Ryuji Goda was the one that that absorbed the most energy of the rooms he walked into, imo. He was a monster and his voice was powerful. Just something about him that makes him the most fearful of the group. Maybe not the best overall, but most intimidating.
@Garland I would argue it only makes it more impressive that after that scene he still feels threatening. A lesser villain would have been killed by that loss, but he still holds his mystique
Another frightening demeanor was Mine ngl. In both financial success and actual physical strength. Without the black monday’s interference I seriously believe Mine would become a Tojo clan chairman since both Kiryu and Daigo were fond of him in the end
@@Johnny2gyro Then Kiryu fought him on top of Kamurocho Hill after fighting his way up to Ryuji, then Ryuji fight Kiryu with a god damn katana, defeated anyway lmao
1: Goromi 2: Lord of the Knight 3: Officer Majima 4: Everyone's Idol Goro 5: Hannya Man 6: Goro Majima 7: Nishitani 8: 10 years in the joint 9: Akira Nishikiyama 10: Yakuze 11: Daisaku Kuze 12: John Yakuza 13: Sagawa 14: Shimano 15: The flying wig from judgement
Gotta say, when I saw Masato Arakawa gearing to fight Ichiban one-on-one, I sighed and saw it coming. He was going to get his shit handed out to him. BUT, and that's the beauty of RGG's villains. I cried when he died. You wanna know how many times I cried when a villain died, in ANY form of medias? Twice. And the second time? That was Nishiki (granted, I had played Y0 juste before K1, so I had emotional bagage with the guy). And even without crying, Mine dying made me feel empty. Ryuji Goda defeated made me feel pumped like hell. These villains made me feel something. That's a talent that is very, very rare.
@@Hymn_that one part of the qte where Masato punches Ichiban yelling " F#@k you!" And Ichiban just takes it with a somber expression on his face hits so hard. He doesn't want to fight at all
While I can't agree with Kuwana's killings, i do agree with his tormenting and blackmailing of Mitsuru's bullies. As someone who was bullied all through my school life, it proper gave me that morbidly satisfied "see how you fucking like it" feeling. Kuwana definitely earned his spot as RGG's best villain hands down.
might I add, the one thing that I love is the fact that he waited for the bullies to actually have families and proper lives, just to take it hostage by blackmailing them using the bullying video. I'm just amazed by the sheer dedication and patience Kuwana has.
Someya in 6 is one of my favs, generational theme of him coming from the modern day yet can still hang with veterans like kiryu & hold his own, has hate towards him but secretly respects & learns from him
I actually love Ryuji specifically for his motivation. I grew up on dbz and other shonen's so just having two big buff dudes just fighting to be the last one standing, the one claiming the title of dragon is just wonderful to me. He's not after money, power, or anything like that. He just wants a good fight and to see who is really deserving of the dragon title.
I feel like Iwami should be given more credit as a villain, I know people don't like him cause he isn't le honor bounded villain and his boss fight is weak. But MAN does he really fit well as the final boss of the Kiryu saga. It fits so well that everything came in full circle, there are only two bosses in the franchise that drove Kiryu to bloodlust, first being Shibusawa, the other being Iwami. But Iwami was SO much more personal, especially considering we grew with Kiryu and saw him raise Haruka into the woman she is today and to see the one thing that kept Kiryu going on being threatened by such a scummy excuse for a Yakuza, It is infinitely more impactful than Shibusawa ever will be IMO. Not to mention I believe that Iwami is suppose to embody the absolute worst aspects of modern day Yakuza: no honor, no guts, just using cheap tactics and using others for stepping stones for one's own success. Iwami is the perfect antithesis for Kiryu as a whole, I do think he is one of the best villains in the franchise for the mere fact that even thinking about him makes my blood boil with pure hatred. Fuck Iwami.
31:00 I absolutely appreciate the fact that you are the only one (as far as I know) who brought up the infamous Concrete Girl case. I've always had a sneaking suspicion that RGG Studio had this case in the back of their minds when they created a story with the bullying epidemic and the leniency of the court verdict against juvenile offenders in Japan as its central theme.
Kuroiwa is not that hard you just have to keep your distance and use your environment accordingly. As for Soma... well there's extracts haha it basically becomes a piece of cake. But true if you fight him "for real", I agree Soma would be a nightmare.
Hamura is iconic. Imo Miou Tanaka's likeness works so much better for what kind of characters Hamura is. Compare the judgment intros and look at how different he looks. Pierre taki's looks super cartoony and Tanaka's looks incredibly sinister. Easy top 3 for me.
Man, the presentations for Daisaku Kuze and Jin Kuwana were simply perfect. You illustrated perfectly my feel for them. Very accurate list. So, what are your runner ups? Say 16 - 20? Awano? Joon-Gi Han? Someya? Arai? Sugiuchi? Kugihara? Kenmochi? Sagawa? It seems that, despite the convoluted plot, none of the villains are actually this badass.
Yeah so I recently updated my video description, and your suggestions are quite close. 16 would be Sagawa. He's a great villain but I feel people overrate him a bit and base their opinions off of some video essay they saw on UA-cam. He was essential to Majima's story, but in the grander scheme of things, he was just another yakuza doing his job. 17 is Ehara. As mentioned in the video, he plays a very important role and, just like Kuwana, his story makes one reflect on what justice should be. 18 is Awano. His character is interesting and he essentially had the makings of the strongest Yakuza villain, but him giving into his vices ultimately proved to be his own undoing. Quite the unique villain. 19 is Kenmochi. He is very much an unintentional villain. 20 would either be Joon-gi Han or Someya or Shimano. Interesting characters and roles (Someya is one of my favorite characters) but ultimately overshadowed by other villains' schemes. I like the Sugiuchi suggestion. He is quite underrated as a villain, as they gave his character much depth. He'd be #21. Also, thanks so much for giving the video and channel love! I'm very happy you are satisfied with the list. (EDIT: Added some details.)
@@TheThrillerJunkie Yakuza 4, compared with the newest villains, didn't have as many memorable villains, but Sugiuchi I think was more outstanding than Arai, Katsuragi or even Shibata (commissioner Munakata was slime in all ways possible). You can see even in the way he taunts Sudo even after he got caught. He was fearless and the only thing that mattered to him was the loyalty to Katsuragi (reminds me a bit of the hell of living undercover like in the movie Infernal Affairs/The Departed) and how he was already confused and guilty wishing he could be a real cop. The most interesting chracters from all the villains IMHO (although Arai falls shorter in that as well as the cop going Yakuza, even to the point that Akiyama saw him as the next chairman of the Tojo Kai). Ehara is amazing as well... very well designed character, driven by rage and total revenge. Love how defiant he was even willing to sacrifice his freedom for what he believes is true justice (yet distorted by vigilantism). Kenmochi is without a question, a poor tortured soul that was horribly manipulated by Sadamoto. He had so many demons inside that Sadamoto used them as the strings... in the end he just draged him to hell with him. As for Someya and Joon Gi Han... both are exceptionally well designed characters. Perhaps since their role was more as sub-bosses perhaps couldn't shine up to the top 15, but sure they're excellent designed characters... I mean, RGG HAD to return Joon Gi Han one way or another (you should have seen my face when I saw him back in YLAD, I was like how the fawk he survived a head shot!?). Shimano is a classic villain as well. You'd think he's another brute but when you realize that the whole Majima ordeal from the hole into the assassination order of Makoto was a carefully plan to get a hold on the empty lot, you see why he's the leader of his family by being as scheming than any other criminal mastermind. Keep up with the great content.
Kuwana is special , not only because is one of antagonist w the best story behind.. is because Kuwana can be a HERO.. if u see in other side.. his justice it's literaly what's all parents, brothers or ex bullying victim, really thinking about that peapole.. just like Ehara.
Kuwana is the main reason why Lost Judgment is my favorite game of the entire Yakuza universe, he was a perfect antagonist and goddamn the final battle with this masterpiece of an OST was amazing.
I just finished Lost Judgment, and the Kaito Files, and man am I sad that this series won't probably see a third release. There is so much depth, in these characters and stories. I didn't think it would be possible to fall in love with a game series, but Yakuza and Judgment did this to me. These characters, these stories are etched in my soul.
Yeah, the meaning of Jin Kuwana is deep but also clear at the same time. He's a portrait of justice, but the problem is, he's also a murderer. He is the portrait of the most primitive and the wildest justice you can think about, to die is the only way he think to teach people about the " justice " and fairness . He's executing the " justice " in a darker way, or like that. You can't judge Kuwana which side he's on. That's why the game is called " Lost Judgment "
@@moister3727 I still choose Yagami's justice. Because what Yagami did improving our society - it is to reform people's aware of the importance of protecting the bullied. Only after people reform the awareness, they will start to act different, that is when they will try to protect the bullied - and to prevent them from attempting suicided. Law is only a tool to help people judging the consequences - it can't fix what already happened, but when the bullied never try to suicide - or more likely, people help them to not attempting suicide, things will be different. Human aspect is the most important aspect in a society, you have to teach your children about right things, not to " teach " the law about rights.
@@JarendFromVietNam kuwana is an anti hero, but what put a stain on him is causing innocent ppl like sawa sensei to be killed. that's why yagami always brings her death everytime he tried to convince or arguing against kuwana
@@Hymn_ Hey, thanks for replying my comment even a year later! It is a bit exaggerated when you know Kuwana is a serial killer with systematic plan to "execute the bullies" as Kuwana said, but it is not very possible to happen in real life. Talk about the law, it is really hard and vague to make punishment for bullying crime. The first thing is, everybody clearly knows that a bullying is constantly happening, but when the jury need witnesses, almost no one dares to say the truth at court. Second thing, when did the victim so desperated that they choose to take their own life? We all know that continuously being bullied is only the ultimate reason results in the despair and hopeless situation of the victim, yet, in the court, that kind of action usually be listed as "not too hard" since the prosecutor can't show the level of bullying action, as well as the lack of evidence and witnesses, they usually can't confirm a simple fact that bully is exactly the one who make the victim to committed suicide. As if there were evidences and witnesses you would say! Even Kuwana then didn't dare to show the video, how could other? It is the problem, people couldn't dare to stand up and protect the victim, most importantly to protect the bullied and preclude the suicide can't happen. It is what Yagami want people to do, to stand up and protect weaker people. Yet there are still teachers, many, many of them are shamelessly ignoring the impact that can make their student perish, while some simply have no clue what is happening. If the law is too high for a justice, then it should be at school. To prevent, and to protect, they are 2 main aspect to save a desperated bullied. Lost Judgement emphasises this point many times throughout the game, from the group of in class choose to stand up for Koda, to Koda herself, with people all around standing up when a bully is happen. It is very humane to educate society.
Excellent list!! The series has so many great villains that it’s impossible to put them all in a top 15 list Villains like Someya, Awano, Kenmochi and Sagawa were brilliant
I fucking love Kuwana. I'll never stop loving him, ever. Wish we could see more of him, but as it stands. I'm glad he exists to elevate the bar for villains in the saga.
Good video ! It's amazing how RGG studio almost always nail the villains in the franchise Having done every localized games, I'm very confident that future antagonists will be as good, if not even better !
I personally put Kuze and Sawashiro on same spot because not only they were strict, tough, and persistent, they actually were not evil. They just wanted to teach our protagonists about valuable lessons to survive in criminal life with tough love. For Nishiki, no matter how much he treated his circumstances like a pussy, we must admit that he was a successful man with people that willingly to swore an oath to serve him. The reason why he was defeated by Kiryu is Kiryu's plot armor and main protagonist perks, which actually being used to cover Kiryu's fatal flaw. Lastly, for Kuwana, I couldn't agree more. He is the best "antagonist" RGG Studio ever made. He is smart, strong, brave to dirty his own hands, have an ultimate goal that the protagonist couldn't properly argue, and have integrity to defend his vision of justice no matter how dire the condition and the consequence would be.
I agree that Kuwana is one of RGG‘s best villains, but Yagami not being able to argue against Kuwana‘s ideology is mostly due to lazy writing imho. There‘s actually a lot of flaws in Kuwana‘s ideology, for example the fact that he claims to want to prevent more students from attempting suicide, yet he only deals with cases where the victims have already died or at least attempted suicide. He also kills so secretively that nobody knows there‘s someone out there killing bullies, so he doesn‘t prevent bullying that way either. Kuwana only goes around punishing bullies after the fact to appease his own guilty conscience, but he‘s not actually helping anyone. Yagami on the other hand actually helps a girl who‘s getting bullied and makes the bullies realize the consequences of their actions. The fact that the perfect foundation for an opposing ideology already exists in the game and yet RGG instead chose to make a female character whose sole purpose is to get killed off to give Yagami a reason to oppose Kuwana is incredibly lazy writing.
I quite like the more straight-faced villains more than the scheming ones. For example Ryuji is more involved from beginning to end, seeing more of his characer, with the plot twist only improving him. Kinda same with Watase who is first framed as a villain but is shown to be a good guy, which takes a while. Its a lot more interesting than yakuza 3 with really boring "filler" bosses like Kanda and the chinese spear guy, with Mine kinda just showing up and has an arc in the last 5 mins at the end. Thats why Joji Kazama was cool in that game because he has a relation with Kiryu and shows up a couple times.
man, when kiryu screamed "KUZEEEE!" it makes me hyped and had chills at the same time. like that's how it still stays on my top 3 dynamic intro. (what makes kuze is amazing is the fact that his tattoo, enma in japanese mythology is known as a judge.)
lil nitpick with the video as a whole: there are times when it's difficult to hear your voice, because the music in the background is louder or your own voice is quieter other than that, 👌
My top 10: 10: Jo Sawashiro 9: Kazuki Soma 8: Mitsuru Kuroiwa 7: Yoshitaka Mine 6: Akira Nishikiyama 5: Daisaku Kuze 4: Keiji Shibusawa 3: Kosei Shishido 2: Takechi Hanpeita 1: Jin Kuwana Edit: Finished Like A Dragon Gaiden and made some changes. Edit 2: Finished Ishin and made another change.
Shishido imo clicked because like kiryu said he's the traditional yakuza type in a yakuza less businessmen more type of world he definitely reminded me of kuze
One thing to also mention about Kuwana as well and why he's number one is Lost Judgments peak combat and how well they show and transition Kuwana learning Yagamis moves through the three fights, showing his intelligence and power. First fight he makes use of Cranes speed and quicksteps and then copies Yagami's Sky Dancer and makes the move his own after seeing Yagami use it to dodge. Second fight, instead of Crane he literally copies snake style makes it his own and uses the broken parry move snake had against the player: genius And the Final fight, he uses his "Crane" in the first phase, second phase he uses his "Snake" and for the final phase when he goes heat mode, he fucking merges both styles together and becomes the most unpredictable and engaging final boss in the series, but also like how the player switches between the styles. It was after that fight that i realized that Kuwana wasn't just the peak Yakuza villain in terms of the story but also the perfect boss and final boss in the entire franchise, what a fantastic goddamn game. P.S he also was the only antagonist that didn't die :D
Fuckin' Beautiful, Thriller. It felt abit right to place Kuwana on first, since he was a well-thought out villain. He has the smarts, the brawns, just like Mine. After his work as a teacher, he changed into someone, like Nishiki. Someone who willingly get their hands dirty. Except that Nishiki was destined to be abit chaotic than Majima himself after his downfall. Everything else about this list is spot on, (Except Iwami. Fuck that guy. Like, he should've replaced someone like Awano. A man representing the easy life in a very dangerous environment for entertainment. A man who could've taken those fists to the top if he wasn't distracted too much of the easy life the 80's had to offer.) Still, I loved this video. You did a brilliant job doing this.
Bro that is a great analysis of my video. Even I hadnt thought if it that way tbqh haha And yeah I considered Awano, but he'd be in my top 25 or 20. Interesting character for sure tho and also Riki Takeuchi is an international treasure Thanks for being a bro and giving this video some love 🙏
@@TheThrillerJunkie Riki is such a fucking treasure. Especially that video you showed me, lmaooo. But, ay. I said I would always give you the love. You're a very chill person, and i'm really glad to have known ya. If yer make a top 25 or 20 video, or just even make a tierlist video or stream like before, I would love to see your opinion.
He may have been underutilized, but I’d say Kurosawa is pretty underrated, and should not be forgotten. He was basically a mix of pure evil and (like numerous of RGG’s tragic villains) a sympathetic and kinda tragic villain, even if his tragedies no longer hold up. He is also behind one of, if not the most machiavellian plot of the series. You could call him a Japanese equivalent of Walter White, who also suffered from terminal cancer, who tries to leave something behind for his family as a legacy, in Kurosawa’s case, his son Aizawa.
Nishiki feels like a very unfair villain to rank and consider. Nishiki's the only "villain" in the entire RGG franchise that has two games of character setup and because of Yakuza 0, Yakuza 1 just goes that much harder. But otherwise, this listing is solid enough and I wholeheartedly agree with Jun Kuwana for number one. The story of Lost Judgement is fucking crazy and Kuwana is an impeccable character.
My favourites are number 4, 3 and 2 ❤ I don't completely agree with number 1 but I feel I was suffering from burnout from Lost Judgement and certain bits of the plot knocked me quite a bit. That said I love all of your discussion points on each villian. This is such a beautiful, amazing video! Thank you so much! ❤
I feel like RGG made a very good decision around the time of Yakuza 4, where they realized that they couldn’t just keep making antagonists stronger and stronger because inevitably they would hit a ceiling where it was just ridiculous (well, more ridiculous than was acceptable.) So instead, they focused on making fights past Yakuza 3 more interesting than just making Kiryu square off with really powerful dudes. They took the core concepts of what it means to inherit a legacy and made Kiryu’s fight with Daigo a reflection of the resentment Daigo feels for Kiryu for up and abandoning him, or by turning the tables and making Kiryu the final boss of Yakuza 5 as his status is being challenged by Aizawa.
"I think most people would have been happy if Kiryu just killed Iwami" I mean, he would have if the cowardly piece of shit didn't have Sugai start trying to shoot Haruka and Haruto, the story at that point made it perfectly clear that Kiryu was out for blood in that final encounter
Regarding Nishiki not contacting Kiryu in prison...... The thing is many people were already after Kiryu's life since he was the supposed killer of Dojima. Maintaining contact with a patriarch killer would have immediately made Nishiki another target. It was for his own safety he couldn't approach Kiryu.
Great list, the only two characters I have a vastly different opinion on are Masato Arakawa and Kuwana. Masato Arakawa is - in my opinion - by far the most underrated Yakuza villain. He is incredibly nuanced, the game just doesn‘t spell it out for you. His entire motivation revolves around fragile/toxic masculinity, internalized ableism and their intersection. He feels a lot of shame for being disabled, which gets amplified by growing up in a social circle (the yakuza) that places great importance on being „manly“, „strong“ and „independant“, which he feels he cannot live up to due to his disability. He tries to compensate this insecurity with money and by putting other men around him down. Ichiban gets the worst of it because as Masato‘s primary caretaker, Masato is dependant on him, which Masato perceives as humiliating and emasculating. He hates that Ichiban holds any kind of power over him and constantly tries to verbally put himself above Ichi. The betrayal of his hostess „girlfriend“ hits him as hard as it does because not only does she basically just take advantage of his money (something that is not even his on achievement) but she also chooses another man over him which he once again sees as incredibly emasculating. This event is then immediately followed by having to crawl through the crowded streets when the drug stops working and having other people laugh at him. This kind of humiliation is essentially his worst nightmare due to his insecurity about his disability and his masculinity. He ends up shooting the yakuza guy because he desperately needs to feel like he holds power over someone. Every single one of his actions after this is done with the intention of establishing power over other men, especially those who he feels inferior to. That is why he is so paranoid and kills everyone around him who could pose a threat to him, even his own allies. He can‘t deal with the fact they theoretically hold power over him, even if they had no intention of using it against him. But I especially love this characterization because of how perfectly it not only contrasts, but also directly involves Ichiban (as someone Masato feels inferior to). Ichiban is a shining example of healthy masculinity. He doesn‘t care about if he‘s seen as weak or unmanly. He values the people around him; he is caring and not afraid of expressing his emotions. Over the course of the game you see Ichiban forming more and more connections and relationships with other people while Masato loses or actively destroyes his own. Masato is so absorbed in his own self-hatred that he can‘t see the people who genuinely care for him because he sees himself as fundamentally unlovable. This is why the final scene of the game hits so hard. Ichiban finally getting through to Masato and making him understand that there are people out there who genuinely love him makes me cry every single time I watch the scene. To be fair, a good portion of why I enjoy Masato as much as I do is because of my own life experiences as a disabled person, but I still feel like a lot of people reduce him to „haha bro got so mad his girl got stolen that he entered his villain arc“. My opinion on Kuwana is a little more complicated because I don‘t really disagree with his placement on this list, both Masato and Kuwana are in my top 5, maybe even top 3 yakuza villains. But I think his ideology is extremely flawed and self-serving. He justifies his murders with wanting to atone for his past mistake. That past mistake being not realizing the severity of the bullying quickly enough and thus not being able to prevent his student‘s suicide. So you‘d think that the best way to atone would be to prevent this from happening to other victims of bullying, right? In fact, Kuwana even says at one point that he wants to prevent more suicides from happening. Then why is he only going after bullies whose victims have already (often successfully) attempted suicide? Why is he only dealing with cases where he literally can‘t save anyone anymore? How is him going around and killing bullies years after their victim‘s death helping anyone except for appeasing his own guilty conscience? You can‘t even argue that he‘s preventing people from bullying others by making them scared of being targeted and killed by him because he murders in such a secretive and effective way that not even the police could link them together or even find out about most of them. The only way punishment works as a preventative measure is when people know of said punishment. Now, I‘m not saying that this makes Kuwana a bad character, it actually makes him even better in my mind, I am just frustrated at the game for not utilizing this flaw in his logic to give Yagami an actual opposing perspective, especially because there‘s already the perfect set up for Yagami to have said opposing ideology. Yagami actually helps a victim of bullying before anything serious happens and even manages to not only make the bullies realize their guilt, but said (former) bulllies in turn also help another person whose getting bullied at the end of game. But instead of using this perfect foundation to have an actual, interesting clash of ideology, RGG instead chose to make a female character whose sole purpose is getting killed off to give Yagami an argument against Kuwana, which is incredibly lazy writing. A villain with a strong ideology needs a protagonist with an equally strong, opposing ideology. You could still agree with Kuwana, but it would be your own choice as the player, not the game telling you you‘re supposed to. So basically, Kuwana is an incredibly well-written villain who is unfortunately kinda wasted due to a lack of actual conflict.
when i first saw this, i was kinda salty that Nishiki wasn't #1. then I played Lost Judgment and now i'm able to understand your choices for #1 and #2 Kuwana was a great villain and Lost Judgment as a whole was a beautiful game. i still personally place Nishiki above Kuwana, but to each their own. no wonder it was a hard choice. great vid, kyodai
I really wish they brought back Old Man Kuze sometime, at least for a cameo. He's probably 90 or so by now but I bet he'd still be awesome. In Kuroiwa's case, I guessed he was the Mole pretty early simply because I knew his actor from several historical dramas (he dies about as often as Sean Bean). He's too big a name to be just a minor nuisance for the hero so he had to be a major boss. Tbh it would be fun to compare the various historical roles of various Yakuza voice actors. The amount of them who, for example, played Nobunaga is ridiculously high. Also: Mine, Kuroiwa, Kuwana and Haruka's boyfriend are all Shinsengumi taiga alumni. Kuwana also has the benefit of an amazing actor. I have first seen him in Sanada Maru where he pretty much steals the show. While there have been sympathetic portrayals of Ishida Mitsunari before, he really nailed the character and gave him a lot of depth and complexity. Give this man a lead role in a taiga drama asap.
Amazing video, Aizawa slander aside😡, I was never the biggest fan of Sadamoto though, and would easily put Sagawa alongside the others here Other than that, all cool stuff!
Aizawa's crap. He barely gets any screentime [as a villain]. As a charcter, he gets shunted to the wayside. I would prefer him having far more time before ever considering him a good villain, let alone a top villain.
@OneManCast Facts. Aizawa Has an awesome boss fight, and his theme is so so so SO fucking awesome, but as a character he fucking sucks. He literally comes out of no where with NO foreshadowing of becoming the main villain. We saw him only a few times in Yakuza 5 prior to him becoming the final boss and never ONCE were we given any clues he would be.
Its always will be nishiki for me. Tje poetic story of his, the fact that he ALWAYS was second, always was the worse one. Even with his rival in joint. His qoute in the end of zero finishes it for me. He crossed the line himself, but he left kiryu behind this iron curtain.
RGG is one of a few studios that get better and better with each entry . It's honestly a breath of fresh air as most AAA studios have already hit their peak years ago and are making dissapointing sequels and soulless games (besides Rockstar and Fromsoft to name a few) whereas RGG with their lower budgets make banger after banger and makes improvements even if incremental for every entry . As much as I would love a Kiwami 3 RGG should make multiple spinoff series like Judgement so neither will the dev's not get tired of working on the same franchise nor will the players get bored playing the same protagonist and it'll bring avenues for different story types .
I'm actually going to make a brief video discussing this, but future tl;dw: . . . 4 or maybe even 3 (still deliberating but leaning towards 3 I mean he was just so fuckin cool)
Finally, someone who also felt let down by Ryuji, after so much hype by other who played Y2 or YK2 Also yes, we need someone like Kuwana to do Junko Furuta some justice.
I liked the villain (the game came out 3 weeks ago, I won't say who) in ishin, since he had good goals but was never really a bad person even if he was literally a serial killer. Also the final showdown was amazing, assassination of bodhisattva is the goated RGG final boss track.
Ryuji Goda's motivation doesn't just come from there can only be one dragon. He wants to impress his father figure by surpassing him, he holds the belief that ultimate power should be held by those with the strength fit to wield it. He has some of the best presence of power in the series.
Respectable list, I like that you included Shono, Iwami & Masato Only have to disagree with Kuroiwa but that's just my own hot take, Kuroiwa is heavily carried by gameplay & the story structure - as a character himself he was rather lackluster to the levels of Aizawa
I like both Ryuji and Masato but i kinda agree with you. Ryuji is rather dumb for a villain while Masato is probably the weakest strengthwise out of all Yakuza’s villains.
kinda suprised when you put Nishiki as no 2 (you intended a pun too!) but, this is RGG franchise, not Ryu Ga Gotoku franchise and yes, i agree with you wholeheartedly for no 1-2-3
From what i remember it was actually said that the roulette thing in kurohyou 2 was just an act. (I forgot the word i am not a native english speaker, i apologise)
Aaah yes I like this. We can bond over our mutual hatred of how unbelievably trash Aizawa was as a villain and how Kuwana is no question the single best RGG villain ever made.
For the mobile kyoudais
0:00 Intro
1:05 Number 15
1:34 Number 14
2:24 Number 13
3:28 Number 12
4:27 Number 11
6:31 Number 10
8:03 Number 9
9:11 Number 8
11:23 Number 7
12:40 Number 6
15:52 Number 5
18:11 Number 4
20:02 NUMBER 3
23:06 NUMBER 2
26:42 NUMBER 1
Nishiki almost made his to the top like he wanted here
Thank you for the timestamps kyodai
Nishiki being number 2 here is kinda morbidly poetic.
Imagine what happened if he was a number 10
Seem's like that is allways the destiny of our koi boy
lmao
"You'll never be a good villain compared to KIRYU"
@@sergeanselmo8286 10 years in the joint..... I can't get that out of my head. 😂
As a dude who was once bullied, I have to say Kuwana is not just peak RGG villain, he is peak gaming villain.
He is on par with Takuto Maruki
Props to him not dying after redemption
@@KOINOYOKUSHIRYOKU oh fancy hearing maruki here
@@angelusvastator1297he didn’t redeem himself lol. He was just allowed to live
@@speeddemonji9547he did report all the stuff he done, even though as an anonymous
The only reason they killed off Mine is because they knew all the other games wouldn't have happened if he was there to help Daigo and the Tojo.
he's alive now lmao
HOW???@@estrelaxddd
Ishin! @@xillerrz7328
@@estrelaxdddcause of ishin
Ryuji Goda was the one that that absorbed the most energy of the rooms he walked into, imo. He was a monster and his voice was powerful. Just something about him that makes him the most fearful of the group. Maybe not the best overall, but most intimidating.
@Garland I would argue it only makes it more impressive that after that scene he still feels threatening. A lesser villain would have been killed by that loss, but he still holds his mystique
Another frightening demeanor was Mine ngl. In both financial success and actual physical strength. Without the black monday’s interference I seriously believe Mine would become a Tojo clan chairman since both Kiryu and Daigo were fond of him in the end
@Garland846 but as kiryu Said Ryuji had just fought Daigo.
@@albinwallen634yea and kiryu fought over 40 dudes. Some of em even with weapons. Daigo used to be a rich punk back then.
@@Johnny2gyro Then Kiryu fought him on top of Kamurocho Hill after fighting his way up to Ryuji, then Ryuji fight Kiryu with a god damn katana, defeated anyway lmao
1: Goromi
2: Lord of the Knight
3: Officer Majima
4: Everyone's Idol Goro
5: Hannya Man
6: Goro Majima
7: Nishitani
8: 10 years in the joint
9: Akira Nishikiyama
10: Yakuze
11: Daisaku Kuze
12: John Yakuza
13: Sagawa
14: Shimano
15: The flying wig from judgement
The flying wig from judgement
John balls out
perfect ranking
What about Sawa-sensei?
Gotta say, when I saw Masato Arakawa gearing to fight Ichiban one-on-one, I sighed and saw it coming. He was going to get his shit handed out to him.
BUT, and that's the beauty of RGG's villains. I cried when he died. You wanna know how many times I cried when a villain died, in ANY form of medias? Twice. And the second time? That was Nishiki (granted, I had played Y0 juste before K1, so I had emotional bagage with the guy).
And even without crying, Mine dying made me feel empty. Ryuji Goda defeated made me feel pumped like hell. These villains made me feel something. That's a talent that is very, very rare.
ichiban's expression when he realized masato was stabbed and desperate to find help man. it hits harder than kiryu crying in gaiden
@@Hymn_that one part of the qte where Masato punches Ichiban yelling " F#@k you!" And Ichiban just takes it with a somber expression on his face hits so hard. He doesn't want to fight at all
While I can't agree with Kuwana's killings, i do agree with his tormenting and blackmailing of Mitsuru's bullies. As someone who was bullied all through my school life, it proper gave me that morbidly satisfied "see how you fucking like it" feeling.
Kuwana definitely earned his spot as RGG's best villain hands down.
might I add, the one thing that I love is the fact that he waited for the bullies to actually have families and proper lives, just to take it hostage by blackmailing them using the bullying video. I'm just amazed by the sheer dedication and patience Kuwana has.
Someya in 6 is one of my favs, generational theme of him coming from the modern day yet can still hang with veterans like kiryu & hold his own, has hate towards him but secretly respects & learns from him
I actually love Ryuji specifically for his motivation. I grew up on dbz and other shonen's so just having two big buff dudes just fighting to be the last one standing, the one claiming the title of dragon is just wonderful to me. He's not after money, power, or anything like that. He just wants a good fight and to see who is really deserving of the dragon title.
but the best dbz or dbs villains like frieza cell or zamasu weren't really like ryuji
@@illusma7822 I’m talking more so Piccolo Jr. and Vegeta.
The fight reminded me so damn much more of Kenshiro Vs Raoh tbh
I love absolutely love that my favorite antagonist of the series gets a massively bad ass intro in the list !!
Kuze!!!
I feel like Iwami should be given more credit as a villain, I know people don't like him cause he isn't le honor bounded villain and his boss fight is weak. But MAN does he really fit well as the final boss of the Kiryu saga. It fits so well that everything came in full circle, there are only two bosses in the franchise that drove Kiryu to bloodlust, first being Shibusawa, the other being Iwami. But Iwami was SO much more personal, especially considering we grew with Kiryu and saw him raise Haruka into the woman she is today and to see the one thing that kept Kiryu going on being threatened by such a scummy excuse for a Yakuza, It is infinitely more impactful than Shibusawa ever will be IMO. Not to mention I believe that Iwami is suppose to embody the absolute worst aspects of modern day Yakuza: no honor, no guts, just using cheap tactics and using others for stepping stones for one's own success. Iwami is the perfect antithesis for Kiryu as a whole, I do think he is one of the best villains in the franchise for the mere fact that even thinking about him makes my blood boil with pure hatred. Fuck Iwami.
31:00
I absolutely appreciate the fact that you are the only one (as far as I know) who brought up the infamous Concrete Girl case.
I've always had a sneaking suspicion that RGG Studio had this case in the back of their minds when they created a story with the bullying epidemic and the leniency of the court verdict against juvenile offenders in Japan as its central theme.
The Junko Case was heartbreaking and is a perfect fit for a Judgement game
Playing on Hard, Kuroiwa scared the crap outta me when he gets his second health bar. Having very limited heals left did not help either
Now imagine soma with his mortal wounds
Kuroiwa is not that hard you just have to keep your distance and use your environment accordingly. As for Soma... well there's extracts haha it basically becomes a piece of cake. But true if you fight him "for real", I agree Soma would be a nightmare.
Hamura is iconic. Imo Miou Tanaka's likeness works so much better for what kind of characters Hamura is. Compare the judgment intros and look at how different he looks. Pierre taki's looks super cartoony and Tanaka's looks incredibly sinister. Easy top 3 for me.
Man, the presentations for Daisaku Kuze and Jin Kuwana were simply perfect. You illustrated perfectly my feel for them. Very accurate list.
So, what are your runner ups? Say 16 - 20? Awano? Joon-Gi Han? Someya? Arai? Sugiuchi? Kugihara? Kenmochi? Sagawa? It seems that, despite the convoluted plot, none of the villains are actually this badass.
Yeah so I recently updated my video description, and your suggestions are quite close.
16 would be Sagawa. He's a great villain but I feel people overrate him a bit and base their opinions off of some video essay they saw on UA-cam. He was essential to Majima's story, but in the grander scheme of things, he was just another yakuza doing his job.
17 is Ehara. As mentioned in the video, he plays a very important role and, just like Kuwana, his story makes one reflect on what justice should be.
18 is Awano. His character is interesting and he essentially had the makings of the strongest Yakuza villain, but him giving into his vices ultimately proved to be his own undoing. Quite the unique villain.
19 is Kenmochi. He is very much an unintentional villain.
20 would either be Joon-gi Han or Someya or Shimano. Interesting characters and roles (Someya is one of my favorite characters) but ultimately overshadowed by other villains' schemes.
I like the Sugiuchi suggestion. He is quite underrated as a villain, as they gave his character much depth. He'd be #21.
Also, thanks so much for giving the video and channel love! I'm very happy you are satisfied with the list.
(EDIT: Added some details.)
@@TheThrillerJunkie Yakuza 4, compared with the newest villains, didn't have as many memorable villains, but Sugiuchi I think was more outstanding than Arai, Katsuragi or even Shibata (commissioner Munakata was slime in all ways possible). You can see even in the way he taunts Sudo even after he got caught. He was fearless and the only thing that mattered to him was the loyalty to Katsuragi (reminds me a bit of the hell of living undercover like in the movie Infernal Affairs/The Departed) and how he was already confused and guilty wishing he could be a real cop. The most interesting chracters from all the villains IMHO (although Arai falls shorter in that as well as the cop going Yakuza, even to the point that Akiyama saw him as the next chairman of the Tojo Kai).
Ehara is amazing as well... very well designed character, driven by rage and total revenge. Love how defiant he was even willing to sacrifice his freedom for what he believes is true justice (yet distorted by vigilantism).
Kenmochi is without a question, a poor tortured soul that was horribly manipulated by Sadamoto. He had so many demons inside that Sadamoto used them as the strings... in the end he just draged him to hell with him.
As for Someya and Joon Gi Han... both are exceptionally well designed characters. Perhaps since their role was more as sub-bosses perhaps couldn't shine up to the top 15, but sure they're excellent designed characters... I mean, RGG HAD to return Joon Gi Han one way or another (you should have seen my face when I saw him back in YLAD, I was like how the fawk he survived a head shot!?).
Shimano is a classic villain as well. You'd think he's another brute but when you realize that the whole Majima ordeal from the hole into the assassination order of Makoto was a carefully plan to get a hold on the empty lot, you see why he's the leader of his family by being as scheming than any other criminal mastermind.
Keep up with the great content.
Kuwana is special , not only because is one of antagonist w the best story behind.. is because Kuwana can be a HERO.. if u see in other side.. his justice it's literaly what's all parents, brothers or ex bullying victim, really thinking about that peapole.. just like Ehara.
Kuwana is the main reason why Lost Judgment is my favorite game of the entire Yakuza universe, he was a perfect antagonist and goddamn the final battle with this masterpiece of an OST was amazing.
i like soma more, but damn kuwana is such a deep character
Dude, that Kuze edit was actually fire. Rad vid kyoudai
I just finished Lost Judgment, and the Kaito Files, and man am I sad that this series won't probably see a third release. There is so much depth, in these characters and stories.
I didn't think it would be possible to fall in love with a game series, but Yakuza and Judgment did this to me. These characters, these stories are etched in my soul.
Yeah, the meaning of Jin Kuwana is deep but also clear at the same time. He's a portrait of justice, but the problem is, he's also a murderer. He is the portrait of the most primitive and the wildest justice you can think about, to die is the only way he think to teach people about the " justice " and fairness . He's executing the " justice " in a darker way, or like that. You can't judge Kuwana which side he's on.
That's why the game is called " Lost Judgment "
@@JarendFromVietNamReminds me of what mob justice is
@@moister3727 I still choose Yagami's justice. Because what Yagami did improving our society - it is to reform people's aware of the importance of protecting the bullied. Only after people reform the awareness, they will start to act different, that is when they will try to protect the bullied - and to prevent them from attempting suicided. Law is only a tool to help people judging the consequences - it can't fix what already happened, but when the bullied never try to suicide - or more likely, people help them to not attempting suicide, things will be different. Human aspect is the most important aspect in a society, you have to teach your children about right things, not to " teach " the law about rights.
@@JarendFromVietNam kuwana is an anti hero, but what put a stain on him is causing innocent ppl like sawa sensei to be killed. that's why yagami always brings her death everytime he tried to convince or arguing against kuwana
@@Hymn_ Hey, thanks for replying my comment even a year later!
It is a bit exaggerated when you know Kuwana is a serial killer with systematic plan to "execute the bullies" as Kuwana said, but it is not very possible to happen in real life. Talk about the law, it is really hard and vague to make punishment for bullying crime. The first thing is, everybody clearly knows that a bullying is constantly happening, but when the jury need witnesses, almost no one dares to say the truth at court. Second thing, when did the victim so desperated that they choose to take their own life? We all know that continuously being bullied is only the ultimate reason results in the despair and hopeless situation of the victim, yet, in the court, that kind of action usually be listed as "not too hard" since the prosecutor can't show the level of bullying action, as well as the lack of evidence and witnesses, they usually can't confirm a simple fact that bully is exactly the one who make the victim to committed suicide.
As if there were evidences and witnesses you would say! Even Kuwana then didn't dare to show the video, how could other? It is the problem, people couldn't dare to stand up and protect the victim, most importantly to protect the bullied and preclude the suicide can't happen. It is what Yagami want people to do, to stand up and protect weaker people. Yet there are still teachers, many, many of them are shamelessly ignoring the impact that can make their student perish, while some simply have no clue what is happening.
If the law is too high for a justice, then it should be at school. To prevent, and to protect, they are 2 main aspect to save a desperated bullied. Lost Judgement emphasises this point many times throughout the game, from the group of in class choose to stand up for Koda, to Koda herself, with people all around standing up when a bully is happen. It is very humane to educate society.
Excellent list!!
The series has so many great villains that it’s impossible to put them all in a top 15 list
Villains like Someya, Awano, Kenmochi and Sagawa were brilliant
I fucking love Kuwana. I'll never stop loving him, ever.
Wish we could see more of him, but as it stands. I'm glad he exists to elevate the bar for villains in the saga.
Good video !
It's amazing how RGG studio almost always nail the villains in the franchise
Having done every localized games, I'm very confident that future antagonists will be as good, if not even better !
I personally put Kuze and Sawashiro on same spot because not only they were strict, tough, and persistent, they actually were not evil. They just wanted to teach our protagonists about valuable lessons to survive in criminal life with tough love.
For Nishiki, no matter how much he treated his circumstances like a pussy, we must admit that he was a successful man with people that willingly to swore an oath to serve him. The reason why he was defeated by Kiryu is Kiryu's plot armor and main protagonist perks, which actually being used to cover Kiryu's fatal flaw.
Lastly, for Kuwana, I couldn't agree more. He is the best "antagonist" RGG Studio ever made. He is smart, strong, brave to dirty his own hands, have an ultimate goal that the protagonist couldn't properly argue, and have integrity to defend his vision of justice no matter how dire the condition and the consequence would be.
I agree that Kuwana is one of RGG‘s best villains, but Yagami not being able to argue against Kuwana‘s ideology is mostly due to lazy writing imho. There‘s actually a lot of flaws in Kuwana‘s ideology, for example the fact that he claims to want to prevent more students from attempting suicide, yet he only deals with cases where the victims have already died or at least attempted suicide. He also kills so secretively that nobody knows there‘s someone out there killing bullies, so he doesn‘t prevent bullying that way either. Kuwana only goes around punishing bullies after the fact to appease his own guilty conscience, but he‘s not actually helping anyone. Yagami on the other hand actually helps a girl who‘s getting bullied and makes the bullies realize the consequences of their actions. The fact that the perfect foundation for an opposing ideology already exists in the game and yet RGG instead chose to make a female character whose sole purpose is to get killed off to give Yagami a reason to oppose Kuwana is incredibly lazy writing.
@@gurkensohn7807 he prevents it by killing the bullies so they dont bully other people.
That was well worth the wait, and the Kuze intro was so cool!!!
just finished Lost Judgment and seen this video. Peak RGG game no doubt.
truly. great combat, funny side quests, fun minigames, amazing story, and well written characters (also ado voicing the op of lost judgement)
I quite like the more straight-faced villains more than the scheming ones. For example Ryuji is more involved from beginning to end, seeing more of his characer, with the plot twist only improving him. Kinda same with Watase who is first framed as a villain but is shown to be a good guy, which takes a while. Its a lot more interesting than yakuza 3 with really boring "filler" bosses like Kanda and the chinese spear guy, with Mine kinda just showing up and has an arc in the last 5 mins at the end. Thats why Joji Kazama was cool in that game because he has a relation with Kiryu and shows up a couple times.
man, when kiryu screamed "KUZEEEE!" it makes me hyped and had chills at the same time. like that's how it still stays on my top 3 dynamic intro. (what makes kuze is amazing is the fact that his tattoo, enma in japanese mythology is known as a judge.)
lil nitpick with the video as a whole:
there are times when it's difficult to hear your voice, because the music in the background is louder or your own voice is quieter
other than that, 👌
Oooooh man clean intros for each character dude
My top 10:
10: Jo Sawashiro
9: Kazuki Soma
8: Mitsuru Kuroiwa
7: Yoshitaka Mine
6: Akira Nishikiyama
5: Daisaku Kuze
4: Keiji Shibusawa
3: Kosei Shishido
2: Takechi Hanpeita
1: Jin Kuwana
Edit: Finished Like A Dragon Gaiden and made some changes.
Edit 2: Finished Ishin and made another change.
Big agree on Shishido, he was a fucking animal.
Shishido imo clicked because like kiryu said he's the traditional yakuza type in a yakuza less businessmen more type of world he definitely reminded me of kuze
One thing to also mention about Kuwana as well and why he's number one is Lost Judgments peak combat and how well they show and transition Kuwana learning Yagamis moves through the three fights, showing his intelligence and power.
First fight he makes use of Cranes speed and quicksteps and then copies Yagami's Sky Dancer and makes the move his own after seeing Yagami use it to dodge.
Second fight, instead of Crane he literally copies snake style makes it his own and uses the broken parry move snake had against the player: genius
And the Final fight, he uses his "Crane" in the first phase, second phase he uses his "Snake" and for the final phase when he goes heat mode, he fucking merges both styles together and becomes the most unpredictable and engaging final boss in the series, but also like how the player switches between the styles.
It was after that fight that i realized that Kuwana wasn't just the peak Yakuza villain in terms of the story but also the perfect boss and final boss in the entire franchise, what a fantastic goddamn game.
P.S he also was the only antagonist that didn't die :D
Fuckin' Beautiful, Thriller. It felt abit right to place Kuwana on first, since he was a well-thought out villain. He has the smarts, the brawns, just like Mine. After his work as a teacher, he changed into someone, like Nishiki. Someone who willingly get their hands dirty. Except that Nishiki was destined to be abit chaotic than Majima himself after his downfall. Everything else about this list is spot on, (Except Iwami. Fuck that guy. Like, he should've replaced someone like Awano. A man representing the easy life in a very dangerous environment for entertainment. A man who could've taken those fists to the top if he wasn't distracted too much of the easy life the 80's had to offer.)
Still, I loved this video. You did a brilliant job doing this.
Bro that is a great analysis of my video. Even I hadnt thought if it that way tbqh haha
And yeah I considered Awano, but he'd be in my top 25 or 20. Interesting character for sure tho and also Riki Takeuchi is an international treasure
Thanks for being a bro and giving this video some love 🙏
@@TheThrillerJunkie Riki is such a fucking treasure. Especially that video you showed me, lmaooo.
But, ay. I said I would always give you the love. You're a very chill person, and i'm really glad to have known ya.
If yer make a top 25 or 20 video, or just even make a tierlist video or stream like before, I would love to see your opinion.
The kuwana presentation was perfect
Definitely agree with Kuwana being the number one pick. This video's very well put together. Great work, man!
He may have been underutilized, but I’d say Kurosawa is pretty underrated, and should not be forgotten.
He was basically a mix of pure evil and (like numerous of RGG’s tragic villains) a sympathetic and kinda tragic villain, even if his tragedies no longer hold up. He is also behind one of, if not the most machiavellian plot of the series.
You could call him a Japanese equivalent of Walter White, who also suffered from terminal cancer, who tries to leave something behind for his family as a legacy, in Kurosawa’s case, his son Aizawa.
He is. His actions turned the story into a murder mystery horror for a brief while.
Another banger kyodai.
goat for including ryo, i literally just finished kurohyou 2 the other day and loved him, great video too
Nishiki feels like a very unfair villain to rank and consider. Nishiki's the only "villain" in the entire RGG franchise that has two games of character setup and because of Yakuza 0, Yakuza 1 just goes that much harder. But otherwise, this listing is solid enough and I wholeheartedly agree with Jun Kuwana for number one. The story of Lost Judgement is fucking crazy and Kuwana is an impeccable character.
9:16 Respect for playing "Warrior From An Unknown Land"
My favourites are number 4, 3 and 2 ❤ I don't completely agree with number 1 but I feel I was suffering from burnout from Lost Judgement and certain bits of the plot knocked me quite a bit. That said I love all of your discussion points on each villian. This is such a beautiful, amazing video! Thank you so much! ❤
I feel like RGG made a very good decision around the time of Yakuza 4, where they realized that they couldn’t just keep making antagonists stronger and stronger because inevitably they would hit a ceiling where it was just ridiculous (well, more ridiculous than was acceptable.)
So instead, they focused on making fights past Yakuza 3 more interesting than just making Kiryu square off with really powerful dudes. They took the core concepts of what it means to inherit a legacy and made Kiryu’s fight with Daigo a reflection of the resentment Daigo feels for Kiryu for up and abandoning him, or by turning the tables and making Kiryu the final boss of Yakuza 5 as his status is being challenged by Aizawa.
Amazing edits! Although i missed Sagawa in the list
thank you for not putting ryuji so high i never understood how so many people liked him as a villain
"I think most people would have been happy if Kiryu just killed Iwami"
I mean, he would have if the cowardly piece of shit didn't have Sugai start trying to shoot Haruka and Haruto, the story at that point made it perfectly clear that Kiryu was out for blood in that final encounter
Kuwana is one of the most well written and utilized antagonists in fiction.
Sadamoto was something else sheesh
Regarding Nishiki not contacting Kiryu in prison...... The thing is many people were already after Kiryu's life since he was the supposed killer of Dojima.
Maintaining contact with a patriarch killer would have immediately made Nishiki another target. It was for his own safety he couldn't approach Kiryu.
Damn I have to give props to your editing!
Hyuga Sho (Kurohyou) is probably the most underrated villain in the series, especially for his banger soundtrack
Except he's not really a villain, just an opponent.
Me when kuroiwa full heals just to get flux fissured
Definitely agree with Kuwana being the best villain in the entire franchise!
Thank you for this! Very well thought out. 🐉
THIE EN+DITING ON THE VIDEOE IS AMZINGNG
Somehow, kuze’s theme is still giving me goosebumps
Great list, the only two characters I have a vastly different opinion on are Masato Arakawa and Kuwana.
Masato Arakawa is - in my opinion - by far the most underrated Yakuza villain. He is incredibly nuanced, the game just doesn‘t spell it out for you. His entire motivation revolves around fragile/toxic masculinity, internalized ableism and their intersection. He feels a lot of shame for being disabled, which gets amplified by growing up in a social circle (the yakuza) that places great importance on being „manly“, „strong“ and „independant“, which he feels he cannot live up to due to his disability. He tries to compensate this insecurity with money and by putting other men around him down. Ichiban gets the worst of it because as Masato‘s primary caretaker, Masato is dependant on him, which Masato perceives as humiliating and emasculating. He hates that Ichiban holds any kind of power over him and constantly tries to verbally put himself above Ichi. The betrayal of his hostess „girlfriend“ hits him as hard as it does because not only does she basically just take advantage of his money (something that is not even his on achievement) but she also chooses another man over him which he once again sees as incredibly emasculating. This event is then immediately followed by having to crawl through the crowded streets when the drug stops working and having other people laugh at him. This kind of humiliation is essentially his worst nightmare due to his insecurity about his disability and his masculinity. He ends up shooting the yakuza guy because he desperately needs to feel like he holds power over someone. Every single one of his actions after this is done with the intention of establishing power over other men, especially those who he feels inferior to. That is why he is so paranoid and kills everyone around him who could pose a threat to him, even his own allies. He can‘t deal with the fact they theoretically hold power over him, even if they had no intention of using it against him.
But I especially love this characterization because of how perfectly it not only contrasts, but also directly involves Ichiban (as someone Masato feels inferior to). Ichiban is a shining example of healthy masculinity. He doesn‘t care about if he‘s seen as weak or unmanly. He values the people around him; he is caring and not afraid of expressing his emotions. Over the course of the game you see Ichiban forming more and more connections and relationships with other people while Masato loses or actively destroyes his own. Masato is so absorbed in his own self-hatred that he can‘t see the people who genuinely care for him because he sees himself as fundamentally unlovable. This is why the final scene of the game hits so hard. Ichiban finally getting through to Masato and making him understand that there are people out there who genuinely love him makes me cry every single time I watch the scene.
To be fair, a good portion of why I enjoy Masato as much as I do is because of my own life experiences as a disabled person, but I still feel like a lot of people reduce him to „haha bro got so mad his girl got stolen that he entered his villain arc“.
My opinion on Kuwana is a little more complicated because I don‘t really disagree with his placement on this list, both Masato and Kuwana are in my top 5, maybe even top 3 yakuza villains. But I think his ideology is extremely flawed and self-serving. He justifies his murders with wanting to atone for his past mistake. That past mistake being not realizing the severity of the bullying quickly enough and thus not being able to prevent his student‘s suicide. So you‘d think that the best way to atone would be to prevent this from happening to other victims of bullying, right? In fact, Kuwana even says at one point that he wants to prevent more suicides from happening. Then why is he only going after bullies whose victims have already (often successfully) attempted suicide? Why is he only dealing with cases where he literally can‘t save anyone anymore? How is him going around and killing bullies years after their victim‘s death helping anyone except for appeasing his own guilty conscience? You can‘t even argue that he‘s preventing people from bullying others by making them scared of being targeted and killed by him because he murders in such a secretive and effective way that not even the police could link them together or even find out about most of them. The only way punishment works as a preventative measure is when people know of said punishment. Now, I‘m not saying that this makes Kuwana a bad character, it actually makes him even better in my mind, I am just frustrated at the game for not utilizing this flaw in his logic to give Yagami an actual opposing perspective, especially because there‘s already the perfect set up for Yagami to have said opposing ideology. Yagami actually helps a victim of bullying before anything serious happens and even manages to not only make the bullies realize their guilt, but said (former) bulllies in turn also help another person whose getting bullied at the end of game. But instead of using this perfect foundation to have an actual, interesting clash of ideology, RGG instead chose to make a female character whose sole purpose is getting killed off to give Yagami an argument against Kuwana, which is incredibly lazy writing. A villain with a strong ideology needs a protagonist with an equally strong, opposing ideology. You could still agree with Kuwana, but it would be your own choice as the player, not the game telling you you‘re supposed to. So basically, Kuwana is an incredibly well-written villain who is unfortunately kinda wasted due to a lack of actual conflict.
it's crazy yoshitaka mine died just to be forgotten later in the series
Hijikata Toshizo...
He may not be the best villain, but he is certainly one of my favorites: Kuroiwa. One of the only villains who legitimately scared me.
when i first saw this, i was kinda salty that Nishiki wasn't #1. then I played Lost Judgment and now i'm able to understand your choices for #1 and #2
Kuwana was a great villain and Lost Judgment as a whole was a beautiful game. i still personally place Nishiki above Kuwana, but to each their own. no wonder it was a hard choice. great vid, kyodai
Would love more vids like this. Great editing too!
I really wish they brought back Old Man Kuze sometime, at least for a cameo. He's probably 90 or so by now but I bet he'd still be awesome.
In Kuroiwa's case, I guessed he was the Mole pretty early simply because I knew his actor from several historical dramas (he dies about as often as Sean Bean). He's too big a name to be just a minor nuisance for the hero so he had to be a major boss.
Tbh it would be fun to compare the various historical roles of various Yakuza voice actors. The amount of them who, for example, played Nobunaga is ridiculously high. Also: Mine, Kuroiwa, Kuwana and Haruka's boyfriend are all Shinsengumi taiga alumni.
Kuwana also has the benefit of an amazing actor. I have first seen him in Sanada Maru where he pretty much steals the show. While there have been sympathetic portrayals of Ishida Mitsunari before, he really nailed the character and gave him a lot of depth and complexity. Give this man a lead role in a taiga drama asap.
if im not number 1 i swear to god
Amazing video, Aizawa slander aside😡, I was never the biggest fan of Sadamoto though, and would easily put Sagawa alongside the others here
Other than that, all cool stuff!
Aizawa's crap. He barely gets any screentime [as a villain]. As a charcter, he gets shunted to the wayside. I would prefer him having far more time before ever considering him a good villain, let alone a top villain.
@OneManCast Facts. Aizawa Has an awesome boss fight, and his theme is so so so SO fucking awesome, but as a character he fucking sucks. He literally comes out of no where with NO foreshadowing of becoming the main villain. We saw him only a few times in Yakuza 5 prior to him becoming the final boss and never ONCE were we given any clues he would be.
Great video, great arguments and also nice editing
Mad respec for the song you used in 9:38 (from Dragon ball infinite worlds if I remember)
Yeah it pops up in a few DBZ games. I remember it from DBZ Budokai.
I'm gonna tell my kids this is THE definitive RGG Villians ranking list.
Its always will be nishiki for me. Tje poetic story of his, the fact that he ALWAYS was second, always was the worse one. Even with his rival in joint. His qoute in the end of zero finishes it for me. He crossed the line himself, but he left kiryu behind this iron curtain.
RGG is one of a few studios that get better and better with each entry . It's honestly a breath of fresh air as most AAA studios have already hit their peak years ago and are making dissapointing sequels and soulless games (besides Rockstar and Fromsoft to name a few) whereas RGG with their lower budgets make banger after banger and makes improvements even if incremental for every entry . As much as I would love a Kiwami 3 RGG should make multiple spinoff series like Judgement so neither will the dev's not get tired of working on the same franchise nor will the players get bored playing the same protagonist and it'll bring avenues for different story types .
23:14 10 years in the joint man jumpscare
Kuze is number 5 on the list,
He has 5 rounds,
His theme Pledge of Demon plays 5 times (if you include LAD: Ishin)
Coincidence? I think NAT!!!
Amazing video!
Curious to know where you’d put Shishido if you made this today?
I'm actually going to make a brief video discussing this, but future tl;dw:
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4 or maybe even 3 (still deliberating but leaning towards 3 I mean he was just so fuckin cool)
Finally, someone who also felt let down by Ryuji, after so much hype by other who played Y2 or YK2
Also yes, we need someone like Kuwana to do Junko Furuta some justice.
I sure do hope the antagonist(s) in yakuza 8 make the grade
Definitely would’ve put Someya here but besides that, excellent list
tomizawaaaaaa put me on the updated list tomizawaaaaaaaa
I actually thought Takumi Someya would make this list although it could be argued he’s not a villain
I liked the villain (the game came out 3 weeks ago, I won't say who) in ishin, since he had good goals but was never really a bad person even if he was literally a serial killer. Also the final showdown was amazing, assassination of bodhisattva is the goated RGG final boss track.
The game came out nine years ago 💀💀💀
@Богдан Крименюк 🇺🇦 yeah but only like 5 people beat it in Japanese
It’s funny how Someya (well I think) is a better villain than Baby Face Iwami.
Love this list. I agree with a lot of these
As always, Fishikiyama comes second
Who's fishikiyam You mean the ten years in the joint guy?
@@bingusgaming3635 It's the bring that shit guy
@@fuyuki_alt nah it's the someone's prison bitch guy
A new one may have landed himself in at LEAST top 5.
I agree. I'd rank him as #4 or even #3! Kinda leaning towards #3 cause, I mean, he was just so goddamn cool!
Ryuji Goda's motivation doesn't just come from there can only be one dragon. He wants to impress his father figure by surpassing him, he holds the belief that ultimate power should be held by those with the strength fit to wield it. He has some of the best presence of power in the series.
"Finally, someone who speaks English"
This was a great video, I agree with most of these.
Respectable list, I like that you included Shono, Iwami & Masato
Only have to disagree with Kuroiwa but that's just my own hot take, Kuroiwa is heavily carried by gameplay & the story structure - as a character himself he was rather lackluster to the levels of Aizawa
I love when tf2 players make videos about other games
this thumbnail goes incredibly hard
Good list but severely lacking Someya
I like both Ryuji and Masato but i kinda agree with you. Ryuji is rather dumb for a villain while Masato is probably the weakest strengthwise out of all Yakuza’s villains.
Bro really said mine in number 3
Edit: nevermind just played lj and kuwana is goated
kinda suprised when you put Nishiki as no 2 (you intended a pun too!)
but, this is RGG franchise, not Ryu Ga Gotoku franchise
and yes, i agree with you wholeheartedly for no 1-2-3
You forgot about sagawa from Yakuza 0, he's a brilliant villain
Funny as hell dude
@@angelusvastator1297 how's that funny? He steals the show every time he's on screen
@@drool3616 I'm saying that Sagawa is a funny dude.
@@angelusvastator1297 oh, ok then, the way it was wrote made me think otherwise
Definitely agree, Sagawa is a peak villain without even having a boss fight.
From what i remember it was actually said that the roulette thing in kurohyou 2 was just an act. (I forgot the word i am not a native english speaker, i apologise)
Mine is peak
I swear whenever i replay yakuza zero the kuze boss fights are the ones i look forward to replaying that game the most
Aaah yes I like this. We can bond over our mutual hatred of how unbelievably trash Aizawa was as a villain and how Kuwana is no question the single best RGG villain ever made.
Watching this while I'm making my way through the yakuza series, tells me I should continue on with judgement afterwards
You definitely should. It is worth it. Also you probably shouldn't finish this video until you beat the two games lol but ah well
I'd put Aizawa on number 1 because chronologically Kiryu's movesets after Aizawa fight are doo doo. Kurosawa broke yakuza, Aizawa broke Kiryu's style.
Mine supremacy
But quick question, did you consider Kyohei Jingu for this list?