Like A Dragon: Ishinunveils a powerful locker’s worth of combat skills to use with one of the four distinct styles: Brawler, Swordsman, Gunman, and Wild Dancer. Whether you prefer to hunt downthe best weapons in the gameor want to start a bare-knuckle brawl everywhere you go, there are numerous ways to engage your foes in combat.
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While you may specialize in one or two styles throughout your casual playthrough, it willtake some extra effort once you’ve completed the main story to fully maximize all of your statsand abilities. In addition, you will need to take advantage of the five combat masters who can help you enhance your skills across the board with a few lessons. If you want to train in a little of everything, head to the Scarecrow Chateau in Rakugai to measure your progress.
10Komaki Dharma Tumbler – Brawler
If you’ve played other games in the series, thenyou may have noticed the inclusion of Kiryu Kazuma’s longtime trainer, Komakias the Brawler master in Ishin. Alongside the return of this series regular, you may find many familiar lessons that you can learn from sparring with this old master.
One of the most recognizable and important skills is the Komaki Dharma Tumbler, an evasion technique that is essential to Brawlers. There are a few ways to approach your defensive strategy in Ishin, but dodging is perhaps the most effective as there is no fear of having your guard broken by an onslaught of attacks. Why should you risk blocking an unstoppable sword swipe when you can simply avoid it altogether?
9Rustling Leaves – Swordsman
If you’ve fallen in love with the samurai fantasy andcannot resist farming every skill on the Swordsman, you’ll be delighted by the variety of potent skills available on this skill tree. Rustling Leaves is a tricky little maneuver that will help you parry an attack and possibly disarm your foe entirely.
Like all counterattack skills, Rustling Leaves is extremely risky, but rewarding if you’re able to nail the timing. Make your move at the perfect time and your opponent will be defenseless, but wait too long, and you’ll absorb a brutal strike as punishment. Test your timing and enjoy this essential utility skill for Swordsman.
8First Step – Wild Dancer
Wild Dancer offers the alternative to Swordsman, giving you the flexibility to use a gun at the same time as your deadly katana. Wild Dance: First Step is a required skill for any Wild Dancer, but one whose use cannot be understated. The key to any good Wild Dancer is to keep moving no matter what.
When it comes to this style, aggression is non-negotiable as you must be quick to continue your chain of attacks, connecting combo after combo to keep the pressure on and whittle down your enemy’s health. Progressing from duel to duel will be a standard part of combat, so get used to the continued combination of blows that this skill enables.
7Texas Two-Step – Gunman
A Gunman must be quick on the draw, faster on the trigger, and even more prepared to dodge once a foe sets their sights on you. As a Gunman, you have almost no way to deal with enemy attacks, save for dodging them with a deft tumble out of the way. Avoiding damage is the key to winning any fight, after all.
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However, Texas Two-Step allows you to fire off a shot as you dodge, enabling you to avoid damage while also dishing it out. With no way to deflect incoming sword slashes or deflect bullets, this dodge-and-shoot skill will be useful throughout your playthrough and may just save your life if you’re in a tight spot.
6Evasive Shadow – Wild Dancer
Much like Wild Dance: First Step, the Evasive Shadow Skill completes the building blocks you will need to reach the true potential of the Wild Dancer style. If you’re not moving, you’re probably in deep trouble, but it shouldn’t be difficult to dance with an endless combination of attacks into dodges back into more attacks.
It may seem mindless to continuously swap between attacking and dodging in an endless loop, but that’s the beauty of Wild Dancer. This bang-bang movement-focused combat style will reward you with every combination you string together. Even if it feels like cheating, your endless cycle of slashes and evades is living proof that you’re playing the right way.
While skills that activate at a distancecould use some improved triggering, the ability to deflect bullets is incredibly valuable, especially later in the game. Though the ability is somewhat situational, there are a number of powerful gun-wielding foes who will fire upon you, so there are plenty of opportunities.
While at a distance, the Swordsman is more or less a sitting duck as you are forced to either drop your guard and approach your opponent quickly or sit back and hope they attack you. Instead of leaving yourself open to your enemy’s whim, this skill will allow you to avoid long-range damage and prepare to go on the offensive.
4Dragonfire Siege – Gunman
Despite a lack of defensive options, Gunman offers incredibly high damage per second (DPS), especially when using fast-fire guns or special ammo. Dragonfire Blaze – and its extension, Dragonfire Siege – allows you to fire a storm of bullets at anyone in your way.
In addition to your rain of bullets, Dragonfire Siege will fire special ammo first, giving you the ability to front-load a ton of damage into full-health enemies. Special ammo is usually slower to use and sometimes can disrupt your careful spacing, so this ability is key if you want to get the maximum usage out of all that extra power in your ammo.
3Lightning’s Glory – Swordsman
Lightning’s Glory is yet another potent skill that focuses on avoiding incoming damage while hitting back with a vicious slash. You’ll have to hold your lock-on and prepare to counter your foejustas their attack is about to land on you. The timing is tight: you cannot try to use this move at the start of a windup, it must be as you are about to be struck.
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Once you get the very particular timing down, prepare to be amazed as Ryoma dashes past foes with lightning-fast speed, leaving behind a slashed enemy in his wake. The risk here is very high, so be wary of using this skill against bosses, as allowing them an opening to combo attack could spell your doom.
2Essence Of Mincemeat – Swordsman
As its name suggests, the Essence Of Mincemeat shreds your adversaries with deadly precision. Very often, you will notice your opponent continue to block your attacks, only succumbing once you have dealt several blows. Once their guard breaks, you have the perfect moment to activate this potent skill.
Essence Of Mincemeat provides the perfect follow-up on guard-broken foes who usually are very difficult to execute a combination against even after you’ve broken their guard. This attack allows you to not only get past your foe’s defense but also gives you a massive opening to exploit and turn the battle in your favor.
1The Bloody Wheel – Wild Dancer
The Bloody Wheel is perhaps the best offensive combat skill in Ishin, as its ease to activate and several sword slashes of damage make it quite a deadly combination. In addition to the simplicity of its activation, the damage inflicted is quite significant and adds up quickly on a variety of enemy types.
Aside from its excellent utility, it’s worth mentioning that the quick animation that comes along with The Bloody Wheel is fantastic, reminiscent of modern-day cinematic action sequences. Once you build up a few bars of Heat, feel free to unleash The Bloody Wheel on as many foes as you may. Lesser enemies will often be defeated with one usage, while more difficult combatants will be left bloodied by this series of powerful attacks.
