Ishin difficulty is sometimes almost impossible

[Techno Viking]

What a pain to be playing at ishin difficulty! Every street fight is a matter of life and death.

Now I'm trying to beat some bad guys but they kick my ass every time, one guy is extremely fast and kills me with TWO cuts of his sword 🥴

So now I'm feeling tempted to accept the offer that comes every other time you die to temporarily switch down to easy to finish the fight. I'm just worried that i lose the chance to any achievements or get any other downsides if I do that. Does anyone know?

[Popastique]

You only need to complete the game on Legend difficulty to get the achievement ( if i am correct ), but honestly - you can change the difficulty at any time. So you could probably just play it on Normal or Hard, and then change it to Legend during the final chapter ( Just like in Yakuza 6 )

[Velesianus]

Like Popastique is saying you can absolutely just run the last leg on legendary and get the achievement.

BUT...

If you stick with it long enough to get over the initial shock of Ishin mode and figure out some of the tricks to it, you'll see that it really isn't remotely as hard as it seems at first. Just a bit more exciting .

In fact, if you get into the cheesier builds and card exploits, you'll hardly be able to tell the difference.

The main trick is to not get hit before you can get your armor into the 4 digits

[Popastique]

BTW early on you can pretty much use Wild Dancer to dodge anything coming your way ( and in the late game as well ) and dish out 2-3 attacks, then continue dodging. And if you want to really cheese the game - craft fire-element imbued katana.

[bombardiro fentanilo]

You don't have to worry about achievements much other than the one you get for beating the game on Legend (or higher). So in other words you'd need to do the final boss legit.

There's tons of mixed opinions on Ishin difficulty. Personally I dislike it for NG. It's just not fair, frustrating and very unforgiving especially in the times where you need to familiarize yourself with the gameplay. On repeat playthroughs and NG+ however it's not bad at all and probably the best way to learn how to really master the game.

At the end of the day and as a personal comment, this game isn't a ♥♥♥♥ measuring competition. If you're not having fun playing a game that's probably the only wrong way to experience it.