Management sims, as it turns out, are sort of a staple of the better Yakuza games, almost as much as Karaoke is. Kazuma Kiryu has run his fair share of businesses, and even Goro Majima ran his own Cabaret Club for a time in Yakuza 0. In Yakuza: Like A Dragon, our hero Kasuga Ichiban is tasked with running a Confectionary, which is sort of apt for someone like him.RELATED: The Best Weapons In Yakuza: Like A Dragon, RankedWhile the mechanics of this mini-game might seem impossible at a glance, especially if this is your first Yakuza title, it's actually not as bad as it seems. But, the tutorial and explanation is poorly executed, at best, so here's a more in-depth guide.

What Is The Ichiban Confections Side Story?

Yakuza Like A Dragon - Location Of The First Ichiban Confections Office On The Map

The first thing you need to know, this mini-game is optional. Sure, the introduction to Ichiban Confections is part of the long list of Like A Dragon Chapters, but after completing the tutorial you can entirely ignore it for the rest of the game. And, because Yakuza: Like A Dragon already takes a lot of time to beat, some people do choose to skip it. That said, if ignored, you'll miss out on:

  • Eri Kamataki joining your party.
  • All the yen you'll earn as a reward after every shareholder meeting.
  • A pretty rewarding story that includes characters specific to this mini-game.
  • And a few special attacks, such as slapping people with money or summoning a literal satellite laser.

It's a side story you're meant to chip away at throughout the game, and one that completely breaks the balance of in-game currency once you get to a certain point, making it very easy to buy whatever you want, whenever you want and turn Ichiban into an overpowered god among men.

What's The "Endgoal" Of This Mini-Game?

Yakuza Like A Dragon - Reward Screen For Moving Up In The Share Price Rankings

But, how exactly does it work, and what is the penultimate goal of taking over the confectionary? Well, the Ichiban Confections mini-game can be broken down into four specific gameplay "segments":

  1. Managing your Properties and Employees.
  2. The “Open For Business” Phase.
  3. The Shareholders Meetings.
  4. And running around Yokohama recruiting new Employees in the open world.

And, that’s about the long and short of it, you hire new employees, keep them happy, train them up, run your businesses for four periods, then explain yourself to your shareholders before moving up or down on the share price rankings. Your "Goal", as it stands, is to keep your promise to Nick Ogata, the mysterious business tycoon who lent you capital that saved Ichiban Confections in the first place.

To do so, you'll need to climb the share price rankings from #100 to #1, thankfully, there are certain "milestones" along the way (at 100, 50, 20, 10, and 1). And, even after beating both the game and this mini-game, you can continue to run Ichiban Confections and earn tons of yen.

Should I Do The Entire Side Story In One Sitting?

Yakuza Like A Dragon - Selecting Employees To Assign To A Property

And lastly, everyone should know that the Ichiban Confections side story is absolutely not designed to be played from start to finish in one sitting. Frankly, there will be points in the mini-game where it won't let you go any further until you progress the story a bit.

And, because certain moves are unlocked or new NPCs show up in the overworld based on your progress with Ichiban Confections, you'll want to stop every once and a while to go run around Yokohama, looking for new employees to hire.

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Frankly, we recommend you stop after every Shareholder Meeting, or after reaching any of the Rank 100, 50, 20, or 10 milestones.

A Breakdown Of Each Segment

Yakuza Like A Dragon - What The Open For Business Segement Looks Like When All Is Running Smoothly

Now, let's dive headfirst into each "aspect" of the Ichiban Confections mini-game, how they work, and the best way to maximize efficiency with them as early as possible. There are really only four major "aspects" to worry about, and those include:

  1. Your Employees: Where they're assigned, their rank, level, health, stats, and so on.
  2. The Properties You Own: How they're performing, upgrading them, etc.
  3. How To Approach Each Shareholder Meeting: What employees to bring, how much Yen to save up beforehand, and so on.
  4. What Investment Opportunities To Look Out For: Such as new hires, commercial airtime, business investments, etc.

Employees

Yakuza Like A Dragon - Ichiban Acting Like A Pompous Ceo With Eri And Tome Bowing Near Him

The employees in the Ichiban Confections mini-game are comparable to units from any mobile/gacha game. Ichiban hires them, takes a look at their "rarity", then decides to upgrade them, fire them, or keep them on the payroll. There's a fair amount of information to keep track of too since each employee has a:

  • Name.
  • Rarity (from N to SSR).
  • Their current level of training and title (AKA their "rank").
  • The Business "Type" they specialize in.
  • Their proficiency in each of the three main statistics (Product, Service, Notability).
  • Their Salary.
  • Their current Morale level.
  • And finally their Shareholder Meeting Stats (Command Cost, Charisma, Tenacity).

All that truly matters for the employees is that you don’t over-level or over-promote them for your current share price ranking, you keep them at max morale, and you always prioritize the higher ranked ones over the low ranks. Basically, you'll want to level all of the ones you're using, but only promote the employees higher than normal rarity.

Employee Stats & What They Mean

Yakuza Like A Dragon - Highlighting The Different Attributes Employees And Businesses Can Have

Now, as far as all this information is concerned, a lot of it is common sense, but some of them are completely unexplained in-game or entirely unclear:

  • Their Product Development, Service, and Notability all impact the properties that employee is assigned to.
  • The business "type" simply means that assigning these employees as managers of corresponding business "types" will yield better results.
  • Their Morale affects their overall performance in both running a business and in the shareholder meetings.

Recruiting New Employees Out In The Overworld

Yakuza Like A Dragon - What The Icon Looks Like In The Overworld For Any Employee You Can Recruit

Lastly in regards to employees, as you continue through this side story you'll start noticing NPCs in the overworld with this specific icon (seen in the image above) over their heads. Talk to them, and you'll find out that they're potential hires for Ichiban Confections — that need you to be at a certain level with Ichiban's character traits in order to recruit them.

Ichiban is sort of hopeless on his own, but thanks to the Vocational School, you can work on his flaws.

Properties

Yakuza Like A Dragon - A Look At The Property Upgrade Menu

The Properties part of the mini-game is quite literally the businesses you'll be running. You'll start out with just Ichiban Confections, but eventually, you'll unlock more slots for businesses and more potential properties to purchase. Each one has a variety of aspects you'll need to keep track of as well:

  • The Name And Business "Type"
  • Property Management Expense
  • Property Sales Price
  • The Minimum For Product, Service, and Notability
  • Labor Costs
  • Sales Volume
  • Assigned Employees

Types Of Property

Yakuza Like A Dragon - Highlighting The Business Type Icon In The Property Menu

Additionally, as far as the different types of property Ichiban can buy in Yakuza, there are six different types:

  • Corporations are Red
  • Entertainment is Yellow
  • Facilities are Blue
  • Nightlife is Pink
  • Restaurants are Orange
  • Retail is Green

These "Types" won’t matter a ton early on, but once you start unlocking more and more slots for businesses, getting a decent spread of each type of business starts to matter, especially if there are certain events that temporarily increase the business of specific types.

Property Stats & Upgrades

Yakuza Like A Dragon - Highlighting The Default Stats For Any Property In The Mini-Game

Property improvement is where you’ll “upgrade” the base stats of each business, bumping its base amount of Notability, Service, or Product Development. Each upgrade makes that specific stat a bit higher by default, which means it’ll be easier to profit from that business overall, regardless of the employees assigned to it.

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You can also increase your sales volume in this menu, which will greatly increase your potential sales for the day, AKA profits, but it also increases the minimum of each stat required. Thankfully, if you hover over the sales volume upgrade but don't buy it, you can preview how far it'll increase the minimum requirement.

Shareholders & Shareholder Meetings

Yakuza Like A Dragon - Kasuga, Eri, And Tome Celebrating A Successful Shareholder Meeting

Now onto shareholder meetings, the big "events" that decide how much you'll move up or down on the share price ranking. In them, Ichiban sits and answers all the questions and complaints of his shareholders, trying his best to keep them satisfied however he can.

Out of everything, these can be the most confusing on your first time, but, once you get used to them, they're actually by far the easiest part of the Ichiban Confections side story.

How Should I "Prepare" For The Shareholders?

Yakuza Like A Dragon - Previewing The Upcoming Shareholder Meeting Before Going In

Shareholder meetings most commonly occur after four business periods, aka running the “Open For Business” mini-game 12 times (four per period). So, it’s very easy to prepare for one in advance, and the best way to do so is to:

  • Start focusing on building up a big pile of profits about one full period before the meeting.
  • Make sure your employees are at max morale before starting the meeting.
  • Pick four employees to bring in with you, these should be your highest-leveled employees with fantastic charisma and command cost stats.
  • An even spread of red, blue, and green-type employees to counter the shareholders

A Breakdown Of How The Meetings Actually Work

Yakuza Like A Dragon - Circling The Type Of Shareholder And Their Shield Icons

After you’ve done all that, head on in, and it’s time for Ichiban to face the music. It might seem like an overwhelming amount of information to take in, but there are only a couple of things you really need to look out for:

  • Each shareholder’s “happiness” level, uses the same icons as the employee Morale
  • Each shareholder’s color/type.
  • Which shareholder has their "annoyance" meter filling up the quickest.
  • And what color the dialog box is of the complaint the shareholder brings up.

If you keep an eye on all that and aren’t afraid to use Kasuga’s apology meter whenever it's charged up, 99% of all shareholder meetings should go just fine.

The biggest tip we can give for these meetings is to use an employee of the same attribute color to break the “shields” of a shareholder, then use the counter color (red beats green, green beats blue, blue beats red) once their guard is down.

Investment Opportunities & Commercials

Yakuza Like A Dragon - Ichiban Acting In The Commerical

Now, from time to time, Eri will bring forth potential investments or big business decisions Ichiban can make between business periods. Sometimes she mentions how there's a skilled employee offering to join Ichiban Confections, and other times it's about investing in an up-and-coming business to get big returns later on. There are specific investments and opportunities that Ichiban should always participate in, but there are an equal amount of ones he should probably ignore.

Investments

Yakuza Like A Dragon - Eri Bringing A Potential Employee Offer To You In-Between Periods

For the most part, you can ignore most of these investment opportunities, as they rarely, if ever, bring in any real profit. That said, the employee recruitment choices are usually worth it, even if you just hire and re-fire them.

This is simply because fired employees are always able to be re-hired at any point, but if you miss that initial recruitment opportunity, that employee might not show up again.

Commercials

Yakuza Like A Dragon - What The Open For Business Prompt Looks Like After Investing In The Commercial Ads

Commercials are by far the best investment you can make in between business periods. Sure, they cost a lot to start, but they basically double your profits during the periods they're active, and the commercials themselves are hilarious to watch as well. Ichiban is just such a loveable idiot that even when he's acting poorly, he's still charming.

To Sum It All Up

Yakuza Like A Dragon - Ichiban Using His Level 3 Apologizing Super Attack

Basically, to sum everything up succinctly, the easiest method of getting through this side story just involves everything on the checklist below:

  • Always upgrade your properties when available
  • Invest in your employees, but only promote the ones of higher rarity.
  • When you advance to the next milestone, work on replacing all your least profitable businesses with newly added ones.
  • Save three to five million yen for shareholder meetings as well as surprise investment opportunities
  • Don't take loans if you can avoid them.
  • Bring employees with low command costs and high charisma into shareholder meetings.
  • And walk around the map looking for new employees to hire every now and again.

If you go through this checklist routinely while progressing through the share price rankings, it should be a walk in the park to get to the number one slot!

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