Basic Combat

Master combat in Yakuza 3 Remastered with our comprehensive guide. Learn about the combat display, health and heat gauges, enemy types, encounter mechanics, and detailed explanations of all combat moves and Heat Actions.

This section covers the meters and things you should be monitoring as you battle:

Combat Display -

First is the Health Bar. At the top of your screen is a big orange bar. That's your health, and when it's depleted, it's game over. Your health will flash red as it gets really low. You can restore health using food and energy drinks, and you increase maximum health by gaining Levels and certain abilities.

Just above the Health Bar is the Experience Bar. This is a gray line that fills as you gain experience, and when it reaches the end, get a leveling "point" that you can assign to upgrades.

Below the Health Bar is the Heat Gauge. As you hit other people, it will increase, and as it passes the marker, it will change to glowing and you'll be able to spend your Heat to use Heat Actions. It will decrease as you take damage, are grabbed by enemies, or are knocked down. You can increase your max Heat by gaining Levels and certain abilities, and you can gain new ways of increasing Heat through abilities as well.

Other things to look out for are your minimap in the lower-left. It will point out enemies in the area relative to you as pink dots. In the lower right are enemy health bars. It's tough to tell who's bar is whose, but when they empty, the enemy is knocked out. Bars that are differently colored mean the enemy has higher health. The lowest colored bar is orange, then yellow, green, light blue, purple, and if anyone's a color other than that, you're dealing with a serious foe.

Encounters -

There are essentially two types of encounters in this game: Scripted and Random. Scripted encounters occur as a result of something you've done as part of a story, whether it's the main story, the side story, a substory, or as part of training or at the Coliseum.

Random encounters are those that are placed around the city. They're guys that see you on the street, and run towards you to initiate combat. You can hear them as they gruffly call out to you. If you walk, they will typically not approach you unless you're too close. Also if you run around behind them, they will usually not see you until you're at a point where you can get away from them.

Once the encounter begins, bystanders will rush up to your fight and surround you, effectively making a fighting arena, and you're locked in. The only way it ends is with the enemy's defeat, or your defeat. You'll get a cool splash screen describing your foes, and then you'll be thrown into the melee. Defeat them and you'll receive a reward for your troubles: either yen or an item. If defeated yourself, you'll have the option to retry or load from a previous save.

Combat Controls (typical)

PlayStation	Xbox	Control
		Move your character
		Move the camera
		Light Attack Rush Combo
		Heavy Attack Finishing Blow Heat Action
		Evade
		Grab Throw enemy/weapon
		Guard
		Fighting Stance
		Taunt
		Center Camera
		Pause the game
		Pull out weapon assigned to that button
		Smoke Break

Combat Elements -

These are the weapons in your combat arsenal:

• Rush Combo - Press Light Attack up to four times. These are fast and weak attacks. Very useful as openers to combos or quick jabs against enemies that are tougher.
• Heavy Attack - Press Heavy Attack. This is a single blow that's useful for causing slightly more damage than a Rush Combo. You can also use this against enemies that are prone on the ground to strike them.
• Charge Attack - Hold down Heavy Attack to charge up the heavy strike. It does more damage when you release it.
  • Lotus Flare Fist - This must be unlocked to use. Hold down Heavy Attack until Kiryu's stance changes. This is a rushing fist that beelines for the targeted (or nearest) enemy, causing a decent amount of damage.
  • True Lotus Flare Fist - Also must be unlocked. While charging the Lotus Flare, Kiryu will be able to charge his Heat Gauge up. Note that Kiryu has armor while charging, so normal attacks won't stop the charge.
• Finishing Blow - Press Heavy Attack after a Rush Combo. This will change depending on when in the Rush Combo you use it. For example, Light-Heavy is different from Light-Light-Light-Heavy. This typically causes really good damage and usually results in a knockdown.
  • Double Finishing Blow - Must be unlocked to use. Press Heavy Attack after a Finishing Blow to deliver a second powerful strike.
  • Bounding Throw - Must also be unlocked. Press Grab after a Finishing Blow and Kiryu will grab and toss the enemy in a fancy manner that spends Heat. The Finishing Blow must connect for the Bounding Throw to work.
• Heat Action - As you fight, your blue Heat Gauge will fill up. When it passes the first marker, you can press Heavy Attack to perform a Heat Action as long as there's a blue flame icon in the upper-right corner of the screen. Information on how to perform all the Heat Actions are in their section. **NOTE**: If you want to preserve your Heat, hold down L2/LT and you can press Heavy Attack without using a Heat Action.
• Grab - Press the Grab button to grab an enemy and hold them in front of you. You can move them around if you wish. Careful, because while grabs cannot be blocked, everyone has a grab "limit", and some enemies can bust out of grabs much easier than others. To reverse your grab to the enemy's back (or front), press L1/LB. Once you've grabbed an enemy, you have other options:
  • Pummel - Press Light Attack three times to smack your enemy while you've got him helpless.
  • Knock Away - Press Heavy Attack to kick your enemy away. This can cause damage and knockdown to other enemies in the area.
  • Throw - Press Grab again to throw your enemy to the ground, putting them prone. Sometimes enemies will fight you, and you'll have to mash Grab to get them down. That said, enemies with very low guard limits will likely still be susceptible to these throws rath