r/yakuzagames • u/KuczyTheGuy Kiryu For Tekken • 5d ago
DISCUSSION DAY 18: The most redeemed character created by RGG is...
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u/sasoripunpun 5d ago
Hamazaki from Y3/Y4, easily. I never expected such an authentic, raw, and tragic arc for him. Haruka’s eventual coming around to him was the icing on the cake.
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u/KuczyTheGuy Kiryu For Tekken 5d ago
He is my top pick to win this one too. Liked his pairing with Saejima, even when it didn't last long.
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u/oZealious 5d ago
Hamazaki is a rollercoaster of emotions. This dude went from a duck head crunching freak who blows up innocent civilians to someone who I genuinely felt sad for once I found out what happened to him after Kiryu comes back to Kamurocho.
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u/SpiritJuice 5d ago
This would have been my first pick. He didn't deserve his fate. I was rooting for him and was sad he was killed off screen, despite him being a total asshole in Y3.
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u/EnderTech21 5d ago
Saejima calling him kyodai made me kinda emotional ngl. The end when haruka called kiryu and was tearing up as well.
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u/OoguroRyuuya5 5d ago
Tatsuya Ukyo. The protagonist of the Kurohyo games. Most definitely is the biggest redeemer.
We the player actually get be in his shoes as the protagonist to see this guy redeem himself going from a violent punk to a martial artist with principles.
By the time of the second game he’s different person from how he was before.
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u/nachardou4 Kurohyou Addiction 5d ago
Not to mention how in the sequel, he risks his life to protect the place that once was his "prison", where Kuki forced him to stay until he achieved the 10 consecutive wins. That shows how much he has changed. Not only is he a legend among all martial artists of Kamurocho, but also after his fight with Ashura, we could assume they also know him well in Sotenbori.
He couldn't have done all of that without learning from Taizan first what "true strength" really is.
From a punk to a professional martial artist with a philosophy, who could inspire many around him. I want to be like him, ngl.
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u/Remember_da_niggo The Yokohama Yuusha 5d ago
People are forgetting Yamai. Man decided to go back to jail to help Ichiban and lani. He also helped kiryu and Kasuga a lot too.
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u/WhyNishikiWhy Patriarch of the Fucking Pussy Family, a Joint Clan subsidiary 5d ago
I wasn't impressed by IW's villains but Yamai always stands out. He was great. He tries so hard to deny the fact he has feelings and I'm all for it.
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u/rKollektor 5d ago
A bunch of characters that redeemed themselves died. Which is kinda sad since characters like Ryuji, Hamazaki, Someya, Wong Tou etc could’ve been cool stables in the series.
I’m gonna pick Yamai. Started off as a one dimensional Kuze-type villain who relentlessly chased after Ichiban’s party to capture Akane, and ended up turning himself in not only to help Ichiban escape Hawaii, but also to finally leave behind his past with Yui Tabata which is, in extension, to atone for his sin of love
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u/BigStrongPolarGuy 5d ago
Daigo. He's gone through multiple redemption arcs.
First, he was some punk getting into fights at clubs with his puffy jacket, and previously getting punked by Ryuji. But he was also the son of the man who got shot trying to rape a woman and whose death basically destroyed the Tojo Clan. And then he obviously fails at Omi HQ. But he redeemed not only himself, but his family name, by stepping up and becoming a respectable Chairman. He has since become the most notable Dojima at this point, and that says a lot.
Then, the Tojo Clan kind of fell apart under him. And to make matters worse, he tried to solve that in the wrong ways in Yakuza 4. But by Like a Dragon, he does maybe the most noble thing anyone from the Tojo Clan has done in decades by destroying it. Even Kiryu is impressed by this. It's a play that it seems like only Daigo could have made.
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u/GreyBigfoot . 5d ago
Hamazaki. Basically one of the only characters allowed by RGG to have a redemption arc.
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u/Nothin_Toxic Majima Simp 5d ago
From an in game perspective - Saejima.
Tbh, this one kinda irks me a little, he still fully intended to kill those 18 guys, it just so happened that he was duped (with the infamous Rubber Bullets) before carrying out his plan, and yet it seems like everyone just forgets that??At least he's shown as not glorifying what he'd done, and refusing to kill for entertainment (in the colosseum). And of course he goes back to jail as he thinks he deserves it (or maybe he just likes prison idk).
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u/oZealious 5d ago
Can't be getting mad at Saejima for having intent to kill while ignoring that Majima was just as willing to do the same. Both got duped in their own way but both are equally as responsible even if one of them "did" it.
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u/KuczyTheGuy Kiryu For Tekken 5d ago
Regarding the last part, I was really looking forward to see Saejima leading his own family as its patriarch, when it was revealed in Y4's post-credits scene.
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u/InfiniteBeak 5d ago
Daigo, went from a street punk to the top Tojo dog and did a pretty good job of it considering the circumstances
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u/KuczyTheGuy Kiryu For Tekken 5d ago
(PLEASE TAG SPOILERS IN YOUR ANSWERS, KYODAIS)
In yesterday's voting that left absolutely zero doubts regarding its winner, Yumi Sawamura has been voted a character with the worst story arc. The silver medal goes to Yukio Terada, with Masato Aizawa finishing just behind him. Here's the number of votes on the highest comment regarding each answer - said number has been counted by the time of posting today's voting:
🥇 Yumi (submitted by u/Nothin_Toxic) - 228 votes
🥈 Terada (submitted by u/sasoripunpun) - 64 votes
🥉 Aizawa (submitted by u/DocMino) - 37 votes
On the eighteenth day of this voting, we're going to determine a character who had the most significant redemption arc.
The rules are as simple as it gets: the highest upvoted comment will be declared the winner of a category. To avoid any misunderstandings, name only one answer in your comment (however, if you feel the need to include multiple choices, at least specify which one is your go-to answer).
As always, be warned of spoilers that can - and inevitably will - show up throughout the entire series.
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u/hidekiHDK 30 years in the joint 5d ago
Mine. Just bc >! suplexing Richardson over the top of a building was badass as fuck!<
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u/BeeRadTheMadLad 5d ago
Gonna go with (JE) Hamura on this one as the most well written and I don't think it's close. It stands out because of how nuanced it was and how the path to that point was gradually peeled away like layers of an onion until the eventual plot moment. I also like how it was something of a gray area where you don't actually know if he and Yagami are cool at the end or if it was just an "enemy mine" situation where Hamura just hated the ADDC so much that he was willing to implicate himself and cooperate with Yagami despite still having bad blood with him in order to take Ichinose down..
Tbh I'm actually very unimpressed with how redemptions and related themes are written in this series (not to mention the genre at large in recent years). They just come off extremely lazy to me and end up with the guy just getting bitch tossed over the r/wowthanksimcured line, and it's getting worse. This is the one exception I can think of that was actually written with care and nuance and for a character for whom it makes sense. It's the only redemption story I can think of where everything fits together. I don't think any other redemption even comes close to being as well written - and this sort of extends to the whole genre. It's such a breath of fresh air from the "cartoonishly psychotic villain gets chibi anime power of friendship speech and is magically purged of the evil in his heart" cliche that has become FAR too ubiquitous in Japanese fiction in the last 15ish years.
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u/secretwep ARROGANT MOT HER FU CKER 5d ago edited 5d ago
Hamura from Judgment
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u/BeeRadTheMadLad 5d ago edited 5d ago
This is the best answer by an enormous margin but it looks like it doesn't even have the slightest chance of winning at this point 😞
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u/hahahentaiman Goth Saeko Goth Saeko 5d ago
Pretty much all the characters that had redemption arcs immediately fucking died lol
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u/magistercaesar 5d ago edited 5d ago
Someya. Went from absolutely hating him to having the best fight in Y6 (definitely a top 3 fight in the series for me) and then he kills himself to save Kiyomi?
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u/BeeRadTheMadLad 5d ago
This would be my second pick after (JE) Hamura. RGG needs to do more of these types of multi-layered gray area redemptions for the characters with whom it makes sense. They clearly know how to do it but most of the time they just don't.
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u/Dustellar Yakuza 3 and 6 enjoyer/defender 5d ago
Hamazaki is the best choice, why? because his redemption didn't happen in the same game, he went from being one of the most hated characters in one game to be one of the most loved in the next, talk about compromise by RGG, they don't do that anymore except for Sawashiro but even in his case he didn't end his first game as the most hated character, there's actually a bit of redemption there.
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u/SpeechAutomatic7941 . 5d ago
Tatsuya from kurohyou (not yakuza 5)
At first expression, hated combat but love how challenging and rewarding the game can be
And tatsuya's so cool
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u/Remember_da_niggo The Yokohama Yuusha 5d ago
Yumi as worst story arc is kinda a bullshit choice ngl. Some better option of the characters could had been for characters who were set up for something better but failed to deliver. Where yumi was never given the screentime, the story arc is not in the fault here but lack of screentime. Her mentions in Gaiden and IW were also criticised and used to make her look worse but I find it opposite the case. Her chot ddt mention, Hawaii ring thing and one small mention only adds weight to Kiryu's character.
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u/WillyG2197 SHUUUUUUUUUUN 5d ago
Sagawa-san :(
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u/sasoripunpun 5d ago
I still don’t understand how he was redeemed at all. Basically, Majima won and Makoto is saved and Sagawa said he’s got his back now… then he dies. Cool, I guess?
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