Current Events > My thoughts on the RGG/Yakuza series protagonists (Kiryu, Ichiban, Yagami)

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I was asked recently which of the three characters I liked the most, and I had some thoughts on it I wanted to get out.

My answer for the one I like the most is Ichiban, which is kind of unfair given Kiryu was created in the very rough PS2 era and had to grow into his character, while Ichiban's creation had all that the dev team and learned and they were able to knock it out of the park in one.

Kiryu's deal is "Duty, honor, justice, stoic". Unfortunately, given problems keep getting dumped into his lap game after game, he kinda comes off as stupid because a lot of problems rely on him just abandoning what he originally thought was his duty and letting things get bad again for him to clean up. Like I still love Kiryu, but that's kind of the result of how the games progressed.

Yagami is... fine. He's a detective protagonist that was made to be played by Takuya Kimura. He strikes me as a character carefully crafted so his actor can show his best side at all times, and as such it makes him kinda... neutral. Like he doesn't really have any standout qualities apart from "justice, determined, little bitter, laid back". A lot of his satellite characters tend to take the role of standing out. My favorite among his crew is Kaito.

Ichiban, unlike Kiryu's kind of stupid, is just unabashedly stupid from moment one, and it's absolutely endearing. "Optimistic, group/family-oriented, hardheaded/stupid, justice". The best thing about Ichiban with regards to how his game is set up is that he's constantly the leader of a party, so there's always someone to play off of, instead of Kiryu's silent stoicism and loneliness.

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I found Ichiban really endearing, but his complete unquestioning loyalty regardless of anything that happens really screwed him a lot. Like he seemed to completely lack any ability to read a situation

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Since my boy Majima is in the poll, I gotta go with him.

Out of the 3 main characters though, I really like Yagami. He's a civilian, but is not afraid to ruffle some Yakuza feathers, if it means he finds the truth.

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Akiyama best boy

Thanks for the topic! Almost missed it. I can't answer the original question myself since I haven't played LAD yet and only put an hour or so into Judgment before I decided to finish the Yakuza remastered collection when it finally dropped on Steam. I'm currently almost done with the story in Y6 I think. but I do really like Kiryu. I don't hate Yagami, but I don't find him as likable as Kiryu so far. I fully expect to really like Ichiban from what I've seen of the trailers.

Sidenote: Akiyama is definitely my boy. 2nd favorite character in the whole Yakuza series.

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I went for Kiryu because, well... it's Kiryu

Akiyama is a STRONG second though

Also question for ya @CyricZ :
Do you think it would've made more sense for Tanimura to be the main character in the Judgement games?

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Buu_88 posted...

Do you think it would've made more sense for Tanimura to be the main character in the Judgement games?

People have talked about this with regards to the Judgment series ever since the information came down that it's Kimura's agency (Johnny & Associates) that is preventing the series coming to PC and the likelihood that the series is coming to an end after LJ.

As I understand it, Kimura was heavily involved in the creation of his character and the world of Judgment as it was. I don't think Judgment exists without Kimura because of the level of input he had. To that end, I don't think it necessary to continue the series with a "replacement protagonist".

And I don't really think there's enough character in Tanimura to carry his own games anyway. Honestly, I'm fine with putting Judgment to bed and moving on to another type of spinoff. RGG Studio has a pretty good track record with spinoffs and I want to see what else they can do.

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