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Like A Dragon: Ishin’s fifth chapter follows Ryoma as he starts his first day at work. As is the way of a Shinsengumi member, he is going to have to get his hands dirty right off the bat. But worry not, we’ll be there with you, giving you pointers along the way.
Related:Like A Dragon: Ishin - FAQ Guide
From traversing subterranean caves in order to clear out bandits, to tracking down former members of the Shinsengumi, to recruiting new ones, Ryoma will have his hands full. And that isn’t even mentioning the climactic final duel of this chapter. There’s no rest for the wicked, as they say.
First Day On The Job
Now that you have your new blue digs, it is time to head back to the Shinsengumi headquarters in Mibu.After you enter into Mibu, you will have a brand-new substory open up involving a boy who loves veggies.If you have engaged at all with the Another Life mode, you will have more than enough vegetables to help the little guy out.
Since Veggie Boy is so close to the entrance to Mibu, you can give him a vegetable, leave Mibu, reenter, and give him another. You can repeat this until you complete your bond with him, getting a healthy amount of Virtue in the process.
After handing over a vegetable or two, head to the base.Talk to Todo, andslowlyfollow him around the compound.Eventually, he will circle around to the recruitment officer. This is your introduction to the dispatch missions.
Walking behind Todo is super boring.If you want, you may let him walk ahead, and go find crap lying on the ground, then go catch up to him later.Todo will stop at the place where you fought Nagakura, then in the back near the well, and finally on the other end of the HQ, near your residence.
You will be taught how to assign troops, promote troops, and take on the “dispatch missions”, which are essentially dungeons. Before you can progress further, you will be obligated to complete the first of these dungeons. It is pretty straightforward and mainly acts as a means to teach you how to use your trooper abilities. Just flip switches when you see them.Whenever you run into a room with a bunch of doors, break them all down, and make sure that you don’t push forward until you have emptied out all these rooms.
Make sure you destroy every box and barrel you encounter. There is a lot of good stuff hidden all over the place.The crafting material you get in dispatch dungeons are often pretty hard to find.
Once you reach the end of the cavern, you will face off against a buffed-up trooper.This bandit is fundamentally the same as any standard swordsman, but he does hit harder and comes with more health than your typical bandit.Just take out the stronger troop’s friends, then go one-on-one with this guy.
Once you have completed your first dispatch mission, you will have completed Todo’s introduction to the Shinsengumi. After you finish talking to Todo, try to leave the compound. You will be informed by an Eighth Division trooper that there is a deserter who needs to be taken care of. Leave the barracks, and head back to the Teradaya Inn.You won’t be able to use the palanquin service, so you will have to make your way through Rokunai.You will now make the acquaintance of Yamazaki, who will tell you that your deserter is in Gion. How convenient!
While wandering around, you will find that some of the random goons you encounter on the street are now wearing masks. These troops are the ones who you can recruit.
Once you have talked to Yamazaki, you can now freely explore the map again. When you are ready, head to Gion. The palanquin carriers are back now, so you can use them to go straight to Gion, if you like. Once you arrive in Gion, go visit the brothel. Todo is waiting outside the entrance. Talk to him, head inside, and prepare to fight Akimoto.
Boss Fight: Akimoto
Okay, if we are being honst, this isbarelya boss fight.Akimoto uses wide, clumsy swings that can be effortlessly blocked or parried.He will also sporadically become terrified, opening him up to easy attacks. Hell,even if hedoeshit you, he doesn’t even do substantial damage. Block or parry his giant swings, then batter him. You will beat him in no time. After you finish him off, Todo will show up. After the cutscene finishes, head back to the Shinsengumi Barracks again.
Upon arriving back at the Shinsengumi base, you will hear Tani talking about a valuable bounty.Inoue will tell you that the bounty in question is your old pal Izo. You will now be locked into confronting Izo.Just follow the marker on your map, it will lead you down the main street, and straight to Izo.
There are Shinsengumi soldiers positioned all over the place blocking off pathways, so you are stuck in Rokugai for the time being. However, if you are low on health, or want to stock up on healing items,everything in Rakugai is open. So, you have plenty of restaurants to heal at, and you may purchase healing items from Don Quijote or the apothecary in the northeast corner of Rokugai.Once you are ready to move on, travel to the quest marker, which is on the southeast side, and head down the alley.
Boss Fight: Izo
For the first half of this fight, this is the same Izo that you fought in Mukurogai. The only difference is that his sword looks cooler, and he isn’t accompanied by any goons. He still has his trademark, slow, sweeping sword strikes.He also has an evasive move that he will try to use to circle you, but it is pretty slow, and you will have plenty of time to dash away.
You can eitheruse the brawler parry to punish his slow sword swipes, switch to the wild dancer stance and use its quick dash to circle him and attack his back, or fight a more methodical battle using your swordsman stance’s guard. All of these methods are effective. On top of all that, you now have trooper cardsat your disposal which can deal massive damage, disrupt attacks, and heal you.
Once Izo gets below half-health he will lock you into a quick time event the same as he did in your second fight with him. Once he does this,he will start using his new attack, which is a powerful tornado projectile.This attack has tremendous range and hits for a lot of damage.If you aren’t being careful, you will walk straight into it.
Once Izo points his sword at you, he is getting ready to use this attack, get some distance, and block it. Donottry and attack him as he is powering this attack up, as he will be invincible. As long as you aren’t playing recklessly, you should be able to avoid taking damage from this attack. Once Izo starts using this attack, it means he is already pretty injured. Just stay the course, keep slashing him in the back after parrying his sword swipes, and Izo will fall in short order.
Now that you have taken care of Izo, you are free to run around and do whatever you want again.Once you are ready to finish this chapter off, head to the Teradaya Inn and go to your room.You will now discuss the events with Nakaoka, and Ishin’s fifth chapter will come to a close.
