I've been replaying Yakuza 0 on Legend difficulty recently, giving it a proper playthrough - taking my time with the side content, grinding here and there, making sure my Kiryu and Majima are fully upgraded for the finale. Finishing the main plotline this way took me around 115 hours, resulting in completion list at over 75% before finishing the main story. With that, I also mastered every style and decided to rank them for y'all, and also ask y'all for your own ranking. Keep in mind, I'm gonna be considering those styles at their fullest, being fully upgraded (for Dragon and Mad Dog, I'm looking at them being upgraded to Lvl. 2, as it's enough of a power up for the endgame)

  
1. Mad Dog of Shimano - this style is just super fun to play. It's basically Breaker with a dagger. While it doesn't deal as much damage as all the other styles, and it has only one unique heat action, it really doesn't need more, because it allows you to utilize heat in other ways - like using Savage with Chomp. Even its singular heat action (Essence of the Mad Dog: Maul) is pretty cool and usually ends up in three one-hit-kills. It's not too hard to beat Mr. Shakedown without taking a single hit from him, if you keep using quickstep attack (quickstep + heavy attack) and Mad Dog Trick: Demonfire (Majima's equivalent to Tiger Drop - RB stance + heavy attack when you're about to get hit). Demonfire counter is a bit tough to master, but it's pretty rewarding, given that it deals a lot of damage - close to Tiger Drop in Yakuza Kiwami. Even if you don't master the counter, you can fully rely on the quickstep attack - after a quickstep, pressing a heavy attack button performs Mad Dog Trick: Savage, and puts you in Mad Dog Trick: Chomp. Not only does it deal a fine amount of damage, but it also keeps you at a distance from Mr. Shakedown which makes it nigh impossible for him to hit you.

  
2. Dragon of Dojima - it's basically a power-upped Brawler. You get cool heat actions which don't really require much to use them, and it's REALLY fast when at 3rd gear. While it misses Tiger Drop, you get two other counters. I must admit, Iron Fist Counter kinda sucks, because it requires 3rd gear, uses up most of your heat AND most importantly, it misses easily. But at the same time, Twist Counter is really cool, because it doesn't use up any heat, nor does it require any, it actually gives you some and deals a nice amount of damage. Usually after performing it, you can perform a downed heat action. When it comes to beating Mr. Shakedown, you can use most of the attacks Dragon has to offer - I mostly rely on the traditional rush combo, Twist Counters every once in a while, and once I hit the 3rd gear heat, I either use Ultimate Essence '88, Essence of Sumo Slapping or Finishing Throw (rush combo + finisher + grab) and the downed heat action. The only real downside of this style in my opinion is the fact that until it goes up to 3rd gear, it's kinda slow.

  
3. Breaker - I don't even think I need to explain, it's just really fun to play. It's a killer against multiple enemies, and it also gives you some cool heat actions if you take Areshi's training. Sadly, this is the only style in the entire game which isn't really cut out for beating Mr. Shakedown, as I haven't been able to pull it off. But it's still very, VERY fun to play with. Fun enough to overshadow every of its shortcomings.

  
4. Rush - it might come as a surprise, but it actually doesn't necessarily need to be weaker than Brawler. Most of the time it doesn't deal that much damage, BUT once you unlock Charged Kick, you'd be surprised with how much damage it does. Basically, at the end of your rush combo (if it ends with a kick), you hold a heavy attack button, which charges and unleashes a REALLY heavy kick. Furthermore, you can also get Raptor Mastery (Powerful Blow), which most of the time prevents you from getting knocked down while charging an attack. Charged Kick, paired with quickstepping all the time + occasional Essence of Crushing: Elbow allows you to take down Mr. Shakedown surprisingly quickly.

  
5. Brawler - like I said earlier, Brawler is basically a SLIGHTLY weaker version of Dragon of Dojima. Once you fully upgrade it, it's a real powerhouse. Completing Bacchus' training early on gives you access to some really amazing heat actions which really come in handy during the early game. Body Counter (block + heavy attack when hit), Counter Hook (this game's equivalent of Tiger Drop - RB stance + heavy attack when you're about to get hit) and Snatching Strike (rush combo with light attack three times + finisher + grab) deal quite a lot of damage while being relatively easy to use. Once you unlock the Drunkards' Secret abilities, you become a real tank when you're drunk, and you deal massive amounts of damage. So, when beating Mr. Shakedown, I recommend getting drunk, using Body Counters, Counter Hooks and Snatching Strike + downed heat action when at 3rd gear.

  
6. Slugger - while it's still a really good and fun style, I was actually surprised somewhere around the endgame, because this style is not as much of a powerhouse as you'd expect. Granted, it still does a lot damage to multiple enemies at once, but when you fight Mr. Shakedown, it'll actually take you some time to defeat him. You will mostly find yourself using short rush combos and the basic baseball bat heat action.

  
7. Thug - to me, this is a combination of Brawler and Rush. It's by no means a bad style, it's actually pretty capable, but it's just almost the least fun out of all the other styles. It's just the least creative Majima's style, and you will probably find yourself using it the least times out of all his styles - although it does still come with some cool heat actions. To beat Mr. Shakedown, I recommend going for short rush combos, and once you get to 3rd gear, you use Thug Cunning: Harsh Lesson (RB stance + grab when you're about to get hit) and a downed heat action. Though Harsh Lesson might be a little difficult to master, and I advise you to practice it a little before taking it up with a bossfight.

  
8. Beast - I absolutely understand the enthusiasts of this style, but it's just too slow for my liking. Plus I just don't use weapons in the Yakuza games, so if it wasn't for automatically picking up the nearby weapons, I might not use this style at all. That being said, when fully upgraded, it IS a very powerful style, which often allows you to take out your enemies with two to three hits if you hold a weapon. Maxing it out gives you a lot of cool perks, like boosting your attack the more health you have. It also has an amazing Essence of the Beast: Torment. The thing that makes it problematic to use against Mr. Shakedown is that it doesn't really have a guard when you don't have a weapon - you're bound to take some damage when empty-handed, since it also doesn't do well in the department of evasiveness. But, if you have weapons around, you can overpower Mr. Shakedown if you pair regular attacking with using heat actions. I just don't recommend using Beast if you fight Mr. Shakedown in a tight space OR without enough weapons around. You'll be better off switching to another style once you run out of weapons in your environment.

  
Overall, I noticed a pattern here - Kiryu focuses on dealing damage, while Majima is more quick. His attacks deal less damage than Kiryu's, but he deals more of the attacks themselves - his rush combos are much longer than Kiryu's. It makes sense that Kiryu canonically almost always wins fights with Majima, as he's probably just able to tank and overpower him. That being said, Majima's fighting styles are more flashy, creative with their initial premises and overall more fun to use. 



As to some general advices for farming Mr. Shakedown, you best get yourself the Encounter Finder (as looking for him is sometimes more of a pain in the ass than fighting him itself), load your inventory with healing items, and you best always have at least two to three Sacrifice Stones on yourself, because you WILL get hit once or twice every fight, even when you master all the styles - and during the early chapters, it usually takes him just a single hit to take you out.

  
I just wanted to yap about it real quick, I'm really curious to see your rankings of all the fighting styles in Yakuza 0

How would you rank the fighting styles in Yakuza 0 best to worst? + my tips on beating Mr. Shakedown with most of those styles