  • Kiryu during his confrontation with Daigo atop the Millenium Tower. He denounces Daigo's methods to save the Tojo Clan and decides to show him how heavy a burden leading the Tojo Clan really is by beating him in a duel, with Kiryu's victory showing that his conviction triumphs over Daigo's. The problem is that Kiryu doesn't have the moral high ground to call out Daigo considering that he himself stepped down from his position as Chairman immediately after his induction, thereby running away from his own responsibilities while Daigo at least tried his best despite the bad hand he'd been dealt with. Even worse is that much of the problems Daigo is currently facing can be attributed to Kiryu's actions, such as leaving Terada as his successor, and never preparing Daigo for his position.
• Values Dissonance: Part of the reason why the rubber bullets twist was so heavily contested can be attributed to the dissonance between Western and Japanese gun control laws. Many criticize Majima and Saejima for failing to check to see if their rounds are legit. But thanks to Japan's strict gun control laws, and being novice yakuza who placed a lot of trust in their bosses, Majima and Saejima have little experience with firearms and are unlikely to differentiate between real and fake rounds, and as this was in the 1980s when rubber bullets were still a prototype, they wouldn't have even known to check. This also addresses the reason why the Ueno Seiwa officers, with the exception of Katsuragi, were unarmed.

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