• There is no autosave, so make sure to save often.
  • Check your notebook for a variety of useful gameplay tips.
  • When you first get to the city, grab some healing items from the convenience store to make an early boss fight easier.
  • You cannot permanently miss anything, eventually you can switch between protagonists and time of day at will.
  • Making the right choices in sidequests earns you better rewards, but you're not locked out of anything critical even if you goof around.
  • You can make a variety of fun weapons with crafting, but it's not necessary for beating the game.
  • A clown near the CP exchange shrine offers free and powerful DLC items, separate for both characters.
  • The two protagonists share separate CP pools, but a lot of completion points that both can do (run X miles, take Y taxis) are counted for both. So there's no need to "save" CP for the other character.
  • To get new arcade games, max out the friendship meter of the arcade lady within the SEGA arcades, one in each city.
  • When given the choice between black and white boxes as Kiryu, the better reward is in
    the black one
    .

Combat, Abilities & Equipment

  • To use a weapon you've bought or found, first equip it from the menu and press "down" in combat to take it out.
  • Heat actions are very context-sensitive, and a lot more weapons than you'd think have unique animations.
  • To get strong enough to have a master teach you new moves, you need to have unlocked an ability space next to one of the locked 'M' spaces.
  • Remember to make use of weapons and equipment but make sure to check their effects too, some might have effects you don't want like attracting more fights.
  • When you're in heat mode, your damage and defense increase. So, un-intuitive though it may be, you often want to avoid doing heat actions that will drain your entire heat bar in a difficult fight.

Business Management

  • Businesses are a much better source of money than random enemies so don't bother grinding the latter.
  • When you unlock the business minigame, you can hire many of the people you encounter in substories. They usually wait outside your office.
  • Often if there's a business you can advertise in or purchase that has a character with a friendship bar in it, you need to max out that friendship bar first.
  • A sidequest unlocked after a major plot beat in the business awards Kiryu with an item which highlights sidequests on the map.