Ryu ga Gotoku Ishin (released in Japan in February 2014) is a spin-off game set at the end of the Edo period of Japanese history (known as the Bakumatsu period), a period when the Tokugawa Shogunate came to an end and imperial rule was restored (Meiji Restoration).
Sakamoto Ryoma is living undercover, with a false identity, as "Saito Hajime" in Kyoto. One year earlier, on the eve of the coup d'état of Tosa, Ryoma's foster father, the man who raised him, was murdered before his eyes. The only lead he had to discover who the killer was is that he used the Tennen Rishin style of fighting. This is a style used by the Shinsengumi, so Ryoma infiltrates their ranks, becoming captain of the 3rd Shinsengumi unit, in attempt to find the killer.
Big thanks to Kevin Debrabandere for creating a PDF for the entire Ishin guide. You can download the PDF version of the guide here. Please be advised that the PDF is outdated now, but still contains information for the whole game.
Attack || Defence || Medical || Support || Assist || Instructor
Soldier cards are the cards you use in the battle dungeon. There are 6 types of soldier card:
Attack
Defence
Medical
Support
Assist
Instructor
Above is an example of a soldier card profile
On the card itself in the top left, the icon at the bottom right of the card indicates its type (in this case, it's an attack type).
The bar at the bottom of the card picture in the top left is the card's "Loyalty". When you lose a mission with this card in your squad, the loyalty bar goes down. When it reaches 0, the soldier abandons the Shinsengumi and takes refuge in Mukurogai. Find the soldier there to convince him to rejoin the unit.
The top right shows its current level and max level as well as the experience required until it next levels up (cards you have in your squad in the battle dungeon gain experience after completing a mission)
Under that is "health" - the combined health of all the cards in your squad is given to you at the start of the mission as a bonus (for example, having just this card in your squad would give you 1670 bonus health at the start of the mission)
The number under that indicates the speed at which the cards gauge refills (after using its ability). The higher this is, the quicker the gauge refills and the sooner you can use that ability again
Both health and refill speed increase as the card levels up
Under that, there are sections describing both the soldier ability and corporal ability. The soldier ability is the normal ability for all cards. The corporal ability is the effect the card has when it is selected as the corporal of a squad. You can still use your corporal's soldier ability, but he also has the corporal ability active as a bonus.
There are different levels of the effects. For example, one attack card could have an effect boosting Ryoma's attack power by a "small" amount (a common attack card) whereas another could have an effect boosting attack by the "maximum" amount (super rare attack card). It's the same with other abilities such as refill time - "Maximum" increases refill time by the highest amount, "Small" increases it by the smallest amount.
There are 3 different types of weapons the soldiers have - "Sword", "Spear" and "Gun". You can see what weapon they have in their card picture.
When in squad organisation, the first slot of a squad is the corporal slot. The rest of the slots are regular soldier slots. When you select an empty slot, choose the first option to insert a card.
When you select a slot which already has a card, choose the first option to swap it with another card. Choose the second option to use the "synthesise" option - you can synthesise cards to increase the experience of the base card. Of course, you lose the cards you used to synthesise with the base card after doing this.
When you synthesise a soldier card with another soldier card, the base card gets experience.
When you synthesise a soldier card with a card that has the same soldier ability as it, the base card gains experience and there is also a chance that the base card's soldier ability will improve.
When you synthesise an instructor card with a soldier card, the base card gets a lot of experience and there is also a high chance that the base card's soldier ability will improve.
Choose the third option to use "rebirth" - you can only do this with a card that has reached its max level. Different cards require a different weapon to use rebirth. After using this, the card's level goes back to 1 and you can level it up again to increase the health and ability gauge refil speed even further.
The weapon needed for rebirth depends on the card. For Rare cards, you need to give them a 5 star or higher weapon of their same type. For uncommon, a 4 star or higher weapon and for common it's 3 star or higher. For example, if you want to use rebirth for a rare soldier card that has a sword, you need to give him a 5* or higher sword for rebirth. If he has a gun, you need to give him a 5* or higher pistol. Super Rare cards need specific weapons for rebirth (see soldier card details on their respective card type pages on this site).
Choose the fourth option to remove the card from the squad.
When you press triangle while in the squad organisation screen, you get a list of all your cards. Select one and choose the 4th option to remove the soldier from the 3rd Shinsengumi unit (when you want to clear some space for other cards, or have no use for a particular card).
You cannot use instructor cards in the battle dungeon, so they have no abilities. Instructors are only used for synthesising with other cards for lots of experience and a high change of improving a card's soldier ability.
It's worth pointing out that you don't HAVE to use an instructor only with their own type (for example, an assist instructor with an assist soldier card) - any instructor can be used with any soldier card type and have the same effect.
