Substories are the wackier stories in the Like A Dragon series, to offshoot the more serious tone of the main story. You will first unlock the ability to do Substories in Chapter 2, although they aren’t shown on your map, so you will need to fully explore each map to find them. This page will give a walkthrough of the Nichibuza’s Newest Fan Substory, found in Rakunai.

Where to Start Nichibuza’s Newest Fan in Like a Dragon: Ishin¶

You won’t be able to start this Substory until you’ve reached Chapter 3 of the main story. This allows you to access Rakunai, so head there and locate the pawnbroker shop. Just north of that is the area of Kawaramachi and as you approach the purple-highlighted building, you should witness a scene with an older lady and who appears to be a thief. Speak to the woman after the cutscene to begin the Substory.

How to Complete Nichibuza’s Newest Fan in Like a Dragon: Ishin¶

Upon speaking with the older lady, you will witness another cutscene, where you find out the bandit was trying to rob the older lady. This sparks a battle between the bandits, yes that’s more than one, which isn’t really anything different than a normal battle. Defeat them and the older lady marvels at your fighting style, saying you should be a natural at Buyo, a type of dance. She invites you inside the Nichibuza, her place, which will lead you into actually doing some Buyo Dance, a new minigame.

How to Play Buyo Dancing in Like a Dragon: Ishin¶

Buyo Dancing is a rhythm minigame, where you need to time your button presses as a marker passes to the outer circle. For the sake of this Substory, you only have to worry about the directional pad, since the song you play is on the easiest difficulty. Note that harder difficulties will give you the directional pad, as well as the face buttons, so your attention will be divided. In order to complete the Substory, you will need to achieve a score higher than the Passing Grade, which is located in the upper right corner.

There is also a power-up in this minigame, which is the flower icon below your score in the upper right. As you hit the correct notes, the flower will fill up and once full, you will be able to press / to use it. A pattern of lines will show up and you need to use the left analog stick (might be right, too) to move the fan along the lines, to the end, before your timer dissipates. Using this power-up will reward you with 4,000 points if successfully done, which can be great if you mess up or know a difficult part of the song is coming up. However, if you are doing very good, then it’s best to ignore it, as more points can come from not using it and continuing to hit the notes.

Considering it’s the easiest difficulty for the song, it’s not too challenging, even moreso when you only have to worry about the directional pad being the only buttons to hit. Upon successfully completing the song, you will unlock the Buyo Dancing minigame completely, as well as finish the Substory.

Rewards¶

How to Max Maijo-sensei’s Bond in Like a Dragon: Ishin¶

After your initial performance, you will unlock the minigame and can play whenever you visit Maijo-sensei’s place. Complete another song here and you will unlock her bond gauge, which will increase after you play more songs. At around the halfway mark, she will mention that you seem to be progressing well and wants you to perform of an audience. She also says that you would be performing Fubuki Kouta, the hardest song of them all. This won’t happen right away, but she will say it again after one more song.

When you get the prompt, you can still practice any songs, but you still have to pay her 1,000 Mon fee. If you wish to go through with the performance, then that will be free. As mentioned above, you will be playing Fubuki Kouta, but on the Geisha difficulty, so it’s a good idea to practice that beforehand, so you become used to the song. If you’re good at rhythm games, you shouldn’t have too much trouble with the song on Geisha, but there are some tips and tricks to make it a little simpler. Whenever notes are coming, you will see little blips on the inner part of the button displays.

Also, the game tends to switch over to the other side of the inputs, whenever a string of notes ends with / and the . Of course, this seems to be the general rule, but there are some exceptions. Either way, using these two tips should make things a little easier on you in completing Fubuki Kouta on Geisha. Pass this song when you are doing the actual performance and not only will Maijo-sensei give you a piece of Solid Wood material, but you will also max her bond.