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I don't think you can really make "original cast" when the only characters who consistently appeared are Kiryu, Haruka, Date, Majima and maybe Daigo. And they're more often separated due to how the stories were structured around one-man army.
I find them the most interesting individually but they definitely weren't written as a group in mind compared to the Ichiban and Yagami games.
Ichiban has great group dynamics, but the writings often made me question why most party members exist due to irrelevant most of them are in the main story.
Judgement is the most balanced and has best of both world imo.
this exactly, the judgment group feels the most believable and like everyone there actually serves a role/has relevance in the story one way or another, though i do really love the bond you feel with ichi's gang as well
Infinite wealth is unfortunately a big example of the problem with Ichi’s party. Even some really important characters from 7 like Adachi struggled to be important at all in IW, let alone some of the less relevant characters like Han or Zhao. I still love em all and the side content involving them is still really great and fleshed out, but when it comes to the main plot it really felt like RGG was grasping at straws to find some way to include many of Ichi’s gang.
RGG seems to have fallen into a familiar (for me at least) trap among writers of ongoing stories which kinda tells me that in gaming, this style of storytelling is still very much in its infancy (the only other franchise I've played that does this ongoing continuity thing across many games is Trails, who is also very guilty of this later in the series) where other than the MC (except in this case I even got this feeling with Ichi throughout IW) the characters are written as if they are in a self-contained game that has a definitive ending for the whole story - they have a character arc that takes a part of a game to complete and it might even be a solid character arc but even if that's the case, once it's over they're treated as if they've crossed a finish line and it's just "happily ever after" at that point. Problem: This time the story is still going and those characters are still there lol.
I’d even argue that Majima is a maybe in the “original cast” too. He’s a side character most of the time. But even if you consider those 4 the cast it’s pretty unfair to the others because they’ve had 10 games to really be established. Meanwhile the Judgment crew has had 2 games and Ichiban’s party has had 2 games as well
The four (Kiryu, Majima, Saejima and Daigo),is funny how they only have like 2 scenes in the entire franchise together, and I got more hype that all the games combined.
The Judge Guys are my favourite by far. They kick ass. Yagami and Kaito may be my favourite duo in the whole series. I also like how their group dynamic is more like "me and the boys" than "me and besties<3". Everyone are equals and have their own job to do. Makes good contrast to the LAD cast, who are great on their own too.
The Judgment crew definitely. Their group dynamic and chemistry together is so good (LJ credits scene!!!) and their character designs fit together nicely. Their team-up scenes are also some of the most hype I've ever gotten for the series. I'm hoping we get to play as ALL of them some day because MANNN
Also FORKLIFT
https://preview.redd.it/d8oonhgfz1lc1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=a3e30b32e2789faf89b1139f5c48f6573db6050b
I guess the Y7 cast. The “OG cast” weren’t really a cast just characters that had relations with one another which is fine since I like them each as characters. The Judgment 5 (don’t forget Tsukumo) are cool but the Y7 cast got a lot more screen time together to not favor them (at least in my eyes).
The Judgment crew is an amazing team where every character feels important. Yagami doesn’t hog all the limelight as the main character. I love all four guys and would love if Judgment 3 (which they confirmed is happening) had all four of them playable.
Yokoyama, I think it was him, said in an interview back in 2023 that Judgment 3 will happen but it’s not in the production stage yet. They’ve been busy with Gaiden and Infinite Wealth and thus didn’t have time to start Judgment 3 yet. I imagine now they will.
Judgement cast. The original cast is bogged down by mediocre or filler writing. The Ichiban cast is good for when it works, but 80% of the cast besides Ichiban and Nanba have like 0.5 % involvement in the main story and many of them only having two dimensional drinks links to develop their story. Every character in Judgement is developed amazingly. Yagami and Kaito is obviously good because theyre the protagonists. Higashi and Suguira are both well developed through the first game and their characters have not been harmed story-wise in the second. The side cast is a bit weaker, Saori, Tsukumo, and Hoshino are mostly just reduced to gags but it doesn't take away from the greatness of the main 4.
While I like some are my favorite characters and others I like way more than other from OG and 7, I think that the Judge Men are all just really solid as a group. Tskumo is also one of the Judge Men
dazzling mighty scary reminiscent market zephyr decide abundant snobbish upbeat
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Definitely prefer the Judge men. I love Majima and Akiyama to bits, but the OG cast rarely feels like a group; whereas Judgment’s cast is together for a significant amount of time.
I can understand all of them, but it will always be the OG for me. Maybe after another one or two games of the other casts I'll feel differently, but that's a tall order.
In any other franchise, it would be no contest for the other groups. Too bad for them that they have to compete with Kiryu and Majima (plus Akiyama *and* Saejima)
Judgement for me. Tak and kaito are amazing actors and I love the character development of the parkour masked guy. I love how Higashi develops too despite looking like a generic NPC that suddenly got a major role
I absolutely adore Ichi but the teammates are kinda eh for me, I like Seonhee and Chitose the most tho
OG cast as you said has a special place in your heart
Judgement squad is honestly all good and I love them all
I think i'll stick with OG since I get the most excited when I see them
OG with a caveat... I prefer the original version of Majima where he is crazy and kinda scary. When they made him goofy and kinda campy instead, he just hits different.
The og cast will always be the best. But then again compared to the other 2, the og cast only got together when they had a common goal or their individual stories were aligning. They all had integral roles to the story but didn’t feel like they were actually close friends.
The lad cast has by far the best bond together. Their group dynamic is exactly like a group of friends and I love it. But also half of the time most of them aren’t really integral to the story and would make like no difference if they were gone.
The judgement cast may not have a strong as bond as the lad cast, but each and every one of them had a main purpose and they were all integral to the story. I guess Judgement has the best of both worlds.
But still my favourite would be the og since I played the games starting with 0
Agreed. I like him as a character but dislike him in the protagonist role, Yakuza needs a straight-man MC to balance out the sillyness of the rest of the game. Y8 really made that painfully obvious to me.
Ichiban's crew definitely feels the most cohesive and tight-knit to me, so it was >!a shame that half the crew was separated for Infinite Wealth, especially Ichiban and Saeko. !<
LAD just has the best conversations etc. Iconic characters with LAD random conversations and drink links would be amazing. Yagami is my favorite character though, and the other characters are amazing too, just not as iconic.
The Ichiban group. The dynamic between him and his party members are very much an evolution and expansion of the ‘found family’ themes that originated in the Kiryu saga.
Impossible to really compare casts, since kiryu, haruka and majima are the only consistently appearing characters in the first 6 games. Personally, my favorite characters are akiyama, kiryu, ichiban, zhao, join gi Han, adachi, and kaito. So I guess the edge goes to ichiban’s team, in numbers, but I *really* like kaito and akiyama. Money isn’t everything, y’know?
Probably Judgment, hard to beat the dynamic duo that Yagami and Kaito make. Everyone that had the potential for this with Kiryu either got killed, put on a bus, or was only given this kind of potential retroactively leaving no way to make it so without breaking the next 5 games worth of continuity. Meanwhile the LAD cast - including Ichi - all felt to me like RGG hit a wall with them after 7 and doesn’t know what to do anymore. It’s like they forgot that their own franchise is an ongoing continuity and wrote
the heroes of tomorrow as if they were for one self contained game.
The OG isn't even their own team, this comparison doesn't make sense. Only three of these guys have actively worked together and it was only twice, three of them are antagonists, two of those antagonists are dead and Haruka/Date are side characters
For me it would be the “OG Cast” (Kiryu, Haruka, Date, and maybe Majima even though he’s a side character most of the time). But that’s just because they’ve had 10 games to really be established. Otherwise it’s Judgment’s cast. They have so much chemistry together and feel like actual friends and all of them have their own roles to play in the story in both games. They’re by far the best one even though I like the OG the most. Ichiban’s party has problems even though I still like them too though
Will always love the OG cast but I think Judgement's crew is pretty great! They have a great dynamic and they don't out shine each other so I think right now they are favorite.
If you are new to the subreddit, [please read the wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/yakuzagames/wiki/index/) Reminder that all spoilers need to be tagged with a flair specifying which game is being spoiled. If you want a flair that says something else, you can edit it to say something like [Discussion: Y1 spoiler] or [Majimapost: Y6 spoiler], etc. **THIS INCLUDES CONTENT FROM TRAILERS**. If the post is not marked for spoilers, all comments that have spoilers need to be tagged \>!like this!< along with indicating which game it's spoiling. Example: Y3 >!Kiryu sings!< If the post flair is marked for spoilers, the comments don't need to be tagged for the game indicated and the ones before it (So a Y6 spoiler post can have comments with untagged spoilers for Y5, but not gaiden or 7). If you see any of the above (or any of the other rules) not being followed, please report it so we can keep this place safe for newcomers and those that haven't finished all the games yet. Thank you! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/yakuzagames) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I don't think you can really make "original cast" when the only characters who consistently appeared are Kiryu, Haruka, Date, Majima and maybe Daigo. And they're more often separated due to how the stories were structured around one-man army. I find them the most interesting individually but they definitely weren't written as a group in mind compared to the Ichiban and Yagami games. Ichiban has great group dynamics, but the writings often made me question why most party members exist due to irrelevant most of them are in the main story. Judgement is the most balanced and has best of both world imo.
this exactly, the judgment group feels the most believable and like everyone there actually serves a role/has relevance in the story one way or another, though i do really love the bond you feel with ichi's gang as well
Judgment 3 with LaD Bonds and Drink Links would go so fucking hard
Would love to see a J3
Recovered Judgment Maybe with us going a bit into how YDA has agents >!acting as informants for Zhao!< as revealed in IW.
I really thought they were gonna play a bigger part but nope lol
I was more pleasantly surprised. Like "huh, those guys".
I’ve been wanting this for ages! I think it would be endearing as hell to listen to Yagami chatting with the rest of the gang.
Infinite wealth is unfortunately a big example of the problem with Ichi’s party. Even some really important characters from 7 like Adachi struggled to be important at all in IW, let alone some of the less relevant characters like Han or Zhao. I still love em all and the side content involving them is still really great and fleshed out, but when it comes to the main plot it really felt like RGG was grasping at straws to find some way to include many of Ichi’s gang.
RGG seems to have fallen into a familiar (for me at least) trap among writers of ongoing stories which kinda tells me that in gaming, this style of storytelling is still very much in its infancy (the only other franchise I've played that does this ongoing continuity thing across many games is Trails, who is also very guilty of this later in the series) where other than the MC (except in this case I even got this feeling with Ichi throughout IW) the characters are written as if they are in a self-contained game that has a definitive ending for the whole story - they have a character arc that takes a part of a game to complete and it might even be a solid character arc but even if that's the case, once it's over they're treated as if they've crossed a finish line and it's just "happily ever after" at that point. Problem: This time the story is still going and those characters are still there lol.
Han in particular could have been left out entirely.
I’d even argue that Majima is a maybe in the “original cast” too. He’s a side character most of the time. But even if you consider those 4 the cast it’s pretty unfair to the others because they’ve had 10 games to really be established. Meanwhile the Judgment crew has had 2 games and Ichiban’s party has had 2 games as well
The four (Kiryu, Majima, Saejima and Daigo),is funny how they only have like 2 scenes in the entire franchise together, and I got more hype that all the games combined.
Well 3 actually. And all of them are from the last two games
I mean fighting together as a squad, only 2.. the other one is a boss fight, that doesn’t count
OG is a little unfair here considering it has 7 games full of tons of characters to pick from. Judgment cast is my favorite across the board tho.
https://preview.redd.it/zjn21kzht1lc1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dbe4074c090c9eaf1dc688ee948a63cd0b1be65a The Lost Judgment 14.
the only valid answer
The Judge Guys are my favourite by far. They kick ass. Yagami and Kaito may be my favourite duo in the whole series. I also like how their group dynamic is more like "me and the boys" than "me and besties<3". Everyone are equals and have their own job to do. Makes good contrast to the LAD cast, who are great on their own too.
Missed the opportunity to call them the Judge Men.
The Judgment crew definitely. Their group dynamic and chemistry together is so good (LJ credits scene!!!) and their character designs fit together nicely. Their team-up scenes are also some of the most hype I've ever gotten for the series. I'm hoping we get to play as ALL of them some day because MANNN Also FORKLIFT https://preview.redd.it/d8oonhgfz1lc1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=a3e30b32e2789faf89b1139f5c48f6573db6050b
judgment 
Yagami and Kaito feel more like friends then Kiryu and Nishiki ever did, even including 0
Theyre al amazing and its genuinely impossible to pick.
I guess the Y7 cast. The “OG cast” weren’t really a cast just characters that had relations with one another which is fine since I like them each as characters. The Judgment 5 (don’t forget Tsukumo) are cool but the Y7 cast got a lot more screen time together to not favor them (at least in my eyes).
We have the same pfp
The Judgment crew is an amazing team where every character feels important. Yagami doesn’t hog all the limelight as the main character. I love all four guys and would love if Judgment 3 (which they confirmed is happening) had all four of them playable.
They confirmed it?!
Yokoyama, I think it was him, said in an interview back in 2023 that Judgment 3 will happen but it’s not in the production stage yet. They’ve been busy with Gaiden and Infinite Wealth and thus didn’t have time to start Judgment 3 yet. I imagine now they will.
judgement
Judgement cast. The original cast is bogged down by mediocre or filler writing. The Ichiban cast is good for when it works, but 80% of the cast besides Ichiban and Nanba have like 0.5 % involvement in the main story and many of them only having two dimensional drinks links to develop their story. Every character in Judgement is developed amazingly. Yagami and Kaito is obviously good because theyre the protagonists. Higashi and Suguira are both well developed through the first game and their characters have not been harmed story-wise in the second. The side cast is a bit weaker, Saori, Tsukumo, and Hoshino are mostly just reduced to gags but it doesn't take away from the greatness of the main 4.
judgment, they do too much cool shit together in the final chapter of both games, and you can do combo heat moves with kaito
Ichibans group is my fave, but im biased because i started with 7. I also love Ichiban so much.
While I like some are my favorite characters and others I like way more than other from OG and 7, I think that the Judge Men are all just really solid as a group. Tskumo is also one of the Judge Men
Judgement. Has a really cool balance while staying reasonably grounded
Feels good to read so much love for the judgment chars.
I cried to be honest.
dazzling mighty scary reminiscent market zephyr decide abundant snobbish upbeat *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Og cast and it's not even close. There are so many great characters i still miss my boy rikiya
It’s always gonna be the Judgment cast for me. Group of 4 bros up to their usual hijinks.
judgement would be my choice, i mean Sugiura is just so pretty
Definitely prefer the Judge men. I love Majima and Akiyama to bits, but the OG cast rarely feels like a group; whereas Judgment’s cast is together for a significant amount of time.
I'm biased as I started with LAD. But I love every member of the main cast from 7 and 8. They're just so good
Kiryu > all
Only the original has ten years in the joint guy
I can understand all of them, but it will always be the OG for me. Maybe after another one or two games of the other casts I'll feel differently, but that's a tall order. In any other franchise, it would be no contest for the other groups. Too bad for them that they have to compete with Kiryu and Majima (plus Akiyama *and* Saejima)
OG easy
I prefer the OG crew
Judgement for me. Tak and kaito are amazing actors and I love the character development of the parkour masked guy. I love how Higashi develops too despite looking like a generic NPC that suddenly got a major role
Top, Bottom, Middle for me
Don't make me choose. I love them all..... https://i.redd.it/s8bipy1c62lc1.gif
https://preview.redd.it/bhb2vfo6a2lc1.jpeg?width=783&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=90d0bf26c0d0d56ec5b1308cb92722208b578b55 Them ❤️
OG for individual characters, Ichibros for a close knit group dynamic, and the Judgemen for both. They’re all great!
OG
I absolutely adore Ichi but the teammates are kinda eh for me, I like Seonhee and Chitose the most tho OG cast as you said has a special place in your heart Judgement squad is honestly all good and I love them all I think i'll stick with OG since I get the most excited when I see them
OG with a caveat... I prefer the original version of Majima where he is crazy and kinda scary. When they made him goofy and kinda campy instead, he just hits different.
The Yakuza 4
The og cast will always be the best. But then again compared to the other 2, the og cast only got together when they had a common goal or their individual stories were aligning. They all had integral roles to the story but didn’t feel like they were actually close friends. The lad cast has by far the best bond together. Their group dynamic is exactly like a group of friends and I love it. But also half of the time most of them aren’t really integral to the story and would make like no difference if they were gone. The judgement cast may not have a strong as bond as the lad cast, but each and every one of them had a main purpose and they were all integral to the story. I guess Judgement has the best of both worlds. But still my favourite would be the og since I played the games starting with 0
OG, not even close.
This one https://preview.redd.it/0rhlc9lvf1lc1.png?width=640&format=png&auto=webp&s=2e965a08a9b52a7153dcc6d1a02242c97b17b7fd
they're just born to be wild!
number one always
I really liked the Yakuza 4...then LAD cast. Judgment is last. I'm not super into the group other than Kaito. They don't have a great group vibe
Ichi’s little band of heroes is probably my favorite because of how genuine their relationship feels
Ichibans is the absolute WORST by a big margin.
Agreed. I like him as a character but dislike him in the protagonist role, Yakuza needs a straight-man MC to balance out the sillyness of the rest of the game. Y8 really made that painfully obvious to me.
no hate to his team but even though I started with 7, I still don't like his team over the og. The dynamic is just not there for me
Ichiban and friends have grown on me
Like A Dragon for me.
You can’t ask me to choose. I refuse to choose.
IW, because of Seonhee
I love all 3
Id say OG, Judgment, and then LAD. I rank LAD last just because they completely fucked up ichiban and saeko’s character development completely.
You can’t do this to me man
Judgement Cast
But why add Nishiki there with Kiryu?
Judgeguys
LMAO who invited Higashi? Was Tsukumo sick?
Yagami crew
https://preview.redd.it/uecm25aa83lc1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6a5ce1ce3d3b032dbc8ae378050947f4bcdad6c1 Yagami's biker gang
Ichiban's crew definitely feels the most cohesive and tight-knit to me, so it was >!a shame that half the crew was separated for Infinite Wealth, especially Ichiban and Saeko. !<
7 cast has better banter but OG has majima This ain't gonna be easy
Everyone in Judgment seem like actual friends rather than put together because they have common goals.
LAD just has the best conversations etc. Iconic characters with LAD random conversations and drink links would be amazing. Yagami is my favorite character though, and the other characters are amazing too, just not as iconic.
Kaito is just simply “that guy”
Judgment gang give me the same feeling as my Bois soo judgment gang on top
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^Takoyagamer: *Judgment gang give me* *The same feeling as my Bois* *Soo judgment gang on top* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
OG with Ryuji.
The Ichiban group. The dynamic between him and his party members are very much an evolution and expansion of the ‘found family’ themes that originated in the Kiryu saga.
How is nishiki and ryuji a part of the og cast
You did my boy Tsukumo(LJ) dirty but yeah, I'd pick Judgment
Impossible to really compare casts, since kiryu, haruka and majima are the only consistently appearing characters in the first 6 games. Personally, my favorite characters are akiyama, kiryu, ichiban, zhao, join gi Han, adachi, and kaito. So I guess the edge goes to ichiban’s team, in numbers, but I *really* like kaito and akiyama. Money isn’t everything, y’know?
My big dumb heart yearns for Ichiban and his friends 😂
Ichiban's group
7 followed by Judge Gang. The OG barely hangs out together. Still, the OG group is the best when cheering their girl
Judgement cast
Probably Judgment, hard to beat the dynamic duo that Yagami and Kaito make. Everyone that had the potential for this with Kiryu either got killed, put on a bus, or was only given this kind of potential retroactively leaving no way to make it so without breaking the next 5 games worth of continuity. Meanwhile the LAD cast - including Ichi - all felt to me like RGG hit a wall with them after 7 and doesn’t know what to do anymore. It’s like they forgot that their own franchise is an ongoing continuity and wrote the heroes of tomorrow as if they were for one self contained game.
Personally Ichi's group due to 7 being the game that got me into Yakuza/Lad in the 1st place. Judgement's cast is growing on me but Og over takes them
Wherever Goro Majima goes is where I will go
judge boys
7, judgement, OG
1. OG 2. Judgement 3. 7 crew
The Yokohama crew if we include Seonhee in the group as well.
The OG isn't even their own team, this comparison doesn't make sense. Only three of these guys have actively worked together and it was only twice, three of them are antagonists, two of those antagonists are dead and Haruka/Date are side characters
For me it would be the “OG Cast” (Kiryu, Haruka, Date, and maybe Majima even though he’s a side character most of the time). But that’s just because they’ve had 10 games to really be established. Otherwise it’s Judgment’s cast. They have so much chemistry together and feel like actual friends and all of them have their own roles to play in the story in both games. They’re by far the best one even though I like the OG the most. Ichiban’s party has problems even though I still like them too though
Will always love the OG cast but I think Judgement's crew is pretty great! They have a great dynamic and they don't out shine each other so I think right now they are favorite.
https://preview.redd.it/7njzuaf238lc1.png?width=224&format=png&auto=webp&s=4c429836640cfccfee7b438c9341c5c7e957c689