FINALE : REQUIEM At this point, all four protagonists are hanging out in New Serena. You can freely switch between them to pursue their substories, grind XP, explore the city, and generally prepare for the final showdown. Make sure each character is wearing protective gear, has a full supply of healing items, and is around level 13 if not higher. It's a good idea to go to the Theater Underground as each character at this point, invest in the Professor's machine, and beat each of the recorded boss encounters. This increases your HEAT meter and unlocks new abilities. When you're ready to finish the main game, talk to Date. After another lengthy cutscene, you'll wind up on the roof of Millennium Tower, fighting four tough boss fights as each of the main characters. The first bout is Akiyama vs. Arai. Arai gets very stable when he's in HEAT mode, and since Akiyama gets so much mileage out of knockdowns, your single best use of HEAT meter is comboing Arai against the nearby wall. This isn't a particularly tough fight, but it doesn't play to Akiyama's strengths. Next up, it's Saejima vs. Kido. Early in the fight, you can knock a lot of health off with body slams, but Kido has a vicious habit of being in HEAT mode more often than not, and that makes him very difficult if not impossible to throw. Charging Tackles are probably your best use of meter, and when Kido's powered up, just stay away from him. When he loses HEAT, he staggers for a moment, leaving himself vulnerable. At low life and full HEAT—and just for fun, count the number of times in this fight Kido goes to full HEAT without actually doing anything to trigger it—Kido will try to stun you and cash in his HEAT for nearly a full bar of health. Third on the card, we've got Kiryu vs. Daigo. Daigo begins the fight as a punching bag, but thanks to his quick knockdown punches and propensity for taunting you every time your back hits the floor, he's more or less permanently in HEAT mode throughout the last 80% of the fight. You can take a lot of health off of him quite cheaply if you shotgun Tauriners, keeping yourself at or near max HEAT even if you get floored, then tagging Daigo with the Essence of Reversing counter. Kiryu has a lot of options for getting back at somebody following a knockdown, and Daigo likes to knock you down, which neatly sets up those options. Finally, and perhaps inexplicably, it's Tanimura vs. Munakata. More accurately, it's Tanimura vs. Munakata, who's got a pistol, and his small army of bodyguards, several of whom have knives. Parrying becomes difficult as it involves standing still, and standing still invites Munakata to double-tap you from across the helipad. Tanimura's going to need more healing items than anyone else, and equipping him with a strong anti-gun defensive accessory (i.e. the SWAT Body Armor, which is found in the Underground Mall in locker C-5) is a very good idea. If you're having real trouble with this fight, go complete Saigo's training course as Akiyama, Master's dig in the sewers as Saejima, and Nair's cases as Tanimura. You can now obtain the three pieces of an armor set called "Sacred Tree" from Bob at Naomi's Palace on Tenkaichi Street, and if Tanimura wears all three, he becomes completely immune to bullets. This doesn't trivialize the encounter, but it removes its main complication. Barring that, the best way to survive against Munakata's bodyguards is to abuse Arm Lock. Grab a bodyguard, then press the Circle button for a painful throw. While Tanimura's wrenching some bodyguard's chicken arms off their body, it has the useful side effects of providing an invulnerability window, rapidly building HEAT, and knocking down anyone who's caught in the guy's way. It can give you the edge you need and set up finishers, which you badly need here. Use repeated armlocks followed by finishers to eliminate the small fry while whittling down the more durable elite bodyguards. Once his crew's taken care of, you can chase down and systematically beat Munakata like a pinata. This epic struggle—a young, trained martial artist vs. a scared old man who's too busy running away from you to shoot at you—ends the story mode of Yakuza 4. Among other things, you receive a large cash payout for clearing the main game. You've also unlocked Premium Adventure mode, a plotless sandbox version of Yakuza 4. In Premium Adventure mode, Haruka is hanging out at New Serena, Hana's at Sky Finance, and you have the ability to toggle between day and night by taking a nap at New Serena. You can freely explore the city, look for locker keys, complete substories, play minigames, and so on.