The Like A Dragon series has featured plenty of boss fights that are challenging to the player, and Like A Dragon Ishin is no exception. In Chapter 2, when visiting the bathhouse to get some information, you will be interrupted by someone, known only as a Large Man, leading to a boss fight.

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Yep, it’s a one-on-one fight, in a bathhouse

How to Defeat the Large Man in Like a Dragon: Ishin¶

You will be restricted to a single style for this boss fight, the Brawler style, which makes sense, as you’re inside of a bathhouse. If you’ve upgraded it at all, then you might have quicker attacks, but the damage isn’t all too great, especially earlier in the game. The Large Man can be a bit on the easier side, since his attacks are fairly slow, meaning you have a bigger opportunity to evade them. It’s best to try to avoid using the parry here, though, and just dodge them with the X/A button, as you never know when the Large Man might do follow-up strikes.

The Large Man has two attacks that he charges up, one of which is an overhead fist strike and the other is a move where he charges across the screen. Since these are telegraphed quite openly, they are easy to avoid, as long as you get out of the way of both. You might want to stay a little bit of distance away from the Large Man, as he does have the ability to grab you. Should this happen, mash the button shown on your screen to get out of the grapple; if you don’t, then he will throw you for some decent damage.

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(1 of 5) Move out of the way when he does his charge dash

Once you get his health to a little past halfway, there will be a cutscene that leads to a quick-time event. Mash the button shown during this QTE to have Ryoma toss the Large Man, which leads to some decent damage against him. After this occurs, the Large Man will gain an aura, leading to some new attacks being added. He’ll have a three-hit combo that will end with him grabbing you, although there’s no prompt to getting out of this one.

Overall, as previously mentioned, the Large Man’s attacks are largely telegraphed, since he charges them up before unleashing them. The combos are the only ones you need to be careful about, especially in the late stage, since he can string a grab at the end. The best strategy to employ is to dodge his attacks, then while he’s open, get a few hits in before backing off again. Playing defensively is a good idea here, as you don’t want to get caught up in the grabs, despite his other attacks being pretty easy to avoid.