Rubber Bullets - Awful or Brilliant Plot Twist? (Yakuza 4 Analysis) (Hannya's Advocate)
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- Опубликовано: 18 окт 2024
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Welcome back to Hannya's Advocate. Today we will tackle the most infamous plot twist in the Yakuza series: the dreaded rubber bullets. A twist that birthed many memes and became a sticking point for both haters and fans of Yakuza 4. Let's take a definitive look at the twist and see how much merit there really is to it, personal bias be damned. I hope you enjoy the research.
Cheers!
Songs featured in the video:
Yakuza 4 OST - Broken Police Radio
Yakuza 4 OST - Theme of Nair
Yakuza 4 OST - Infinite Handcuff
Yakuza 4 OST - Rebellions
Yakuza 4 OST - For Faith (instrumental)
I do not own the footage shown in this video.
Please show your support to RGG Studios and SEGA for making this amazing series, as well as the many content creators that were here before me, and have kept this series alive for so long.
#yakuza #ryugagotoku #likeadragon #yakuza4 #kiwami #discussion #controversy #hated #videoessay #rubberbullets #forfaith #best #worst
Please watch the video to its completion, as this is not meant to be a "hit-piece" on Yakuza 4. I love the game, which is why videos like this are important. You can love something while knowing it isn't perfect. And if that makes for a meaningful, civil discussion, all the better.
Thank you.
Saejima was just playing paintball with the Ueno Seiwa Boys
Damn ueno seiwa goons didn't call their hits
@@starlot referee Katsuragi had to kill them as punishment
The rubber bullets plot twist is the extreme end of a crucial part of RGG’s story telling and writing: the heroes of the story are criminals but they over romanticise and absolve them any wrong doing.
Criminal organisations typically amass wealth through extortion, intimidation, violence and illicit businesses. Crimes that can cause harm and infringe on an individual’s rights and create and nett negative on society. The Tojo clan has never been portrayed in this way like criminals in western media, and whatever violence they do enact is either towards other criminals or civilians who explicitly deserve their comeuppance.
Kiryu is a Yakuza with an honour and justice code with the strength to uphold his idealism. Saejima willing performs the killings, accepts the consequences and bears the burden, but the rubber bullets kinda rob him of his agency for the sake of maintaining the heroic criminal idealism that Kiryu has.
Personally, I think this was a bad twist, but I understand and wouldn’t change it… I mean, it kinda fits in a game with violent actions in which our protagonists can beat, crush, stab and shoot their opponents, fire rockets, throw them off great heights, but we canonically acknowledge that these are never kills. God bless RGG.
I wonder if some of the stuff in these games has to do with Japan’s rules on what’s allowed in video games, since GTA SA had trouble releasing in Japan and they made a new rating, plus they needed a lot of censorship added to the game, and I know Nagoshi had issues with CERO (Japanese rating system) trying to get the first RGG game to be a thing.
@@MadDogSolo I really appreciate your comment because it hits the nail on the head of the underpinning factor: Japanese culture and sensibilities. Western media portrayals does not glamorise crime, it shows the extent of brutality and escalating violence that entails in criminal conflicts. Yakuza, likewise, does not glamourise crime, but gives us glamorous heroes that are just and take stands against over the top villains.
I often think of the Tojo clan and Omi Alliance as warring fractions trying to maintain an underground power balance, like competing Samurai clans in feudal periods. Ultimately, this is why I say I wouldn’t change anything that RGG has done because it’s reflective of Japanese and story telling, and I’m glad to have experienced this series. Happy gaming.
I thought the "Never Kill Thing" was hyperbolic or a mistranslation. I've heard this once or twice and it'd explain alot.
I get it but I really don't acknowledge the whole "they don't kill thing" and really dislike this twist and would love for it to have never happend.
I think Yakuza 0 goes a decent ways towards justifying at least Kiry's characterization in a more heroic light, with Kazama's repeated resistance to letting him join the Yakuza, with the subtext in that and the beginning of 1 (and especially in Kiwami) that Kiryu would have been a terrible Yakuza, because he's unwilling to do genuinely immoral things (see: his off-hand comment at the start of Kiwami about not wanting to run a casino because he doesn't like the idea of scamming civilians; dude, you're Yakuza, a casino is basically the only pseudo-legitimate way you're going to pull in money. Your other options are protection rackets, literal murder, and human trafficking).
I just wish they had left Saejima an actual murderer. He murdered other criminals, did his time, and feels the gravity of that experience. If he were allowed to actually have murdered, canonically, his story could be one of redemption, the idea that past actions are not the sum total of what defines you (Planescape: Torment's a good parallel here, with the whole "what can change the nature of a man?" riddle)
Instead, they keep Saejima pure because he's a protagonist, and make his guilt more indirect in a way that's needlessly complicated.
It's also worth noting that shooting someone with rubber bullets as such close range can be fatal in real life, so that twist still strains credulity in some ways. Odds are, at least one or two of those dudes would have been taken out by Saejima.
But then again, that's not the worst contrivance in Y4's writing. That would be Saejima _very conveniently_ washing up at Morning Glory's front door. But just, in general, every Yakuza game has at least one or two moments that strain credulity in a game that is otherwise, typically, pretty tightly-plotted.
I'm indifferent towards the rubber bullets twist. Heck, I knew something was fishy the minute I saw a young Katsuragi in the noodle joint during the shootout.
25 years in the noodle joint...
Yeah I feel like a lot of people didn’t catch on to Katsuragi. On one hand, it’s unnecessary for Saejima but without the twist, the police-Yakuza narrative of the game wouldn’t have been introduced.
@@thatrandomcrit5823 made you a
...
@@thatrandomcrit5823 get out of here nishiki!!! that is not a prison, that is chinese spaghetti!!!
@@sheevpalps3846 Yakuza 4 is kind of crazy good at foreshadowing. The story only truly makes sense when you play the game a second time, I think.
Now we need a 4 hour video essay on for faiths lyrics and its impact on yakuza fans
I think Saejima's character would have been much more interesting if they stuck with him actually having killed these 18 men. Him living with that burden through most of the game made for some of my favorite scenes, like the one in the coliseum. The reveal that he in fact "never killed anybody" took away so much impact in retrospect and left the character in such a weird place where I'm not surprised they just stuck him in prison again. Imagine how different his dynamic with the other protags could have been, Kiryu would have despised him for being a killer, instead of just being mildly disapproving of his actions.
Long story short: It's another case where Rgg's weird rules hinder their stories believability and coherence greatly.
It's a tough catch-22 with RGG because if they didn't have the plot twist that he hadn't killed those men, there's no way they would have allowed us to play as this character. It's just how RGG operates, if Saejima was a mass-murderer (even a repentent one) the most we could hope for would be for him to be a cool side character that dies attempting to redeem himself.
@@MikeHesk742 that's the thing, I wanted to play as murderer Saejima :(
As much as a common opinion this is, I always thought it to be a shallow idea in the first place because it demands a grand formula rather than proper execution. Story telling has always been based on creativity, and opening ideas to new gists should always be welcomed. Plus I feel like the Saejima we have fits in with how unique and different he is as a character from the Yakuza 4 protags compared to the possibilities of a hypothetical “killer” one
The fact that he thought he was doing it is what mattered. The games intentionally took a turn away from the original plan of being very grim and adult. Redemptive themes are important and probably helped broaden the appeal of the series to Westerners. "Coherence" in a game where you beat guys up on police-free streets and they *literally disappear* is probably not as important as these thematic concerns.
Kiryu forgave Hamazaki, I think he'd forgive Saejima
The rubber bullets are basically a plot point to make Saejima "clean" as a playable character, and if it had stuck there it'd be fine, I think. The extra uses of it are what makes it feel more ridiculous indeed.
As for characters waking up first, or outright not being knocked down like Arai, I chalked it up to not everyone being physically equal. Arai is in great physical shape and has some serious determination so he could take the shot without passing out where weaker people get knocked out cold.
Also the way Yakuza 5 goes against established character arcs for the sake of its plot is indeed jarring at times, and that'd be an interesting subject to talk about!
Can you briefly explain the Yakuza 5 part in your comment if you don’t mind? I was thinking the same but wasn’t sure how I would describe it
It's pretty much as Gokudoni said near the end of the video. Yakuza 4 ends with Kiryu being "done running", with Saejima knowing the truth behind the Ueno Seiwa hit, seeing what the Tojo Clan had become and being reunited with Majima, Haruka is truly family with everyone at Morning Glory...
And in Yakuza 5 Kiryu is running away again, Saejima leaves the Tojo Clan again as he goes to jail again, and Haruka leaves Morning Glory to be an idol. It doesn't feel like a natural continuation to their arcs in 4 but more like a reset for them.
@@MrLemmy82 "Yakuza 4 ends with Kiryu being "done running"
Every Yakuza does that, and EVERY next Yakuza is Kiryu fucking running again... he said that in Yakuza 4, and is running away in Yakuza 5, in Yakuza 5 he realizes he needs to stay with his family/Haruka, but in the beginning of Yakuza 6 he accepted going to prison for no reason, leaving Haruka alone, then he accepts again that he needs to stop running and be with Haruka, but then fakes his death at the end of the game (even though EVERY time he leaved Haruka alone, she almost ended up dead), and now in 8 they are gonna do the same bullshit arc of "done running", this franchise is like Fast and The Furious after Yakuza 4.
I really think people oversell how "clean" it makes the guy when he still tried to kill 18 people. Attempted mass murder is still a really messed up thing to do. But yeah his story in 5 was a greater crime.
@@MrLemmy82 In 5's defense, its not actually "running away."
In 5, Kiryu leaves it all behind because of Park. Keep in mind that Kiryu, to this day, I'm not even sure he's aware that Park is dead. You can't really claim it as running away as much as it is Kiryu's biggest flaw of self-sacrifice. Of which his second biggest flaw is Kiryu seeing himself as a burden, which is how Park exploits Kiryu in the first place to set up 5.
The reason why rubber bullets exist is that the developer doesn't want their characters to be a killer.
I really think that Siejema was so traumatized about the hit that he over exaggerated the memory of the hit which I think is what we see
Rubber bullets aren't "non-lethal" they're "less-lethal." They can still kill a man in the right circumstances. They could've kept the rubber bullets for Saejima, but have them be inferior to the kind used on Munakata. Resulting in him *actually* killing some of the Ueno Seiwa goons. Would've fit the narrative better that way, IMO.
I always imagined most of the Heat actions where Kiryu takes a gun from someone on the street and shoots them at close range in the legs or whatever represented "rat shot." It will penetrate a bit, bleed, and hurt, especially at close range, but will not go deep enough to cause organ damage or whatever. This would match a lot better to the damage dealt by these weapons when the bad guys use them against protagonists, too. For the shotguns, these are probably loaded with birdshot-type hunting or pest control rounds typically used in the countryside, so while they're no fun to get shot with, they are similarly not immediately lethal.
This also explains why someone in an execution-style scenario in the series faces death in a way that is different from the street thugs shooting handguns at you. Even a blank cartridge can kill if used at point-blank range for this purpose.
The point is that Katsuragi did not think that far.
I’d argue that Saejima not killing anyone actually improved the tragedy of his character a bit since he went to prison for 25 years despite not directly killing anyone
Ohhh and nobody during the trial noticed that waiit actually nobody died ? Where are the bodys ? Where is the Police investigation ? Yakuza Games have some of the most awful writing i have ever seen. Like the Coin Locker twist in Yakuza 7 where two diffrent people put a baby at the same coin locker at the exact same time.
@markusklein7222 yes cause it's not like there was a higher up in the force that could forge documents and testimony in a trial that saejima plead guilty for /s. Plus the one person that did find something off, only because they were sugiuchis partner and also had a look at it, was killed for it so that should tell you something.
@@markusklein7222 There were bodies because they were still shot and killed... just not by Saejima.
@@markusklein7222zawg did NOT play the game
18 counts of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon is still going to see you doing some hard time.
Never understood why these games don't let the player characters kill. The main villains always politely dispose of each other and/or themselves or Daigo With A Gun interferes.
A headshot with a rubber bullet is probably still lethal.
It's a stupid twist, because it brings up more questions than it answers. Just to name an example, why would Katsuragi even use rubber bullets when he himself kills the Ueno Seiwa anyway? Why not just give Saejima real bullets and let him kill everyone? Why would he directly involve himself in the shootout by being there and killing the men himself?
I can only think of one reason
Since he was going to be in the restaurant, maybe he was afraid of being shot since he knew the would be assassin would not be in on the plan
By having rubber bullets, katsuragi would ensure he wouldn't die
But if ssejima used real bullets there would be no guarantee
And I think not attending would be out of the question since it would make him suspicious
So he opted for tricking saejima into thinking everyone including him is dead and then killed the rest with real bullets later
Rubber bullets was such an undercooked idea, I'm surprised it didn't run mooing back to the field. It feels like it should've been an underlying theme of the whole game, but it was just an excuse to have Saejima not actually kill anyone, so he'd be as spotless as Kiryu and Akiyama.
can I note for the record that riot control/less lethal ammo and "rat shot" are much more easily found in Japan, and less lethal ammo is more commonly issued to police departments than lethal ammo; any ammo possessed by yakuza organizations was likely obtained through connections in the police supply chain or for stuff given to countryside farmers etc. for pest control, so it isn't quite as off the wall as it might seem to westerners. Lethal ammo would have to be obtained from Chinese smugglers or stolen from the military supply chain-both of which are considerably more challenging propositions, especially for urban dwellers
you know I always had issues with 5's plot, and rubber bullets, but i never quite made the connection of "why do i have such a big issue with rubber bullets when I didn't really notice the issues with them in 4 initially?" until this video, I wouldn't say this video changed my mind at all, but it put into words WHY i've felt like this, 4 has a shaky but emotional plot that really gets undermined by 5's insistance on reusing as many plot(and gameplay) aspects as possible because they had the idea that "we NEED 5 characters for our 5th game because the previous entry had 4 and it was the 4th entry" and never stopped to think "Should we?".
I will still say 5's biggest issue is everything about Majima, now hear me out, I am a Majima superfan and i played the games BEFORE 0 even existed. but from the very start the story and characters are really trying hard to sell you, the player, on that "Its reported that the most popular character in the entire franchise was killed off screen, just trust us bro". so from the get go its asking you to suspend your disbelief to astronomical levels on top of everything else it'll do with the character of Majima, let alone everything else. Some people I've talked too don't understand why this is such a big deal, its a big deal because 4 doesn't really break your suspension of disbelief until the last parts of the story, so even if everything about that is bad, you can still be invested enough to care regardless, which is your main point with the rubber bullets that i agree with. meanwhile with Yakuza 5 its asking so much for the player to take it seriously at the start that if you are turned off ASAP, you just never get into the mindset of enjoying the absolute batshit roller coaster that is 5's plot so it comes off as far, far worse, then it was intended to be. I've commented like this on your vids before I can't state enough that 5 really fucked with things and some people do not want to have that discussion.
5 is definitely my least favorite game across the entire franchise.
I'm not saying it's terrible, I still had loads of fun with certain parts of it. But easily my least favorite, I don't even have to think about it.
I love Y5 for it's mingames, Shinada, being able to play Haruka as the idol (the plot that surrounds this aside...) and for that certain moment on stage and with Kiryu.
But boi. Story/plotwise, that one was almost a bigger mess than Y4.
I love the ridiculous plot twists we get in these games but I especially love them because the story immediately whiplashes back to the most serious moment in the game in the most elegant way. I mean one moment Mirror Face is perfectly replicating Tendo and in the next Ichi is trying to logically reason with Arakawa
Oh, absolutely! The amount of talent needed to pull that off is insane to think about. Really makes me wish I could attend the writer's meetings and experience the insanity in person!
@@gokudoni I dont think Yakuza studio has any talented writer. I didnt see any good writing at any game. Yakuza 0 was the only one with decent writing and i believe the game had different writers.
@@markusklein7222
They are just damn good at min maxing shit. The lows can get low but holy fuck their highs are insurmountable
@@markusklein7222 dawg has NEVER played a yakuza game
Kiryu has canonically killed nobody...
*cut to Kiryu leaning out of a car window capping people*
Might wanna switch that to "Kiryu has canonically *murdered* nobody"
Even Yakuza spoilers features Dante from the Devil May Cry series
About patriarch of Ueno Seiwa. I don’t know why we assume that he is smart. In little that we see of him, he was just the coward who was hiding behind the backs of his men. I always thought of him as I thought of Sohei Dojima. They may be the leaders of big yakuza families but they are not smart men (Dojima tried to force himself on Yumi and we all know how it ended). Or Sengoku who tried to shittalk Ryuji who was wearing the katana. Overall, good video. All we have to do is to wait for the massive criticism of Yume.
Katsuragi is the captain on the Ueno Seiwa. It's stated that the patriarch is in his deathbed at the age of 55 in 2010, but I find that very weird since he already looks way older than 30 in the flashback to the shooting.
I think the rubber bullets could work, if they were used better. Generally the series has always been pushing itself in the corner that its protagonists cant ever commit acutal crimes or kill anybody in order to still be seen as good people. It's one of the reasons why no protagonist has ever killed anybody or whenever we play the games, it never involves actual Yakuza buisness and in one way or the other theyre on the run for crime they didnt commit. Nowhere its more aparent than in the Kaito Files' ending (where they couldnt have any of the main characters kill Kyoya and had to use a zombie who'd die with him, because good guys dont kill people). In Yakuza 4's case it was pretty much the same, they had to somehow wash away the sins of Saejima making him an innocent man, if he was to be the main protagonist. However, its later usage in the Arai/Munataka scenes just feels like pointless twist rather than clever set up
but i do appreciate the fact they made Saejima say that he suffers the consequences, even if he didnt kill them, because he did think and feel like he did
@Marleonka That’s true, which is why I was indifferent about it. Saejima still had development out of the entire ordeal, and that title attached to the killing always carried with him
honestly, rubber bullets felt like a cheap way to explain a random plot twist they wanted to implement. It actually becomes a pretty crucial plot twist so i have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand its not *too* unbelievable. But it also just feels like they retconned what happened previously to retroactively implement a plot twist for yakuza 4. But overall it doesnt affect the yakuza experience much at all. Still a 12/10 series absolutely love it to death.
Especially considering the range at which Munakata was shot, a bullet wound would be very obvious very quickly, as the wound would begin to bleed immediately and stain his clothes (and the circumstances where they don't are usually very extreme, but they are not). Additionally, few people aside from the police, whose Smith and Wesson J-frames the revolvers resemble, would have any experience enough with weapons to tell the difference between the sound, handling, and visual indicators of the non-lethal cartridges, thus it's very believable that Arai and Saejima would be none the wiser to the fact that these aren't live cartridges. And finally, just a teeny nitpick, most revolvers cannot be silenced, and those few are rare enough. However, using a pillow or some other device to partially muffle the shot would likely be enough to prevent any undue attention, as gunshots are loud, but in an enclosed space, can reasonably be overlooked by people as other things, for instance, how people may mistake distant shots for a car backfiring, or fireworks.
Saejima is such a good character. Sad to see he is a victim of RGG's early mistakes but you gotta learn somehow.
Shouldn't physical strength have also been taken into account? Arai is significantly strongest than Munakata, so the bullet would have less of an effect on him. This is especially important in the hit. Ueno was old and physically weak when the hit took place, while Katsuragi was a new, young Patriarch, who was also expecting the attack, he could've been wearing a bullet proof vest, as he is shown to do
Fair point. Much of the gear worn by protagonists grants some degree of protection against bullets [and/or other weapons]-there's no reason this shouldn't apply to NPCs in the same underworld/line of work
4 really started to get on my nerves felt like every cutscene someone gets shot to the point where I was just waiting for a bullet to come from off screen to hit one of the characters.
I was right most of the time.
And it was for the stupidest fucking reasons, too. Our protagonists are pure of heart but dumb of ass because they WILL NOT disarm a defeated opppnent. Kiryu beats Jingu, Jingu wakes up and shoots Yumi. Kiryu beats Tamashira, Tamashira gets up and shoots Rikiya. Saejima turns away from Katsuragi, Katsursgi shoots Yasuko. Tanimura beats Munakata, Munakata shoots Akiyama. Not even 3 minutes later and Munakata gets the gun AGAIN, and shoots himself
Sugiuchi arranged the rubber bullets(experimental and NOT KNOWN BY THE PUBLIC), had them given to Shibata, which was how Majima got the guns.
Shibata keeps Majima away, Majima loses his eye, and Yakuza 0 happens.
Saejima goes alone, no idea what's what, and carries out what he thought was a hit job.
Katsuragi(he was literally there, making a dramatic show of taking the bullet for the Ueno Seiwa chairman), who had a real gun and could have killed Saejima, didn't do so. WHY WOULD HE ONLY SHOOT SAEJIMA IN THE SHOULDER?
Also, there were 4 occasions of the rubber bullets use. The 2nd occasion turned what was supposed to be a highly dramatic moment into an unintentionally hilarious one(Kido shoots Katsuragi, then Arai shot Kido).
P.S: after reading the comments here, it seems NO ONE here has played Yakuza 0. How's that possible?
I think what breaks the twist for me is that Saejima miraculously knocks out FIFTEEN people in a row with rubber bullets - not one, not three, an entire goddamn squad of yakuza men. Otherwise, I can believe the twist.
I don't think it's awful or brilliant, just hilarious. I love these games, and whenever I can't take them seriously, they have me laughing.
So, I don't think it's brilliant because it means someone planned for him to do 18 people and never hit a single one in the head, nor notice there was no blood. I find it very funny and not brilliant that anyone would plan that or write someone as planning that.
I also don't like that they're so strict about adhering to our heroes' morality that he couldn't have this in his past, over half his life ago, and have atoned for it, given how long he's spent regretting it and being in prison (which doesn't actually help anyone atone and I wish they'd stop sending Saejima to jail, please). The fact is, he still chose to do it and to the best of his ability did it; he just didn't realise he'd been given tools that couldn't accomplish his goal.
I don't want to give spoilers for other games, but there's a lot of stuff like this in the series, and all of it is funny. Though this probably takes the cake.
I think my problem with rubber bullets for Saejima is that it just feels like a cheap way to make it so he's never killed anyone. I think it would have been more interesting if he actually had killed them and they worked that into his character even more for the future games. There's a lot they could have done with that, but nope, he's never killed a man in his life either.
Or maybe it would mean he has to go back to jail and be executed, but meh. Even that would work fine, its not like Saejima brings anything to the following games. His appearance in 5 is just an inferior retelling of his story from 4, he's one of many characters who gets no screen time in 6, and in 7 he still doesn't do much. He's there with his bro Majima but it's always Majima stealing the show. You could take Saejima out of 7 and the only thing I'd miss is that banter between him and Majima when he calls Majima rusty in front of Ichiban. Otherwise he's not needed, Majima can handle it on his own. The only game that really gets impacted is 5, and honestly I think 5 would be better without Saejima's pace breaking chapters and less interesting version of the "oh no I'm in prison" thing anyway.
In the end, like you said in the video, it really comes back to "WTF did they do in Yakuza 5" rather than "WTF did they do in Yakuza 4"
tbh I was more disappointed about the fact that Katsuragi was scared, like yes he is human and can't keep the facade forever, but come on it would have been so cool if he died head on insted of being like Jingu, great video as always btw loved how you went into detail
When he was scared at his death or the noodle shop?
@@sheevpalps3846 Probably When Yasuko Killed Him
I agree, i think he would've been a more respected character if he accepted death kinda like Sugai in yakuza 6
Started with 0 and when I got to the reveal in 4 I was like huh?
I am of the belief that the Ueno Seiwa scene was good, but the present-day use when Arai shoots Munakata & Kido were bad.
Saejima still thinks he killed them so his speech in purgatory wasn’t devalued to me
i do see the point of making saejimas story more tragic but i think that RGG didn’t want a protagonist who has killed was the only reason the twist exists
@Gokudoni Awesome video! Finally there's someone else who likes Yakuza 4 lol. Next I think you should discuss how Aizawa truly isn't that bad of a final boss. Yes he was brought out of nowhere but in a deeper level he is one of the most overhated villains. In a way, his arc is very similar to Haruka's in 5.
Both were forced into an industry (Haruka forced into idol industry, Aizawa forced into the Tojo Clan) due to an older person wanting them to live the dream they didn't have (Park wanted Haruka to have a concert at the Tokyo Dome because she used to be an idol and couldn't make it/ Kurosawa handing down the Omi and Tojo to Aizawa due to his own reign being shortened due to terminal cancer.)
Deep down, both Haruka and Aizawa detest the path they have gone down but try to convince themselves that it's good.
Aizawa hates the path he has gone down, as it is using his connections to get to the top and he would prefer to use his skills to reach the top instead. But Kurosawa's influence has caused him to follow Kurosawa's ambitions despite him knowing they are bad.
As for Haruka, she misses Kiryu greatly and would like nothing more than to be with him and Morning Glory again. However, over the space of the past year, Mirei Park influenced her to take the path of an idol, even though deep down she didn't really want it.
Finally, in the end both broke out of their respective paths by doing what they really felt. Aizawa went by his true feelings by challenging Kiryu to a showdown while Haruka confessed about her family at the Tokyo Dome.
In conclusion, this proves that Aizawa has more plot relevance than just "Haha, I'm actually Kurosawa's son. I wanna beat you up!" Sure, the execution wasn't the greatest, infact just like the rubber bullets twist it had a good thing going for it but was halted due to Yakuza 5 being ridiculously long which caused it to be flawed and be overhated by the fans. Anyway it would be a really interesting video to watch and hear your thoughts about!
Also he was right about Daigo, let’s be honest…
I think you're right. Aizawa isn't bad, BUT Yakuza 5 doesn't execute on that twist well, plus with all the distractions from the main plot, by the time you get to the finale and characters from 20-30 hours ago like Aizawa are returning, my first thought was "Who?"
Saejima and Shinada really destroy the pacing of 5. Saejima's chapters do introduce Baba and the idea that Majima isn't really dead, but most of his time is spend dicking around in prison or hunting rather than actually adding anything meaningful. Saejima needed some major work to make his part fit better in the overall story, maybe just cut the entire hunting chapter and give us more time in the city looking into what happened to Majima.
And I know a lot of people like Shinada, but remove him from the game and you lose literally nothing. He shows up in the finale to say "oh here's where a sniper would set up in the stadium" and that's it. And it doesn't even matter, because by the time he gets there to confront Baba, Baba has decided not to kill Haruka and was already leaving. I guess it also explains where Daigo was, but they could have just had Daigo give some line about being in hiding to watch events unfold and wait for the best time to strike when he finally reappears to confront Kurosawa. That's all he really did anyway, all that crap with the yakuza and the baseball team really didn't do anything for the plot either. Kurosawa kills the baseball coach/captain/whoever right at the start of the finale and none of it is brought up again. Shinada's story would have been better as DLC than a huge pace breaker in the main story.
@@mjc0961 yeah I agree. The only reason I remembered Aizawa is because I got spoiled that he was the final boss soon after I started 5. So I paid closer attention to him for that. If not for that, I doubt I would've remembered that much about him. I remember on reddit a while back I made a post where I essentially rewrote Aizawa's story in 5 to make it more understandable (without changing too much, mainly just giving him more screentime and switching small things around). I am a firm believer that if Aizawa got good writing, he could've been one of the better villains in the series.
@@Suiiiivlaki I'm interested. Hopefully it's not that deep in the subreddit.
@@diegordi1394 it's from a few weeks ago but I will copy and paste the post down below:
So we all know how Aizawa is underdeveloped, but I read a youtube comment (I don't know where it is and who wrote it) and it explained how Aizawa is a parallel to Haruka and how he really didn't want to be at the Tojo HQ during the finale, but he was forced to by his father, Kurosawa. Anyway, this is how I would rewrite Aizawa's story to make him a more meaningful final boss, without scraping TOO MANY things from the existing story.
Part 1: Kiryu: First of all, don't begin with making Morinaga the villain, make Aizawa the one who betrays Kiryu at the docks, the one who shoots Aoyama. Scrap the whole "buried in the mountains thing."
Part 2: I guess it could be Kurosawa (posing as the detective) asking Saejima to find Aizawa.
Part 3 and 4: Idk to be honest. Haruka, Akiyama and Shinada didn't have much to do with Aizawa. Maybe sprinkle in a few Aizawa cutscenes similar to the Nishiki cutscenes in Kiwami here and there
Finale part 1: First of all, when Saejima goes to purgatory, he finds Morinaga there, training in the arena fighting and losing. Saejima and Morinaga fight in a similar way as Saejima and Aizawa do in the actual game. When the fight is over, Morinaga asks Saejima what happened to Aizawa, which Saejima tells him what happened at the docks. Morinaga becomes sad and talks about his friendship with Aizawa, which builds up Aizawa on how he was once honorable.
Finale part 3: Same thing happens, except when Daigo appears on the Kamurocho Hills ruff, Aizawa is the one who shoots Daigo instead of Kanai. It is here where Kurosawa reveals that Aizawa is his son.
Finale part 4: From what I remember, this was a build up chapter to the finale with a lot of cutscenes. Maybe have a few flashback cutscenes showing Aizawa's relationship (or lack of) with Kurosawa.
Finale part 5: Same thing happens, except in Aizawa and Kiryu's final showdown, Aizawa reveals how Kurosawa forced Aizawa to kill Morinaga and that was the final straw for Aizawa. Aizawa says similar things to what he actually says in the game and says how he is done with his father forcing him to do stuff and he throws down the katana and fights Kiryu like the game.
Imagine if majima was there
kiruy life would be much easier.
No majima everywhere.
Really cool video. I hope that your channel grows fast
Great video as always!
The Some instance of blood in Ramen Shop is actually blood. I mean rubber bullet can still penetrate soft part of body like gut or neck if shot from point blank range, like in the scene. It can be fatal too.
Saejima had fatally wounded someone then. Yeah he killed.
Plot twist wasn't that bad, I mean Katsuragi's plan was not bad, actually it was a good plan. But Taiga Saejima is the dumbest man I've ever known. It is not because he was falsely accused of murder with rubber bullets. It's because he didn't kill or at least knock out the man who is responsible for his 25 years in prison, his kyodai's one eye, his kyodai's one year of torture in the hole and the life of 18 'innocent' men. And if that was not enough, this man attempted to kill his sister Yasuko and Kiryu in front of Saejima. I don't know any reasons would be enough more than these to kill a man. But Saejima didn't kill him because of yakuza's stupid "no matter what no killing" good guy moral, and then because of his stupidity his sister had to died.
0:29 I just finished Kiwimai 2 and this image almost made me throw my phone 😂😂
Perhaps for another episode of Hannya's Advocate, you could maybe talk about the uncomfortable... "incident" between Saejima and Haruka and if that should diminish his credibility or likability as a character and if Kiryu's reaction was appropriate. Just an idea.
I think the issue is that the devs want to use Saejima and have him be a prominent character in the series. Thing is if he did actually kill 18 people, Saejima would definitly go back to prison of his own accord after yakuza 4 ended ( I remember Saejima said so himself in the game). Saejima is the type of person who if he did a crime, he will do the time without complaint. Of course if Saejima is stuck in prison, the devs can't really insert him in future games.
that said, experiencing Japanese prison through the character in Yakuza 5 was quite a memorable segment. Even if he'd never gotten out, that would have been worth doing
Now you gotta make a video about how Kiryu may or may not actually killed anybody.
Awesome video! Subscribed!
I love that idea hahahah
Thank you for the kind words!
People who claim Kiryu doesn't kill or has never killed anybody haven't been paying attention while playing these games.
@@randomatomizer6652 yeah I know, the bottom line was that Kiryu never killed anyone who wasn’t trying to harm him. He only kills as a last resort and in self defense (the dude in helicopter from yakuza 6, for example)
@@MONO4608 Nah man, that was the rubber helicopter, when it crashed it just bounced a few times and everyone inside was perfectly fine. ;)
@@mjc0961 thank god! And here I thought our favorite yakuza virgin was a serial killer
I prefer the jokes that came out of the twist rather than the twist itself
I'd love to hear your analysis on Mirror Face
If I can find an attempted Murder japan time, that'd be great.
The main issue is, as much as SEGA's trying to keep Saejima, I don't think any criminal justice system worth its stuff would just *let* someone who had the full intent to kill 18 people in cold blood off free.
That and I see Manslaughter can be for life if you piss off a judge enough. That alone makes me wonder why Saejima basically gets to get off easy.
I think the meta-narrative of the twist is the biggest gripe I had, specifically the idea that it was done to make Saejima more redeemable and easier to root for. In a series thats about redemption and seeing the best in people, it felt so removed from those themes because it implies that the game itself has contention with Saejima being fully responsible for the hit. The real betrayal of the rubber bullets twist is that it diminishes us, the audience, for siding with Saejima even when we thought he was a murderer. Though what Saejima did was obviously horrible, we sort of come to understand and forgive him for it in our own way during the famous arena scene.
Saejima is still one of my fav Yakuza characters because its clear that choice he made still weighs heavily on him and will do so for the rest of his life, so from that angle its not undermined. But it does feed into that "purity" narrative Yakuza games have.
(great vid btw! there were some shots fired at Y5's portrayal of Haruka so I'd love to see a vid on that because that was one of the few things I thought the story did well!)
I really dont mind it, its goofy but works in the setting. I wish they kept saejima as a killer and is troubled by what he's done, that really could of made him fresh and different from the other playable characters in 4.
I like the first case. I do however think that Arai shooting Munakata literally just after the rubber bullets were explained. That's just insane. Like it was just overdone
One tiny nitpick. You can't silence a revolver.
I think it goes past terrible and ends up just being hilarious
The most unnecessary plot twist in video game history, everybody
Honestly, it would have been really interesting if the rubber bullets plot device was only there for ambiguity rather than absolution - like Taiga would never be certain how many people he'd have killed, if he'd killed any at all. He'd still fixate on the fact he was completely willing to do this, but it wouldn't be a full clean slate.
Rubber bullets are better known as less lethal than non-lethal, and have known to cause fatalities when used in crowd riot suppression.
when i played Yakuza 4 for the first Time on PS 3 i found this to be a Brilliant Mindblowing Plot Twist
you said that this twist is good from a viewer's standpoint and i would agree with you if i played the game before i did, which was when the steam version released. The main problem then, was that i played the game about a year after the mass amount of protests in 2020, in which the real life police in the US used actual rubber bullets to shoot ppl, and the aftermath was way different than in the game, so using the same concept just felt really weird imo
maybe adding rubber bullets to plot was a mess, but it's still nothing compared to yakuza 5 with its forced boss fights with no reason for them to happen
Lore wise great but I swear i saw blood on the first saejima hit cutscene.
Personally i don't mind rubber bullets but my least favourite twist is mirror face like wtf
I'm considering making a separate video on that funnily enough. But yes, probably the most mind-boggling twist to date.
This was unironically when the series jumped the shark fr fr. No surprised 5 had idols and taxi racing. They just stop giving a shit
Kinda feel like every Yakuza game tramples the formers character developments and resolutions for the sake of a new plot tbh
Like they make almost every game near conclusive enough to be the last game in the franchise but it gets a sequel anyway
This series seems interesting and has a lot of potential, I'll sub and wait for more 😊
When I first experienced Yakuza 4's story, I honestly did not see the impact that rubber bullets had. It was just kind of mentioned and then not acknowledged. I hear where you're coming from, with how brilliant the twist could have been if implemented in a more efficient way. As I look back on Yakuza 4 and 5, I can definitely see that 5's representation of Saejima (as well as Kiryu and a few other characters) within its plot was absolutely skewed for the sake of the plot, which sucks. I can see all perspectives of the good and bad of rubber bullets in a better way because of your analysis, great work! :)
I am one who loves to joke about rubber bullets and such but on a deeper scale I've had a genuine emotional rollercoaster with them and Yakuza 4 in general.
The moment the rubber bullets explanation was given ingame, I completely lost it and I genuinely felt incredibly disappointed. The next I kept hating on the game for having a ridiculous plot in general. Then I would start thinking more as to why they even happened, realizing it's just RGG's way of sugarcoating things literal criminals are doing. Now I simply live with it and occasionally joke about it.
Can't believe I've been through all stages of grief due to a scene in Yakuza 4.
Yakuza is my favourite series and I like 4, but rubber bullets idea is horrible, it's impossible that Saejima wouldn't notice that nobody is dead or even bleeding, and everybody stayed down instead of "hey, this guy's guns/bullets are shit, fuck him up".
To be fair, that shootout was kinda cool.
I think my major issue with this plot twist is that rubber bullets, especially at some of these ranges have still been known to kill people so the fact that every person shot with them in this franchise survived being shot point blank or in the head with rubber bullets is complete nonsense.
Would love a video expanding on your thoughts regarding Yakuza 5. I've been playing through the games for the first time back to back, and I thought its narrative was terrible for all the reasons you listed towards the end of the video.
kazuma kir- uh I mean taiga saejima has never killed anyone
I’ve seen rational arguments for both sides, for both its brilliance and it stupidity. Personally, the fact of them being rubber bullets doesn’t bother me. It was a choice made by the writer and explained organically in the story. My issue is the reason for its existence stems from RGG’s ultimate unstated rule that every protagonist that is played-at the time they are played-is a character who has not killed, which honestly feels like a way of avoiding darker/grittier characters. They could’ve found a way to write in Saejima using lead rounds, but their constant insistence that the playable characters be relatively spotless of evil makes them come up with elaborate methods to keep those characters clean. That unwritten rule even even affects characters who more than likely already have killed others by the time we play as them. Case in point, Majima in the Majima Saga from Kiwami 2 and now the new Yakuza Pirate game. By that time in his career, Majima has definitely killed, but the second we take over, nope, he’ll let Kei Ibuchi live despite what he’s done.
Kiritsugu Emiya has never killed anyone!
I don’t hate it, because most of the stuff in yakuza 4 before the plot twist, was of the same effect, so if you just view the rubber bullets twist without context then yeah it’s awful, but if you had context then it loops round to being brilliant
It's awful.
I'm still under the impression that, while it doesn't ruin his character, the entire thing undermines Saejimas arc.
Because it was the perfect chance to really highlight the cruel business a yakuza has to partake in but that he may still be able to be somewhat redeemable. But this, the way the narrative is spun, almost turns him into a victim. Which is just not a reasonable thing to do.
Not only that but... Just. Why. (Nearly) Everyone in the shop was killed off anyway. There must've been multiple other, better, more believeable ways to execute the setup.
Be it in-universe or from the perspective of the writers.
Also, I dislike the meme. I'm sorry. The characters kill. Kiryu, Majima, Saejima kill. They might prefer not to or even delude themselves, but they do. Can't change my mind.
That being said, the way the actual Ueno Seiwa Hit scene was executed was pretty damn creative.
"The characters kill."
You say that, but RGG Studio says otherwise... We might discuss and argue for a long time, but the fact is that, no matter what we think or would like to think, officially they DON'T kill, is not a meme, it's just what the creators intend to. It's ridiculous, yes, but it is what it is.
@@leonardo25gabriel I've never seen any comment that makes it out to be definitive canon. The only thing I know of is Nagoshi saying that he does not want to glorify the act of killing/committing crimes like other video games do.
Meanwhile Kiryu himself implied multiple times that he will kill if necessary, even going so far as basically refuting Aoyamas claim that he doesn't kill. And the two highway shootouts are canon/mainstory content. Same with the helicopters he blew up. Very fittingly, his first official figure featured a gun as well. That's just a fun side fact though. Then of course, there is the over the top human shield moment.
And Majima... well, he was definitely intended to be a character who uses deadly force. He used to be a psychotic villian. He uses a knife. He nearly killed a subordinate in his first introduction. And he would've followed through if Kiryu didn't stop him at the last second.
Saejima was deadset on killing 18 men.
And he has the strength to knock out grizzlies. He definitely cut some lifes short. Out of self defense and not with the pure intenetion of course. But I guess, yea, if any of those three didn't kill, then it's him. There is no main story content that really implies otherwise.
I like 4 and I do think the dumb plot twists at the end rob it of being legit top 3 in the franchise
it was a brilliant invention kiryu can shot people whitout killing them
I hate how many yakuza fans are so obsessed with claiming the rubber bullets being "the worst plot twist" in the series, while there are so many silly and downright ridiculous twists within this franchise that i would argue are so much worse. Like a dragon's mirror face is straight up magic shit that gives the protagonists the resolution to their problem and gives them a fucking WIN in the end. But it almost never mentioned when such topics are discussed, like really? Do you mean to tell me that rubber bullets are somehow a less believable way to progress a story?
And its not only mirror face either, we have quite a few to pick from: everyone is Korean, CIA twin, almost the entirety of 5 - not super believable or very smart if you ask me. At some point if you like the series you just get used to all of this over the top stuff, I just cant see how rubber bullets is the worst offender here.
My only big problem with rb is its overuse, Arai shooting Munakata with them is really really dumb and I will never defend it.
P.s really would love to hear more on your thoughts on 5 btw, my biggest problem with it was that it literally shits over 4's ending and character resolutions which you mentioned here (except maybe Daigo which is the only old character they treated right) just to move forward the new conflicts along. No matter how hard I tried I just couldnt get over this.
Honestly I tend to forget about Mirror Face. Mirror Face is indeed ridiculously stupid, such an amazing master of disguise that he can completely change his body and face to be whoever he wants? Very very dumb. But despite all that, I forget about him. Maybe it's because "rubber bullets" is more memeable. Maybe it's because Mirror Face, despite being insanely stupid, doesn't completely change the way you think about a character. Rubber bullets make me wonder what they could have done with Saejima and his character if they had actually decided "Saejima did kill them after all" instead of going "lawl he didn't do it he's never killed a man in his life just like Kiryu", whereas Mirror Face makes me think "well that's stupid" but then that's the end of it because there's not that much to think about. If there's no Mirror Face, they could just pull a "wow you kicked my butt so now I respect you and will help you" with Tendo and done the exact same set-up. Wouldn't be the first time a villain had a change of heart and helped the good guys after a whoopin' after all. That happens to some extent in nearly every game.
I think fans would be more angry about mirror face if Ichiban's most emotional speech in the game was about something he did when he was younger and how the memory still haunts him etched in his mind, and how him admitting this was huge character growth... only to find that instead of Ichiban in the past it had been mirror face, and I guess we should just forget all that stuff about Ichiban remembering explictly carrying out the deed and it being burned into his brain
I love how Yakuza 4 fans immediate defense is "b-but Yakuza 5"
I'm probably the only person in my tight nit group of friends/writers who did not find this twist at all bad. Simply, because I didn't overthink it. Not that overthinking these types of twists are bad ways to critique, mind you. You are free to do so, and draw your own conclusions.
But the reason why I found it positive in a story sense? Conspiracies. The Like a Dragon games are full of them, it all jots down into the characters, their willingness to one up each other at the cost of someone who was unlucky enough to be in the middle of it, and Saejima is a GRUNT in the middle of all that, he doesn't ask questions, he does what he's told, thought he killed, get convicted and was staged for EXECUTION, only to realize later on in the story, he didn't kill anybody and someone else was going to walk away scot-free while HE was going to get executed.
Why the rubber bullets? Like I said, the guy who plotted all of it wanted to kill them himself. And if he's gonna walk away from it and let someone ELSE take the fall for it...? You see where I'm getting at? That's the conclusion I came to, but, of course. You don't have to read what I have to say and agree with me.
i love yakuza, but this twist is awful. the first off, it takes so much of the edge away from saejima as a character and makes the story much less impactful as a result. second, if your intent is to kill the clan any way, why would you give the cops or anyone the opportunity to find out you planned it by going back and killing them any way? that would be like hiring someone to rob a bank, only for them to have them intentionally steal fake bills, only for you to go back to the same bank to steal the real money yourself. third, it over complicates the story to make any already convoluted story that much more unnecessarily complicated. it is singlehandedly the worst plot point in the entire franchise, and this is coming from a series that had a secret brother of kiryu's mentor who happened to be a CIA agent come out of nowhere.
Yes I can laugh off and get on board with a lot of Yakuza nonsense, but the rubber bullets leaves a bad taste in my mouth
RGG Studios probably agrees because it never got that ridiculous since then
The longer this yakuza shit goes... you start to see it a little too clear. Where you stand in it...
As long as criminals that canonically commit no crimes and take the fall for their buddy are around… A guy like me, won’t even get a sniff of being a protagonist...
But maybe… Maybe if I was more like you. More of a "guy that thought he did a bad thing but actually it was a frame-job"… Maybe then…
*Judgement spoiler below*
For real though, after you've played a couple of RGG games you really start to recognise their formula and it detracts just a tiny bit from the drama imo. And it doesn't just extend to outright crimes like Saejima being a hitman. When Judgement came to PC and I finally got to play it, I loved it, but it was obvious from the get-go they wouldn't allow Yagami's backstory to stick. He stopped being a lawyer because he defended a man who then went on to kill? The moment you hear that, anyone who's played these games before is already thinking "I wonder which chapter they'll reveal this was all a conspiracy in". It was a really interesting setup for Yagami's character, a great explanation for why he quit being a lawyer, *and* it was poignant that Yagami hadn't actually done anything wrong since it was his responsibility to defend the client as much as possible. But they just can't resist, "no guilt for you mr protagonist, it was a conspiracy"
I hated this twist. It retroactively cheapened Saejima's actions, sacrifice and motivations so much to me. Saejima's refusal to murder in the colloseum and pouring out his guilt while rebuking the bloodthirsty audience hit so hard and was such a good show for a man that can, and truly wants be redeemed for the horrible crime he committed in his youth. It was so compelling that he instantly became my favorite character in 4. Then the plot twist was revealed and so much of the emotional weight in Saejima's character is just gone, God forbid a criminal did bad things in the past.
Saejima was so compelling to me because he was guilty, having been innocent all along he just looks like a moron to me now and I can barely take him seriously when I replay 4. Judgment does a much better job at portraying the innocent but convicted man in Okubo and it's not even close.
I think it was completely fine.
Still not as bad as The Adoring Fan's death scene from Chorekuza 3 (it's so bad it killed Kiryu as a character for me, in fact, what with highlighting his inability to learn from past mistakes).
Personaly it makes Saejima look like an idiotif he inspected the guns and the ammo then he is an idiot clearly that is rubber if he didnt he is an idiot, also to me it does lesson his personal growth over them as i feel like he didnt directly do it and most off all i just feel it is forced to keep yakuza main charecters good guys that dont do bad things unless really nessery like i get kiryu and i would want it no other way with him but these are gangsters non of the playeble charecters can commit a murder and be shown completly devestated by it
Saejima was a child and basically a punk kid
I love it when Yakuza 4 fans bash 5 despite both having the same issues... shitting on another game just to praise another isn't proper defense.
Saejima is a crack! I understand the point of Majima respecting him so much. He is hard to ruin. I totally agree about the 5th game’s bullshit but even if everyone in it is completely out of character, Saejima isn't. And he says something that shivers me every time I remember it.
Is not about a place or clan to return to, is about being with people meaningful to you. Btw, I at this point take his imprisonment like a universal law of Physics. If he is not in jail, something terrible will happen to all human kind
I still can't believe the moment I started up Y6 and the Tojo bois, Saejima included, went "We are going to prison." I just... couldn't.
I think the rubber bullets were an OK plottwist, they're just horribly overused
this video was cool but unfortunately it was recommended to me for literally no reason directly before I actually got to the reveal and spoiled it for me so I'll forever hate you blame you for ruining my life
On retrospective it's a pretty stupid plot twist, but by far the worst storytelling execution in any game has to be yasuko's death, if this already was a bad sign that the story would take a nosedive, that scene shat on every credibility of that ever being good.
The rubber bullets ruins that amazing Saejima massacre cutscene for me.. it feels like the writers didn't feel Saejima could be redeemable if he actually did it
Off Topic but I absolutely adore Akiyama's entire act and character in 4
W STORY REAL PEAK STORYTELLING ONLY GENIUSES UNDERSTAND
Rubber Bullet twist was fine, I think it was done splendidly for Saejima's 18 count hit and it ties into his guilt of ending the lives of the 18 that day that resulted in his purgatory speech which was peak characterization moments of earlier yakuza games
I think the problem lies in the 2nd to 4th execution (Yes, 4th being Akiyama being shot) and the twist overstayed its welcome; alongside all the plot holes you've pointed out in Munakata and Arai's scenes
Ueno hit scene alongside orphanage scenes in Y4 are what made me like Saejima, he's not your common low life criminal nor a glorified Yakuza legend, it humanizes him and I can at least appreciate that in the writing
We don't talk about Y5 though, it's a massive blunder - yet I'd like to see your take on Park and if she deserves the hate or not from the community
I think Saejima going back to prison was more so having to do with him breaking out of jail. Sure he didn't kill those 18 guys, he still broke out of jail.
Honestly I hated it. These goofy twist would happen often within the series to where I wasn't able to take the story in any of these games seriously till Yakuza 0 happen
I think the rubber bullets plotline was a good sacrifice to keep Saejima in the series.
I’m not sure how he would’ve avoided going straight back to prison if he’d actually killed those guys.
A good lawyer?
@@3Guys1Video Date was willing to find him a good lawyer but Saejima said nah
@@seunglee6990 bruh
Rubber bullets changes nothing. Saejima still went thought with the act with full intentions of killing.
Also even though Saejima didn’t directly kill them he still indirectly caused their deaths as if he never showed up then Katsuragi wouldn’t have been able to do it himself and have the blame planted on someone else.
Saejima not killing means he did it all for nothing and lived a lie for 25 years.
The twist is stupid because it’s supposed to be, it’s even brought up in the game it’s self how it was such a stupid plan and it shouldn’t have worked.
Also defending Yakuza 5 and how you said it contradicts yakuza 4, specifically with Kiryu.
Yea in 4 Kiryu said he wasn’t gonna run away anymore but he did in 5. However there’s nearly a 3 year gap between games Kiryu could have easily been there for the Tojo clan for 3 years as we know he was only in Nagasugai for a few month prior to the game starting. Kiryu was blackmailed by Park to leave and he changed his identity and moved to not let his Yakuza image to effect Harukas shot and being an idol.
At that point screw the Tojo, his kids are far more important then a clan that can’t be stable for a single day.
Awful. It' s just awful
I believe the plot twist was an incredible part of Saejima's character. At least to me it shows that you don't always need a character to regret the lives he took when he really didnt after all, and having it feel real to him for decades is plenty, especially being in the slammer for a setup like this. It's all very good reasons why ppl love Saejima's character
the rubber bullets twist will never not be extremely funny to me and Yakuza 4 is my personal favorite in the series I just love how out of nowhere it is
anyone realise that money cant stop bullets because its paper so how did akiyama's stack of money stop a bullet
Because it's a lot of paper, and the bullet didn't have enough energy to break through the entire stack. If Akiyama had been shot with a rifle instead of a handgun, he'd have been a goner.
That's the idea anyway. I haven't done any scientific testing to figure out how thick a stack of money you actually need to stop a handgun bullet, but of all the other nonsense that happens in these games (why is any character that gets shot but lives able to go back to fighting full strength just a few hours later as if they had never been shot, Arai had just shot Kido but Kido was perfectly fine to go balls out against Saejima. I suppose I do have to give Yakuza 5 kudos for portraying Kiryu getting shot more realistically for once. The gut shot in the finale I mean, not the leg shot at the end of his section that also disappeared immediately), Akiyama's money stack stopping a bullet isn't even registering on my BS meter.