The main type of substory in the game. In requests, you help out people for all kinds of things. There are 100 requests in the game. Some of them are part of a "series", with recurring characters and developing storylines.

Substories relating to Kiryu's work as a kakemawari. There are 20 commissions in the game, most of which occur in Gion. You will be collecting payments and dealing with trouble in these substories.

Bounties get posted on the notice board in Rakugai. There are 20 bounties in the game and all of them involve a fight. Some of these opponents are strong so you'll need to come prepared for these substories.

Use the left analogue stick to move Kiryu around the map

You can talk to NPCs with an icon above their head.

The enter icon appears when you are near a building you can enter. Besides shops and restaurants, there are some story-related locations you can enter.

Press to reposition the camera to face where Kiryu is facing. You can also use R3. There may be times when resetting the camera doesn't quite work, such as in narrow spaces.

Pressing the start button pauses the game and brings up a menu. Check the pause menu section on this page for details.

Pressing select when Kiryu is standing still gives you the option to exit out of the game and go back to the title menu. This does not save the game, so doing this means you'll have to reload from your last save.

Shows the items Kiryu currently has in his possession. You can use the item storage system at save points on the map as well as at Kiryu's house in Gion. Pressing in this section will show you all the key items you have.

Here you can check and change the weapons and armour Kiryu currently has equipped. There are two equipment categories - Inside Gion and Outside Gion. You cannot equip swords in Gion.

Shows Kiryu's current location. Pressing will let you zoom in closer. Pressing will let you check all the different maps across Kyoto.

Here you can check stats such as Kiryu's level and EXP. You can also check all the abilities Kiryu has learned and can perform in battle.

You can check all the letters Kiryu has received so far in here. Letters you have already read are marked with an "opened" symbol. The top-right of this section shows how many letters you have and how many of them you have read.

Here you can check on your progress in 9 different completion categories.

Look at information about various characters Kiryu meets on his journey. This information gets updated as you progress through the story.

A dictionary that explains the various terms used throughout the game.

Change game settings in here.

Open-palm strikes. Can strike up to 3 consecutive times. Landing all 3 hits will cause an enemy to stagger. These attacks generally don't build up much of your heat gauge, but landing all 3 gives you a decent heat boost.

Kicking is a strong attack that has a relatively large gap between consecutive strikes. It builts up a lot more heat than the open palm strikes and can also strike enemies who are guarding. It's good attack to use against enemies who are guarding against your open palm strikes.

When you have accumulated a certain amount of heat, a heat action indicator can appear at the top-right of the screen. When you press when you see the icon, you will use a heat action. See the heat actions section of this guide for details about the various heat actions.

You can grab hold of enemies by pressing near them. You can strike grabbed enemies with the or buttons. can strike up to 3 times, while is a single strong kick which sends an enemy to the ground.

Pressing after grabbing an enemy will throw them. This will send an enemy to the ground. Pressing near an enemy on the ground will stomp on them.

You can pick up items lying around in the battle area by pressing near them. You can attack enemies using these weapons, but each weapon can only strike enemies a certain number of times before breaking.

This will block attacks from the front and sides. Even if an enemy breaks your guard with a strong attack or weapon, you won't take damage. However, you cannot block against sword attacks.

Holding will lock onto the nearest enemy. However, you can't run or turn around while doing this, so it might not be a good idea to use when enemies are behind you.

Pressing along with a direction on the left analogue stick will dodge in that direction. Pressing a second time while dodging will perform a dodge roll (combining this with a direction on the left analogue stick will dodge roll in that direction).

You can hit a strong attack by pressing after a attack. This builds up more heat than regular attacks and can also be a useful ability to use when surrounded by enemies, as it can create some distance.

Pressing will perform a kick that breaks an enemy's guard. This is useful to use against enemies that are good at blocking. However, when you use this ability there is quite a big gap before you can perform another action, leaving you open to attacks, so it's risky to use when there are a lot of enemies near you.

You can perform zanshin by holding down after landing a strong attack. This will build up your heat gauge, so it's a useful technique if you want to perform more heat actions. However, this technique does leave you open to attacks.

Alternating attacks with the right and left swords when using combo. Though after increasing the number of combo attacks with this style through training, combos from the 4th strike onwards will use both swords to strike the enemy.

Pressing will launch a strike using both swords. This is more powerful than the single-hand strikes, but using this will leave you open to attacks. Pressing during a combo will launch a strong attack.

The most notable feature of the two sword style is its ability to defend against attacks from all directions, including from behind. It's extremely useful when surrounded by enemies, but it cannot be used to defend against gunshots or strong attacks, so you'll have to avoid those using the button.

Pressing will launch a powerful overhead slam attack. Using this will leave you open to attacks, so it's risky to use it when surrounded by enemies.

Both the greatswords and clubs are able to defend against both arrows and bullets. However, these enemies will create distance from Kiryu if he gets too close, so chasing them down using this style is not easy.

A great feature of this style is its ability to quickly destroy obstacles on the battlefield. It is able to break them significantly faster than any of the other styles.

Single-handed weapon. Can be bought from Arigataya and the Weapon Shop from Chapter 5 onwards. Hitting an enemy with the full combo (3 hits) or a strong attack () will knock the enemy to the ground.

This is another light weapon held with one hand. Works the same way as the Kiseru and Jitte, but has greater attack range at the cost of slower attack speed. Can be bought from Arigataya from Chapter 6 onwards.

This is a spear-style weapon held with both hands. It has a big attack range and is powerful. This weapon is useful even outside of Gion. But you can't get hold of this until Chapter 9.

You can gain experience by defeating enemies in random encounters throughout the game. The amount of experience you can gain for each chapter is fixed and the higher Kiryu's level is, the less experience you gain. Furthermore, using heat actions against enemies (not including enemies in random encounters) will give you experience.

You can gain experience by completing various substories throughout the game. For substories which involve fights, the experience you gain will vary depending on the enemy you defeated, much like in the main story. The amount of experience you gain can also vary depending on the choices you make during the substory.

You can gain experience by ordering food and drinks at restaurants. The amount of experience you gain varies depending on the food or drink, but the more expensive items tend to reward you with the most experience. You only get the full experience reward the first time you order an item - from the second time onwards you only get half the original experience.

Besides the three main ways already explained, you can gain experience in the arena, or by watching shows at the theatre in Rakugai.

A simple way of building heat that can be used right from the start of the game. Using the brawler style, face an enemy and press to use. But watch out because you will lose heat if you are attacked, so it's better to use this when you are a safe distance from the enemy.

A technique that can be used from part 1-1 of the story. This technique is explained in the "Combat Basics" section of this page, in the single-sword style section.

You can learn this ability via the Waterfall Training. This ability builds up your heat gauge when you defend against enemy attacks. This works with any fighting style, but is most useful with the two-sword style due to that style's omni-directional defending ability. This ability can be learned any time from part 7-3 onwards.