Yakuza Kiwami: Preparing for Legend and Getting Through the Chapter 9 Car Chase

Yakuza Kiwami: Preparing for Legend and Getting Through the Chapter 9 Car Chase All right, this is the one I would read before starting the Legend run, especially if you're coming straight from Yakuza 0. Kiwami lets you use New Game+ for Legend. You do not have to throw away the Kiryu you've spent the entire game building and start again without your abilities, money, and equipment. The other thing to understand is what happens when you lose. Legend removes ordinary continues. A failed encounter sends you back to a save rather than letting you retry from the usual checkpoint. That is why preparation matters, and why Chapter 9 deserves its own explanation. Before you start Finish the story once to unlock Legend. Then use your clear data to enter Premium Adventure and finish the preparation you want to take into the next playthrough. I would restore Dragon, finish Komaki's lessons, buy the major health and attack upgrades, and make sure I have the three ordinary Kiwami finishers. Tiger Drop is particularly useful, but so are basic things like being able to survive a mistake and stop a boss from recovering health. Buy recovery items. Repair any weapons you intend to use. Check the equipment effects rather than wearing something purely because its defense number looks high. Keep your completed save separate. You want a place to return to for minigame cleanup and anything else you don't feel like repeating during the story. Once your Premium Adventure preparation is done, go to Serena and create updated clear data. Use that file when starting New Game+, and select Legend. If you select the older clear data from immediately after the ending, you won't suddenly inherit all the training and equipment you earned afterward. The file you choose needs to contain that progress. [SEGA's manual](https://manual.sega.jp/ryu-kiwami/en/index.html) explains the distinction between Premium Adventure, clear data, and restarting with your existing abilities and items. Don't use New Game+ as a substitute for finishing your original completion save. The story and substories start over, even though many upgrades and other records carry across. Keep the original save and the Legend run in different slots. [The carryover reference](https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/181171-yakuza-kiwami/faqs/75194/new-game-and-premium-adventure) is useful if you're checking a specific category. Optional equipment If you've already finished the Climax Battles, the War God Talisman can make the ordinary combat much easier by continually restoring Heat. It is a reward worth collecting for this run if you have access to it. You do not need it to beat Legend, though. Don't turn a manageable story replay into a requirement to finish every difficult challenge before you're allowed to begin. A Sacrifice Stone can save an ordinary fight from a fatal mistake, provided you've equipped it. Bring good medicine as well. Having a rescue item is not a reason to keep fighting at critical health. None of this replaces learning the car chase. That sequence has its own health and shooting mechanics. Maxing Kiryu's normal combat abilities won't make the car invulnerable. [This Legend overview](https://answersforgamers.com/how-difficult-is-yakuza-kiwamis-legend-difficulty/) is useful for separating the normal combat preparation from the chase. Save before committing Save whenever the game gives you a safe opportunity before a long story sequence. Don't wait until you're already inside a building full of enemies to decide you should have made one. Chapter 9 is particularly important. Make a manual save before committing to the rescue sequence that leads into the restaurant battles and Lau Ka Long. There is no convenient save between beating him and the car chase. If the chase goes badly on Legend, you have to replay the earlier combat from the available save. That is the part which makes repeated attempts so frustrating. You aren't just practicing a short shooting section in isolation. Getting to the chase without wasting supplies The restaurant has plenty of objects and dropped weapons. Use them against groups instead of fighting every enemy with individual barehanded combinations. Pick up the medicine along the route. The kitchen also gives you shotguns that can help clear the enemies there. You don't need to protect every consumable as if this were the last time the game will ever let you buy another. Against Lau Ka Long, respect the reach of his weapons. Rush helps you move around his attacks, and blade-blocking equipment gives you another defensive option. If your Tiger Drop timing is reliable, use it against attacks you recognize. When he enters his blue recovery state, switch to Brawler and interrupt it with the appropriate Kiwami finisher. Don't watch him heal while trying to remember which style blue means. [The Chapter 9 combat reference](https://kamigame.jp/ryugagotokukiwami/page/335891156996987385.html) covers the restaurant and Lau's transitions. The shooting controls On the default PlayStation controls: • Left stick moves the aiming reticle. • Square or Triangle fires. • X reloads. Keep holding it to remain inside the car. • L1 activates Heat Eye, which slows the action while its gauge lasts. On Xbox, the corresponding buttons are X or Y to fire, A to reload or stay in cover, and LB for Heat Eye. Check the control display if you've changed your bindings or are playing on another platform. You have 15 shots before reloading. Heat Eye restores over time when you aren't using it. There are two health bars to watch: Kiryu's and the car's. Either one running out ends the attempt. Hiding protects Kiryu, but it doesn't mean the vehicle stops taking damage. [The chase controls and rules](https://dswiipspwikips3.jp/yakuza-kiwami/main-story/chapter9.html) explain that tradeoff. Aim at the target circle This isn't a normal third-person gunfight where you should automatically aim at a character's forehead. Put your reticle near the center of the enemy's targeting circle. The best point doesn't always line up with the head, especially on drivers. A few well-placed shots can do more useful work than emptying the magazine at the wrong part of the model. Watch the circle's color as well. Green means you have more time. As it moves toward red, that enemy is getting closer to attacking. Don't get so focused on finishing one health bar that you ignore a second enemy who is about to shoot. Interrupt the urgent threat, then return to the first target. You can reset many attackers with a hit before killing them outright. [These shooting tips](https://answersforgamers.com/yakuza-kiwami-shootout-tips/) explain the target circles and damage placement. Use Heat Eye for the difficult moment You don't need to hold slow motion through every quiet stretch. Use it when you need to move accurately onto a dangerous target, interrupt an imminent attack, or catch a rocket. Once your aim is settled and you're landing shots, you can release it and let the gauge recover. Keeping some available is more useful than using all of it on an enemy who wasn't close to attacking. If a particular section keeps beating you, plan to enter that section with Heat Eye available. That is a concrete adjustment you can make on the next attempt instead of simply hoping your aim improves. Reload before the driver becomes the problem Drivers can start ramming once they become your target. You don't want to reveal one with only two bullets left. If an ordinary shooter is nearly defeated and his circle is still safe, reload before finishing him. Then you can move onto the driver with a full magazine rather than immediately ducking back inside. Between waves, reload. Make it part of the transition. A quiet second is more useful for that than a moment when a rocket and a red targeting circle are already demanding your attention. Motorcycles and rockets When a motorcycle has two riders and the driver can be targeted, taking out the driver removes the whole bike. That can be more efficient than spending time on both people. Give rocket threats priority. If a rocket is already in the air, shoot the projectile. Continuing to shoot the person who launched it won't remove the rocket coming toward you. Use Heat Eye early enough to line up the shot while the projectile is still visible. Waiting until it has crossed most of the screen leaves very little room to recover from a missed shot. The truck section When the truck appears with multiple enemies on its roof, don't assume you need to empty the toughest enemy's entire health bar before doing anything else. Take out the central roof enemy to move the sequence along, while interrupting other immediate threats when necessary. As cars and motorcycles join the fight, clear the smaller threats instead of giving them free attacks while you tunnel onto a high-health target. The roof-mounted rocket attacker is especially important to treat differently. Shooting him does not reliably stop a rocket that is being launched. Deal with the projectile, clear the surrounding threats, and damage him during the openings. Once you've cleared the other enemies, the truck driver becomes the final target. Use the Heat Eye and ammunition you've saved to keep the damage coming. If you can't stop an incoming ram, decide whether to remain out or hold cover based on the two health bars. Protecting an almost-empty car by sacrificing Kiryu's last bit of health doesn't solve anything, and neither does the reverse. A visual reference helps here because the target order matters. [Tash I's Legend chase walkthrough](https://youtube.com/watch?v=rrOnPP3khk8) shows the sequence, so you can see the next wave before spending another attempt figuring it out. If you keep failing in the same place Pay attention to what actually ended the attempt. Did you arrive at the driver with an empty magazine? Change the reload timing. Did a rocket hit while you were shooting someone else? Change the target priority. Did Kiryu die with plenty of car health left? Use cover earlier. Did the car run out while you stayed hidden? You need to interrupt more attackers instead of making the car absorb everything. Did you run out of Heat Eye just before the difficult target? Use less of it in the easier wave immediately before that. Those are different problems with different fixes. Repeating the same inputs faster won't fix all of them. On PC, try mouse aiming if you find it easier than the stick. You don't owe the game a controller-only clear. After Chapter 9 Save as soon as you're able to. Then go back to the same approach that got you through the earlier chapters: prepare before long sequences, keep medicine available, interrupt boss recovery, and don't let a nearly finished fight tempt you into ignoring your own health. Dragon of Legend is for completing the story on Legend. You don't need to defeat Amon, finish Haruka's requests, or repeat every minigame during this particular run. Keep those goals separate. Use the strong Kiryu you've already built, take the chase seriously, and give yourself a save to fall back on whenever the game allows it.