Yakuza 4 Remastered

The basic description is in the CyricZ guide on Gamefaqs https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/239456-yakuza-4-remastered... as always. I only focus on the Ultimate Matches which is not detailed in it and I give some tips for some of the normal matches.

Melee Match 2
Beat the first 20-30 enemies normally because until 30 you don't have to watch out for the near indestructible enemies. Your weapons last for 70 or so enemies.

Melee Match 8
The reason this might seem impossible when you try it is because the description is incomplete. Your "Marlin", the spear on the right D-pad deals more damage the less health you have. You need the purple suit to damage you at least once and then proceed to attack or you will run out of durability.

Melee Match 10
I could never do this by going after the weakest guys first because the Katana (long sword) guy is so dangerous. After some time he will enter into a "samurai" stance where he looks like he is ready to unsheathe his sword. In my experience he can and will stay in this stance indefinitely. If you get close to him afterwards, he will do a slash which kills you instantly. I suggest focusing on him from the start and killing him as fast as possible. The other guys are nowhere as near as aggressive. The second most active enemy is the Wakizashi (short sword) guy.

One on One Match 3
Every other bossfight is easy but this is a royal pain. Sugiuchi auto blocks from every direction, auto counters heavy attacks, recovers from parry faster than you can hit him, crushes your blocks and avoids grabs. Also evades don't really work because he constantly circles around you. The only advantage of this fight that you will spend a bunch of time on it and this will help preparing for the Ultimate Matches where you are on a timer. There is no surefire way to beat him, so I will list a bunch of situations you should memorize and react accordingly.
- Focus on him all the time. Yes it works terrible in this game but helps a lot with the positioning and evade.
- You need to get used to "hit confirm" your starting attacks. Don't mash out a full string of every time you try to hit him. He will evade he first (!) attack most of the time. Do one or two and see if it hit. Since the fighting system in Yakuza games lacks fundamental fighting game logic this doesn't guarantee that you can recover faster than your opponent can retaliate but it puts you in a much better position.
- You can parry him into walls and you might be able to hit him when he bounces back. This was never consistent for me so I only used it occasionally. Best place to try it is in the back right corner (from where you start) near the waters edge where the ship is.
- When he isn't in heat mode it is possible to do a full combo ending with Heat on him if you can get behind him then a heat finisher on him on the ground. It isn't guaranteed but very likely. In general, evading behind him with is your best bet to deal damage.
- When he is in heat mode don't try to poke at all, focus on evading behind him only. If he is further he almost always try to do a slower hard hitting move (sometimes from running) if you couldn't evade behind him, try to block a a few and evade as soon as the game allows it. If he smacks you with a hard hitting move, mash A to recover right away. When you are behind him in heat just land the five hit combo (head kick is the last) and don't try to follow it up just focus on evade right away.
- Heat sometimes lands from the front if he is not in heat mode. It is a lot of free damage so if you have Heat then try it. He is more susceptible to this while standing up.
- One of his common moves is rolling behind you and grabbing you from behind. You can counter this with Heat which is great because it gets him down and deals a lot of damage.
- You can grab him and throw him but it is so rare he doesn't evade and punish I stopped trying quickly.
The most important thing is to keep a cool head and focus on evading behind him. If you get into the rhythm you can just simply evade behind him, land the full combo with the head kick ending and evade behind him again when he turns around.

Team Match 3
I only used jumping in this one instead of rolling. It seems that it works much better because you both gain distance and jump above the Kappa height. I would advise against using the heat early on because it gives you a lot of breathing room from everyone who is on your tail. You gain the most using it against a bunch of Kappas around halfway. Also somewhere halfway you can see a bunch of street pillars on the left. You can cut through diagonally there. With a well timed jump the Kappas can get stuck in the pillars for a while.

Ultimate Match 1 (Akiyama)
These are easy so not much to say.
Ihara: Simply do full combos .... It is completely possible to stun him so much you will skip the Heat actions.
Midorikawa: You can actually tank him very well, evade is finicky because of the small space. Use attacks from the front. Your goal is pretty much just making him stand in front of a wall and Wall Crush (Heat Action) him. Then he is almost dead.
Minami: Full combos until he is in heat (You can begin the full combo while he is standing up and he will get hit). If he blocks too much then go with the s. You can actually 14 kick him out of drinking so don't stop when he does it. When he is in heat either start with the s or land one or two before. It is completely possible to stun him so much you will skip the Heat actions.

Ultimate Match 2 (Saejima)
Another very easy one.
Saito and guards: You can go for the head guard or the pistol one. I did it both ways, didn't see much difference but the gunshots are kinda annoying. So for start I landed a full combo HOLD on Saito and the crowd then took out the gunner shoot the other guards. Then just repeat the full combo and the finisher until everyone is dead.
Kiryu: The full combo doesn't work on him most of the time but you can land a few with a finisher. Just grab him over and over and finish him.
Majima: He is kind of all around the place but I won every single time by just doing my full combos. Sometimes he avoided them, sometimes he stabbed me out of the s but if you don't make a mistake with the QTEs then he will die. When he spins around I just took it. It is completely possible to stun him so much you will skip the finishing Heat actions.

Ultimate Match 3 (Tanimura)
This is a pain compared to the others.
Yakuzas with sword and gun: Get the gunman first and land the QTE. Then the swordsman and finally the generic enemies. This fight is all over the place, sometimes you barely get damaged, sometimes they will wreck you. Don't forget trying to parry. Beating the generic enemies in the end guarantees you have Heat for the next one.
Briefcase: Heat right away. It always catches the most annyoing enemy. Then quickly beat the Wakazashi (short sword) guy on your right with s and then the third guy. If the Heat pops again then use it. Leave the guy you caught in a heat action first for last. Just land a full combo on him then block. When he finished his own thing then repeat the combo and block. It takes too much time to fight him in any other way.
Sugiuchi: The same thing I said at the One on One match applies here too. More practice for the final Match.

Ultimate Match 4 (Kiryu)
Annoying and skill/luck based.
Ivan Ibrahimovich, Hannya Kurokawa, Akira Yamaoka: So you can chip these cheapskates away but you need to get them quickly in the last Match so begin to prepare for it. Tiger Drop them all. If you didn't use this technique so far (you can complete pretty much everything in Y4 without it) it is essentially a counter hit which only activates when you would get hit by certain attacks. Deals an incredible amount of damage and spamming it can delete almost every enemy in Yakuza games. You can hold the constantly and either try to press the by reflex or press it in a rhythm hoping you will catch something. The latter is a totally valid strategy because if you miss it you will do a frontal kick which actually stuns most enemies. So you can't really go wrong here unless you miss a lot. I mean a LOT. The only thing you need to watch out is to face the enemy which is not guaranteed by holding the . One successful Tiger Drop can save you minutes of pain of fighting properly as you will see in the last Match.
As for the different enemies, there isn't much to say, except you can evade the flying kick of the second one from the start and You can catch almost all of the attacks of the third with . If you miss your window chances are you will still grab him.
PROTIP: If you hold the left analogue stick in the direction the enemy is while you do the Tiger Drop, you deal much more damage with it!

Ultimate Match 5 (Everyone)
All of the above at once, plus a bonus in the end.
The individual strategies are listed above. Time wasn't such a big deal before but now it is. 16 minutes for 13 encounters is pretty short as you will see. It is key you learn the Tanimura vs Sugiuchi in and out because you don't have time to waste. The Kiryu parts can be frustrating but don't despair if you finish with 30 seconds or less. The bonus opponent, Komaki is actually doable even in a few seconds:
First Method - TWO Tiger Drops: This is easier and not reliant on Heat. You have to simply land two drops , essentially what you did in the cage matches before.
Second Method - Komaki Parry + [ONLY IN RED HEAT]Dragon King Essence: For bragging rights and plenty of likes on your DVR video. Catch an attack with (it is very generous) and let go of every button. If you are in Red Heat the will pop up after a few seconds. If you press it you will KO Komaki instantly, no matter how much health he has.