employee assignment yakuza like a dragon

Business Management

Welcome to IGN’s Yakuza: Like a Dragon walkthrough . This section covers the Business Management simulation, one of the more complex minigames available. We’ll guide you through getting started, growing your business, and highlighting some of the rewards you can obtain if you stick with it.

Scroll down to see the entire list or click below to jump to a specific section:

How To Start Business Management

Recruiting employees, keeping employees happy, buying properties, shareholder meetings, how to get eri to join your party.

• How To Move To Another Buildings

Additional Tips

Business Management begins automatically as part of Substory 15: Ijincho’s Safety Net during Chapter 5. You'll only have to complete the tutorial for the substory, but can return to the south end of the Bar District at any time to continue with the simulation.

This minigame may seem complex at first, but as you learn how to navigate the menus and streamline your business it’s surprisingly straightforward.

The basic loop of the Business Management minigame is:

Acquire business > hire employees > assign employees > open business > shareholder meetings

As long as you maximize your cash flow at every step, you’ll easily meet Nick Ogata’s initial request of becoming one of the Top 100 businesses, and be able to continue further (if you’d like). This is one of the more lucrative offerings in Yakuza: Like a Dragon, so successful management is a great way to easily make money.

You can recruit more employees by selecting Recruit under the Employees menu. This will take you to a pool of employees that can be selected from. Each will have different stats and salary contracts, so make sure to select one that will work with the type of business you have open. To begin, you'll have a limited pool of people that you can hire. However, they are more than sufficient to reach Rank 100.

Beyond that, you'll need to work smarter by recruiting higher-rank characters and finding people around the city (indicated by the cash icon above their head). Talk to them and when your personality stats are high enough - or you complete a favor for them - they'll join your business. You can also pick up several high-quality hires by completing other substories . Just make sure to hire employees not only with good stats, but with good stats in the category you need. Also, don't ever hire more than the exact amount of employees you need, as you’ll have excess salaries that have to be paid.

In the Employees menu, you'll see an option to offer them a bonus . This is the only way to increase their happiness, which is denoted by the little face icon on their information card.

The color of the face indicates their current level of happiness. In order from happiest to least happy it goes: green, orange, grey, red, purple.

Try to keep your employees happy (green face) as this raises their determination and makes them more productive when your business is open (psst...that means more money).

While you can select between increasingly expensive options that provide bigger boosts to their happiness levels, you can also select Auto Care from within the Employee menu to automatically make everyone happy (at a cost, of course). This may not always pick the least-expensive options, so if you don’t mind individually offering bonuses, it may save you some money in the long run.

Every time you go up a rank, you'll get some money from Nick. This money should be used as an investment in a new property. In the Properties menu, you'll see a slot marked 'Empty', and clicking on it will allow you to buy a property up. You should aim for a property with high sales volume, as that means more profit. You should also be prepared to move employees around to where their skills are needed. Lastly, you can upgrade each property which boosts its value and overall profit.

As you go through Ranks, you should focus on buying new properties while also selling underperforming properties. Your initial property can't be sold, but if you have your second shop making 5 million yen and your sixth shop making 45 million yen, it's time to sell the second shop and buy a better, more profitable store instead.

Shareholder meetings happen after every fourth day of business (although time in the main story doesn't move). You can see which day of business you’re currently on in the top left corner. These meetings can provide a big boost to your Share Price Ranking, or can tank your stock if you don’t meet expectations.

Preparing For Battle

You'll want to select your lineup of up to four employees based on their Charisma, Tenacity, and Command Cost. These numbers act as their stats during shareholder meetings. Charisma is how much damage they deal, Tenacity is how much “health” they have during battle, and Command Cost is how much it costs to use them each time. Try to build a team that balances these three stats effectively.

Another key component of shareholder meetings are the colored icons on the top left corner of everyone’s information cards. This includes a blue building, green stack of money, and red person icon. Don’t focus too much on the actual icon itself, but more so the color of it. This minigame uses a simple rock, paper, scissors-style system to indicate weaknesses. Think of it like Pokemon, if you will—water (blue) beats fire (red) which beats grass (green). There’s a handy chart in the bottom left corner of the shareholder meeting screen above your support level to help remind you.

Pleasing the Shareholders

In the meetings, you’ll see the shareholders sitting in chairs in front of you. They will each fire off questions at you, which you’ll need to respond to by “attacking” them with the appropriate employee. You should pick the most persuasive shareholder with high Charisma first, as you begin with full energy. Use the lower Command Cost board members to break their shield, then the higher ones to do damage.

One a shareholder's health bar has been depleted, they will become satisfied and your Support will grow. You don't need to convince every shareholder to reach 100% Support, but you do need to either stay above 50% until the time limit is up, or until all shareholders are satisfied - whichever comes first.

If things are getting dire, Kasuga can also issue an apology to temporarily stun the shareholders and deal some damage. This gives you time to recharge a bit and utilize your higher Command Cost employees once more. As the meeting goes on, your apology meter will continue charging in the bottom right corner. There are three levels of apologies that Kasuga can issue: Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3. The second apology seems to be the sweet spot, as the first apology has limited effectiveness and you likely won't need an apology until the second level is almost charged. The Level 3 apology—while extremely effective—takes a long time to charge.

If you’re successful in your shareholder meetings, you’ll see a big boost to your overall business Share Price Ranking. This is essential to moving up, and Kasuga will also get larger compensation bonuses based on your ranking.

Eri will join your party once you clear the first stage of the Business Management minigame by becoming one of the Top 100 companies. Her Bond will not rise like other characters , but instead will leap up a whole level at a time each time you reach a milestone for Ichiban Confections (later Ichiban’s Holdings). These milestones are Rank 100, 50, 20, 10, and 1.

How To Move To Another Building

This is needed for one of the Achievements and Trophies in the game, but comes automatically when you hit Rank 50. The new building is opposite the Park, and you'll need to go here to continue Business Management in future.

Now that you’ve got the fundamentals of Business Management down, here are some additional tips that will help you maximize your cash flow:

• When starting out, try assigning two employees to each property as it can be more cost effective. As long as the three bars are blue, you’re good.
• Listen to Eri’s comments as she will often provide insight into whether hiring a specific employee or taking on an investment is a good idea or not.
• Always buy commercials when they are offered as they can provide a hefty boost to your revenue stream for all of your business and you’ll likely always make back your initial investment.
• Take advantage of employee training seminars and discounted hiring rates as these are efficient ways to level up and expand your workforce.
• Continually upgrade your properties with your extra capital . Upgrading properties is essential to bringing in more money, and allows you to fill in gaps in Product, Service, and Notability without requiring a specific employee.
• Reinvest your earnings into Ichiban’s Confections . Your starting business can become an effective cash cow in the early and mid-game—so don’t neglect it!
• Make sure to heal your employees happiness before each workday , as happier employees make more money! It’s also cheaper to maintain their happiness day-to-day than it is to correct it when they are very discouraged.
• Offer employees promotions to raise their level cap . It’s important to allow your employees to grow further as this boosts their overall stats and effectiveness during Shareholder Meetings.
• Always be building towards the next Shareholder Meeting . These checkpoints can offer a huge boon for your business, so you should always be optimizing your properties and employees in the interim.

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Yakuza: Like a Dragon business management guide

Most profitable properties, shareholder meetings, best employees 

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Minigames are plentiful in Yakuza: Like a Dragon , but if you’re looking to make money and even unlock a secret party member, get ready to spend some time with the Ichiban Confectionary business management minigame. Like other Yakuza minigames players will need to learn the ways of the trade to get to the top.

This Yakuza: Like a Dragon guide provides anything and everything you’ll need to know to make a successful business in no time, netting you millions of yen and a new party member. This includes a listing of the most profitable properties by Rank, a breakdown of the shareholder meetings mechanic, and best employees by Rank.

Table of contents

Most profitable properties by rank, rank 200 - 151, rank 100 - 51, rank 50 - 21, rank 20 - 11, rank 10 - 1, shareholder meetings, make sure your employees are well taken care of, color attributes matter, pay attention to a unit’s charisma and action cost, level up your employees, hold out for the big apology, best employees by rank.

From Rank 200 - 151, you should invest in Ichiban Confectionery as much as you possibly can. This property can easily net you above 3 million yen every time you open your business, using the basic units you’re given at the start of the minigame. Invest in Ichiban Confectionery, and you will be rewarded with easy money and easy net gain. You won’t have to invest in other businesses and can save up for more profitable properties as well when you hit the next Rank.

The following three options will maximize your profit going forward into Rank 100 - 51. R and N employees will get you by for the most part, which means you can focus on investing in your business. Remember that upgrading your business is just as good, if not better, than employing SR characters in some cases. Focus on leveling up and increasing the Ranks of your employees to prepare them for Shareholder Meetings, since this is where you’ll want to focus your attention while climbing Ranks.

• Yokodo Bookstore — Maximum Profit 2,189,790 yen
• Mr. Brillio — Maximum Profit 1,624,330 yen
• Jibikia Picture Gallery — Maximum Profit 1,673,830 yen

Trade out as many of your previous properties as possible to invest in Cat’s Servant , Karaoke GonGon , and White Flag . These properties are great to keep, even in Rank 20 - 11 as you climb the ladder. This is where having some SR employees will matter, but R employees can still put in great work. Upgrading these facilities, similarly to how you upgraded employees for Rank 100 - 50 means you can keep labor costs low and slowly rake in that money. Remember, it isn’t about going fast. It’s about keeping consistent, keeping your employees happy, and excelling in Shareholder Meetings.

• Cat’s Servant — Maximum Profit 15,637,400 yen
• Karaoke GonGon — Maximum Profit 10,486,590 yen
• White Flag — Maximum Profit 7,863,420 yen

We’re hitting the endgame now! In our experience, we didn’t have to invest in any of these properties to make it successfully to Rank 10 — 1. What mattered was building up enough yen to grab SSR employees and SR employees, as they’ll start to show up more frequently. Just keep grinding at the wheel, and if you have enough money to upgrade without going into debt, feel free to do so. Just remember to keep your employees happy and have enough extra funds to snatch up any SSR units.

• Shokichi Camera — Maximum Profit 36,160,0020 yen
• Takumi Architectural Design — Maximum Profit 35,120,0020 yen
• Waipu Productions — Maximum Profit 42,800,570 yen
• PDCA Trading Company — Maximum Profit 40,152,740 yen

If you can, immediately purchase Dianthus . You’ll be making more yen than you’ll know what to do with at this point if you’ve been steadily accumulating your wealth. Invest in SSR employees that have high stats focused on what will keep your businesses afloat. However, SR units can work in a pinch as long as you upgrade your facilities.

That’s really the trick to the entire thing — upgrading your facilities. Doing so means that your businesses can practically run themselves. Keep grabbing SSR employees when they show up for Shareholder Meetings, but don’t overextend and empty your wallet just to have a shiny group of SSRs when SR and even Rs can do the trick if leveled up enough.

• Dianthus — Maximum Profit 55,237,830 yen
• Media Barter — Maximum Profit 44,843,470 yen
• Grande Blu Marino — Maximum Profit 41,903,930 yen
• Stonefish — Maximum Profit 40,752,680 yen
• Industrial Hall Building — Maximum Profit 34,450,960 yen

This is, without a doubt, the most important part of the Ichiban Confectionery business management. Without holding successful Shareholder Meetings, your crawl to the top will be a slow and somewhat unsuccessful one. Below we’ll outline the best strategies going in Shareholder Meetings and what to keep in mind when boss fights eventually begin to show up.

Never go into a Shareholder Meeting without your employees being in the green — make sure that the little icon in their profile is a green, smiling icon.

Happy employees mean that you’ll get a bonus to support during Shareholder Meetings and that can make or break an encounter if you’re not quick on the draw. You can tend to your employees needs in the Employees menu. Using the Auto Care function is fine, and you can always manually provide bonuses to your employees if you’re trying to save cash.

What do the red, green, and blue icons next to an employees rareness mean? That is an indication of what “type” of unit they are. If you’ve played gacha games, you probably know what this means. However, if you’re unfamiliar, this means that certain unit colors are more effective or weaker against other specific unit colors. Use the flowchart below help understand the strengths and weaknesses of each specific unit type.

This is something to keep in mind when dealing damage to unhappy shareholders . Always take advantage of type weaknesses and strengths.

However, when confronting an angry shareholder , if their shield is of a specific color (either red, blue, or green), always use that color. Swap back to their type weakness once the shield is broken, and win them over with your charisma.

There are plenty of different employees you can hire in Yakuza: Like a Dragon , each with their own unique strengths and weaknesses. However, when it comes to Shareholder Meetings, pay very close attention to a unit’s charisma stat and action cost. (You can find those marked on the screenshot below.)

Ideally, you should take units that have an extremely high charisma — upward of 500 charisma can net you easy wins in shareholder meetings, especially when the damage multipliers kick in — and low action cost .

As you can see in the image above, Ikari is an SR unit with a charisma of 550 and an action cost of 5. This is great! The low action cost means you can knock some angry shareholders out in a single turn or break shields with a maximum of 15 Action Points.

With any business, investment goes a long way and investing in your employees always pays off. Rarity isn’t as much of an issue as you might imagine, with some R employees capable of carrying you well into the endgame. However, they’re only capable of doing this with a fair bit of investment. Make sure to promote your employees and get them to level 30 before you reach Rank 20. This will make the meetings infinitely easier.

Apologizing to shareholders can easily turn the tide. Ideally, save Ichiban’s apology for when things get dire. This means holding out until you can use the Level 3 Apology , which will not only stun your unhappy shareholders and chunk down some of their hit points, but it will also restore Action Points if you’re running low.

The list below is a compilation of some of the best employees in Yakuza: Like a Dragon sorted by rank for the Ichiban Confectionary business management minigame.

Most of the employees listed below are obtained at random. Keep around 3,000,000 yen or more in your reserves to immediately scout SR and SSR characters when they begin to appear at random around Rank 50 - 21. SSR characters will appear at a higher frequency from Rank 20 - 11.

The characters below will help you knock out the Ichiban Confectionary business management minigame within the first five chapters of the story. These employees may or may not work for you, depending on how much you enjoy min-maxing or at what pace you want to proceed. Completing the business management minigame took around 2.5 hours of consistent play with the characters listed below.

• Tome Kamataki
• Hanayama (clear substory 18)
• Ikari (clear substory 11)
• Yun (Ijincho)
• Iroha Yanagi (clear substory 50)
• Manae Miyakoshi (clear substory 49)
• Sumire (clear substory 14)
• Techno Yuta
• Director Shouzu
• Eri Kamataki (Reach Rank 1 in the Ichiban Confectionery business management mini-game)

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How to master business management in Yakuza: Like a Dragon

Learn to assign employees and dominate shareholder meetings in this Yakuza: Like a Dragon management guide.

Hiring and assigning employees

Opening for business, buying and improving properties, shareholder meetings.

Are you trying to be the best at business management in Yakuza: Like A Dragon? Ichiban Confections starts at the bottom, and so must you. After you're first introduced to Ichiban Confections by Eri in chapter five (outside Otohime Land), the amount of menus and numbers can be daunting. 

But with this Yakuza: Like a Dragon management guide to each part of running the company, you'll be a pro president in no time. Here I'll explain what the game doesn't, so you can learn to manage employees and battle shareholders until you're rolling in revenue. 

How to make money from Yakuza: Like a Dragon management

Here's the bad news. If you've played Yakuza 0, you might be used to lining your character's pockets with the profits you make from your business. Alas, this isn't the Eighties anymore. You'll have to keep your personal and business finances separate. Ichiban can make money by running Ichiban Confections, but he won't be raking in millions of yen off the bat. 

At certain points during Ichiban Confection's growth, you'll get an executive bonus for performing well during Shareholder Meetings. This starts at around 50,000 yen and grows into the hundred thousands as you climb the corporate rank pyramid. Grind away at those business periods if you want to line Ichiban's pockets quickly.

When you first begin business management, check out the Employee Assignment section of your Properties menu. Each property has requirements for Product, Service, and Notability. Meanwhile, each employee you hire has a rating in these areas too, so you'll need to assign them to properties where they can be most useful. 

You can choose from your pool of employees to assign a Leader, as well as up to two members per property. As a Leader, your employee will contribute all three of their skills to the property. Members will only contribute their skill value in one area, so pay attention to the slot you put them in and ensure you utilise their best skill. 

If you want to turn a profit, you'll need to ensure your property meets the bars shown on screen for Product, Service, and Notability. If it doesn't, swap your employees around until all three bars at blue. 

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You can also hire new employees if there's a skill gap on a property you need to fill. Low-tier employees have marginal skills in all three areas, so they often aren't worth hiring. Keep an eye out for employees with either moderate skills across the board or who excel in one area. 

Mind that you don't keep too many employees on your payroll. The Surplus Labor Costs under the Employees section of the main screen will show how much money you're paying in salaries to employees who are sitting on the bench. 

This part of the management game is totally automated, so you don't have to do anything but watch Ichiban go. But wait! Before you open for business, check whether your employees are happy. If they have neutral or angry faces on their employee icons, they won't work as hard and you probably won't make the amount of money listed in your Expected Profit section. Early on in the management game, you could even fail to turn a profit at all. Yikes. 

Ensuring your employees are happy will keep you in the green. Under the Employees menu, you can choose to spend money to boost the happiness of individual employees. You can also press the Auto Care button which will max out the happiness of all your employees. Watch their mood carefully because unhappy employees may quit.

It's said you have to spend money to make money, and that's absolutely true here. After your first couple rounds of opening for business, you may want to invest in improving your properties. 

Under the Property Improvement section of the Properties menu, you have four total ways to invest in each business. Investing in Sales Volume is like investing in the overall level of the property itself. A higher Sales Volume, naturally, means more profit. 

However, when the sales potential of the property goes up, so do the bars for Product, Service, and Notability. If the bar is too high, your employees won't be able to fill the gap, so you'll need to invest in raising the Product Development, Service, and Notoriety levels of the property itself. Before improving a property, check how the bars for each skill will move up, so you know what else you might need to invest in before opening for business. 

When considering which new properties to buy, pay attention to how much they can be upgraded. Some properties, like Ichiban Confections itself, can be upgraded multiple times. The yen symbols (¥) under the Sales Volume for the property tell you how many total times you can invest in it. The bars beneath the Product, Service, and Notability ratings tell you how many times each of those skills can be upgraded too. Some properties have smaller Sales Volume potential, meaning they won't be huge earners, but they might require only two one or two employees to turn a profit. Consider having a roster of both big swingers and more modest, yet steady, properties too. If a property isn't working out for you, sell it.

Oh no, the dreaded Shareholder Meeting. Yakuza: Like A Dragon does a poor job explaining this fast-paced, real-time tactical battle. Don't worry though, we've got you covered.

As with opening for business, make sure your employees are happy before heading into a Shareholder Meeting (this is a good time to use that Auto Care function to max out the happiness of all employees). Happy employees are more powerful during the battle, while a happy overall workforce provides you a bonus before the meeting even begins. 

Look at the Board Room section of your menu before heading into a Shareholder Meeting. Your company's net worth, employee happiness, and recent sales numbers all factor into the shareholder support for the company. Good or bad performance in each area will add or subtract from the base 50 percent Support you begin a Shareholder Meeting with. Starting out below 50 percent means a tougher fight, so investing in employee happiness at the last minute can help make up for your failures elsewhere. Before you head in, take a look at who you're bringing with you. Each employee has a colored symbol in the top left: blue, green, or red. Bring at least one of each, because the battle relies on a rock, paper, scissors system. 

Alright, your employees are happy and you have a balanced team coming with you to attend the Shareholder Meeting. Time for battle! These move fast, so here's how to stay in control of the situation:

Calling on shareholders

Call on whoever's irritation meter is filling fastest. If they get fully irritated, they'll yell out a question anyway.

Shareholder questions

Ignore the words. Just note the color and then look at the red, green, and blue diagram in the left part of the screen. Quickly select an employee to rebut the question who has the colored symbol that is strongest against the color of the question being asked. 

Red (people) beats green (money) which beats blue (facilities) which beats red.

What you're doing here is breaking the shareholder's guard (the three-shield symbols above their question). Choosing an employee whose skill is weak to the question will only break one shield. The same color will break two shields. The skill strongest against the question will break all three. If you don't manage to break their guard quickly enough, the shareholder will deal damage to the employee they're locked on to.

Employee attacks

After a shareholder's guard is broken, quickly call on your employees to deal damage directly to the shareholder's health. The number by each employee's name is their Command Cost. The bar at the bottom represents your Command Points. This will continually fill, replenishing faster the happier your employees are. If possible, call on your employees whose skill color is strong against that of the shareholder to deal more damage. A shareholder won't always ask a question of the same color as their own main skill, so pay attention to both.

Ichiban's apology skill

Don't forget about Ichiban's skill meter that fills during the battle. It can fill up to three times, represented by the blue, green, and yellow lights. A tier one apology does a little bit of damage to all shareholders. A tier two apology does more damage, recovers your employees a bit, and stuns the shareholders from asking questions briefly. A tier three apology works like tier two, but with additional Shareholder damage and healing to your team. 

Lauren started writing for PC Gamer as a freelancer in 2017 while chasing the Dark Souls fashion police and accepted her role as Associate Editor in 2021, now serving as the self-appointed chief cozy games enjoyer. She originally started her career in game development and is still fascinated by how games tick in the modding and speedrunning scenes. She likes long books, longer RPGs, has strong feelings about farmlife sims, and can't stop playing co-op crafting games.

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Yakuza Like A Dragon business management: How to manage employees, properties, and shareholder meetings

Dragon's Den

Want to learn about Yakuza: Like a Dragon business management? If you want to earn money fast in Yakuza: Like a Dragon , then you'll want to try your hand at business management. It's a minigame that's not so mini, with a confusing mess of menus and stats that don't mean much at first glance. Don't let that scare you off, though, because we're here to walk you through Yakuza: Like a Dragon business management.

In this guide, we'll explain business management in Yakuza: Like a Dragon and break down the major aspects that you need to understand, including employees, properties, and shareholder meetings.

Here's a full rundown of how business management works in Yakuza: Like A Dragon:

What is business management in Yakuza: Like A Dragon?

Yakuza: like a dragon business management overview, how to manage and hire employees in yakuza: like a dragon, how to buy and upgrade properties in yakuza: like a dragon, how to open for business, how to complete shareholder meetings in yakuza: like a dragon, what are business management bonuses in yakuza: like a dragon.

Towards the end of Chapter 5 you'll be introduced to Eri outside of Otohime Land (don't worry, it's unmissable). This is where you'll be introduced to Yakuza: Like A Dragon's business management minigame, which'll see you taking over Eri's "Ichiban Confections" business and attempt to climb the shareholder rankings. Eventually you'll be running multiple businesses, employing people, investing in your properties, and tackling Shareholder Meetings with ease. And most importantly, you'll find yourself raking in plenty of cash.

First up, you can't invest your own personal money into the business. And you'll only receive personal bonuses once you've successfully completed a Shareholder Meeting. This is something I'll get into just below.

Management is played out over two phases. You've got the day-to-day business stuff: hiring employees, assigning them, investing in properties, and hopefully turning a profit when you open for business. Opening for business is as you'd expect: inviting customers into your store and hopefully earning some yen in the process.

Once you've opened for business a total of four times, you'll then tackle a Shareholder Meeting to end that sales period. If you're successful here, you'll earn some personal profit, hopefully turn a decent business profit, and climb the Shareholder Rankings.

This is all something we'll get into below, I just wanted to lay the foundations a bit more before we get stuck in. There's a rhythm to how this management minigame works, and it won't be long before you get 'it', I promise!

Before we dive into the basics of employees, let's take a look at Ichiban Confections in the image above. Forget everything else for now, just note the three bars at the bottom right which show: product, service, and notability.

Now, look at the three employees above these bars. For each property (Ichiban Confections in this case), you can assign a total of three staff. One will be a leader, positioned on the left, while the other two are just regular staff.

Below, we'll list the mains stats represented on each employee card, starting from the top corner:

• The coloured circles at the top left of their portraits are relevant for Shareholder Meetings only. I'll get into this later.
• The letter 'N' indicates their rarity. As you progress you'll hire rarer staff with specialisations and better stats.
• The faces indicate motivation. Motivated employees are more productive and will make you more money. You can "auto care" for them in the employee menu which'll raise everyone's happiness levels to max. Get into the habit of doing so before opening for business or heading into Shareholder Meetings.
• When you open for business your employees will gain XP and level up. Doing so will increase their stats.
• Now note the three bars. This is what they are strongest at. The leader is particularly good at product, for example.

The leader will contribute all three of their bars/stats to the business (the big bars at the bottom). The other two members of staff will have some bars that are greyed out, as you can see in the above image. The grey bars do not contribute to your business. In the case above, this should explain why product is meeting expectations, as all three employees are contributing stats, but service and notability aren't. To boost the service and notability, you'll need to assign better employees.

How to assign employees to your business

What you want to do with every property is assign a mixture of three employees to make all the bars hit blue. In the case of Ichiban Confections, look at how I've swapped some folks out to do so in the image above.

With each business you want a leader with strong overall stats, as they'll contribute everything to the overall business. In this case the leader contributes plenty of service to bring it straight into the blue without any need for help, while bringing the other two bars up a bit. This means the other two employees have more than enough product and notability to help her tip these bars into the blue. Some employees are very good at one thing, while others are semi-decent at everything. Be aware of all this when swapping them around.

How to hire employees

Click "Hire" to hire new employees. Just bear in mind how much you'll need to pay them and whether the stats they bring to the table are worth it. If you can't find someone to hire, new potential employees tend to appear after shareholder meetings.

There are also potential employees out there on the streets of Yokohama. Talk to them and they'll often request an item in exchange for employment. I'm not sure that's how it works in the real world, but I'll go ask Katharine for a belated employee gift.

How to manage wages, layoffs, and training

It'll come as no surprise that you'll need to pay your employees wages. This will come off your total sales.

You'll also have to pay Surplus Labor Costs ie. the wages of employees you've not assigned to a property. Again, this'll be deducted from sales.

If you realise you've got a tonne of employees not doing anything, or if you've hired one that's much better than their 'equivalent', you can lay them off to reduce labor costs. Just be wary of laying off loads of folks as you may need them when you invest in other properties!

You can also put your employees through different forms of training. This'll grant them XP to level up their stats. The most important thing to bear in mind here is the management training. Most employees have a max level of five. Put them through this training and it'll up their max level to ten, so they can continue growing stronger as you open for business.

When you buy a property, note a few things: the product, service, and notability bars, the number of employees you've got, and the stats your employees have. It's no use buying a property if you've not got the staff to fill them. Once you've bought a property, make sure you assign members of staff to fill those bars to blue.

You can also invest your management funds to upgrade existing properties. Investing in Sales Volume will increase the amount of income you'll earn when you open for business. Just be aware that it'll push the vertical line across for each stat. This means it'll be tougher for your employees to contribute to reach the blue.

If you invest in the others, it'll increase the property's base product, service, or notability. This means your employees won't need to help them out as much with their own stats, and it'll be easier for you to get past those vertical lines and into the blue.

So now you've assigned your employees to your properties and made sure they're happy, head back to the main menu and you'll notice that the Open for Business "Projected Results" should be nicely in the green. This is the amount of profit you'll expect to net when you go ahead and let the sales commence. Opening for business is an automated process.

Let's take a look at the image above. First up, each row represents one of your properties and the staff you've assigned. You can see how motivated your staff are by looking at the face icon to the right of their portraits.

As time goes by mini-Ichiban will run across the screen collecting cash. You'll always start in the red as you'll need to pay off your wages, overheads, and the like. As time goes by, you'll eventually hit green and start turning a profit.

When Ichiban comes to a halt, the sales period is over and you'll shut up shop. You can see your total sales at the top right of the screen and a second screen will break down all the numbers for you. Unless you love all the maths, just pay attention to the "Overall Profit".

After you've opened for business your employees will gain XP and your profit will go straight into your management funds. Lovely stuff. Just remember to keep an eye on your employee motivation gauges as they will have taken a hit.

Shareholder meetings are ossibly the most confusing, most stressful element of it all. I'm going to break it down bit by bit, so hopefully by the end of this section it'll seem a little less intimidating.

How to prepare for a Shareholder Meeting

First off, as always, make sure your employees are motivated.

Next, select the "Board Room" option from the menu screen. This is where you'll assign employees to go into the Shareholding Meeting with you, and it's also where you can view which board members you'll be going up against.

When choosing who to take in with you, note the colours at the top left of their portraits first. You want to bring in colours which'll perform well against the Shareholders.

When selecting characters, you must remember that Red beats Green, Green beats Blue, and Blue beats Red.

• If you take on Red with Green, you'll only deal one damage.
• If you take on Red with Red, though, you'll deal two damage.
• If you take on Red with Blue, you'll deal three damage (max).

Now, take into account the hexagons with the numbers in them. This indicates how much it costs to use them in battle. The lower the number, the better.

How to win a Shareholder Meeting battle

Your aim in these battles is to break the shareholders' guard by answering questions. If you break their guard, you'll have a chance to deal damage. Deal enough damage and they'll be charmed by you and sit down, eliminating them from the fight. Charm them all and you win.

Take a look at the image above. You'll see that there are three Shareholders out front and your roster down below. Pay attention to the rising bars next to the shareholders' colours, as well as the little face emojis. Let these bars rise to the top and you'll take "Support" damage.

Note the point total next to the orange bar. This fills up over time and will deplete every time you attack with an employee.

You want to target the most irritated shareholders first, which is the one on the far left in this case.

Here we've hit this shareholder with a rebuttal. She's red, and we used our 11 point red employee against her. This broke her guard by two out of three, indicated by the shield icons.

Next, we hit her with our other red employee breaking her guard entirely. Now she's vulnerable. At this point you want to attack with employee colours who will do well against her. Blue or red, ideally, but Green if you've got no other option.

Just bear in mind your point total which'll fill up over time. Employees cost points to use in battle, so do your utmost to maximise each usage as you'll have limited time.

At the bottom right of the screen you'll see Ichiban's apology meter which can fill up three times, represented by the little circles. These are effectively big AoE attacks which'll deal increasing amounts of damage to all shareholders.

Tier one apology deals damage to all shareholders. Tier two does more damage, recovers your employees a bit, and stuns shareholders briefly which'll stop them from asking questions for a bit. Tier three is similar to two, but with greater everything.

After a succesful shareholder meeting, you'll climb the shareholder rankings, earn some profit for your business, and earn some personal cash.

When you return to the main menu, sometimes Eri will highlight employees who've taken note of your successes and want to get hired. Occasionally there will be other business proposals, or even bonuses to training courses for certain periods of time too. Be sure to take advantage of these when they swing around, but don't be afraid to refuse them too. Be smart with your money.

That covers everything you need to know about Yakuza: Like a Dragon business management. Our Kappa Statue locations and Missing Cat locations guides will also help you net even more cash, so don't pass those up. If you're struggling with boss battles rather than shareholder battles, then learn how to get the Premium Sushi Set so that you can get a useful new Poundmate (which is also a crawfish named Nancy). If you just want to blitz through to the end, check out our guide on how many chapters there are in Yakuza: Like a Dragon .

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Yakuza: Like a Dragon - Business Management Guide

August 10, 2022 Wolf Knight Yakuza: Like a Dragon 15

Business Management Mini Game Guide

Before starting business management.

Before you start the Business Management mini-game, it is recommended to clear Substory 18 – Home Run Heroism first to acquire Hanayama as an employee. He has well-balanced stats and does well in the Regular Shareholder Meeting, making him the best starting employee in the game and is good enough to carry you to reaching the top company rank.

Regular Shareholder Meeting Guide

Toward Stock Price Rank 100 Walkthrough

During the first stages of Business Management, it is important that you focus on upgrading Ichiban Confectionary as this will allow you to earn about 3.5 million yen when it is maxed out. You will have an easier time reaching rank 50 with this strategy as well.

For Regular Shareholder Meeting events, have Hanayama, Tome Kamataki, and Kokekokko in your team to cover all three attributes (red, green, and blue) during the shareholder battle.

Toward Stock Price Rank 50 Walkthrough

Upon reaching rank 100, focus on fully upgrading Ichiban Confectionary to the maximum. You should also raise Tome Kamataki’s level to 20, allowing her to raise all the parameters of Ichiban Confectionary by herself. You can get a loan from Nick for these upgrades if you are short on company funds.

When up against Ken Nakanowatari in the Regular Shareholder Meeting, organize a team to cover all attributes (red, green, and blue) to defeat him.

Toward Stock Price Rank 20 Walkthrough

Acquire Cat’s Servant as soon as you reach rank 50 and upgrade it, paying attention to the product power gauge. Sell off any property that is currently generating the smallest profit and use your funds to purchase Karaoke GonGon, Hortancia, and White Flag in that order.

Toward Stock Price Rank 10 Walkthrough

Upon reaching rank 20, purchase PDCA Trading Company which has high sale’s growth and low maintenance cost. Acquire Camera Shokichi and WAIPU Production in that order after clearing the first and second rounds of Regular Shareholder Meeting and selling off a piece of property that is making the least amount of revenue each time.

Toward Stock Price Rank 1 Walkthrough

Acquire Grand Blue Marino, Dianthus, Media Barter and focus on product power. Note that it is important to upgrade these pieces of property after acquiring them to avoid your profits from dropping. Because of this, it is recommended to have accumulated more than 200 million Yen in funds before purchasing new property.

To win against Nakanowatari, Saiki, Mizuno, and Hosho, you will need a team that covers all attributes (red, green, and blue) and preferably with speaking costs of about 11.

Tips for Business Management

Purchasing property.

Always purchase property with high sales scaling to gain as much return as possible. Try to acquire property that can generate large profit with just one operation.

Allocating Personnel (Human Resources)

Be sure to check the parameters of your employees before assigning them to manage property. Note that all of the leader’s parameters (product power, service, and name recognition) will affect the sale’s growth of the property. The second and third employees, meanwhile, will only affect the property through one of their parameters (the second employee’s product power and the third’s name recognition).

Best Business Management Employees

Personnel Unlocked in Substories (Human Resource)

All Substory Walkthroughs

Caring for Personnel (Human Resource)

It is recommended to attend to the condition of your personnel after you have done business twice. This is to prevent accidents and problems that can cause sales to go down.

Note that the condition of personnel goes down by one level after two rounds of operation. Select an employee from the employee list and choose Auto Care to allow them to recover.

Purchase Commercials (CM)

You should purchase Commercials (CM) whenever they are available. This allows Ichiban Confectionary to gain almost double their normal sales, making it a good opportunity to raise funds.

Ignore Investments

It is generally a bad idea to pursue Investments when they appear as the chances of gaining profit are extremely low. It is also very costly to engage in them so skip them as much as possible.

Get loans only from banks

You should only apply for loans from banks as they offer the lowest interest rates out of all means of borrowing money (only 5%). Try to avoid loans from financial institutions which have an interest of 30% or more since the debt you will incur will significantly hinder sales growth.

Benefits of Business Management

Fast money farming.

The Business Management mini game allows you to earn about 3 million Yen in just under 5 minutes. Progressing through the mini game towards company rank 1 allows you to accumulate more than 10 million Yen, making it one of the best ways to farm money during the early stages of the game.

Money Farming Guide

Eri Kamataki Joins the Party

Eri will join your party as soon as you reach your first goal of being in the top 100 companies. This is particularly useful during the middle stages of Chapter 7 – The Spider’s Web since you will be one member short of a full-party.

Eri Kitamaki Character Guide

Raising Eri’s Bond Level

Note that progressing through the Business Management mini game is also the only way to increase the bond level with Eri. Doing so rewards you with the bond technique Twin Fists Extreme as well as allowing you to view Eri’s Girlfriend (Heroine) Substory event.

How to Unlock All Girlfriend (Heroine) Substory Events

Extreme Satellite Laser

Kasuga will learn his most powerful Extreme Skill called Extreme Satellite Laser when you reach rank 1 in the mini game. It is an incredibly powerful attack that makes dealing with high level enemies and late-game bosses easier, especially in the Final Millennium Tower post-game dungeon.

Final Millennium Tower Guide

Other Mini Games

Yakuza: Like a Dragon Recommended Article List

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15 comments.

be better if it listed property price, i’m not selling until i know that otherwise i put myself in a worse position.

Clara not listed as best employee? 1/10 guide

I usually reached the goals way ahead of time, the game would actually keep me on the same level until the board meeting. I did some things differently. I only borrowed money once, 10 mil in the second round. I made sure to make the employees happy green smileys every round as the costs are actually lower than if you do it every 2-3 rounds PLUS they earn more. Happy employees equal economic benefits, who knew!?’ Do all the Animal show missions in the park to get the best shareholder ass-kicker I’ve found so far. You can get away with using the Chimp for almost all attacks in the board room, with good timing.

The ‘Best Personel’ listed in this guide aren’t that great at all, they’re silver/R with mediocre base stats. If you want good recruits (and don’t have the Management Mode pack), pay attention to the recruit roster updates every business turn. There’ll eventually be Gold/SR ones and at least one Plat/SSR (Yuta). Also wander around town and you’ll find NPC’s that can be recruited if your personality stats are high enough, or give them specific items.

Thanks for the feedback. You can now check guide for the best employees to recruit.

https://samurai-gamers.com/yakuza-like-a-dragon/best-business-management-employees/

Worthless guide, doesn’t tell you how to prepare for shareholder meeting or anything.

I think the name for the Mahjong property is different. It was Ling for me. And I am pretty sure the last bit “speaking power of about 11.” is misunderstanding the meeting. Thats the speaking cost as in how much it takes for them to speak. Pretty sure charisma affects the “damage” done to the shareholders but I don’t know what tenacity does.(might be the “hp” of the person) Also pretty easy to cheese it with the pause for controls.

Which one is the Meteor Theater?

Looks like this guide did the direct translation, but it would be the Ryusei Theatre as Ryusei means roughly Meteor/Shooting star

Anyone wondering what Pink is, I think it’s Dianthus. It translates into Pink in google.

The name is Dianthus… like the pink flowers.

I don’t see any property named Pink in the westerm realease. Anyone knows how it’s called or how much it costs to purchase it???

If anyone’s wondering how to get Mahjong Club Rin, I got it available as soon as I finished the tutorial shareholder meeting. So I recruited Hanayama, went directly into shareholder’s, came out, and bought the Mahjong Club and proceeded from there.

Whats the Pink building in the tier one progression there isn’t a building named that.

How do you add Mahjong Club Rin to the list of properties you can purchase.

© 2016 Samurai Gamers

Understanding the Basics

Gameplay options:, winning strategies, meeting dynamics:, rank 200 – 151: building your foundation, rank 100 – 51: expanding your portfolio, rank 50 – 21: upgrading your assets, rank 20 – 11: nearing the top, rank 10 – 1: the final push, wrapping it up.

• Additional Guides
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Yakuza: Like a Dragon Business Management Guide

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How to Succeed in Like a Dragon’s Ichiban Confectionary/Ichiban Holdings Business Management Minigame

Ready to conquer the business world in “Yakuza: Like a Dragon”? Let’s jump into the Ichiban Confectionery business minigame. It’s a step up from what you might remember in Yakuza Zero, and it’s all about strategy and smart management. Here’s a detailed guide to help you become the top business in Yokohama.

This minigame kicks off in Chapter 5 and revolves around five rounds of business cycles. The fifth round? A critical showdown with shareholders. It’s a mix of strategy and action, with an engaging cycle of planning, investing, and facing off against investors.

Your business’s financial health is separate from your personal in-game funds, but you’ll get some nice bonuses for Kasuga along the way for sure!

Your main investor tasks you with specific ranking goals within set business cycles. These are quite lax, though. For example; at one point, you’ll have 7 cycles to reach Rank 50, but it’s possible in 2-3 cycles with the right properties and employees. A cycle is 5 days; 4 days of business and one Shareholder Meeting.

Dive into the Gameplay

The game’s core is navigating through menus and making strategic decisions. You’ll juggle between different options, each impacting your business’s growth.

• Properties: Here, you assign staff, upgrade facilities, and manage your portfolio of businesses.
• Employees: Recruiting and training your staff is vital. Match them to roles where they shine to boost profits.
• Debts: A risky option for quick cash, but often unnecessary if you manage your finances well.
• Board Room: Prep for shareholder meetings. This is where your strategic choices are put to the test.

Start simple with Ichiban Confections, gradually expanding and upgrading as you go. Your initial focus should be on understanding the game’s mechanics.

• Effective Management: Assign employees where they benefit the business most. A good match between employee skills and business needs is crucial. Keep an eye on the gauges available for your allies.
• Balanced Performance: Aim to keep your business stats in the green. Adjust your strategies based on performance metrics. don’t over-spend. Upgrade staff and businesses to keep them profitable. Sell unprofitable businesses. Fire unused employees.

Mastering the Shareholders Meeting

This is where your business acumen is truly tested. Bring a balanced team to answer tough questions and defend your business strategies. Your biggest Ranking Hikes will come from these meetings, and you’ll also get a significant amount of cash to use on your business from these meetings.

• Team Selection: Diversity is key. Bring a mix of skills to cover all aspects of business management. You will need a red, blue, and green employee to help you counter questions of each colour (red beats green, green beats blue, blue beats red.)

• Verbal Battles: Respond to shareholder queries with the right employee, turning the tide in your favor.

• Winning: You don’t need to answer every question or satisfy every interrogator, but you will want your Approval Rating in the lower-left to be at 100% or as close to it as possible when the timer at the top of your screen reaches 00:00.

• Avoiding Failure: As Shareholder meetings are so important, it can be a bit of a setback to fail one. I recommend exiting the Business Management Minigame to save the game before each key Shareholder Meeting, particularly those which feature minibosses (Eri will warn you about intimidating participants ahead of time).

The Ultimate Business Setup

To maximize your earnings in “Yakuza: Like a Dragon,” it’s crucial to invest in the most profitable properties at each rank. Let me break it down for you, so you know exactly where to put your money and when.

• Primary Investment: Ichiban Confectionery. Pour your resources into this property. It can bring in over 3 million yen each cycle, using just the basic units provided at the start.
• Strategy: Focus solely on Ichiban Confectionery to accumulate wealth for future investments.
• Yokodo Bookstore: Maximum Profit 2,189,790 yen
• Mr. Brillio: Maximum Profit 1,624,330 yen
• Jibikia Picture Gallery: Maximum Profit 1,673,830 yen
• Employee Strategy: Rely on R and N employees, and concentrate on upgrading your businesses and employees. Employee rank-ups are crucial for successful shareholder meetings.
• Cat’s Servant: Maximum Profit 15,637,400 yen
• Karaoke GonGon: Maximum Profit 10,486,590 yen
• White Flag: Maximum Profit 7,863,420 yen
• Management Tips: Swap out less profitable properties for these ones. Continue upgrading facilities and employees, balancing costs and maintaining consistent growth. Start incorporating SR employees, but don’t overlook the value of well-leveled R employees.
• Shokichi Camera: Maximum Profit 36,160,0020 yen
• Takumi Architectural Design: Maximum Profit 35,120,0020 yen
• Waipu Productions: Maximum Profit 42,800,570 yen
• PDCA Trading Company: Maximum Profit 40,152,740 yen
• Employee Focus: Start gathering SSR and SR employees, but manage your funds wisely. Keep your employees content and avoid unnecessary debt.

• Dianthus: Maximum Profit 55,237,830 yen
• Media Barter: Maximum Profit 44,843,470 yen
• Grande Blu Marino: Maximum Profit 41,903,930 yen
• Stonefish: Maximum Profit 40,752,680 yen
• Industrial Hall Building: Maximum Profit 34,450,960 yen
• Final Strategy: Prioritize upgrading facilities to ensure they run efficiently. SSR employees are ideal, but don’t underestimate the power of a well-upgraded SR or R employee.

There you have it – a comprehensive guide to mastering the Business Management Minigame in Yakuza: Like a Dragon. It’s all about smart planning, understanding your team, and making strategic decisions. Dive in, experiment with different strategies, and watch your business climb to the top!

Once you reach Rank 1, you’ll be able to recruit Eri as an employee! She’s a great addition to the team, especially for Shareholder Meetings, so be sure to scoop her up if you plan to keep playing the Management Minigame. By continuing to play, you can get 3 million yen per Shareholder Meeting for your personal funds outside of the minigame.

Got more questions or need further tips? Drop a comment below, and let’s discuss.

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Yakuza Like A Dragon Management and Shareholder Meetings explained

Handle shareholders in Yakuza Like A Dragon Business Management

Learn how Yakuza Like A Dragon management works to ace shareholder meetings and make money on the side. It's not a Yakuza game if you aren't running a side hustle, and Ichiban is no different in Yakuza Like A Dragon with his Ichiban Confections business. The goal is to build a rice cracker business, and become the best in Yokohama. You'll also have to upgrade your store, train, and face Shareholder Meetings at the end of every business period. In these meetings you have to convince your sponsors that it's all going well and that you’d love to have their support to continue. If all else fails, however, then you’ve got one other option: saying sorry. 

On the surface, this may not seem all that important, but failing a Shareholder Meeting can have severe consequences, such as decreasing your rank in management - terrible if you’re trying to get to the top 100 or 50 before Nick Ogata comes to visit and rids you of your business. It also hurts the morale of your employees, and the reputation of your business. So, if you want to do well at Management - and you'll need to if you want to recruit Emi Kamataki in Yakuza Like A Dragon - you must be ready to talk your way through those meetings. Here's what you need to know about Yakuza Like A Dragon Business Management and Shareholder Meetings.

Getting prepared for Yakuza Like A Dragon Shareholder Meetings

The game tries to explain Shareholder Meetings, but unfortunately is pretty bad at explaining some of the pictures and information it throws at you. For one thing, it doesn’t let you know that while looking at your Management screen, where you can recruit employees and buy property, there’s also the option to look at who you’re going to be up against in your Shareholder Meetings. You should have a look at it before you start your Shareholder Meetings, just so you can analyze your strategy. 

Let’s give you an example. Look at the following image:

With this screen you’re able to see that the three shareholders in the upcoming meeting have different colour circles attached to their level. One has blue, one has red, and the other has green. On the left side of the screen, you’ll see the same colours - blue, red, and green. These shareholders are linked to those colours, and will focus on these subjects in the Shareholder Meetings. Blue will be interested in your net worth, red in how you manage your employees, and green in the current sales that you made during the period of business. 

These colours aren’t just for showing who cares about what, however. Focus your attention to the top right of the screen and you’ll see a circle that may look similar to previous Yakuza players. For those who have no idea what that circle of mishmashed colours mean, we’ll explain: green beats blue, which beats red, which then beats green. It’s a circle that goes by the formula of rock-paper-scissors, and it’s this method that you’ll need to rely on when having it out with your shareholders. For example, if you have three enemies, with two red circles and one green, you should include blue and red employees as these are best suited for battle.

You can also see that, next to their titles of part-time employee, there is a number that isn’t their level. This is how much power you need to have to ‘play’ the employee in the meeting. As you can see, the total power here is 40, so if I was to play my first employee, I’d be left with a power of 33. 

If you look closer, you’ll see that both the boardroom members and employees have a smiling or angry face next to their level. While it isn’t great if your opponent is angry, it’s even worse if your employees are as they won’t perform as well. So the best thing to do before a board meeting is to give your employees some love through treating them to spas or just letting the game do it for you by using Auto-Care in the employee section before you head into the shareholders meeting. The more positive your employees are, the better chance you’ll have in succeeding in the meeting.

Understanding Employee Stats

To pick the best employee to head to ‘battle’ in, you’ll need to know and understand what employee stats are and what they will contribute in the Shareholder Meetings. As you can see, you’ve got stats labelled under the Shareholder Meeting tag - these are the only stats that you’ll need to focus on.

Charisma - This is the employee’s attack power, and can be improved by levelling up your employee. The higher the charisma, the more damage your employee will do in battle. 

Tenacity - This is the health of your employee, and like Charisma, can be improved by levelling up your employee. 

Command Cost - This is how much power you need in order to choose the employee to argue against the opposing shareholders.

Going to Battle

With all that said and done, it’s time to head to battle and kick those ungrateful sponsors where the sun don’t shine!

In this section of the game, you’ll have to put all the information that you’ve learned from this guide into action. It may sound a little overwhelming at first, but if there’s one tip we can give out to you is that, if you’re struggling throughout the battle, you can hit the pause button and get your breath. It’s helped us out many times!

Onto battle! After the introductory cutscene, you’ll be tasked with answering questions from your sponsors. You can choose which sponsor you’d like to talk to first, but be aware that the longer you wait, the more impatient they’ll get and if you leave them waiting too long… The support meter, and your employee’s health will take a hit. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with waiting, as each second gives you more power, but just don’t wait too long. 

From the picture above you’ll notice that the sponsor yelling at us has blue shields above his dialogue box. This is significant as it means that you’ll need a green employee to penetrate the shields and leave the sponsor vulnerable to your attacks. In this image, the sponsor and shield are the same colour, but if you have a sponsor that’s blue but their dialogue box has green shields, use your red employees to break the shields down and then use the green employee to deal damage. It’s a lot of memorizing, which is why we really do suggest pausing if you feel overwhelmed. 

You should also take notice of the red bar of the sponsor when you get into an argument with them. That’s their Tenacity, aka health bar, and can only be shortened when their shield is down. We advise you go for the sponsor with the smallest health bar first, as they are much easier to win over and you’ll still have enough power to at least knock some health off the more powerful enemies. After all, you only need your support to be 100% to win the match, not get all of your shareholder sponsors on your side. It’s best to have more than just one.

If you’re struggling with waiting on power, leaving room for your enemies to tear into your support, there is only one option...

Saying sorry

At the bottom right hand corner you’ll see a ring with three, smaller rings above it. This is your ‘sorry’ button, and pressing it will give you the option of making Ichiban apologize. You have three levels of ‘sorry’ which range from stunning your enemies to knocking their health down to 0 if you use it at the right moment. It is incredibly helpful, and can be used to tactically beat your enemies in battle.

Now that you know everything you need to in order to win the Shareholder Meeting battles, go out there and prove to everyone that Ichiban is the best business manager in the world!

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Yakuza: Like a Dragon

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Yakuza: Like A Dragon Would Be The Perfect Game If You Could Jump

Why don’t games let you jump?

There’s nothing worse than a game that doesn’t let you jump. I don’t get it. Are you hiding all those game design secrets, that messy web of behind-the-scenes overlapping textures, just over a small hurdle that our protagonist couldn’t possibly clear? Or perhaps it’s a button mapping thing, where you have too many vitally important inputs that none of the four face buttons, two shoulder buttons, or two triggers could possibly be switched to make the little guy on the screen leap into the air.

Whatever the reason, game designers make a choice when they don’t allow you to jump. Whether it’s because they don’t want to factor in aerial attacks, because they’re too worried about clipping through walls, or for their own reasons that have nothing to do with what I’ve just listed, some games don’t let you jump. These games make me sad.

I’m a movement guy. Ever since I played Titanfall 2 , I’ve looked everywhere for more of that sweet, sweet momentum-based action. There’s a reason I’ve put a thousand hours into Apex Legends , and that reason rhymes with Blightenball. Now I’m not saying Dark Souls needs wallrunning (although…), but a little jump could make its finicky platforming sections a little less frustrating.

Jumps aren’t just about movement, however. A good jump can make a world feel far more alive. You can hide collectibles on bus stops or little ledges, you can tease players with out-of-reach items until they gain full use of their hamstrings, you can give your world a boost of verticality that grounded games never see. A jump can reveal new secrets, can be used to avoid enemy encounters, or can close ground quickly when chasing a fleeing foe. A jump is tactical, a key tool in an RPG protagonist’s arsenal, a tool for movement, exploration, and combat rolled into one.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon is the latest game to glue my feet to the virtual floor. It’s by no means the worst offender, nor is it the latest game to commit these gravitational crimes, but it’s the most recent game I’ve played, and it annoyed me again.

Exploring Yokohama is a delight. I’ve already professed my love for the city in articles before, but diving headfirst into the world for Like a Dragon week has brought me nothing but pleasure. I especially love it when a quest takes you down a side alley, leads you up some stairs, to fight a crew of ruffians in a courtyard you never knew existed, despite the fact you’ve walked past it a hundred times on your adventures to find lost cats or get your chops round the latest restaurant delicacy. Despite this, I can’t help but feel it would all be improved if I could jump around a bit.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon commits the worst crime of all: it lets you hurdle, but not jump. Run straight at a knee-height fence, and you’ll mantle it easy enough. It’s basically a jump, except you have no control over how and where you do it. If you come at the fence at just the wrong angle, you’ll run straight into it. A dodgy mantling mechanic is worse than no jumping at all.

Wandering the streets of Yokohama is great, but I want to have some fun with my movement. There’s always that one party member in an MMO who rolls everywhere instead of walking, and I want to be jumping from A-to-B rather than running. I want to be able to jump up to the next floor, to see the city from a level higher.

We know Ichiban can jump. He leaps five feet in the air to deliver the devastating final blow in his Tag Team move, Essence of Mayhem. So why can’t he jump outside of battle?

I understand that I’ve blown this problem way out of the water, and probably unfairly picked on Yakuza: Like a Dragon because of the fact it’s the game I’ve played most recently. I understand that jumping isn’t really that big of a deal. But I also understand that I get so incredibly frustrated when I load up a new game for the first time and my feet are rooted firmly to the ground. I’ve heard a lot of discourse around Dragon’s Dogma 2 already, but there’s only one metric I’ll be judging it by when I get around to it next.

Next: Yakuza: Like A Dragon Is The Pokémon Game I Always Wanted