Characters of the Yakuza series
Japanese video game developer Sega's Yakuza media franchise, known as Ryū ga Gotoku in its native Japan and other Asian territories, features an extensive cast of characters. This article describes notable characters who appear in the Yakuza main series video games and associated remasters or remakes, with characters sorted by organizations or groups according to the original works. The English-language adaptation equivalents are mentioned when available.
In the first three installments, the sole playable protagonist is Kazuma Kiryu, a former yakuza who after ten years of imprisonment deals with chaos emerging from the yakuza organization he was formerly affiliated with, the Tojo clan. Yakuza 4 introduces three playable protagonists in addition to Kiryu. Yakuza 5 continued this trend and features five playable protagonists including Haruka Sawamura, a ward of Kiryu's whose story arc is devoid of combat mechanics. The prequel installment Yakuza 0 featured two protagonists, Kiryu and recurring supporting character Goro Majima. Kiryu is the only playable character in Yakuza 6, while an additional story played from Majima's perspective was added to the remake of Yakuza 2, Yakuza Kiwami 2. The 2 most recent mainline instalments, Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, features a new cast of characters. Players take control of a group of companions led by Ichiban Kasuga and the game introduces a new turn-based fighting style, opposed to the brawler free roam style of earlier instalments.
Concept and design
The series originated from creator Toshihiro Nagoshi's desire to design a game that would tell the way of life of the yakuza. Nagoshi initially struggled to greenlight the project. Portrayals of the Japanese underworld were common in manga and movies, but not in video games. Nagoshi brought his story for Yakuza to scenario supervisor Hase Seishu two years before the game started development. Seishu had been a video game player since the days of Space Invaders, but over the past four or five years he had lost interest, as he was less concerned with 3D visuals and gameplay than he was with story. Yakuza caught his attention though, and he decided to accept the project even though it came at the busiest point of his professional writing career. Nagoshi chose the focus on yakuzas due to the amount of violence the subject tends to incorporate. This was also done in order to attract more gamers with this theme, believing there were less gamers during the time the game was made. The PlayStation 3 installments' realistic character design is based on Cyberware 3D scanner, Softimage XSI 6.5 3D models and Sega's Magical V-Engine.Scenario editor Hasei Seishu assisted with the conception of Kiryu and Date in order to make them fit into the narrative. By Yakuza 4, Kiryu was seen as "indestructible" by the staff, and as a result, he was made the last character playable in the game, following three new characters that stood out thanks to their different traits. Yakuza 4 adjusted several of these localisation changes, following criticism of the previous games, and in particular the content excised from the Western release of Yakuza 3. Producer Noguchi noted that there was an attempt to "bring a more complete localization that was more faithful to the source material". This included reversing several name changes. In addition, some conventions were changed; in previous Western localisations, protagonist Kazuma Kiryu had been referred to primarily by his given name. In Yakuza 4, he is referred to primarily by his family name, Kiryu, which more closely reflects the original dialogue.
Many characters of the Yakuza series have had their faces modeled and mapped after their Japanese voice actors since the 2008 spinoff Ryū ga Gotoku Kenzan!. Cyberware Inc.'s head & face color 3D scanner is used in Hollywood's film industry and was exploited to reduce 3D model production time. Yu Suzuki introduced 3D scanning technology back in 1998 for Project Berkeley / Shenmue.
Since Yakuza 6: The Song of Life concludes the story arc of recurring series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu, the franchise's developers Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio wanted to create a new lead character to continue the narrative of the fictional universe they have created, with chief producer and writer Masayoshi Yokoyama describing Ichiban Kasuga as a "catalyst" for change. Ichiban is described by Yokoyama as the opposite of Kiryu: "Ichiban is thoroughly uncomplicated, direct, cheerful, reckless. Well, he's a "fool", isn't he." As a result, he marks a major contrast with the game's dark setting. Auditions of the character started early in development to appreciate him sooner. Kazuhiro Nakaya was one of the multiple candidates to be seen. Yokoyama felt that Nakaya stood out to the character due to sharing a rebellious personality when the script was sent. After a discussion between Yokoyama and Nagoshi, Nakaya was chosen for the role. Nakaya described Ichiban as an energetic and vivid character when reading the script. The character's fascination with Dragon Quest serves as the reason for the series' change from action adventure to role-playing games. Tang describes him as a "whimsical" character who despite being the game's protagonist, he also serves the role of a supporting character due to how he often assists his allies.
Player characters
Kazuma Kiryu
Kazuma Kiryu is the main protagonist in the series. Born on June 17, 1968, he was raised during the 1970s in the Sunflower Orphanage with Akira "Nishiki" Nishikiyama, who became his best friend, the latter's sister Yuko and Yumi Sawamura who joined in 1980. When he was a child, his parents were killed by Shintaro Kazama, a Tojo Clan affiliate Dojima Family lieutenant, who brought him to the Sunflower orphanage which he himself financed. In 1986, Kazama introduced Kiryu and Nishiki in the Dojima and Kazama families respectively. Kazama became a father figure for Kiryu who supported him within the Dojima Family and years later when he was released from prison. Kiryu rose through the Tojo hierarchy and earned the nickname "the Dragon of Dojima" because of the dragon tattoo on his back, but the main reason was because he gained the victory fight against Keiji Shibusawa who wanted to be called the Dragon of Dojima in Yakuza 0. He was planning on starting his own subsidiary group until he took the blame for the murder of his boss, Sohei Dojima, to protect his best friend, Nishiki, and was imprisoned for ten years. These events lead into the plot of Yakuza.Goro Majima
A lieutenant of the Shimano family and later head of the Majima Family, Goro Majima is an acquaintance of Kiryu with a twisted sense of loyalty. His temper and lack of mercy earned him the nickname "the Mad Dog of Shimano". Majima holds a strong rivalry with Kiryu, believing himself the only one who has the right to kill him, but over time becomes one of Kiryu's most stalwart allies. He appears in every mainline Yakuza game and a majority of the spinoff entries. He becomes playable for the first time in Yakuza: Dead Souls, with his first canon playable entry in Yakuza 0 and again in Yakuza Kiwami 2's Majima Saga. He is the protagonist of "Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii", where he is the sole playable character.Ichiban Kasuga
Ichiban Kasuga is the main protagonist of Yakuza: Like a Dragon. The character first appears in the Japan-exclusive mobile game Ryu ga Gotoku ONLINE. Originally a member of Tojo Clan's Arakawa Family, he is asked by the family's patriarch Masumi Arakawa to go to prison for a murder that he did not commit, which he accepts as his way of repaying his patriarch's favor. In 2019, Kasuga is released from prison only to find that the Tojo Clan has collapsed, and nobody remembers him. He goes to confront Arakawa, who shoots him in the chest. Several days later, Kasuga regains consciousness and finds himself in the Yokohama district of Isezaki Ijincho, where he is unwittingly embroiled in a conspiracy involving multiple yakuza families and their connection to Japan's political figures.Shun Akiyama
Shun Akiyama is one of the playable characters introduced in Yakuza 4. A former homeless person, Akiyama owns Sky Finance, a loan company, as well as the hostess club Elise, which he started up using the money he gathered that fell from Millennium Tower in 2005. Once helped out by the yakuza Hiroaki Arai, he looked up to Arai as a potential new leader of Kamurocho who could eventually succeed Kazuma Kiryu.Akiyama was portrayed to be an elite in his 20s, during which time he dated his coworker, Eri, a woman who bears a striking resemblance to Yasuko Saejima. In 2005, he was framed for stealing from the bank and was fired. All of his remaining money was spent investigating who framed him, and his money eventually ran out without him finding an answer. He was then forced to sleep on the streets until one fateful night, when money appeared to fall from the sky. He gathered up a large amount of money, but it was stolen by a group of thugs. Arai retrieved the money for him, and he used it to set up a business. Akiyama meets a woman named Lily, who bears a striking resemblance to his ex-fiancée, Eri. Lily requests to borrow money from him. After a series of "tests" he agrees to lend her the money, though he knows he likely will not get it back. This angers Hana, his secretary, and she quits. Kido discovers the secret safe behind the bookcase in Akiyama's office and steals 100 billion yen in cash.
Later in the game, Akiyama uses his own money to lure the men to the Millennium Tower roof, where he fights Arai. He is shot by Munakata at the end, but a thick padding of bills, his last money, stops the bullet and saves his life. Alongside Sky Finance, he runs a hostess club and is considered to be an entrepreneur of some sort.
Akiyama is considered to be quite lazy, often forgetting to clean his office and frequently neglects his duties. He also appears in Yakuza 5, Yakuza 6: The Song of Life and during the events of the spinoff Dead Souls where he teams up with Kiryu, Majima and Ryuji Goda to stop the zombie plague.