Like a Dragon: Ishin! — Ryōma's Kyoto

The game opens in Tosa. In 1866 Ryōma, his sworn brother Takechi and his adoptive father Yoshida Tōyō meet at Kōchi Castle to plan talks with the ministers; a masked assassin mortally wounds Tōyō and Ryōma is blamed for it. That is the game's own story. It ends in the same place: the final duel with Takechi is fought in the very room where Tōyō was killed. The real castle was rebuilt between 1729 and 1753 after a fire.

Visitor guidance: A 20-minute walk from JR Kōchi Station.

A year later Ryōma is in Kyoto, where the Shinsengumi police force has its headquarters and most of the game takes place. He is made captain of the Third Unit and goes about his duties as the "Wolf of Mibu". In reality the grounds of Mibu-dera temple served as its training base. A bronze statue of its commander Kondō Isami stands in the precincts today.

Location precision: The game does not tie its barracks to one building; the pin marks Mibu-dera, the temple the real group trained at.

Visitor guidance: The Kondō Isami statue stands in the temple grounds.

Ryōma's cover is already blown. In the game, Kondō knows from the masked man's report that "Saitō Hajime" is really Sakamoto Ryōma, and summons him to a restaurant in Gion. The meeting is the game's invention. Gion itself grew up as an entertainment district in front of Yasaka Shrine, and part of it is now a national historical preservation district, so walking its old streets is the nearest thing to the setting.

Location precision: The game names only a restaurant in Gion; the pin marks the district.

Visitor guidance: Gion is a public district, busiest in the evening.

In the game Otose runs the Teradaya, where Ryōma lodges. The Shinsengumi raid it after hearing that a false Ryōma is staying there. History is different: in March 1866 shogunate agents ambushed the real Ryōma at the Teradaya, and he drove them off with a Smith and Wesson revolver. That inn burned in the Battle of Toba-Fushimi; the present house was built later on the lot to its west, and the original site is the garden next door with the stone monuments.

Visitor guidance: Five minutes on foot from Chūshojima Station; the original site is the monument garden on the east side.

In the game, Ryōma uses the Ōmiya to lure out the second "Sakamoto Ryōma", the man behind the plot. The real Ōmiya is where Ryōma was killed on 10 December 1867; his associate Nakaoka Shintarō died two days later. Who did it is still debated, and the game's story is not evidence. A stone marking the spot of the attack stands where the inn's interior was, in Kawaramachi.

Location precision: The inn is gone; the pin marks the memorial stone area on Kawaramachi, found by search.

Visitor guidance: The monument stands on a public street.