Majima’s legend style help. : yakuzagames

So I just finished Yakuza Kiwami 2 just last night, done both the Kiryu and the comedically short and kinda pointless Majima campaign, and I gotta say I am quite disappointed in it. It's not a bad game, but it's combat system a large step back from Kiwami 1. Keep in mind I played this game on hard because I found Yakuza 0 and Kiwami 1 too easy on their normal difficulties and wanted a challenge. Everything else about the game is fine and great, it's just the combat I have a grip with.
To start off, the combat in this game is a downgrade from Kiwami 1. I understand that Kiwami 1 and Kiwami 2 use different engines, but the issue isn't really the engine they used more than it is how the combat was designed as a whole. Why were the styles from Kiwami 1 removed? They kept the basic combo for Beast as part of the charge attacks and some counter moves from Rush, but the styles from 0 and Kiwami 1 gave much more depth to the combat system and were fun to experiment with, especially how much more refined they were in Kiwami 1.
The styles gave you tactical options for approaching different combat scenarios, you could use Rush against an opponent that is fast on their feet or quickly build up heat, Beast was good for dealing massive damage against enemies with large pools of health and good for crowd control, Brawler was a middle ground and good for knocking down enemies and breaking their defenses, and while Dragon Style kinda sucked in Yakuza 0, it was awesome in Yakuza Kiwami as a sort of super style to use, especially once you fully upgraded it. I know some of you say that Kiryu should only have one style, but that's like saying that Dante in Devil May Cry should only have one weapon, which is kind of how we got Devil May Cry 2 and look how that game turned out (Has three different weapons but all have the same exact moveset).
This new style Kiryu has, Legend (I think that what it's called?), is a bit of a mesh-mash between Dragon, Beast, and Rush, which doesn't sound like a bad thing, but the thing is that it's not as experimental, there's really not much you can do with this style alone compared to what you can do in Kiwami 1 with just two out of the four styles alone. You had a massive amount of heat moves in both 0 and Kiwami with the different styles you could work with, but a good chunk of the heat moves in Kiwami 2 are related to random pedestrians throwing stuff at you that you then use on your opponents, some even having the same exact animation, these heat moves are also location sensitive, you can't trigger them unless your in a particular vicinity. I know they gave the ability to equip three different weapons at once this time around with some having infinite durability, but most weapons only have one heat move, some locked behind mini-games, whereas weapons in both 0 and Kiwami 1 have more than one heat move most of the time and were mostly accessible.
Heat moves are seriously OP in this game, what probably only knocked down a quarter or a third of a health bar in 0 or Kiwami can now knock down two and half health bars immediately against what are supposed to be tough as hell bosses. There's also this Extreme Heat move thing you learn from Komaki that turns Kiryu into a super saiyan that makes most of the enemies in this game a breeze to push through, especially when certain finishers trigger a grind attack that can knock a boss's health bar down a couple colors.
Speaking of bosses, most of the bosses in this game are an absolute joke (keep in mind I played this game on hard). The only story-related bosses I actually found challenging were The Man In Black, Goro Majima, and that one guy who sexually assaulted Daigo's mother. The rest were easy peezy lemon squeezy, even the two tigers Sengoku sicks on you were a joke (The fight lasted no more than 30 seconds for me! Again, on hard!). There's also street bosses you fight when you defeat a certain amount of enemies, but they were mostly easy too. The Final two fights against Ryuji were also painstakingly easy, I don't know if it was the fact I was overpowered or something, but I started the final fight with like 10% of my health left and walked away with barely 7%, and it's not like I used weapons or tiger dropped him repeatedly or something, the fight didn't even last long, like a minute or two. Maybe the bouncer missions have tough fights, I don't know.
But my biggest issue with this game's combat system is the god forsaken ragdoll physics, why does it feel like I'm fighting a bunch of blow-up dolls in this game? No joke, during the first against Ryuji, I sent him flying across the courtyard about 10 yards away with an attack that should've only knocked him back a couple feet or so. Characters don't feel like they have weight to them, you so much as punt them and they fly like they got hit by a truck. It's kinda funny and ridiculous, I'll give it that, but the thing I hate about the ragdoll physics the most is how when you trying to do a finishing hold move (Which involves Kiryu grabbing an enemy after combo-ing them and throwing them around) and if you so much as brush an enemy against the smallest of environmental objects, Kiryu immediately cancels the move and drops the enemy. I never had that happen in 0 or Kiwami and it's very annoying here.
There's also the fact that taunting doesn't even provoke enemies anymore, it's only really used for building up heat. This honestly undermines the combat system this game has, Yakuza 0 and Kiwami 1's enemies felt like real people who had actual weight on them who reacted differently depending whether or not they were kicking your ass or you kicking their's and would get genuinely pissed about you taunting them, hell they'd even taunt you if they were kicking your ass, how many games can you think of have enemies that legitimately taunted at you? Another major problem is the targeting system, it's kind of broken, you press R1 to lock to an enemy and Kiryu or Majima won't even face the enemy half the time, you have to move them in order to properly face them.
How in the world do people think this game's combat system is a step-up from Kiwami 1's which had none of these issues? The only thing I can say I like about this game's combat system is how you can take street fights into shops now, which temporary bans you from them, but at the end of the day, Yakuza 0's and Kiwami 1's combat were a lot more refined than Kiwami 2's. But I digress, at least Kiryu's gameplay had the ability to equip different weapons and armor, Majima's gameplay on the other hand was even worse, he only had his maddog style with zero upgrades, no weapon or armor customization, nothing. So fucking disappointing.

I love Yakuza 0. It's probably my favourite game. But after a couple hundred hours I still somehow hadn't finished a playthrough on Legend difficulty. When I sat down to start it a while back, I settled on a couple of rules to make things interesting:

1. No medicine items of any sort. The only ways I could heal would be eating at restaurants, and eating takeaway food items (like takoyaki). However, in the case of takeaway stuff, it had to be eaten as soon as I bought it, so I couldn't bring it into fights.
   
2. No "cheap" weapons. That means no slime/zap guns, mainly. I didn't want to absolutely cheese my way through every fight, so I crossed those weapons off of the list.
   
3. I could only unlock Kiryu and Majima's Legend styles once I reached the finale. Not much of a challenge here, as I wouldn't call either of the Legend styles overpowered, but this was more of a flavour thing than anything.
   

Most of the game went quite smoothly, but I'll talk a little bit about the challenging parts I had in the playthrough.

• The first major hurdle was the chapter 1 long battle in the Dojima HQ, followed by the Kuze boss fight. Kuze wasn't too bad, but the issue was getting to him without taking a major beating from all the thugs. The very start of the fight is by far the hardest segment, as it's easy to get swarmed by all the enemies with little time to recover. Yoneda can also catch you off guard in the final confrontation with him (that knife nukes your tiny HP bar).
  
• The two Makoto escort sections (on Majima's side of the story). It's pretty easy to sneak around and avoid the optional thugs, but the handful of forced fights you have to go through can be an issue, as if a thug grabs Makoto, her health can drain extremely quickly on Legend. Breaker pretty much turns it into a joke, but I didn't want to cheese it too hard, so I did most of these fights in Thug, hence the difficulty.
  
• The Media King in Kiryu's real estate storyline. God damn, this guy was a pain in the arse, and easily the most challenging part of the playthrough. Not only is he backed up by a group of goons, but the man himself is extremely quick, has hyper armour for days, and can deck you in just a couple of hits (provided one of the others hasn't already done it for him). The only way to get through this fight is to very carefully chip away at the goon squad in Rush, before 1v1'ing the Media King with lots of close quarters dodging, along with quick rush combos. It took me at least 10 tries to get this fight done, and I did most of it in Brawler (especially the 1v1 segment). And to top things off, you have to fight two of the Finance King's lackeys with boss levels of HP immediately after. You have the Media King as backup, but at that point my health bar was practically empty, so I skirted around them with Rush and took them out with knife heat actions.
  

Lastly, the finale. This one's a given, as it's by far the biggest amount of fighting you have to go through without saving. Your health doesn't regenerate at any point either, so major screw-ups in either Kiryu or Majima's long battles can spell disaster. Avoiding them is easier said than done, too.
My first failure was in Kiryu's long battle on the Nikkyo Consortium boat, because the groups of handgun enemies absolutely shredded me. After memorising where they were and prioritising them as soon as I reached a new section, the rest of the battle is easy.
Majima's long battle through the Dojima HQ is actually really easy. By that point, I had a fully upgraded Breaker style as well as the Mad Dog style (Didn't upgrade either of the Legend styles, though). These turn the masses of enemies into a complete joke, and I could get to Awano's fight either at or very close to full health. Speaking of Awano, he really isn't too bad, and is in fact one of the easier boss fights in the game. He hits hard, but he's slow and very predictable.
The real pain comes with Lao Gui. He only beat me a couple of times, but to defeat him I really had to give it my all (I had very shaky hands after beating him). His attacks are fast and unconventional, with lots of weapon throws and kicks that can do big damage before you learn how to get around them. The QTE transitioning into his second phase is also super quick, and punishes you with a lot of damage if you fail it. It's a very dangerous phase, with his handgun, but I found that it's actually short enough that one or two good heat actions can skip it entirely, and the third phase is just fine, as he's finally unarmed.
And then there was Shibusawa. Three phases of pure pain. His initial "Rush" style is certainly the hardest, in my opinion. He obviously moves incredibly quickly, but can also knock you down a lot. Combine this with his ability to easily dodge and/or counter your attacks and you have one tough phase. I managed to get through this one after a few tries with by using Kiryu's own Rush style and liberal use of the weave ability (the weave into a quickstep dodge is ridiculously useful). His "Beast" style is alright. You can brute force him with Kiryu's Beast style, but I found that parrying with the Rush or Dragon styles was the safest way to deal with him (Beast is great for shredding his HP, but he can do the same to you while you're attacking, so you have to be very careful). Finally, Shibusawa's Dragon style in itself isn't so bad, as it's sort of a mix between his Beast and Rush styles. However, by the time I got to this phase I had virtually no health remaining. As much as I wanted to have the epic Dragon vs. Dragon style showdown, I instead had to stay well out of his reach with the Rush style, and chip away at him whenever he whiffed a combo. I'll admit, by the time I got to the final phase, I was too afraid of having to repeat the entire finale that trying to finesse him with fancy counters just wasn't going to happen.
And there you have it, my experience completing Yakuza 0 on Legend with no medicinal items. Was it fun? Hell yeah. The frustrating moments were far outweighed by the feelings of badassery whenever I toughed it out through a tricky boss fight, and I strongly recommend that other fans of the game try it themselves.