Judgment Gets Character Redesign After The Arrest of Actor Pierre Taki

Work on the Yakuza spinoff Judgment was suddenly halted when actor Pierre Taki was arrested last month for cocaine use. While Pierre Taki was widely known for his work in the music industry as Denki Groove’s frontman, he was also one of the acting talents hired for Judgment. In the game, Taki portrayed Kyohei Hamura, captain of the Matsugane Family. Following the news of his arrest and subsequent fall from grace, SEGA suspended Judgment entirely, pulling it from shelves and stopping any work toward it’s worldwide release.

A little more than a month later, SEGA graced the gaming community with excellent news. Not only has Taki’s character, Hamura, been re-cast, redesigned, and remodeled, but it seems work on the worldwide release is once again back on track. Judgment will be available on PS4 consoles around the world starting on June 25 - less than two months from now.

Fans of the Yakuza franchise have been waiting on Judgment for quite a while now, but even with the news about the character design and the worldwide release officially dated for June 25, there’s still a little conflict. From what we’ve seen, the gaming community is split in two about whether or not they like the new character design for Hamura. Some miss the original model's more menacing, crazed looks, while others are happier with the new model’s more fearsome, serious aura. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how the new guy plays the role, but one thing’s for sure: Everyone’s happy that the worldwide release has overcome this major obstacle.

Of course, just the fact that the community remains undecided regarding the new character model already says a lot about how well it was put together. Developer RGG Studio was able to come up with a brand-new character model for Hamura only a month after Taki’s arrest. Despite whatever opinions players may have, that’s nothing short of an impressive feat. The original Hamura designs must have taken months of development to come out the way they did. The new Hamura model looks just as polished and refined, so hats off to the folks over at RGG Studio who must have been working overtime this past month just for us gamers.

What do you think about the character redesign for Kyohei Hamura? Do you like the old one better, or the new one? Let us know what you think in the comments section below!