Yakuza 4 Walkthrough

Chapter 2: The Mastermind

You're now back in Kamuracho, with Yasuko in tow and a much thicker plot. When you leave Homeland, you'll wind up being shanghaied by Nair to her crew's hideout. Spar with her and win to unlock new abilities, such as Prolong Parry and Essence of Seizing.

Challenge: Nair's Kumite

Nair doesn't fight quite like anyone else in the game, mostly because she's trying to set up her own parries. It's very rare that you'll land enough consecutive hits on her to enter HEAT mode, and even if you manage it, this is a sparring match; Tanimura is somewhat reluctant to maim his opponent in a friendly brawl, so he won't use any of his more dangerous moves. This means fights with Nair have a unique, slower rhythm than anything else in the game.

After you win two sparring sessions against Nair, a new encounter—two armed foreigners in a standoff with a cop—shows up on Nakamichi Street. Return to Nair and report in, then beat her twice more to unlock Essence of Arm Dragging and Reversal. Leave Little Asia and look for a unique message on the police scanner, involving a member of a weapons smuggling ring, then go find and defeat the criminal in question.

Report back to Nair just in time to take out a few gangsters. Once they're dealt with, stock up if you have to, then tell Nair you're ready to go. You'll wind up in several battles against surprisingly tough gangsters, ending in a brawl atop—where else?—Millennium Tower. It's like being a dramatic place for a fight is the only reason they built this thing.

GG himself ends the challenge. He's got a lot of health and a shotgun, and once he's on his last legs, just about the only move he does is an obnoxious rolling counter. You can knock a lot of damage off of him very quickly with HEAT moves like Essence of Armbarring, but the final knockout blow can be difficult to land.

Defeating GG earns you a new technique, the Komaki Shot Stopper. You can also go to Naomi's Palace and get the Sacred Tree Greaves from Bob.

Meanwhile, back in the main plot, go to the Central Parking Lot to retrieve Yasuko's cash. You have to check every car in the parking garage, but not all of them have a trunk you can reach, which speeds things up. The car you want is in lot 307.

Leave the parking lot via any stairwell to get an anonymous phone call. The photo he sends you is a picture of the view from the Kamorocho Rooftops East, right near the Ebisu Pawn Shop. Talk to the homeless man standing there to get a phone call from Katsuragi, then return to Homeland when you're ready to make some progress. To advance to the next night, tell Zhao you want to get some rest.

Go to the front entrance of the Millennium Tower to meet with Katsuragi. After he dumps a whole mess of exposition in your lap, it's time for a showdown with quite a few members of the Ueno Seiwa. Get back to Homeland as fast as you can, using the briefcase full of money to pummel the life out of any gangsters that get in your way.

You'll eventually hit an encounter where you lose the briefcase and wind up in a fight against four guys. One has a sword, and two are the big "sumo wrestler" types that, try as you might, you won't be able to knock down. Take out the two smaller ones first, and use the sword to quickly dispatch the big guys.

That leads to a chase scene across the rooftops, which is one of the hardest in the game. The Ueno Seiwa guy you're chasing has almost as much stamina as Tanimura does, he's difficult to hit with the two bottles that are lying around, and it's easy to blow a turn. If you manage to get at least one hit off of him and don't screw up the HEAT action near the start of the chase, you should be able to simply outlast him.

With the briefcase back in hand, you need to use it to fend off three more seriously tough yakuza, two of whom can knock you down pretty much any time they feel like it. A trend is beginning to develop here.

Beat them, then outrun the remaining Ueno Seiwa. If you can last through the first awkward moments where you're surrounded, you can get to the final fight of the chapter: another brutal struggle against three tough opponents.