I used to be tickled to see the actor behind Yakuza 0’s breakout villain kicking his personal ass within the game
On: July 22, 2023
Hitoshi Ozawa, the voice actor and face mannequin for Yakuza 0 antagonist Daisaku Kuze, created a sequence of let’s play movies final 12 months where he began tackling the game that bears his likeness. Now, because of Yakuza fan channel Dragon Enterprise, a few of these movies have been translated to English for our enjoyment.
There’s so much to advocate in Yakuza 0, the breakout PC entry in Sega’s long-running sequence of crime melodramas, however I am a very large fan of its three important villains. Ozawa, alongside fellow actors Hideao Nakano and Riki Takeuchi, provided voice and likeness to the three ruthless Yakuza lieutenants that face off in opposition to protagonist Kiryu in 1988. There’s not so much on the market that beats the full-send efficiency of those salty, craggy-faced character actors, and it is particularly a hoot once they tear off their shirts for a boss struggle and are insanely ripped.
Ozawa’s Kuze specifically is an actual winner: a washed up, impotently wrathful former boxer who hounds Kiryu all through the game throughout a number of boss fights, slowly rising from a loathsome villain right into a weirdly noble, tragic determine. He is additionally simply acquired an absolute banger of a boss theme.
The actual important occasion within the Dragon Enterprise movies is seeing Ozawa sq. off with himself. He begins the video where he takes on Kuze by declaring, “Kuze, I’ll take off your finger,” and I gotta say, he makes good on the promise. So far as “individuals who do not normally play video games enjoying video games on digital camera as a bit” goes (see additionally: Conan O’Brien’s Clueless Gamer), Hitoshi Ozawa kinda kicks ass at Yakuza 0.
He is on the game’s simple mode, however nonetheless—it is not that a lot simpler than regular, and I keep in mind getting my tooth kicked in by Kuze, continually chugging therapeutic power drinks simply to outlive his knockdown combos. Highlights of the struggle embrace Ozawa musing concerning the warmth motion glow coming off the characters maybe being cartoon stink traces, and in addition him accusing Kiryu of “dishonest” by bringing a baseball bat to the struggle (then persevering with to make use of the bat anyway).
You’ll be able to take a look at Dragon Enterprise’s channel for extra fan-translated Yakuza-related movies, however I am nonetheless simply in awe of Ozawa’s private YouTube channel. A personality actor with a particular face who makes you go “Hey, it is that man! Hell yeah!” everytime you see him is without doubt one of the leisure business’s biggest treasures, and to have a full YouTube channel devoted to one among them? Now that is a deal with. I am imagining a brand new, stunning world of Eric Bogosian restaurant opinions and Paul Walter Hauser life-style vids. We are able to make this world a actuality.
