Sega scored a big coup by signing up Takuya Kimura, one of Japan’s biggest celebrities, to star in its Judgment games. With Kimura comes bonafide star credentials, and of course talent agency power. That last point, according to one report, could be the budding franchise’s downfall.

According to weekly publication Nikkan Taishu, a Japanese entertainment insider is quoted as saying that the upcoming Lost Judgment will be the last entry in the series. “Because,” the insider explains, “those on the side of the game developer and those on the side of [Kimura’s talent agency] Johnny’s are said to have been unable to reach an agreement regarding the platforms to sell the game.”

From: Brian Ashcraft at Kotaku

It could be an issue with not wanting Kimura's likeness to be ripped from a PC game and used in some...less-prestigious mods. It could also be Kimura's agency wanting to exert control vs Sega taking bigger steps into the PC market. Either way, it would be a shame if the real-time action side of Yakuza ended due to some backroom deals falling apart.

Didn't they already rip out and remodel a character in Judgement after it was discovered the actor smoked a whole marijuana? I find it hard to believe Sega'd shelf a franchise doing as well as Judgement instead of just giving the MC a new face.

That’s some dumb shit but I dunno I think Sega could move on to other things if Judgment falls apart.

@glik: They did (it was for cocaine, though, not weed.) I don't think the two situations are quite comparable, Japan's treatment of drug arrests is super strict to where replacing actors / pulling properties entirely is the standard response. It's its own issue, certainly, and a major one, but different from regular licensing agreements.

That said, considering they already experimented with switching up established franchise faces to great result with Yakuza, I doubt SEGA or RGG either one would let something like this be the end of Judgement entirely.

Given the impression I've gotten from Japanese talent agencies/music companies/non-video-game entertainment conglomerates that weren't born from becoming popular on the internet, it totally tracks that the talent agency is blocking a native PC release. If you thought Nintendo was bad at the internet, where do you think that attitude comes from!

I hope this gets sorted out somehow.

Yeah, on top of some Japanese companies being controlling about this stuff as it is, I've gathered that Johnny's is maybe THE worst? I know there are anime series that were hard to license because they had Johnny's VAs in them which had separate licensing and stuff, it's wild.

Seems much more likely that they'd just replace the character.

From my limited understanding, a lot of Japanese talent agencies can be really weird about their control over use of their talent's likenesses. It's apparently not uncommon for magazine and website articles to include a grayed out silhouette of a particular celebrity because the agency doesn't want them showing up there. Johnny's is supposed to be one of the worst offenders of this.

They are absolutely trying to stop people from using Kimura's model for porn, but keeping Judgement off PC isn't really going to stop them I think. I hope this doesn't kill the series, especially since the Yakuza team has said this is supposed to be their Action oriented series while Like a Dragon goes down the RPG route, but I can absolutely see something dumb like this being what sinks that.

It was cocaine (but any sort of recreational drug use is frowned upon in Japan).

I really think that they should bring a parallel yakuza series where the main character is an Omi Alliance Yakuza.

Although I liked Judgement it wasn't as good as Yakuza.

@ajamafalous: It is the main character so it’d be a little weird.

Well, they said that Yakuza will be the turn based thing and judgement will be the brawler, so its not like it’s the end for kamurocho. And honestly, recasting for the next game after last judgment is not outside the realm of possibility, nor is just adjusting the story to have a new protagonist in fiction, too.

It's not something you couldn't easily write around: 'hey that guy went off and did this other thing and now you play as this guy instead.' Main characters changing happens across all types of media all the time, be it TV, movie franchises, books, or games.

You play as someone different in nearly every Assassin's Creed game, for just one quick example.

Also, don't forget that they just recast Spider-Man like a year ago for that PS5 port!

I blame Tower Unite for this all.

You suddenly see the comedy central logo emoting at a MARIO and you ask what this hellhole is. 'It's steam sir.. PC gaming.. anything is possible.. the players just do what they want to. Lawless hellhole.'

STOP IT IMMEDIATLY! MY CLIENT CAN'T BE SEEN HANGING OUT WITH MARIO! We're with Sega!

@ajamafalous: Yeah but why bother? If you have a short series like this that you’re building around a character if you can’t use that character just cut bait and move on.

@epidehl: Oh shoot, I did not notice the lead actor's agency was Johnny and Associates!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_%26_Associates#Views_and_controversies

They are the one Japanese media company that has made enough waves for me in the US to hear the, "Man, fuck Johnny's," sentiment.

Let Yagami fuck Keanu Reeves!

I honestly wonder what did RGG even get out of having him be in the game. Did they really feel like they needed a big Japanese star for their spin off game to be a success? Did they just want to work with him?

As for recasting him - it'd be odd. Judgement has a much more focused story on Yagami than even Yakuza did on Kiryu.

@jesus_phish: I think RGG just likes putting famous people into their games. Outside the sphere of video games that is. They do it all the time.

There are pictures of the Judgment launch party with Kimura grayed out. It's fucking insane.

Though on reading some discourse, it seems Kimura has been popular enough to bend the rules of the agency - apparently he was allowed to be publicly married and with children where many boy-band stars are not. I'm hoping he has enough pull to get passed this snafu, because I do enjoy Yagami and his crew quite a lot, and I think a recast would cast a weird shadow over everything unless they bridge it with DLC before the next game.

@jesus_phish: I think they could easily recast him - thats the beauty of video games after all. Set the next game 15 years in the future and you have enough reason for him to look different while also giving you a good reason to revamp the town. Have him have a serious accident, give him an eyepatch and a different hairstyle - going from long hair to close cropped hair is already plenty where people might not notice subtle facial differences.

There are a million and one ways they could make him look similar, but not be that specific actor anymore.

@humanity:Not that you aren't wrong, but I think you might be undervaluing Kimura's popularity and what it means to have his likeness in the game like this. We might not care as much outside of Japan, but his appearance was a major selling point leading up the the first game's release over there.

I don't think it'd be as simple as recasting Yagami or moving on to another character, especially if RGG Studios was expecting to continue this particular story, and especially if it was meant to be a Takuya Kimura vehicle.

@mindbullet: I meant more on a technical level it wouldn't be a problem. As far as the pop culture zeitgeist that his persona brings to the series well that is up to SEGA to calculate how much money they could earn from Steam PC sales compared to the potential dropoff from Japan centric interest where people are heavily invested in the character specifically because of the actors involvement.

I think they are early enough into this series where recasting the lead would be tough but not disastrous. It is an offshoot and a first one at that, if the story and character (the written videogame protagonist) find enough favor going forward then people will move on. Recasting Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man after the first film would have hit a lot different than if they tried it way further down the line. They are at a crossroads and I think it's going to be up to the money people to run the numbers and see what makes sense. I mean the option is to recast and continue the series or don't recast and let it die along with any potential profits.

Wouldn't shock me to see a different spinoff take the action-side mantle of RRG's portfolio in 2-3 years. The detective angle was cool but they could find something else to do in their fictional Tokyo. Not too worried.

The PC ports must be making Sega a lot of money if they're willing to go this far though. That may be the most interesting part of this.

Unless Lost Judgment is much changed from the first game I'm fine with this. It's wild how much less enjoyment I got from Judgment than from literally any other mainline Yakuza game. Literally any change to gameplay systems made them worse, and the MC doesn't hold a candle to any other Y protagonist, except maybe the cop (who disappeared from the series after 4).

Still, it's wild how backwards these agencies are.

@jesus_phish: He's a really big deal in Japan, which I'm assuming is still their largest market.

@siamesegiant: I kind of doubt it. The Japanese non-Switch console market has been moribund for a long time. PlayStation 4 sold like 10 million consoles in Japan out of over 100 million globally. There's a reason that Sega is switching to global simultaneous release for the Yakuza games, and brought them to the Xbox platform (which basically does not exist in Japan) and it's because Japan is a terrible market for AAA console games at this point. There are a few series that sell relatively well, and the Switch has done well there because it's a portable, but the Japanese market is not what it was in the 80s and 90s.

Maybe Yakuza and Judgement being so Japan focused in content make over half their sales there, but I would guess that percentage is in serious decline. I think that's why Sega would consider no PC version to be a sticking point, because they need this series to sell in the West to be profitable, and the PC is a very important platform for the West. Same reason that PlayStation exclusives are hitting the PC and we are seeing ports of games like Persona 4 Golden.

People need to realize that though Japanese video game studios are still extremely important, games not made for the Switch have to be very cheap to produce if they are aimed primarily at the Japanese market. It's extremely small at this point.

With regards to the Yakuza series - I've played and enjoyed every mainline game except Like a Dragon. Is it worth picking up even if I have grown to despise JRPGs with turn-based combat? I used to play them all the time but I am fed up with fighting the same set of enemies using the same commands 100s of times. I couldn't even finish the Dragon Quest 11 demo because I was so bored with both story and gameplay. Does Like a Dragon do something to spice up the gameplay in any way? I have heard it turns into a grind-fest at the end as well since bosses start doing ridiculous damage? Is there some way to avoid the encounters? The worst part of Yakuza is running into enemies when you actually want to head somewhere without interruptions, and I suspect a Yakuza RPG will have that problem but worse.

@theonewhoplays: It's on game pass if you can try that. I think it's great, but I already like turn based combat. Watch the quick look and you'll see exactly what it's like. In every other way it's the same as a normal Yakuza game.

@alistercat: Thanks. I don't plan on getting game pass, but I'll take a look again. But does it get grindy towards the end?

As much as it sucks, that's the price for doing business with Johnny's. You have to play by their rules, and if you don't, well, that's that. And if it's about not wanting to port the game to PC then yes there's no way I can imagine them being ok with the possibility of someone modding the game to mess with virtual Kimura.

I say screw'em. Yakuza is a globally popular established franchise at this point. Kick these clowns to the curb and just move in a different direction, or recast the role. The series doesn't need Johnny's or their talent for these games. From what I can gather from a few other comments here Judgement might be one of the weakest entries in the whole franchise anyway.

Not to mention the fact that Sega already loses out on Nintendo as a whole since they refuse to put anything Yakuza related on their platform. To lose out on PC would chop out far too much of their userbase at this point imo.

@theonewhoplays: I'd say yes.

@theonewhoplays: There is almost no grind right up until a specific point where there is a difficulty spike so high its almost like they're trying to make up for it.

Yes.

As someone who doesn't enjoy turn-based combat, unless they make significant changes to their systems, I'm finished with Yakuza. Love the new protagonists and the party mechanics are good, but I played LAD for 90 hours and only about 40 of them were actively engaging. The combat is extremely repetitive and often very buggy and awkward.

I hope they work this out, or recast the role, or just switch up the entire cast/setting for the hypothetical 3rd game. I much prefer the action-based combat. I'm currently playing Like A Dragon, and while I like turn-based games, the amount of grind toward the end of the game is just too much (especially after realizing that I didn't level up enough elemental jobs, so I have to grind those up from level 1). I never had a problem motivating myself to beat a Yakuza game until now, where I've actually started and finished other games in-between chapters of Yakuza.

Anyway, yeah I wish they would just create a totally new city specifically for the Judgment series.. I felt pretty bummed hearing that Lost Judgment would be in Yokohama.