Ryū ga Gotoku Kenzan!: completion, missables and the saves worth keeping

Ryū ga Gotoku Kenzan!: completion, missables and the saves worth keeping Kenzan's post-game works differently from the later games. If you want to finish everything, don't plan on rushing the story and carrying an almost-complete checklist into Premium Adventure. You can lose a lot of work that way. This is for the original Japanese PS3 game. It has no trophies or platinum. The target here is its own completion records, side quests and unlocks. Start by keeping separate saves Use rotating saves during each chapter, plus backups before major departures and boss fights. Don't keep overwriting the same slot. Two particularly useful backups are before leaving for Yagyu Village in Chapter 11, and before speaking to Ito in the final chapter. That final conversation takes you out of Gion for the rest of the story. Finish anything you need inside Gion before you speak to him. If you're following a translated walkthrough, those points are usually labelled 11-2 and 12-3. Those are walkthrough step numbers, not something you need to find in the game's menus. There are also boss-specific Heat Actions. Learning one doesn't tick it off. You have to use it successfully in the appropriate fight. One sidequest Heat Action is also easy to lose: Bellows Mastery only occurs in the blacksmith fight during request 56. Save before that request. In unarmed style, build Heat, grab an enemy and take him to the forge fire pit to trigger it before finishing the fight. Shadow Stab needs a paper-wall/sliding-door battle area, and Tatami Flip needs a tatami room. Use those during the appropriate story interiors or sidequests instead of leaving them to random street encounters. The three fights to prepare for • Hozoin Inshun, Chapter 8: complete the Wild Boar melon-cutting training that the story introduces. The move is Dry Leaf Smash. Use the single-sword style, keep enough Heat available and complete the on-screen sequence when it appears. This fight is the only opportunity to record that move in the story. • Shishido Baiken at Kiyomizudera, Chapter 10: do the Snake melon-cutting training beforehand to learn Escape Strike. Use two swords for the fight and watch for its prompted sequence. This is the Kiyomizudera encounter specifically, not just any encounter with Baiken. • Sasaki Kojiro, final chapter: complete the Asura melon-cutting training before the fight to learn Swallow Drop. It requires the two-sword style and a successful prompted sequence against Kojiro. Do those training sessions before committing to the respective fights. Keep a separate save before each one. If the move fails to register, reloading that save is a much better option than discovering the gap at the end of the game. Three more boss moves have several opportunities, but still need planning. Single Stream comes from Foundational Zeal training and uses a single sword. Firm Judgment comes from Applied Zeal and uses a greatsword. Both become available in Chapter 9 and can be used on Yoshioka Seijuro, Gion Toji, Shishido Baiken, Marume Nagayoshi or Sasaki Kojiro. Two Heavens comes from Developed Zeal in Chapter 10. It uses two swords, with Baiken, Marume and Kojiro as its eligible targets. For these three moves, build Heat and watch for the opening when the boss has roughly 30–50% health left. Don't finish the fight before giving yourself the chance to trigger the move you need. Rescue the overturned turtles when you see them There are four special turtles in one-time story locations: outside Miyamoto's dojo in Chapter 1, outside the temple in Chapter 2, on the farm in Chapter 3 and beside the river during Chapter 7. Help each one before moving on. They can later join your turtle tub after ordinary owned turtles die, with successive rescues tied to one, two, three and four deaths. Missing one does not make turtle-racing completion impossible, but you cannot return to those story locations to rescue it later. The completion checklist • Restaurants: register 71 food and drink entries across eight restaurants. Shared menu items also count at other restaurants that serve them. Reward: Gods of Fortune Sarashi. • Storage lockers: find all 50 keys AND open their lockers. Reward: Lucky Beads, which prevent random encounters while equipped. • Arena: beat all 50 different opponents at least once. Some need to be unlocked through other activities. Reward: Ganryu Wooden Sword. • Heat Actions: successfully perform all 56 listed actions. Learning them alone isn't enough. Completing this opens access to the additional Avidya Wasteland move through clear-data play rather than immediately during your first story run. • Abilities: learn all 60 listed abilities. This is a separate record from performing Heat Actions. Reward: Peerless Sword. • Weapons: obtain all 227 entries, including refined versions. You don't have to keep every weapon in your inventory once it has registered, although you should check crafting requirements before selling anything. Reward: Dragon Armour. • Courtesans: finish all seven relationships, their associated requests and their final letters. Reward: Immortal Turtle. • Inventions: help Gyotensai make all 21 inventions. Reward: Cat Shoes. • Minigames: finish the required challenges, including the training minigames. Reward: Runner's Shoes. Simply trying each activity doesn't complete this section. The side quests have their own target: 100 requests, 20 commissions and 20 bounties. Finishing all 140 earns the Matchless Wakizashi. Work through the side quests as they appear Requests open in batches as the story advances. Some also depend on time of day or an earlier request. During a long battle or while escorting someone, you may need to finish that story section before a side quest will trigger. Bounties are posted beside the police box in the upper-left part of Rakugai. Read the individual poster before looking for its target. The poster gives the place and time of day; going straight to a remembered location without accepting the bounty can waste a trip. A less favourable ending does not automatically ruin completion. Requests can end with either a Completed or Finished result. Both count toward the overall side-quest target and the final request, Justice For All. Reload if you want a better reward or a different outcome, but you don't have to restart the game just because one request says Finished. Before leaving Gion for the finale, check your unfinished requests, courtesan letters, dojo training and any shopping or minigames you still need there. Then keep that save. What actually happens after the credits Clearing the story unlocks Kyoto Tour, the game's Premium Adventure mode, and Ultimate Challenge. Kyoto Tour lets you change the time of day by speaking to Ageha or Koetsu. It also removes the story-progression gates on side quests, although prerequisites and time-of-day conditions still apply. The catch is that side quests and much of the completion work reset, including learned techniques and meals. Your level, money, items and equipment carry over. The recorded weapon and performed-Heat-Action completion entries carry over too, but that is different from retaining the learned moves themselves. Story-only bosses are unavailable in Kyoto Tour, so do their unique Heat Actions in the story before making your clear save. Kyoto Tour cannot repair a boss entry you never recorded. Keep your completed story save as well as any Kyoto Tour save. Treat them as different files with different purposes. For difficulty unlocks, clearing Advanced unlocks Expert. Expert removes continues, increases incoming damage and makes Heat drain faster. If you're primarily learning the game and working through completion, don't confuse that difficulty unlock with a requirement to do every side activity on Expert. The practical route is to do side quests and training as you go, prepare for the boss moves before those fights, finish Gion before the last departure and preserve your story saves. That leaves far less to repeat later.