Challenge Guide - Guide for Yakuza 4

Yakuza 4: Ultimate Challenge FAQ by xRicexCakex
Version 1.0, Last Updated 2010-07-18 View/Download Original File Hosted by GameFAQs
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Ryu Ga Gotoku 4 / Yakuza 4 Ultimate Challenge Guide by xRicexCakex on 
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Content
-------
Introduction
General Information
Part 1 - Brawl Challenges
Part 2 - Duel Challenges
Part 3 - Trial Challenges
Part 4 - Chase Challenges
Part 5 - Ultimate Challenges
Closing Comments
-------









Introduction=============================================================

This is a guide detailing the Ultimate Challenges of the game "Ryu Ga 
Gotoku 4," or "Yakuza 4" in the United States. This game has not been 
released outside of Japan and Asia, as such, the entire game is still in 
Japanese (as of 7/17/10). All the names used here are translated 
personally by me, and since I won't credit myself as a master of the 
Japanese language, you as the reader might feel that some translations 
are inadequate. I apologize for that, but while I welcome all suggestions, 
please refrain from contacting me regarding mundane word choices.

As for the Ultimate Challenges themselves, they are unlocked once you 
have beaten the game on any difficulty level. There are altogether 35 of 
them, and only 4 are unlocked right at the beginning. They are divided 
into 5 parts, the names of which I listed in the content list. There are 
10 Brawl Challenges, 5 Duel Challenges, 10 Trial Challenges, 5 Chase 
Challenges and 5 Ultimate Challenges. Only the first challenges of Brawl, 
Duel, Trial, and Chase are unlocked at the start. As you beat a stage, 
the next stage of that section opens up. Once you have beaten all of the 
stages in each section, one stage of the Ultimate Challenges becomes 
unlocked. For example, once you have beaten all 10 of the Brawl 
Challenges, the first stage of the Ultimate Challenges unlocks. The 5th 
Ultimate Challenge will only be unlocked once you have beaten the other 4 
Ultimate Challenges. In other words, you will have to beat all 34 stages 
in order to unlock that last challenge stage.

For those who are familiar with the Yakuza series, the Ultimate 
Challenges this time is relatively easy in difficulty. The developers 
have removed the "grading" of the challenges, so there are no more "S," 
"A," "B," or "C" ranks. Instead, all you have to do is to complete the 
objectives of each stage. For completion of all 35 stages regardless of 
how well you do, you will receive the Brawling God Amulet upon opening up 
a "Premium Adventure Mode" or "Premium New Game." You will actually 
receive a text message in game, and then you can pick it off Bob 
Utsunomiya A in the Fortune Teller's place. The amulet, when equipped, 
grants you a full heat bar at all times. You'll still expend heat as you 
do heat actions, but the bar refills instantly right after. It is an 
incredibly powerful (and fun) item. You should note that in the case of 
Kiryu you will be in red heat all the time. You will then be unable to do 
Kiryu's normal Kali sticks heat action, as you will always do the red 
heat one. Also of note is that the "Blue Dragon Heat Mode" will not be 
active once you equip the amulet. This ability prevents you from dying as 
long as you are in heat mode. As such, with the Brawling God Amulet you 
will still die despite the fact that you have trained this ability and 
that your heat bar is full.










General Information======================================================

This is just a section to keep some general tips and information.

First off, I'll be providing the goals, the weapons, the enemies, and any 
special circumstances of each challenge below. Nevertheless, all the 
skills that you have learned in the main story will apply. You'll start 
each challenge controlling a main protagonist, which one you have depends 
on the challenge itself. You'll also start either with full abilities or 
next to no abilities and little hp. The ones that restrict your move list 
and health bar almost always require some type of special weapon to 
achieve the goal.

I will be using X, O, T, and S to describe moves. T is triangle, S is 
square, X is... x, and O is circle.


When fighting with Akiyama:

The trick is to make good use of his sway cancel and his low kicks. If 
you have his full abilities, you can pretty much deal a lot of hits with 
his Sx4 Tx3 combo. You should get used to counting his flurry of kicks at 
the end of the S string. I believe the maximum he can deliver is about 
twelve hits; you do not need to press S for each kick, but you should 
keep pressing S until he delivers the complete 12, then use the T hits. 
Sway cancel can get you away from the enemy regardless of whether or not 
you are in the middle of a combo. This is a very powerful move against 
any enemy. What you can do is hit the boss or goon with a few hits, and 
if the enemy is going to counter you while he is guarding, you can easily 
sway to his back and continue with your combos. When in doubt, you can 
semi-spam that move just so you can get into an advantageous position.

Akiyama, as mentioned, also hits lower than the other protagonists. This 
means that he is especially good at juggling enemies. As long as the 
enemy isn't completely down on the ground, you can probably hit him. Try 
experimenting with the Run + Tx3 move and the Tx2 move as well as lacing 
in a regular combo. What often happens is that you could floor the enemy 
with a Run + Tx3 (or any other move), and then kick him up with a Tx2. 
Most of the time you should be able to hit the enemy towards a wall, 
which will set him up to almost a full combo's worth of hits. In other 
words, Tx2 is a great move to keep the juggling alive, Run + Tx3 is a 
great move to start a juggling combo, a wall bounce is awesome to restart 
a juggling string, and a regular combo is great to end a juggling string 
with; if you can hit the enemy towards parked bikes or moveable objects 
along the walls, you can pretty much kill any regular enemy with that one 
juggle.

While I can only think of two circumstances where this happens, enemies 
sometimes glitch when you hit them towards an invisible wall or a corner. 
What happens is instead of bouncing back on his knees, the enemy will 
roll, seemingly slipping on that wall/corner. You can then quickly do a 
Tx2 to hit him towards that invisible wall again and keep repeating this 
process until he dies. This is especially useful (and cheap) when you 
fight Kiryu in IF-7R. Since that fight is especially hard with Akiyama if 
you are not used to sway cancel, this trick could potentially end the 
fight rather easily. There is an invisible wall towards the gate on the 
map. Another place where you could use this would be in the fight against 
Ihara. You don't really need it, but one of the couch corners will glitch 
him so he "rolls" as if he's flying against an invisible wall.

Akiyama could also do an R1+T counter like Kiryu. This counter, however, 
isn't as powerful in terms of damage, but is as effective in terms of 
knocking down enemies. He is, however, powerful and fast enough with the 
above abilities that this shouldn't be needed considering that the 
enemies he faces aren't too difficult.


When fighting with Saejima:

Saejima, for better or for worse, is almost a one trick pony. However, 
his one trick is very powerful. If you have his complete list of 
abilities, as long as you are in heat mode (not hard to achieve), you are 
pretty much invincible. The combo of choice is Sx3 T(hold)x3. When you 
are in heat mode, your punches will not be interrupted by any attack 
except throws. When you are holding on to the T for the finishers, you 
won't be interrupted regardless of if whether or not you are in heat mode. 
What this means is that you can even punch the air quickly three times 
and then store up the three T hits for a lot of damage. Also, the T hits 
will floor any enemy, including bosses. What this means is that you can 
Sx3, T(hold)x3, then follow up with either a floor punch heat move or a 
head butt heat move (as the enemy is getting up). As long as you don't 
spend your heat too much, you can beat any enemy in the game easily 
except for the ABADANA sumo in the arena and Amon. This means that most 
of the time you can spam your way to victory, which isn't that fun.

If you want to mix things up, there are a few other good moves, albeit 
they are not as effective. Saejima's throw is really powerful, and you 
can do it to any enemy. You can also do the wall-ram heat move by 
grabbing an enemy and kicking him into a wall. The bouncing haymaker heat 
move (which is my favorite) is also very easy to deliver through a Sx1 
T(hold)x1 combo. Saejima's Run+T(hold) move is fun as well, and can 
potentially get you out of tight spots.


When fighting with Tanimura:

Ah, Tanimura. He is perhaps the most tedious of the four protagonists. 
His attacks are slow, his hp is low, and his hits aren't that powerful. 
Nevertheless, he has three things going for him: combo heat actions, 
sabaki, and sabaki associated heat actions.

He has 4 combo heat actions, 3 of which could be upgraded to include 
another hit. These heat actions are activated with a T at the end of his 
four different length combos. The good thing is that you can mix and 
match these heat actions to avoid diminishing returns (where you deal 
half damage with the same heat action on the same enemy). The bad news is 
that they are easy for someone to mistakenly activate since some might 
mash the T buttons. Also, you cannot do these unless you land the final 
hit of your combo, which is difficult to do head on to a boss.

Tanimura's sabaki move is his signature move, and it is also his most 
"powerful" move. If it's upgraded, you can hold on to L1 and repeatedly 
reapply it to become almost invulnerable to melee hits, including melee 
weapon hits. This move can also shove people into walls and other people, 
dealing minor damage. The downside to this is that if you are surrounded, 
you have to pretty much rely on this move to deal damage for Tanimura's 
combos are too slow to be effective in groups. What this means is that 
you'll often wind up in a drawn out fight where you get bored to tears.

However, have no fear, for Tanimura has heat actions associated with the 
sabaki move. I'm sure you are familiar with the heat action that pops up 
when you L1 someone in heat mode. This will damage the enemy decently and 
set him up for another heat action for you'll end up arm-locking him. So 
what you can do is to sabaki (L1) people until you are in heat mode, then 
use this move to do two heat actions in a row or to just do one and then 
throw him. Either way the damage you deal is significant and this will 
speed up the group fights that Tanimura often finds himself in.


When fighting with Kiryu:

Kiryu is in a league all his own. While Saejima is arguably the easiest 
to play and the most powerful in terms of damage, Kiryu has almost all 
the tricks in the book. He has two parries and one guard counter, a 
plethora of heat actions, and very fast and damaging combos (Sx3 Tx2).

I would advise everyone to familiarize himself/herself with all the heat 
actions that Kiryu can do. With this, you can bypass the problem of 
diminishing returns on heat actions that plague the rest of the 
protagonists. I would also recommend you to get used to either R1+O or 
R1+T to parry/counter an attack. This, however, requires pure reflex and 
anticipation and is hard to master. Since R1+T (aka Tiger Drop) sometimes 
fails, you should use R1+O (aka Komaki Parry) against armed enemies and 
use R1+T against slow melee enemies. Since lots of enemies predictably 
try to hit you right after you deliver a combo, you can also press 
someone's guard with three punches and then immediately do a R1+T to 
counter his retaliation. One should note that the Dragon heat action that 
activates when you are in red heat mode and has just dazed somebody with 
an R1+O is a lot more powerful this time around. It'll kill almost all 
regular enemies, most of the enemies in the arena, and wipe out almost an 
entire bar of a boss's hp.

Kiryu can also juggle enemies. While it's not technically a juggle, it's 
more reliable than Akiyama's. What you can do is knock down someone with 
an Sx3 Tx2 then kick him once when he bounces on the ground. Before he 
lands on the ground again, X+T to charge attack him into a wall for if 
you kick him again he'll get up more quickly. You may then be able to do 
another half-combo. If not, run quickly to his head and pick him up. If 
he's positioned correctly you should be able to deliver another combo 
into his back. Rinse and repeat this process for maximal results.









Brawl Challenges=========================================================

The Brawl Challenges, like the name suggests, are challenges where you 
fight multiple enemies going against the clock (except for the last 
stage). However, there are often specific conditions that you have to 
meet and weapons that you have to use for each stage.



Stage 1-1----------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Strongest Kiryu (a completely upgraded Kiryu)

Time Limit: 2 minutes 30 seconds

Weapons: NMR-Limbo Model (press left on the thumb stick) - 300 damage

Enemies: 5 homeless guys with one bar of hp each

Location: Intersection of Nakamichi and Taihei (in front of the coin 
lockers)

Conditions: Defeat all the enemies

Strategy:

This is probably the first stage you would tackle. All you have to do is 
beat the 5 relatively weak hobos in less than 2 and a half minutes. 
Considering the fact that you start out with a completely upgraded Kiryu 
and the fact that the hobos have only one bar of hp, this is a really 
easy stage to beat.

You can go about this a couple of ways. You can beat them straight up 
with combos and heat actions or pull out the NMR machine gun and start 
spraying away. Pressing and holding on to T will put Kiryu in place while 
he sprays bullets in an arc in front of him. Pressing S will let him 
shoot off a short burst of bullets that take off approximately 1/3 of a 
hobo's hp. I suggest using the gun for it is a fun weapon to use. The 
only other way to use the weapon is to beat all of Kiryu's substories in 
the main game (without having to complete Amon) and then create the 
weapon in Kamiyama's place.

You should be able to finish the stage with ample time to spare even if 
you somehow did terrible.



Stage 1-2----------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Strongest Saejima

Time Limit: 5 minutes

Weapons: Gluttonous Wolf's Mandible (left) - 60, Photon Blade PG (right) 
- 100, Raging Dragon's Hammer (up)

Enemies: An endless stream of weak enemies plus two enemies with 
incredibly long hp (5 bars?)

Location: Inside the Kamurocho Hills

Conditions: Defeat 100 enemies

Strategy:

Since you're using Saejima, you don't really have to worry about not 
dealing enough damage or going low on hp. When you start, pull up any of 
the weapons and whack away. Just rinse and repeat, going towards where 
the enemies are the densest, and you should win. Note that the fist 
weapon will kill the enemies in 3 hits, the blade in 1, and the hammer in 
1. The hammer has really low durability, so you can't really rely on its 
wide arc hits.

Since the enemies are endless, you should ignore the two scary looking 
dudes (that's literally their name) and just focus on the weak enemies. 
You may take a lot of hits while using the blade since Saejima's blade 
attacks are slow and wide-open, but it's powerful enough that it should 
compensate.



Stage 1-3----------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Strongest Tanimura

Time limit: 5 minutes

Weapons: Grand Dragon Spear (left) - 90, Platinum Triangle (right) - 100, 
Dragon Deity Short Sword (up) - 120

Enemies: 1 guy with pistol, 1 guy with machine gun, 2 melee guys

Location: Kamurocho Roofs

Conditions: Defeat all the enemies

Strategy:

The major threat obviously comes from the two enemies with guns. Quickly 
press right to pull out the platinum triangle and kill the machine gunner. 
Follow that up by killing the pistol-wielding dude. After that, finish 
the rest as you please, perhaps with the pistol that the enemy just 
dropped.



Stage 1-4----------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Strongest Saejima

Time Limit: 5 minutes

Weapons: None

Enemies: 5 weak enemies who throw really damaging grenades, 1 sniper

Location: Prison Break Action Stage

Condition: Defeat all the enemies except for the sniper

Strategy: 

The setting looks familiar doesn't it? This is actually the final leg of 
the action stage of Saejima's prison break just before you get down to 
the field for the escape. In other words, this is the area with the 
annoying sniper.

The good news is that the enemies that are on this stage are relatively 
weak. You can finish them off with 4 hits. The bad news is that the 
grenades that they hurl really hurt and you have a laser sight to dodge. 
You'll start at the beginning of the stage facing south. Quickly turn 
around and go around the building to see the first enemy.
Don't worry if he throws the grenade, you'll have plenty of hp to spare. 
Also, if you get close enough he'll most likely kill himself with the 
grenade, making your job easier. Anyway, after he is down, run east and 
open the door with your fists. Keep rolling to avoid taking a shot from 
the sniper (you'll notice that the sniper will take a shot once the green 
laser has gone completely red).

After opening the door, move around the caged area and open the door of 
the caged area that's on the North side. This time you can simply move 
left and right as you punch the door to avoid the laser. There's another 
guy in there that needs killing. Turn around afterwards to open the door 
that leads to the next area. The door should shield you from the sniper, 
but there are two guys with grenades in the next area. Dispatch them 
promptly (or let them dispatch themselves) and open another door. The 
last guy is behind that door.



Stage 1-5----------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Weakest Kiryu (next to no abilities)

Time Limit: 3 minutes

Weapons: None (there are 5 guns that could be picked up)

Enemies: 8 shambling zombies

Location: The Underground Parking Lot

Condition: Defeat all the enemies, the enemies will not take damage 
except from pistols

Strategy:

Yup, it's Dawn of the Dead Yakuza style. The enemies are not really much 
of a threat since they shamble really slowly. Nevertheless, since they 
only take damage from pistols and you start out with none, this could 
turn ugly very quickly.

Fear not, for there are 5 guns that littler the floor, and 5 hits are 
enough to kill an enemy (each gun has 10 shots). Start out by running 
forward and turning left. There should be a gun lying on the road in 
front of the 104 lot. It might be hard to see, but it's there. Kill two 
zombies then throw the gun away once it's empty. Now, turnaround from the 
104 lot and run back to 102. There should be a gun right behind the 
pillar labeled 102. Kill 2, throw the gun away. Opposite of where you got 
this gun, there's a pistol lying under the 200 plate. Kill 2, throw it 
away. Just follow the path for the last gun you need. You should come to 
a couple of public bathrooms once you turn the corner. The gun is lying 
right in front of them and it should be all you need to finish the stage.

If you missed a shot, the last gun's all the way at the NE corner. It's 
by the wall of lot 312.



Stage 1-6----------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Weakest Akiyama (you have very little hp)

Time Limit: 2 minutes 30 seconds

Weapons: None (there are things to be picked up)

Enemies: 2 Weak enemies with no means to attack, 1 crowned enemy with a 
pistol and decent hp

Location: The Kamurocho Roofs

Condition: Defeat all the enemies, you can't attack the enemies except 
with thrown weapons

Strategy:

So you start the stage with a very low HP Akiyama. The enemies can't 
reach you physically, and you can't reach them; however, one guy has a 
gun and he'll keep taking shots at you. Anticipate his shots with his 
yell. What you have to do is pick up items on the ground and throw it at 
the three enemies. Note that all the items will not be retrievable once 
you've thrown them, but there are infinite beer bottles from a crate that 
you can throw.

So start out by turning immediately to the right and picking up one of 
the two grenades that are in the right corner. Aim it carefully at the 
crowned dude (while avoiding his bullets) and throw it at him. This 
should not be enough to kill him, but you have another grenade to finish 
him off. Once he's gone, this stage becomes a cakewalk for you can just 
pick up the random objects that litter the floor and kill the two enemies 
that can't really retaliate.



Stage 1-7----------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Strongest Akiyama

Time Limit: 25 seconds

Weapons: None

Enemies: 1 weak, crowned enemy

Location: The Docks

Condition: Defeat the enemy, if you slip, you fail

Strategy:

This stage takes place at the Tanimura action stage where the ground is 
covered with oil. While there's only one enemy, if you slip on the oil, 
you will have failed the mission. The key here, then, is to walk by 
holding on to R1 and cut corners for the time limit is kind of strict. 
Just hold on to R1 and walk directly to the enemy. Beat him up and claim 
victory. Note that you WILL slip if you sway with X... so don't sway.



Stage 1-8----------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Weakest Kiryu

Time Limit: 1 minute

Weapons: "Danger, do not hit" Sign (left) - 1000, Great Swordfish Spear 
(right) - varies

Enemies: 1 very powerful enemy with extremely low hp (purple), 1 weak 
enemy with long, replenishing hp (yellow)

Location: The Sewers

Condition: Defeat both enemies

Strategy:

Note- Tricky Stage

This is kind of a strange stage. Since Kiryu doesn't have any of his 
abilities, you'll have to rely on the weapons to do the job. The purple 
clothed enemy is very strong; he could potentially take away half your hp 
in one hit. However, he is frail enough that a couple of regular punches 
from Kiryu will put him to sleep for good. The yellow enemy, on the other 
hand, doesn't have powerful moves, but his hp is very long and it 
regenerates really quickly.

This is, then, a race against time and also a race against your weapon's 
durability. Start out by TAKING A HIT from the purple-clothed monstrosity. 
After that, quickly punch his lights out. Then, pull out the sign, 
quickly hold T, and hit the yellow guy. The sign has only one durability, 
but it hits hard. Quickly switch to the swordfish spear and start 
whacking away at him with S. The lower your HP is, the more damage the 
swordfish spear does. Therefore, by taking the big hit from the purple 
guy, you ensure that the spear does enough damage to kill the yellow guy 
before it disintegrates. If you end up losing the spear before the yellow 
guy goes down, retry it again and take a bit more damage this time.



Stage 1-9----------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Weakest Tanimura

Time Limit: 5 minutes

Weapons: None

Enemies: 1 white guy, 1 blue guy, 1 black guy

Location: In a grand hall of some kind

Condition: Defeat all the enemies

Strategy:

Note- Semi-Tricky Stage

This stage is a bit tricky because you're using a very weak Tanimura with 
almost no skills. The enemies are also kind of tough. The white guy kicks, 
the blue guy does punches and throws, and the black guy uses brass 
knuckles. If you get surrounded and/or get hit by the black guy's flurry 
of blows, you might as well restart for Tanimura really can't handle that 
much punishment. The key, then, is patience and sabaki. Go for the white 
guy first, then the blue guy, and then the black guy (cautiously). It's 
important to note that sometimes they will not stagger if you hit them, 
so watch out.



Stage 1-10---------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Weakest Kiryu

Time Limit: None

Weapons: None (can pick up weapons that enemies drop: 2 swords, 1 knife, 
1 pipe)

Enemies: 5 - one with Chinese sword, two with sword, one with pipe, one 
with knife

Location: On top of Millennium Tower

Condition: Defeat all enemies, you'll die in one hit

Strategy:

All in all a very annoying fight. The most dangerous enemy of the bunch 
is the guy with the pony tail. He'll sheath his sword and then attack you 
by drawing it really fast. It's hard to avoid and has a pretty wide arc 
plus long range. First, take out the Chinese sword guy on the right with 
one short combo; he has really low hp. Then, watch so that you don't get 
surrounded; run around the area to separate them. You could also throw 
them since the throw animation makes you temporarily invincible. Next 
target would be the guy with short HP and sword. After you've beaten him, 
pick up the sword to guard their attacks. Kill the guy with the pipe 
first, watching out so that guy with sword don't get you. If your sword 
runs out of durability, pick up the pipe. Finally, take out the guy with 
the sword with a weapon heat action, then finish the guy with the knife.









Duel Challenges==========================================================

The Duel Challenges, like the name suggests, are challenges where you'll 
face off against bosses in one on one situations. Well, this is true 
except for the final challenge.



Stage 2-1----------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Strongest Akiyama

Time Limit: 2 minutes

Weapons: None

Enemies: Minami with 2 long health bars

Location: in Elise

Condition: Defeat Minami

Strategy:

This is a pretty simple fight; it's the normal boss fight against Minami. 
With each 1/2 bar of hp that you chip off of him, he'll start drinking. 
While that is a good time to attack (he takes full damage), with each 
drink that he takes he'll become much faster at dodging and more 
aggressive. In fact, he'll also gain the ability to do a counterattack if 
you manage to floor him (the flip slide punch). With two drinks he'll go 
into purple heat mode and dodge a whole lot. He'll also gain the ability 
to counter your attack while he's guarding. He'll do a dodge backhand 
that'll stun you if you're not fast enough to block or get out of it. 
When he's damaged a little in his heat mode, he'll do his QTE which is 
X+T+ a random clockwise sequence followed by T. Since there aren't really 
any walls for you to do the wall heat action, you'll have to rely on the 
floor pursuit heat action and the heat action where you counterattack 
someone who's hitting you from behind. You'll have to time the latter 
well so you don't actually take the hit. The fight itself is easy, you 
could probably win just by pressing on with your Sx4(many S)Tx3 combo. In 
fact, try to corner him, deliver a full combo, and while he's falling to 
the ground, do a Tx2 followed by another full combo. You'll find that he 
takes almost all the hits and you can repeat that once he gets up. 
However, he becomes especially dangerous after he's got his third drink 
(after the QTE). Y find that he's extremely fast in this mode and has a 
couple of dodge attacks that will stun you. He should have next to no hp 
left, though and you could finish him off with regular combos or the 
counterattack heat action.



Stage 2-2----------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Strongest Saejima

Time Limit: 2 minutes

Weapons: None

Enemies: Majima

Location: Batting Center

Condition: Defeat Majima

Strategy:

He will do a QTE very soon after you've chipped off half a bar of his HP. 
The sequence contains a random first button input but it is then followed 
by 3 consecutive counterclockwise buttons (ie TSXO). After that he'll go 
into heat mode. Like most iterations of Majima across the different games, 
he's really fast, especially in heat mode. In heat mode he just slides 
around until you attack and then he'll slide in and hit you.

With a bit less than 1 bar of HP left, he'll start spinning. Run and 
dodge to avoid most of the damage he deals, you can't really hit him or 
get him out of the spin. You'll be able to block it if you're in heat 
mode, but since he slides around a lot, he'll probably hit you from the 
sides as you're guarding. In the end you might end up taking as much 
damage as if you were running anyway. After the spin he'll become tired, 
which is a good time to deliver some hurt. He'll do another QTE with 
about 1/2 a bar of HP left. It contains a random button press (X or S I 
believe) followed by 3 consecutive clockwise buttons. You'll also have to 
input an extra clockwise sequence to get your heat up then release it 
with T.

The easiest way to go about this is to just spam your Sx3T(hold)x3 combo. 
Quickly deliver the three punches then HOLD ON to T. He'll probably slide 
away and your first hit might miss. However, keep pressing T and move the 
left analog stick towards him. You should spin towards wherever he is and 
floor him with your second or third T attack. Do a heat action once he's 
on the ground. Just rinse and repeat this, get the QTE sequences right, 
avoid his spin attack, and victory is easily yours.



Stage 2-3----------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Strongest Tanimura

Time Limit: 2 minutes 30 seconds

Weapons: None

Enemies: Sugiuchi

Location: The Docks

Condition: Defeat Sugiuchi

Strategy:

His heat mode is a little erratic in terms of timing. I think he goes 
into it randomly after you floor him. However, what I'm sure is that if 
you do a heat action to him he'll get out of the heat mode. This also 
includes pressing the random QTE that he does if he floors you. He'll be 
able to throw you really easily with or without heat mode though, so you 
should take this into consideration whenever you use a heat action (you 
can save it to counterattack his throw; that heat action actually hurts 
quite a bit). He'll also be un-throwable in heat mode; he'll just throw 
you instead so throwing is definitely not recommended. In his heat mode 
you also can't L1 his attacks. In fact, he'll mix it up so that he 
attacks your lower body parts and do charged attacks that can't really be 
blocked.

This is very annoying fight if you're not used to Tanimura's slow speed. 
You should think twice about delivering the final T of your combo attacks, 
usually Sugiuchi would be able to attack back before that goes through. 
However, there are two exceptions to this: one is if he has his back 
towards you either through dodging or L1, two is if you use Sx2Tx1. This 
short combo is actually the most effective combo in this fight. It's fast, 
and sometimes it'll go through. Even if it doesn't, it'll break his guard 
so that you have enough time to attack again.

So it goes like this, L1 him when he attacks in normal mode. If you get 
caught in his high kick combo, guard until the third high kick, then 
repress L1 to sabaki his final kick. You should be able to deliver a full, 
long combo after you sabaki him. However, he might be able to attack back 
before the last hit if you're not fast enough. You might also be able to 
deliver a combo heat action, but you should, again, consider saving it 
for his throws. He'll go into the first heat mode randomly after you've 
damaged him enough with this. If he goes into heat mode while he's on the 
ground and you have enough heat, do a armlock heat action as he's getting 
up (just press T near him as he's getting up). He'll be out of heat mode 
immediately if done right. If not, keep moving and keep dodging, for his 
heat mode is hard to stop with blocks. Anticipate his attacks so that you 
can go around to his back. This is especially useful when he does a 
charged attack for he can't change directions. If you get floored, no big 
deal, just press the random QTE and he'll be back to normal. If you get 
gabbed, GREAT because you should have saved up enough heat for the 
counterattack heat action, right? Anyway, watch out for his dodge attack 
for it'll stun you. If you wish to go after him head on, use the Sx2Tx2 
combo as always. Rinse and repeat the combo, the sabaki, and dodges and 
the fight should be yours.

I've actually managed to beat him without taking one hit and without 
letting him go into heat mode. This, however, requires some luck. L1 him 
as always and deliver the full combo. As he gets up, floor him again with 
a Sx2Tx1 combo. If you're lucky he won't go into heat mode until he's got 
less than 1 bar of hp left. Anticipate this and save up heat. Do the 
armlock heat action when he goes into heat mode on the ground. The rest 
should be a small matter of cleaning up.



Stage 2-4----------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Strongest Kiryu

Time Limit: 2 minutes

Weapons: None

Enemies: Akiyama and Tanimura

Location: Northern Sewers

Condition: Defeat Akiyama and Tanimura

Strategy: 

So where do I begin, there are so many ways to do this fight. Since 
you're familiar with all of their abilities (I hope), all of their 
advantages and disadvantages that you have discovered in the main game 
exist here. Tanimura can L1 you (though he doesn't do it often) and do 
combo heat actions against you, but he's also slow as heck when he 
punches. Akiyama can dodge around and be annoying, but he's not a heavy 
hitter. When you get one of them to low HP, the other might go into heat 
mode and then they will do a QTE: OX(repeated X input) followed by 
clockwise button presses to get your heat up then T.

What makes this fight easy is the fact that Akiyama and Tanimura are 
really weak if fought alone. Since they have such little hp, it's not 
hard to defeat one of them really fast. You can go for Akiyama or 
Tanimura first; I recommend Akiyama since Tanimura's a more slippery rat 
to catch. Start out by rushing towards one of them and doing Sx3Tx2. Kick 
him once on the ground, X+T him, and then watch for the other guy. If 
there's no immediate danger (ie the other guy's just shifting around not 
doing much), pick the floored one up and deliver another combo to his 
back. You should be able to do a heat action then. This will probably 
trigger the QTE and kill one of them (if you press the buttons 
successfully). Whichever one's left should be easy to defeat. Since there 
are two of them there is a ton of combination of moves that they could do. 
Just make sure you don't get ganged up and quickly dispatch one. I've 
never really left them alive long enough to see what their heat actions 
could do. I've seen a combo heat action from Tanimura but that's about it. 
Just remember that all the moves that you could do when controlling them 
they could do too.



Stage 2-5----------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Strongest Kiryu

Time Limit: None

Weapons: None

Enemies: Daigo and Arai

Location: Tojo House

Condition: Defeat Daigo and Arai with Akiyama

Strategy:

So again you're facing off against two opponents. All the moves that they 
could do in the main story, they could do here (except for the QTEs). 
Akiyama is actually a great help, just think of him as the same guy who 
you've just defeated in the last challenge (but with one bar more hp).

Since one of them will always follow you around and the other will always 
follow Akiyama, you could potentially treat this as two one on one fights. 
While most likely Daigo will be the first to fight you, I've actually had 
Arai as my first opponent.

Daigo's first blue heat mode is somewhat of a pain. He'll become 
impossible to knock down and will deliver long combos repeatedly (5-6 
hits). He'll also counter your attacks while he's guarding by using an 
uninterruptable charge hit (you'll hear the 'ching' sound as well as see 
him flash white and dodging backwards). Sometimes he'll also use an (or a 
couple of) uninterruptable hit at the end of his combos (watch for his 
kicks). If you get away from him, he'll do a charged jumping attack that 
has pretty long range. He's unthrowable, and some of his combos will 
break your guard and hit you with a follow up.

Nevertheless, he doesn't hit for much and he doesn't guard much (he does 
dodge a lot though). Note that he goes into his first blue heat mode 
pretty fast and won't get out of it. When you've damaged him until he has 
about 1/2 bar of HP left, he'll go into his second heat mode. You can see 
it when he shines white and does a taunt (he hits his fists together). 
He's dangerous in this heat mode. Everything he does previously he could 
still do. Now, though, he not only is impossible to knock down, he won't 
be phased at all by any attack. This means he'll attack through your hits. 
He'll also sometimes instantly throw you when you try to hit him. The 
only sure way of defeating him easily in this mode is to make sure that 
you have conserved heat. You could also get heat by blocking his attacks, 
but again, some of his attacks are difficult to block. Whenever he knocks 
you down, he'll stand by you and taunt. This is actually a perfect 
opportunity to do the counter heat action that you can do when you're on 
the ground. This alone should be sufficient to kill him. You could also 
do the rolling heat action, but he moves and attacks a lot so it's harder 
to carry out.

Arai is a different story; he is much easier to defeat. First off, when 
he's not in heat mode, he doesn't guard a lot. He does dodge hits just 
like any other boss, but it's easy to sway to his back. The only thing I 
would watch out for would be that he could dodge away from the last few 
hits of your combo and kick you. This is easily remedied by anticipating 
it, cutting your combos short, and then dodging to his back. After you've 
dealt enough damage (1/2 a bar of HP), he'll go into his first blue heat 
mode. In this mode, his attacks will have more hits. He'll also dodge a 
lot more often and be harder to catch. Like Daigo, he'll mix in some 
uninterruptable attacks. Additionally, he'll throw you if you attempt to 
throw him. However, he's still easy to knock down, and one heat action 
should be almost enough to knock him out of the heat mode. When he's down 
to about a 1/2 bar of HP, he'll go into his red heat mode. You won't be 
able to knock him down now; he'll also do charged, heavy attacks more 
often. Most importantly, he'll sometimes go into a stance where he has 
his hands spread out in front of him. This is an obvious "do not attack" 
sign for if you do, he'll throw you.

The thing that makes this fight not so rough, besides for the ever-
helpful Akiyama, is that they do not hit hard at all. In my research for 
the fight, I've let Daigo pretty much lay into me in his double blue heat 
mode. I did not attempt to hit him too much and made it a long, drawn-out 
fight. When I defeated him, though, he had merely taken off half of my HP 
bar.









Trial Challenges=========================================================

The Trial challenges are pretty much challenges that don't fit the bill 
of the other challenges. They are varied and often interesting in design. 
However, some of them could be tricky due to clever (or not so clever) 
use of in-game mechanics.



Stage 3-1----------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Strongest Akiyama

Time Limit: None

Weapons: None

Enemies: Seven unarmed enemies with one bar of hp each

Location: Theater Square

Condition: Defeat more enemies (4+) than Hana-chan.

Strategy:

So this is a strange fight. You're actually "teamed" up with Hana-chan. 
However, the objective of this course is not to defeat them with Hana-
chan; it's to defeat more enemies than Hana-chan. Since the enemies are 
just regular trash mobs I won't go into details about them. However, 
Hana-chan does this jumping attack that pretty much leaves them with 1/5 
of their hp. This means that if you try to kill an enemy yourself, Hana-
chan might come along and steal the kill. What you want to do, then, is 
to stay close to Hana-chan and not attack. After she has hit an enemy, 
kill him before she has a chance to hit him again. Rinse and repeat and 
you should win (you need 4 out of the 7 to win, duh).



Stage 3-2----------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Weakest Tanimura

Time Limit: 1 minute

Weapons: None

Enemies: 3 unarmed enemies with low hp

Location: In a small office

Condition: Defeat all the enemies using only L1

Strategy:

This is an annoying fight if you don't know exactly what to do. You'll be 
using Tanimura and the only "attack" you can do would be to knock people 
into others and into walls with L1. You'll be unable to do anything else. 
What makes this fight annoying is the time limit plus the fact that the 
last enemy will cower and waste a lot of your time. He'll actually cower 
twice and take away around 15 seconds. When you've damaged him enough, 
he'll stall again by rolling on the ground. I cannot count how many times 
I lost this challenge simply because of this stupid AI reaction.

What you have to do, then, is to knock them into each other. If you knock 
them into walls, you'll need 4 hits each to kill them. If you knock them 
into another person, though, that's a one-hit-kill. Start out by running 
straight into the middle of the 3 of them (they should have formed a 
triangle, go right into the center) and keep repressing L1. Hopefully 
you'll to knock two of them out quickly with this. Then, as the third one 
cowers, stay away from him for if you're too close, he'll cower again. If 
you manage to quickly dispatch two of them and make the third one cower 
only once, you'll have plenty of time despite his stalling.



Stage 3-3----------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Weakest Tanimura

Time Limit: None

Weapons: None (rocks and cans on the ground but can't be picked up)

Enemies: 1 unarmed enemy with 2 bars of hp

Location: Okinawa bullfighting ring

Condition: Defeat the enemy without touching him (can use L1).

Strategy:

So an annoying challenge is followed up by another annoying challenge. 
However, this one isn't as difficult, it just takes a long time to do. 
What you may have noticed is that there is not a time limit. This is the 
developer's way of telling you that this fight will take a long time. You 
can attack, but you can't TOUCH the enemy. This means that throws and 
hits are out of the question. What, then, could you do? You could kick 
the rocks and cans that are conveniently littered all over the place 
towards him to damage him. Each hit actually does a decent amount of 
damage. However, the rocks will break after a kick (with T), and the cans 
will eventually be kicked next to the walls where you won't be able to 
access them. In other words, your weaponry is limited. To add to the 
frustration, they don't fly straight for the enemy when you kick them. 
What you have to do is hold on to R1, place the trash in between your 
legs, and let it fly with T then hope for the best. Note that Tanimura's 
T attack has range, so make sure there's plenty of space between you and 
the enemy so you don't accidentally kick him and fail the mission.

Once you are out of stuff to kick, prop up against the wall and do the 
ol' L1 trick. It'll take a while, but it works, and it somehow doesn't 
count as "touching."



Stage 3-4----------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Strongest Saejima

Time Limit: None

Weapons: None

Enemies: 2 unarmed enemies with 1 bar of hp each

Location: Komaki's Dojo

Condition: Defeat the enemies with exactly 10 attacks

Strategy:

This is actually easier than it sounds. By 10 attacks, they actually mean 
damaging hits. What this means is that if you throw an enemy into another, 
that would count as 2 attacks. Similarly, if your punch hits both of them, 
it counts as two attacks. What should you do in this case? Throw them. 
You can use less than 10 throws to defeat them, so to make a perfect 10, 
adjust it with small punches. It's not that hard. If you're running out 
of hits and they somehow have a lot of hp left, use a heat action after a 
throw.



Stage 3-5----------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Weakest Tanimura

Time Limit: 1 minute

Weapons: None

Enemies: 3 fat dudes with fist weapons and 3 smaller guys with swords

Location: Arena

Condition: Survive for 1 minute; you cannot attack

Strategy:

So this is somewhat of a curveball. Instead of fighting, your job in this 
challenge is to run. However, you're in a caged-up ring and the area will 
be really small with 6 other people jammed in there with you. The danger 
comes from the 3 fat guys. Their flurry of fists will take down Tanimura 
easily in no time, and you need to survive for 1 minute. What you can do, 
besides running and dodging, is to GET HIT by the 3 guys with swords. 
Their attacks will automatically down Tanimura with one hit (the attack 
where they draw their swords out really fast). You can then, without 
pressing any button, stay on the ground for a while. The attacks don't 
hurt too much and you can stall for time. Nevertheless, try to avoid 
being hit for as long as possible. Run circles around the cage and dodge 
when necessary. Try to keep them grouped up so they are easy to dodge, if 
they cut you off, run the opposite direction, obviously. DO NOT run 
through the group unless absolutely necessary (ie if you are surrounded 
from all sides)



Stage 3-6----------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Weakest Akiyama

Time Limit: 1 minute and 20 seconds

Weapons: None

Enemies: Minami

Location: Elise

Condition: Prevent Minami from picking up a mic

Strategy:

Another annoying mission. You'll start out in Elise with Minami in front 
of you. However, he won't attack. In fact, you can't attack either. 
You'll have two mics placed equidistant from the two of you on the left 
and right. As soon as the challenge starts, Minami will start walking 
towards one of them. What you have to do is run to the mic in front of 
Minami, making sure that the "pick up" prompt pops up for the mic, to 
make him go for the other mic. DO NOT pick the mic up. Once he has turned, 
quickly run to the other mic and do the same. Basically you want to keep 
him walking back and forth between the two mics by switching your 
position to intercept him. The key to this challenge is to never stop 
moving. Once he has turnd, immediately run to the other mic to turn him 
again. A rhythm that I found helpful is to run to the first mic, twirl 
your left stick 360 degrees very fast (run Akiyama in a small circle). 
After that he should have turned, then run straight for (avoiding Minami 
on the way) the other mic and do the circle motion around it again. The 
twirling of the stick gives you a decent timer for how long it takes for 
him to turn and it keeps you on the move. Do not, under any circumstances, 
stop moving. You should be either doing the circle dance or running for 
the other mic. Last the duration and you should win.



Stage 3-7----------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Strongest Saejima

Time Limit: 3 minutes

Weapons: None

Enemies: None - unless rolling boulders count as enemies

Location: Senin's cave system

Condition: Break all the rock walls

Strategy:

This one is interesting. Basically you have to break all rock walls in 
the time allotted. The first 7 are piled on top of each other and are 
easy to break. Just do a Sx3T(hold)x3 combo and repeat. After breaking 
through, the next set of rock walls are to your left. These are pretty 
much the same 7 rock walls that you've just broken. However, in this case, 
there'll be rolling boulders coming for you from the back left and back 
right. Again, use the Sx3T(hold)x3 combo. Since the S punches are quick 
and the T punches are uninterruptable, it shouldn't be too hard. Weave 
your attacks to the left and right to also catch the boulders before they 
hit you. Even if you get floored a lot, don't worry; there's plenty of 
time and hp.

Go through the tunnel to come to a set of 2 rock walls. These, however, 
are really hard to break. The second one actually needs about 3 full 
combos.

The next set should be the same as the 2 you've just broken. Except now, 
like before, there are rolling boulders coming for you as you work on 
them. Do the same combos to avoid being knocked down and weave left and 
right to hit the boulders as you chip away at the rock face. You should 
be able to make it with ease.



Stage 3-8----------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Strongest Kiryu

Time Limit: 2 minutes and 30 seconds

Weapons: None

Enemies: 2 enemies with 4 bars of hp

Location: Arena

Condition: Defeat all enemies using only heat actions and without 
repeating any heat actions; the heat bar will be full all the time

Strategy:

So you have to beat the enemies using heat actions. While you can hit 
them with other means, they won't take damage unless it's a heat action. 
Also, you can't use the same heat action twice; nevertheless this is 
actually fairly easy.

For a quick win, grab opponent A and immediately press T. This should 
cause Kiryu to smash his face into the ground. Then grab the other 
opponent B and go next to the chain-linked walls. Do a chain-linked fence 
heat action on that guy. Next, grab A who should have gotten up by now 
and wait until both of them are up. Walk close to B with A in tow and do 
a head smashing heat action where you damage both of them. Wait until A 
gets up, grab him, and throw him. Do a full heat action on his prone body 
and he should be out of the picture. Immediately light up a cigarette 
with the down arrow on the D-pad. Wait until B has done cowering and do a 
cigarette heat action on him. For the finale, press R2 to taunt and do a 
taunting heat action.

There are, of course, various other ways to do this. My favorite is the 
Dragon heat action where you kick his head after a Komaki parry. The heat 
action deals a whopping 2 bars of damage.



Stage 3-9----------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Strongest Akiyama

Time Limit: None

Weapons: None

Enemies: 3 black enemies, 1 yellow, 1 red, and 1 blue enemy

Location: Nakamichi

Condition: Defeat all enemies in the order of red-blue-yellow; you cannot 
defeat any black enemies

Strategy:

Well, this may seem hard but it's not too bad. Take note, though, that 
yellow, who is the last enemy you want to defeat, and black enemies have 
very low hp. This means that a stray kick will spell the end for you. 
What you want to do, then, is to spam throw and ground heat actions. 
Remember that the order is red then blue then yellow. I do not recommend 
using any combo moves, for you'll surely damage other opponents. Just 
throw your way to victory... what's the hurry anyway right?



Stage 3-10---------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Strongest Tanimura

Time Limit: None

Weapons: None

Enemies: 4 enemies with 2 bars of hp each

Location: Tenkaichi

Condition: Arrest all the enemies

Strategy:

I'm not sure if you have noticed, but Tanimura has this heat action where 
he can arrest an opponent and instantly remove him from the action. While 
this doesn't work on bosses, the use is even more limited by the fact 
that you can only use it on stunned opponents or opponents who are 
writhing on the ground in pain. Now, this challenge could be very easy if 
you watch your attacks and heat bar. With each of the 4 enemies you 
basically have one chance each. When they are beaten to less than 1 bar 
of hp left and you knock them down during the process of beating them, 
they'll writhe in pain. That's when you'll want to do a heat action on 
them. Take note that you'll need to do a random QTE to complete the heat 
action. It's easy to keep pressing T through your combos and do a combo 
heat action. I would highly recommend against that for it kills the 
enemies and wastes your heat. Refrain from button mashing! You might also 
want to focus on them one at a time to make sure you don't accidentally 
hit one past the point of no return.

What I've heard that also works is to simply press X+T while standing 
still or going backwards and that should stun the opponents. I recommend 
what I've written above for it builds up your heat bar also.









Chase Challenges========================================================= 

The Chase Challenges are pretty much a series of chase battles. It is 
arguably the most troublesome section. Super Mack returns, to the dismay 
of many. Just watch out that you don't destroy your controller and TV 
when attempting these challenges.



Stage 4-1----------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Strongest Akiyama

Time Limit: 30 seconds

Weapons: None

Enemies: None

Location: Going South on Tenkaichi

Condition: Race to the finish without tripping over any trash cans

Strategy:

So the infamous chase battles ensue. Good thing that the first one isn't 
exactly a chase battle. You start out on the northern end of Tenkaichi 
next to the Gelateria and you're supposed to race to the finish at the 
southern end. You, however, aren't allowed to tip over any trash cans, 
but there are tons of trash cans all over the place. While slowing down 
won't kill your time too much, there really is no need. You can avoid 
most of the trash cans by running around them. There are only 3 
exceptions: the slanted trashcan wall in front of the Popo Mart (you'll 
want to jump slightly to the right for this one) and the two trashcan 
walls right at the end. This is not hard. If you're struggling with it... 
remember that jump is X!



Stage 4-2----------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Strongest Akiyama

Time Limit: 1 minute

Weapons: None (beer bottles for pick up)

Enemy: Super Saigou

Location: Theater square

Condition: Catch Super Saigou; tackles deal no damage

Strategy:

The first chase battle is not a hard one. You're basically running around 
theater square (with the middle fenced off) chasing after Super Saigou. 
While he doesn't seem to be much faster than his main story counterpart, 
you can't damage him with tackles. In other words, you have to take him 
down solely with thrown bottles. Luckily, tons of bottles litter the 
inside lane of this rectangle you're running in. Pick them up and throw 
them. Make sure that he isn't turning when you do throw, though, for 
those will most likely miss. It'll take around 8 to 9 hits to subdue him.



Stage 4-3----------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Strongest Saejima

Time Limit: 2 minutes

Weapons: None

Enemy: A ton of Kappa

Location: Going East on Shichifuku

Condition: Race to the finish

Strategy:

Be afraid, BE VERY AFRAID!!!

ARRRRGHHH! ATTACK OF THE KAPPA! So you're supposed to race from the west 
end of Shichifuku to the east end all the while being chased by Kappas 
(is Kappa's plural Kappas? Whatever, I'll say that it is). They actually 
give you a copious amount of time and stamina. In other words, unless you 
keep getting rammed by the Kappas over and over again, you'll complete 
this one just fine. Jump over the first two Kappas; after that, it's 
pretty much a game of how many flips you can do. At any given time you'll 
have at least 4 Kappas who run a lot faster than you on your tail. Thus 
you would want to keep pressing S to avoid their flurry of tackles. You 
can actually keep pressing S and roll your way to the end if you want. I 
would say that that takes too long (although you won't run out of time). 
Mix in running with rolling, do whatever you like.



Stage 4-4----------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Strongest Tanimura

Time Limit: None

Weapons: A Pistol

Enemy: Super Sugiuichi (He's on a boat!)

Location: At Sea

Condition: Catch Super Sugiuchi; your boat will keep losing fuel

Strategy:

Screw this.

This would be one of the most annoying chase battles you'll have to do in 
the entire game. You'll be chasing Sugiuchi on a boat just like in the 
main story. The catch is that he's much faster than when he was in the 
main story and your boat will keep on losing fuel at a pretty fast rate. 
The key, then, is to ram him on the side when he's turning, for he won't 
lose much fuel if you ram him from behind. You'll also want to keep a 
finger on T. Tanimura will keep trying to aim his gun at Sugiuchi. Once 
you hear the 'ching' sound of Tanimura's reticle meeting Sugiuchi, press 
T. Repeatedly shoot him so that he keep losing at least some fuel. You 
can't rely on this, however, so you'll have to find some opportunities to 
ram him.

The first of such opportunity arises when you see the first 3 ships. 
Sugiuchi will drive along the right side of the first ship and turn right 
to pass the 2 others that are up front. This is a good opportunity for a 
ram. After you pass the two ships, he'll move to the right and then all 
the sudden do a sharp turn to the left before you guys run into the next 
set of ships. You could potentially come around from the left and meet 
him head on for a tremendous amount of damage. Watch his boat movement 
and watch for ships. If you see ships in the distance, chances are 
Sugiuchi will be making a move soon. Predict where he's going to go and 
come in from the opposite direction to take off a chunk of his fuel. 
Don't forget to keep shooting that gun with the tell-tale 'ching!'



Stage 4-5----------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Strongest Kiryu

Time Limit: 2 minutes

Weapons: None (pick up beer bottles x 3) (one in front of 'Shine' at Pink 
Street, one situated right where you turn right onto Senryou, and one at 
the exit of the Kamuchika)

Enemy: Super Mack (!)

Location: Various, southeastern Kamuro

Condition: Catch Super Mack (!)

Strategy:

Route: Start on south end of Nakamichi. Run North. Take the second right 
turn into the alleyways of Nakamichi. Take the first left turn, follow 
the road, ignore the left turn that comes up. Follow the road again as it 
turns right, then turn left back onto the main alleyway. Come out at Pink 
Street, turn left and run north. Quickly turn right onto the road between 
Pink Street and Senryou and then turn right again at Senryou. Turn right 
onto Shouwa and follow the road until you see the Kamuchika (underground) 
entrance. Go in and run towards Nakamichi. Take the next exit on the 
right, and you'll come out at Shouwa again. Quickly do a 360 to face east 
and then turn right at Nakamichi, completing a round.

So Super Mack returns for a second bout. For those of you who have played 
Yakuza 3, the route he takes is very similar. However, he doesn't take 
the northern exit of the Nakamichi alleyways. Instead, he runs to Pink 
Street and then turn north there. He also goes underground at one part of 
his route; the details of the route are listed above.

While you might have died a little inside at the thought of having to 
catch Super Mack again, you should be reassured that this time it is much 
easier. You'll have to master the art of fast turning with R1, no doubt, 
but skills take a back seat as you can simply throw beer bottles at him. 
At the three locations listed above, you'll find beer bottles. Simply 
follow Super Mack to the best of your abilities; you don't need to tackle 
him. Pick up a beer bottle, throw it when you both are running straight, 
pick it up again, and throw it two more times. Each bottle only lasts 3 
throws, but you only need 6 throws to take Super Mack down. The 2 minutes 
allotted should last you around 1 and a half laps. Ah, the sweet taste of 
revenge. If only you can stab Mack with the broken beer bottles.









Ultimate Challenges======================================================

The Ultimate Challenges are, similar to the Duel Challenges, fights 
against the various bosses of the game using the four protagonists. The 
catch this time, however, is that you have to face off against a string 
of opponents without the ability to heal most of the time. Nevertheless, 
if you don't find any of the bosses particularly troublesome, these 
challenges should prove to be easy.



Stage 5-1----------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Strongest Akiyama

Time Limit: 5 minutes

Weapons: None

Enemies: Ihara -> Midorigawa -> Minami (1 bar, 1 bar, and 2 bars of hp 
respectively)

Location: Cabaret Club -> Underground Safehouse -> Elise

Condition: Defeat all of the bosses without health regeneration

Strategy:

So Ultimate Challenges 5-1 to 5-4 involve you taking on 3 bosses without 
having any health regen opportunities. For this one, you're using Akiyama 
to defeat Ihara (the first boss of the game), Midorigawa (the chainsaw 
maniac), and Minami. I would like to do an in depth analysis of the 
bosses, but it's really not necessary. Ihara is just a tiny bit stronger 
than a normal henchman. You can dispatch him anyway you like, preferably 
with a lot of kicking. Midorigawa, on the other hand, while unphaseable, 
could be easily thrown if you give him time to swing and miss with his 
chainsaw. I also have already explained Minami in Ultimate Challenge 2-1. 
It's basically the same fight.



Stage 5-2----------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Strongest Saejima

Time Limit: 5 minutes

Weapons: None

Enemies: Saitou + 5 goons -> Kiryu -> Majima (~1.5 bar, 2 bars, and 2 
bars of hp respectively)

Location: Prison Field -> Okinawa Beach -> Batting Center

Condition: Defeat all the bosses without health regeneration

Strategy:

This is again, a relative easy string of fights. For Saitou, I recommend 
first beating the goon with the gun and then picking it up. There should 
be enough bullets to kill the rest of the goons. Saitou himself is easy, 
repeat the super effective Sx3T(hold)x3 combo and he should go flying 
into the air everytime. Follow the combos up with some face smashing and 
head butting heat actions and victory is yours.

Kiryu is actually quite easy if you know how to fight him. He does do a 
guard parry, but you can return the favor with your own guard parry 
(L1+T). Guard his combos and then break out of them with the guard parry. 
Afterwards, immediately try to land the Sx3Tx3 combo and you should floor 
him easily. Throws work as well. Follow it up with your favorite heat 
actions and you should make quick work of him. Take note that if you hit 
him right after he gets up he won't be able to do a Tiger Drop on you. 
His heat mode involves him being harder to hit as he dodges around more 
often when you try to punch. Just keep on pressing onto him with the 
combo and there should be no space for him to do anything devastating. 
The QTE at the end is just X.

The Majima fight was explained in detail in 2-2.



Stage 5-3----------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Strongest Tanimura

Time Limit: 7 minutes

Weapons: None

Enemies: 1 miniboss with gun + 1 miniboss with sword + 3 lackeys -> 1 
enemy with sword + 1 enemy with dagger + 1 boxing enemy -> Sugiuchi

Location: Docks -> Roof -> Docks

Strategy:

The Tanimura fights here are a little bit different in that you do not 
fight any single boss. Instead you face off against a bunch of enemies, 
some of whom might have boss-like hp where your attacks don't do as much 
damage.

The first bout involves two armed miniboss enemies and 3 lackeys with 
short hp. I recommend first taking out the one with the pistol, as the 
rest don't really pose much of a threat. Make good use of the L1 move by 
running into them and pressing it to knock people down. There really 
isn't much to worry from the pistol guy except to dodge when he poses to 
shoot (accompanied by a yell and a gun click noise). Usually you don't 
want to get surrounded, but if you are confident in your sabaki abilities 
you could run in and attempt to do more damage through knocking people 
around. Simply do full combos followed by combo heat actions (mix them up 
to avoid diminishing returns) on the enemies and you should have no 
problem completing this fight. Note that a QTE pops up when you damage 
the first miniboss to around 1/4 hp. The sequence is X+S(multiple presses) 
followed by the normal heat generating QTE and the T trigger. The sword 
miniboss could get annoying for his hits are really fast; just prep with 
L1 when he gets close.

The second fight also involves multiple enemies, this time only three. 
However, instead of the normal moves, you're restricted to using the 
attache case that you're holding. No worries though, for the attache case 
is actually more damaging than your normal attacks. You'll start out 
surrounded with the dagger guy behind you and the rest in front. The 
boxer boss is actually quite fast in his attacks and is hard to take down, 
so I recommend taking out the two lesser enemies first. Sabaki doesn't 
work here so just swing away with S presses, one full length combo should 
be enough to take down one enemy. The miniboss himself cannot be phased 
while he attacks and he also dodges pretty well. Therefore I would 
recommend first blocking his attacks then counterattack right afterwards. 
Don't try to press it after you've delivered your combo for more likely 
than not you'll be slower than him in delivering a new attack, so block 
instead. Don't forget the attache case heat action.

The Sugiuchi fight is the same as the fight in 2-3; remember that the 
Sx2Tx1 combo works wonders here, so does the counter heat action you can 
do when grabbed.



Stage 5-4----------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Strongest Kiryu

Time Limit: 6 minutes

Weapons: None

Enemies: Ivan Ibrahimovic -> Kurokawa Hannya -> Yamaoka Akira

Location: Arena

Condition: Defeat all bosses without health regeneration

Strategy:

Kiryu's fights are also a little bit surprising. Instead of facing any of 
the main story bosses, Kiryu will have to face off against three of the 
toughest opponents in the tournament. Make no mistake, these guys are 
bosses and they are tough

Ivan is a difficult opponent. His attacks are fast and are chained 
together to create long combos. He also cannot be knocked down, phased, 
or thrown. He is, pretty much, a walking tank. I did lie a little bit 
about him being not able to be phased. He does falter in response to your 
hits, but when he's about to attack, he'll throw punches through your 
hits. To top it all off, he dodges rather quickly and has a counter kick 
that will stun you. He'll actually follow that stun, if you don't get out 
of it fast enough by pressing X repeatedly, with a pretty strong, 
unavoidable attack (takes 1/8 of your hp way each hit). The best way to 
go about his fight is to slowly chip away his hp. Even though he's 
sometimes unphased by your attacks, very often he'll still take your full 
Sx3Tx2 combo. So pretty much try to hit him, and if it doesn't work, 
immediately guard and then parry (L1+T) his attacks to try for another 
attack. Dodge his attacks to gain access to his back, guard parry so you 
can hit back, and use the rolling heat action once you have enough heat. 
Sometimes, after you've dodged his attacks, he'll still be going through 
his combo and turning to face you; this would be a good time to do a 
Komaki parry as he gets close. The timing is hard and he isn't always 
open to that. All in all he shouldn't hit you much if you guard parry 
religiously and press X fast enough to avoid his super attack; 
nevertheless this is a long fight. You can also use the Tiger Drop. Throw 
a few hits then press R1+T in anticipation of his counterattack. This, of 
course, doesn't work that often, and the timing might be rough for some.

Kurokawa is a strange beast. You might recognize him from Kenzan! if you 
have played it. He used to also be an opponent in the tournaments in that 
game. His style is mostly karate. This means strong, charged palm attacks. 
He is much easier in that he could be thrown as well as knocked down. 
Remember to keep the combo alive through pulling him up from the back and 
he should be done. Watch out for his charged attacks, especially the one 
he throws out while he's guarding. It takes a while to hit so you should 
have no problem avoiding it, but it does hit for quite a bit. Similar to 
Kazama (Fuma) from the previous game, he'll sometimes go into a special 
pose with his hands. This means that you should not attack for he'll 
throw you. Tiger Drop and/or Komaki parry works here as well, if you get 
the timing right with his charged attacks. Pressing him with Sx3Tx2 works 
well too. Basically treat him as a much powered-up regular enemy who 
dodges.

Akira is no pushover, being the hardest of the three. He actually shares 
some moves with Ivan. You'll find long-chained combos here as well as 
strong charged attacks like Kurokawa. Another annoying factor is that he 
loves to dodge and hit you with a stun attack. He'll sometimes just hit 
you again or attempt to throw you. This means that keeping some heat 
might be good for a counter heat action if he throws you. If you can get 
the timing, Tiger Drop works; heck, you can actually land a hit sometimes 
by pressing it wildly. Even if you don't manage to get the timing right, 
the resulting kick could throw off his combos and such, so it's not a bad 
move to try to do. Besides that, the strategy for Ivan actually does 
pretty well for Akira. Try to land a full combo, dodge and block parry if 
you can't, and add a throw or two in there. Since your first hit would be 
hard to land, dodge around to catch him on the side or the back.



Stage 5-5----------------------------------------------------------------

Character: Strongest Heroes

Time Limit: 16 minutes

Weapons: None

Enemies: Ihara -> Midorigawa -> Minami -> Saitou -> Kiryu -> Majima -> 5 
enemies -> 4 enemies -> Suciuchi -> Ivan -> Kurokawa -> Akira -> Komaki

Location: Various

Condition: Defeat all bosses; you get healed for 1/4 of your total hp after 
each fight

Strategy:

So this is it, the final showdown. And what a long showdown this will be. 
They've pretty much chained together Ultimate Challenges 5-1 to 5-4 and 
tagged Komaki on at the end. The good news is that all the bosses are the 
same, so all the tips above work. If you've defeated them before with 
ease, you'll probably be able to defeat them now with ease as well. The 
bad news is that the time limit is 16 minutes. If you add up all the time 
limits from 5-1 to 5-4, you'll come up with 23 minutes. This means that 
you have to shave 7 minutes off the total time. Nevertheless you 
shouldn't be too worried, because you've probably noticed that you never 
really got close to the time limit in previous challenges anyway 
(hopefully). You'll have 1 minute and 20 seconds for each boss. Seeing as 
how some of them are extremely easy and fast, you should be able to make 
it no problem (you can easily defeat all of them in under 10 minutes if 
you're good at it).
 
The other bad news would be Komaki. For those experienced Yakuza players, 
you've always known that Komaki is a pain to defeat. Have no fear, for 
Komaki is no longer the Komaki that we know of. Instead of relying on you 
throwing the first punch, Komaki is actually pretty proactive in 
attacking now. You can turn this to your advantage by guard parrying 
(L1+T). If you can corner him, guard parry and then throw a Sx3Tx2 
through his block and then repeat guard parrying. Since he can't guard 
parry you, you can pretty much repeat that with impunity if he doesn't 
dodge to your side. Therein lies the problem; sometimes he'll dodge to 
your side and chain together a god awful long combo. You can't really do 
much about that except try to dodge and guard out of it. Also, as you're 
doing the Sx3Tx2 + L1 + T chain, watch out for his throws. He'll 
sometimes, instead of trying to hit through your block, grab you and 
throw you quickly; he'll throw you instantly if you press S or T. As soon 
as you see him grab you (which is hard to do) press circle and you should 
throw him instead. If you've managed not to take too much damage from the 
side as you're pressing him, you should be able to do a rolling heat 
action to diminish his paltry hp to zero.
Congratulations!

The most "correct" way to defeat him; at least I think that's how the 
developers wanted Komaki to be defeated, is to do the Komaki parry. While 
Komaki is much more aggressive this time around, he's still reactive to 
your attacks. Throw out a punch, wait a split second, then do a Komaki 
Parry (R1+O) as he draws close for a palm attack. If you've saved enough 
heat from the Akira fight, you can actually follow that up with a Dragon 
King heat action and then a rolling heat action for the win. I've done 
this fight where I did all of the above and ended the fight in less than 
15 seconds.








Closing Comments=========================================================

All of the above content was written and copyrighted entirely by me 
unless stated otherwise. So far I've only posted this guide on gamefaqs 
and mailed the guide to a few people on the forums of Yakuza 4 at 
gamefaqs; if you want to post this guide at any other websites, give me 
an E-mail detailing the location and reason and I might grant you 
permission; not that this is an uber guide, I just want to avoid 
complications.

If you have any questions and/or suggestions, you can either post on the 
Yakuza 4 gamefaqs forums or E-mail me at [email protected] .

Thanks:

To Sega and CS1 Team for making this great game

To ThePatrick for showing me how Yakuza guides should be done

To Majima05 for having a great spirit in helping others on the gamefaq 
forums

To Gamefaqs for being such a great website for gamers