Yakuza: Like A Dragon is a brilliant game with many different aspects. In amongst the endless mini-games, substories and collectables are a series of romantic escapades for Ichiban.
These relationships don’t always have a huge amount of depth, especially when compared to other series that dabble with romance like Persona. However, some are pretty engaging and the end result of Ichiban’s exploits can be pretty amusing.
Without further ado, let’s jump in. Here is everything you need to know about the romantic relationships in Yakuza: Like A Dragon.
Who Are The Romantic Partners And Where Are They Found?
There are six women who can be wooed by Ichiban’s charms. These are:
- Saeko Mukoda, a party member available to hang out at Survive Bar along with the rest of your team.
- Eri Kamataki, who is introduced in chapter 5 when Ichiban begins managing Ichiban Confections. Once you have sufficiently progressed the business management game, she also becomes a party member.
- Sumire Sawa is at the Romance workshop, also available from chapter 5 onwards.
- Ririka is the lady at Hello Work, introduced early in the story. She’s the lady who switches your jobs.
- Manae Miyokoshi is behind the desk at Ounabara Vocational School, which can be accessed from chapter 4.
- Iroha Yanagi is at Survive Bar, behind the bar itself.
Can You Romance Them All?
You can indeed. In fact, if you want to complete all substories you don’t really have a choice. Each romance resolution counts as its own substory within the available total of 52.
Though it’s always nice to see all of the content, the downside is that Ichiban’s reputation will be dragged through the mud in the process! Not to worry, there are no gameplay consequences – only those that weigh on the conscience.
To be honest, most of the actual scenes are a little bit weird. But that’s fairly typical of Yakuza: Like A Dragon.
How Do You Romance Each Character?
Kindling romance with everyone takes time, and an awful lot of money. Often, this involves maxing Ichiban’s personality stats and providing a series of gifts.
The romantic partners typically need to receive 16 of a certain gift (in three instalments), plus have a number of chats whilst a certain personality stat is sufficiently high. There is often an additional condition that also needs to be met, which is different for each person.
What Is The Best Way To Increase Ichiban’s Personality Stats?
Since each relationship requires a different personality stat to be maximised, you’ll have to spend time on all six. The best general tips to max this stat are:
- Pass all of the relevant vocational school exams – this is really important as it will significantly increase every stat.
- To easily boost Style, buy and use Scalp D or Twisted Fragrance from a Pharmacy or Drug store – you can only hold 5 at a time but you can keep buying more when you’ve used them
- Watch a lot of movies with your friends and beat a lot of the sheep-like creatures
- Play a lot of minigames – Dragon Kart, Can Quest, Karaoke and Darts are good ones to attempt – which also boost bond levels
- Maximise your bond levels with everyone else – the answers you give in the conversations will always boost something
- Eat at lots of restaurants and purchase all the items on the menu – buying everything at a restaurant usually brings an achievement and a stat boost
- Once you’re rolling in yen from the business management, buy every weapon from every shop – you get boosts for completing a set of similar gear
- The business management game itself is a good way of making some personality gains
- Fight random enemies to record as many Sujimon as possible
- Find honk-honk NPCs and pay them for a “honk”. This is all pretty strange but can actually be done repeatedly. The honk-honkers will reappear after a while
- For others, check out the Part-Time Hero achievements in the menu. The stats that each achievement will increase are denoted by the pictures. Aim for achievements that boost numerous stats at once
Where Do You Obtain The Gifts?
The necessary gifts can all be purchased from Flowers 2 Go, which is towards the west side of Hamakita Park, in the north part of Yokohama.
Characters that require gifts will always require one specific gift, followed by five, followed by ten, for a total of sixteen gifts. You can just buy these all together, and though they aren’t exactly cheap they won’t break the bank once you have conquered the business management game (which is also needed to max one of the relationships).
You can actually grow the flowers yourself with seeds but this is just a waste of time when you’re going to be rolling in cash.
For the rest of the requirements, we’ll take each lady one by one.
Saeko Mukoda
Conditions:
- Max Saeko’s bond at level 5
- Max Ichiban’s Style at level 10
- Talk to Saeko in Survive Bar and agree to a drink
As a party member, Saeko’s bond levels need to be increased by completing bonding events in Survive Bar.
As you’ll likely be aware, bond levels can be increased by fighting battles, triggering party chat and eating at restaurants. Just be sure to complete each bonding event as soon as you have reached the maximum bond points. Since these bond points don’t carry over, you will be wasting time by fighting battles before you have completed the latest available bonding event.
Once you have maxed out Saeko’s bond level at level 5, you will also need to maximise your Style at level 10. If both conditions are met, you can speak to Saeko in Survive Bar again and she will suggest having a drink together, unlocking substory 47 and completing the romance. Note that this substory will not appear on the map.
Eri Kamataki
Conditions:
- Completely beat the business management game and achieve the number 1 share ranking
- Maximise Ichiban’s Kindness at level 10
- Speak to Eri at Ichiban Holdings, followed by Survive Bar
Eri’s bond is advanced by completing the business management minigame. This is definitely worth doing as soon as possible as it is the best way of earning significant yen, which will be needed for Sumire’s relationship as well.
As you hit the business milestones, Eri’s bond will increase. She will soon be unlocked as a playable party member and when you have earned the number 1 share ranking, you’ll have her at the maximum bond level.
On top of this, Ichiban will require maximum level 10 Kindness. A substory will then be available at the Ichiban Holdings office. Unlike Saeko’s above, this will actually be prompted on the map.
Sumire Sawa
Standard conditions:
- Chat to Sumire with Level 4 Passion
- Give Sumire a bonsai
- Chat to Sumire with Level 7 Passion
- Give Sumire 5 more bonsai
- Chat to Sumire with Level 10 Passion
- Give Sumire 10 more bonsai
Further conditions:
- Level up the Romance Workshop to level 4 – this costs a whopping 22,200,000 yen!
- Leave the workshop after completing the above, where you’ll be interrupted by Sumire’s father. Win the battle that ensues, which isn’t too difficult.
This is one of the biggest challenges – 22,200,000 yen is no small sum of money. Beating the business management game will likely net you at least 20 million, and there are plenty of other things to spend it on. The good news is that once you’ve beaten the game by hitting the top share ranking, you can basically skip through quickly to next shareholder meeting and earn another 3 million yen bonus by beating it.
Once the business groundwork is done, you can probably clear a shareholder meeting every five to ten minutes. This is the only realistic way of sufficiently levelling up the workshop in decent time.
Ririka
Standard conditions:
- Chat to Ririka with Level 4 Confidence
- Give Ririka a bouquet of pansies
- Chat to Ririka with Level 7 Confidence
- Give Ririka 5 more bouquets of pansies
- Chat to Ririka with Level 10 Confidence
- Give Ririka 10 more bouquets of pansies
Further conditions:
- Have Ichiban try out every job
The jobs aren’t really a big demand. You’ll unlock some during the story, and the rest are opened up by increasing personality stats. No job requires stats higher than level 7, so you’ll be achieving this by following the above personality stats advice – particularly Ounabara Vocational School.
You don’t actually need to spend any time using the jobs. You don’t even need to fight a battle with them. Just speak to Ririka, and select each job briefly before changing back to the job you were using beforehand. Also, this only applies to Ichiban. You don’t need to repeat the process with your other party members.
Manae Miyokoshi
Standard conditions:
- Chat to Manae with Level 4 Intelligence
- Give Manae a bouquet of lilies
- Chat to Manae with Level 7 Intelligence
- Give Manae 5 more bouquets of lilies
- Chat to Manae with Level 10 Intelligence
- Give Manae 10 more bouquets of lilies
Further conditions:
- Pass all certification exams
As discussed previously, the condition to pass all certification exams is worth doing anyway as it’s a reliable way to drastically increase Ichiban’s personality stats. In fact, as soon as you have beaten the business management game and solved your money troubles this is the best thing to do.
The rest of the requirements are standard fare. Head to the usual Flowers 2 Go stall at Hamakita Park and maximise the Intelligence stat.
Iroha Yanagi
Conditions:
- Chat to Iroha with Level 4 Charisma
- Give Iroha a bouquet of roses
- Chat to Iroha with Level 7 Charisma
- Give Iroha 5 more bouquets of roses
- Chat to Iroha with Level 10 Charisma
- Give Iroha 10 more bouquets of roses
Iroha is the simplest of the romance options. She doesn’t necessitate anything specific other than the usual gifts and personality requirements. Since she documents the party chats, I was concerned she would need them all unlocked. Thankfully this isn’t the case.
To win Iroha’s heart, you’ll just need to head to the usual stall at Hamakita Park and stock up on roses, plus boosting Ichiban’s charisma to max.
What Happens When All Relationships Are Maxed?
I won’t spoil the conclusion, but when everything above is done a final substory is unlocked on the second floor of Survive Bar. Ichiban will gain a permanent defence boost for completing this substory.
With that, you’re done. That’s how to max all romantic relationships in Yakuza: Like A Dragon.
What do you think? Who is the best romantic partner for Ichiban?
Check out our Yakuza: Like A Dragon review here.
