Like A Dragon: Ishin Combat Guide: Abilities and Fighting Styles Explained

While Like a dragon: Ishin Forgoing the usual Yakuza series setup, it shares most of its DNA with those games. In particular, it borrows from Yakuza 0, including its four fighting styles system, which allows you to switch between four distinct fighting methods on the fly. While this allows for a lot of flexibility in how you approach combat, it also means you have to understand and balance four skill trees, along with relevant equipment and items. Here is everything you need to know about combat in Like A Dragon: Ishin.

The four combat styles.

Like A Dragon: Ishin features four combat styles: Brawler, Swordsman, Gunman, and Wild Dancer. The Brawler style focuses on unarmed melee combat, while Gunman and Swordsman focus on the unique weapon featured in their name. Lastly, Wild Dancer combines the use of a sword and a gun, creating a hybrid fighting style. As for which of these fighting styles you should be using, combat in Like A Dragon: Ishin allows you enough flexibility that it mostly comes down to your personal preference, although you’ll want to try and balance the use of each class. The reason for that is that XP and skill points are mostly earned on an individual basis for each class.

The four skill trees

Each fighting style has its own skill tree and its own skill points in the form of orbs. There is a fifth type of orb called a training orb, which is awarded as you level up overall. Each type of orb can only be used in its specific skill tree, while the training orb can be used in any skill tree, allowing you to level up your preferred class or keep another class up to date. Training Orbs can be exchanged with Class Orbs from your skill slot., so feel free to use them from the beginning. The reverse is not true, which is why spent Class Orbs cannot be traded with Training Orbs. While most abilities can be obtained as soon as you reach them in the tree, there are a few abilities and paths blocked in each class tree.

There are two types of abilities in each tree, stat boosters and new attacks. New attacks usually open up a new combo or move for you to use, some of which will have multiple levels to upgrade, enhancing the move. Stat boosts provide bonuses, some to health, some to heat gauge, and most importantly, increasing the base amount of damage the fighting style does. These are the most important abilities to grab, as this is the only way to significantly increase your damage output other than upgrading or acquiring better gear.

These locked skills must be learned at the relevant Training Grounds found in the city. The Brawler class studies at the Komaki Dojo in the southeastern part of Fushimi. The Gunslinger hones his shot at Unyuan in southern Rakugai. The wild dancer and swordsman train at the Ginryu Dojo in northern Rakunai.

The best use case of each fighting style

While you can use any fighting style you prefer at any time, there are some situations where each style shines better than the rest. The Brawler class is best used when there are a large number of enemies in the area, as well as a number of nearby objects that you can use as weapons. The Wild Dancer falls into the same category, being a strong fighting style for taking on a large number of enemies at once. The Wild Dancer style has multiple combos that involve spinning and dealing damage around you.

The Swordsman class is best used in one-on-one fights, or when only a few enemies are present. This style excels when you can focus your sword combos on a single enemy, without needing to worry about multiple enemies attacking you from behind. The Gunslinger style is best used when you want to put some distance between you and your enemy. This means enemies using firearms or a tough opponent in a boss fight that you don’t want to get too close to.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by your opponents or taking more damage than you’re dealing, one of the best ways to change the momentum of a fight is to try a different fighting style. While each style has something it’s best at, There is not one size for allso change it often.

Soldier Card Bonuses

When you get to Chapter 5 and unlock the Trooper card system, one of the things you may immediately notice is the massive boosts you can receive from equipped cards. You can equip up to four cards for each class, though you’ll need to unlock the ability to have that many in Sanctuary in exchange for virtue points, and each card provides a passive bonus and an active bonus. These boosts are present during combat outside of the special missions you can go on.

The passive bonus provides health and another trait, such as Trooper abilities charging faster. The active ability varies greatly, whether it’s Sakamoto doing a powerful attack, a soldier stepping in to do an attack of their own, or a stat boost. The higher the rarity of the Trooper card, the better the active ability. Once you unlock this system, you’ll want to make sure you always have the best cards equipped to give you the most advantage in battle.

At GameSpot’s Like a Dragon: Ishin Review reviewer Michael Higham gave it 8/10 and wrote, “By virtue of its brand of storytelling, Ishin forgoes some of the tropes that have glorified samurai, but follows that line very closely. If the series is one thing , is consistent: because despite the shift to Japan’s Edo era, there’s an unmistakable familiarity. Fortunately, the days of asking Sega to bring Ishin to the West are over. And while this review uses an older base that shows its age It’s nice to finally have a version of the game that’s been fixed for modern platforms.Like a Dragon: Ishin reunites an all-star cast for a story that’s bigger than any character, and it’s an excellent addition to the deep history of the series”.