Characters / Yakuza: Like a Dragon — The Heroes of Tomorrow

Like a Dragon | Main Index
Character-Specific Pages: Kazuma Kiryu | Goro Majima | Akira Nishikiyama | Ichiban Kasuga
Yakuza | Yakuza 2 | Yakuza 3 | Yakuza 4 | Yakuza 5 | Like a Dragon: Ishin! | Yakuza 0 (Dojima Lieutenants | Kamurocho Residents | Sotenbori Residents) | Yakuza 6 | Yakuza: Like a Dragon (The Heroes of Tomorrow) | Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name | Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
Judgment (Takayuki Yagami) | Lost Judgment

The Heroes of Tomorrow

Tropes that apply to the team in general

• Action Survivor: Eri, Saeko and Nanba have no formal experience or training with fighting unlike Kasuga (street brawling and wrestling), Adachi (judo), Joon-Gi Han (knife fighting, gunplay, and kickboxing), and Zhao (Chinese sword fighting and martial arts) ^note Although, in the cases of Saeko and Nanba, the former is skilled in boxercising and the latter has, at least, a hypothetical knowledge of Cane Fu, which is why he fights with an umbrella. Doesn't stop them from being just as effective and keeping up with the rest of the team. Infinite Wealth adds in Eric and Chitose, who are a taxi driver and a student respectively (albeit ones who've respectively seen action as a former mobster and trained in capoeira).
• The Alcoholic: All of them are heavy drinkers and the Survive bar even acts as their home base/hangout. Drinking too much, however, will cause them to attack allies during combat.
• Almighty Janitor:
  • The group in Like A Dragon, collectively, is an ex-Yakuza with no formal education, a disgraced police officer who's pushing 60, a homeless ex-nurse, a bar hostess, an office clerk, and two ex-mobsters. The seven of them are ultimately the linchpins in stopping what amounts to a country-wide coup that would put a Yakuza-linked tyrant on the path to becoming Prime Minister of Japan.
  • Infinite Wealth continues this, but adds another gangster, a cab driver, a student who is actually heiress to a billion dollar company and also moonlights as an investigative journalist, and of course, the legendary Kazuma Kiryu himself - all of whom stop a shady government deal with a cult and an upstart yakuza gang.
• Amazon Brigade: Becomes possible to invoke this during Infinite Wealth in Premium Adventure, as Kiryu/Ichiban can have Chitose, Saeko, and Seonhee as active members if they so please.
• Ambiguously Bi: Probably due to Gameplay and Story Segregation but to name a few:
  • The Night Queen's Essence of Titillating Claws, which is a healing skill that involves groping an ally. The female party members can use this move on each other.
  • Saeko has a Kiss of Life skill that is as effective on the women as much as the men. Seonhee in particular even says that she doesn't mind getting kissed again upon waking up.
  • All of the party members are subjectable to the Charm status, including the men, and it should be noted all of the enemies fought in the game are male. Likewise, the Host class can charm enemies, and the Golden/Platinum Finger skill involves seducing an enemy with suave hand gestures in attempt to steal an item.
  • In Infinite Wealth, the girls are just as excited as the guys to go to Cabaret Clubs and see the dancers. In fact, there are hostesses and dancers that appeal specifically to women. It doesn't go unnoticed by the party that Chitose seems the most excited about the strip club in Hawaii out of any of them.
• Anti-Hero Team: While overall they are ultimately on the side of good, some of their methods for doing so are often morally gray at best. In Like a Dragon, their main objective is fighting the Omi Alliance and the corrupt side of the government in the form of Bleach Japan and Ryo Aoki. However, as Bleach Japan become more powerful by bending the law to their side, the party would avoid confronting the police as they could, gather information from shady areas and work together with criminal organizations to achieve their goals. Additionally, the party consist of some people whose backgrounds and professions are usually frowned at by the law (see Token Evil Teammate below). However, they are considered by many citizens of Ijincho as heroes, especially the ones living in the gray zones; such as when the party fends off Bleach Japan from the shut-down Otohime Land.
• Badass Crew: A group that started from the rock bottom who can take on countless thugs, delinquents, dangerous animals, yakuza, and even heavy construction vehicles.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: Ichiban wears a maroon suit by default and all of the male characters can rock nice suits with the "Bodyguard" or "Host" job. Pre-order DLC can also have Eri and Saeko wearing Kaoru Sayama’s Yakuza 2 outfit.
• Cast from Hit Points: The Bodyguard job from Like a Dragon has access to several skills that damage the caster when used. Given that the class does most of its damage when the user is at low health, these abilities provide amazing synergy especially in tandem with enemy attacks.
• Charm Person: The Idol and Host jobs have access to several abilities that can charm enemies and cause them to waste a turn ogling the caster.
• Color Motif: All of the party members have a certain color in all of their base Job outfits.
  • Ichiban is red.
  • Adachi is blue.
  • Nanba is green.
  • Saeko is white.
  • Han is black and silver.
  • Zhao is yellow.
  • Eric and Seonhee are purple.
  • Eri, Chitose, and Kiryu are grey and black.
• Commuting on a Bus: Averted early on but by the time Joon-Gi Han and Zhao join the party there are scenes where they or, rarely, other party members are just missing from a scene for no explained reason only to be available in combat regardless. One example being when the party help Ichiban out of Aoki’s trap where Joon-Gi Han and Zhao are explicitly absent with no justification despite still being in the party.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: On both ends, actually. While the team can easily take down crowds of red and mauve shirts larger than they are, against the big names like Majima or Kiryu, however, they are basically glorified Elite Mooks who the previous protagonists might take slightly more time to put down.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Previous Yakuza protagonists were generally either larger-than-life or stoic badasses who are highly accomplished One-Man Armies, with shady backgrounds that only further highlight their coolness, and also Shinada.^note Of course, despite being the butt of a few jokes, Shinada is still a heroic and handsome One-Man Army. Haruka is a bit closer in practice to the Heroes of Tomorrow due to lacking combat skills, but personality and personal achievements-wise she's just as extraordinary as the rest The Heroes of Tomorrow, on the other hand, are (with the minor exceptions of Joon-Gi Han and Zhao, who are at the very least professional killers, but are still a bit wet behind the ears and somewhat morally dubious) a rather unremarkable Ragtag Bunch of Misfits with milquetoast backgrounds, average careers, minimal to nonexistent combat experience, and with varied and quirky personalities. Hell, even Ichiban, The Hero who is succeeding Kiryu's role as the leading man, is still just a low-ranking mook in a low-ranking family. Of course, despite lacking much of the strength of previous protagonists, they're still all courageous and valiant heroes who will not hesitate risk their lives even when faced with impossible odds.
• Cool Old Guy: Ichiban (46), Nanba (45), Adachi (63), and later Kiryu (55) are getting on in years but still remain devastating combatants and are more than a match to the various criminals they go up against. Even years later in Infinite Wealth haven't dulled their fighting skills in the slightest.
• Cool Shades: Men with the "Bodyguard" Job can wear spiffy shades with certain costumes.
• Dance Battler: "Breakers" fight using breakdancing like Majima from Yakuza 0, and "Night Queens" have a Skill that involves Poledancing. Infinite Wealth would then add "Pyrodancer" and "Geodancers" whose skills are based off of traditional Hawaiian dances.
• Death Dealer: As expected female characters who are under the "Dealer" job, have playing cards as their signature weapon.
• Devious Daggers: Kunoichi wield daggers as their signature weapon, befitting their sneaky and agility-based playstyle.
• Easily Forgiven:
  • Mostly due to Ichiban but the group as a whole don't seem to hold a grudge on Nanba for temporarily betraying them to Bleach Japan, Joongi Han trying to kill them or Zhao sending assassins to kill Nanba for the aforementioned.
  • Again, owing to Ichiban's laid-back and all-loving nature, he doesn't hold his horrible first meetings with Chitose and Tomizawa against them at all.
• Even the Guys Want Him: The "Host" job has skills that can charm enemies. Keep in mind all of the enemies in this game are male.
• Fighter, Mage, Thief: This being an RPG-based title, Ichiban and his buddies are designed with this dynamic in mind.
  • Ichiban is a Universalist, with a decent bar of health, above-average MP and overall balanced stats. His unique classes provide a versatile blend of damage, defense, and support abilities that allows him to heal and resurrect his teammates, buff their attacks and defenses and lay down the hurt whenever needed to.
  • Kiryu with his default Dragon of Dojima job is definitely a Fighter. He has some of the best normal attacks in the game, high damage output, solid mobility, and is sturdy as expected, but he's quite lacking in his Magic pool and doesn't have much in way of healing himself or buffing his stats. Naturally, as a Party Leader, he can respec into any other class to mitigate this.
  • Adachi and Zhao are also Fighters, focusing on defense and offense, respectively. Adachi is often the designated tank of the group due to his great defensive capabilities and a meaty amount of HP, while Zhao does solid damage in combat and brings many Damage Over Time abilities to the table.
  • Nanba, Saeko, and Tomizawa are the Mages. The former two boast naturally high Magic and Healing stats, and therefore are typically built as healers, if they're not already specced into a spellcaster class. Meanwhile Tomizawa focuses on offensive Magic along with strong physical stats, making him more or less the Magic Knight of the group.
  • Eri, Joongi Han, Chitose, and Seonhee are the Thieves, with strong focus on doing face-melting levels of critical damage via the Dexterity stat, and sporting high enough Agility to move early when needing to fight. Predictably, the four of them prove to be rather squishy if attacked directly (save for Seonhee, who's a flat-out Lightning Bruiser with her above-average health pool) but their high Dexterity stat also allows them to more reliably dodge hits than their other party members.
• Fire-Forged Friends: All of them bar Saeko have strained first impressions but by the end they're all but inseparable.
• The Friends Who Never Hang: The only members who consistently hang out together are Ichiban, Nanba, Adachi and Saeko. Even after joining the party, Han and Zhao are either absent from cutscenes or stand in the background silently, while Eri's nature as an Optional Party Member means she doesn't appear in story cutscenes at all. As a result, most of the three's interactions are with Ichiban and no one else.
  • Discussed early on in Infinite Wealth. Ichiban, Saeko, Namba, and Adachi meet up somewhat regularly, with their lives stabilizing after the events of Yakuza: Like a Dragon. That said, it’s hard to meet up with Zhao or Joongi, with them still dealing with Ijincho’s underworld and them not wanting to potentially ruin their friends' lives as private citizens.
• Frying Pan of Doom: As expected the "Chef" job makes use of a lot of cooking utensils, which include a frying pan. One of the Kiwami actions for this class involves the use of said pan in conjunction with a stove.
• Grievous Bottley Harm: The Host class primarily has liquor bottles as their signature weapon.
• Heroic Build: Just about all of the guys are built like greek heroes, either with extreme muscles or thinner but still obviously fit bodies. This includes Nanba, Adachi, and Tomizawa.
• Homeless Hero: Several party members spend at least part of the story homeless. Ichiban and Nanba are homeless early on prior to finding temporary lodgings, and both Joon-Gi Han and Zhao become technically homeless since the Geomijul burn down their base and Zhao steps down as the leader of his gang. Zhao even states he’s joined the ranks of the homeless shortly before joining the party.
• Improbable Weapon User: Some of the weapons like baseball bats, swords, batons and brass knuckles make sense. Then you get to the umbrellas/canes, guitars, handbags, microphones, box cutters/rulers, anklets, crystal balls, or even bottles of champagne (and that's not the least of it). Saeko takes the cake with Essence of Facial Gone Wrong, where a face massager is wielded as a bludgeon.
• Inexplicably Awesome: Half of the party is made up of civilians and even Ichiban himself was nothing more than a low level Yakuza grunt before he went into prison. Despite that they can still take on groups of hardened criminals, construction equipment, and sea creatures (in ''Infinite Wealth).
• Intergenerational Friendship: Eri (early-mid 20s) and Saeko (mid-late 30s or early 40s), Han (37), and Zhao (early-mid 30s) are close friends with Ichiban (46), Nanba (45), and Adachi (63). It’s even lampshaded in a party banter when the group enters a hotel and Saeko suggests they fake being a family if anyone asks with Adachi’s suggestion of playing the big brother being rejected out of hand due to the age gap. Ichiban and Saeko then tease him and call him dad, much to his annoyance. Infinite Wealth also adds in Kiryu (55), Seonhee (around the same age range as Saeko), Chitose (early-mid 20s), and Tomizawa (early-mid 30s) to the mix. Fittingly enough, Kiryu is even treated as the Cool Big Bro of the group, if the Drink Links and Party Chats are anything to go by.
• Katanas Are Just Better: The "Bodyguard" job class has katanas as their signature weapon and as expected the class excels at blade type of damage. Infinite Wealth has the "Samurai" class, which fights with a variety of traditional weapons such as swords, bows and spears.
• Let's Split Up, Gang!: In Infinite Wealth, due to several objectives the party must carry out in both Hawaii and Japan, the party is split into two teams. Ichiban's group^note Ichiban, Adachi, Eric, Chitose and Joongi pursues the whereabouts of Ichiban's mother and uncovering a conspiracy within Hawaii's underworld in the process, while Kiryu's group^note Kiryu, Nanba, Saeko, Zhao and Seonhee tracks down the Seiryu Clan and figuring out the identity and motive behind the Tatara Channel.
• Limited Wardrobe: Zigzagged. Switching to different jobs alters their outfits accordingly but their default outfits are always what they wear outside of combat before Premium Adventure. Particularly noticeable in the case of Nanba who continues to wear his dirty, ragged homeless clothes even after he and Ichiban find a place to live (and Ichiban himself fixes his suit).
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Males who are under the "Enforcer" job in Like a Dragon are not only armed with a Lawman Baton but also carry around a riot shield.
• Martial Arts and Crafts: A lot of the Jobs are just normal jobs that Ichiban reimagines with RPG-style abilities. This ranges from imagining a street musician with Magic Music, a chef that beats people up with cooking tools or hosts/hostesses who drench the opponents in wine and ice cubes.
• Multinational Team: The first game has Ichiban, Adachi, Nanba, Saeko, and Eri (Japanese), Joongi (Korean), and Zhao (Chinese). Infinite Wealth adds in Kiryu and Chitose (Japanese), Eric (half-Japanese, half-American), and Seonhee (Korean). Though as it turns out Ichiban is part-Hawaiian from his mother.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Saeko, Chitose, and Seonhee are perfectly capable of picking up bikes or park benches and using them with the same power and ease as their male counterparts. All while being slender women without noticeable muscles. The same goes for Nanba, who's supposed to be physically frail.
• Naginatas Are Feminine: The female-exclusive DLC job, "the Matriarch" from Like a Dragon, wields a Naginata.
• Nerves of Steel: Averted at first since they some of them justifiably panic when faced with absurd circumstances, but eventually they take fighting anything from armies of goons to construction equipment in stride. By Infinite Wealth, all of the members (sans newcomers Chitose and Tomizawa) treat picking fights with criminal gangs as a matter of course.
• New Job as the Plot Demands: The game. Throughout the course of the main story up until the Yokohama Liumang investigation arc, Ichiban and co. frequently have to sign up for new jobs at the drop of a hat, temporary or otherwise, in order to infiltrate certain organizations or gain intel in order to advance the plot. By the time the fifth chapter rolls around, the main cast will have frequented Hello Work enough to know the director by name. Weirdly enough, this does not often tie into the actual Job System itself.
• Not So Above It All: It's implied that they all are more or less indulging Ichiban in his Dragon Quest Fantasy. Every once in a while they'll question the more absurd things he talks about such as him projecting Kiryu as literally being powered by a dragon but just roll with it. Ichiban's imagination would even rub off on Kiryu in Infinite Wealth, since he starts to see enemies transform in Japan just as Ichiban does.
• Obsessed with Food: A common topic of their conversations is food, specifically about etiquette about specific foods or what foods go well with each other.
• Out of Job, into the Plot: Most party members have either just lost their original jobs or are jobless when they join the party, due to many unfortunate circumstances in Like a Dragon. But this is not a bad thing, since it allows them to take on all kinds of other jobs in the Job System, as long as they're qualified for it. It also serves as a representation of them rising back up from the bottom.
  • Saeko and Eri avert this, however. The former still runs Nonomiya’s old bar and simply left someone else in charge while she helps deal with the plot, while Eri is the de-facto secretary/second-in-command of Ichiban Holdings. Joon-Gi Han also somewhat downplays this, as he is still a part of the Geomijul despite their base being burned down at the end of Chapter 9.
  • Happens once again in Infinite Wealth, where thanks to the Tatara Channel Ichiban, Nanba and Adachi lose their job (though Nanba's Drink Links later reveal that he actually lost his job due to other unrelated matters), thus leading them to kick off a new adventure via infiltrating the Seiryu Clan HQ once again.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Excluding the part where Ichiban, Nanba and Adachi wear outfits appropriate to their assigned jobs when infiltrating the Sunlight Castle, the rest of the story has the party do almost nothing to disguise themselves when sneaking into enemy territory.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: A bottom-barrel ex-yakuza, a homeless ex-nurse, a former police detective, a former hostess turned bartender, a secretary, a Korean assassin and a former Triad crime boss. They make the previous cast look downright normal by comparison. Infinite Wealth adds in a cancer-stricken ex-gangster/government agent, a Korean mafia leader, a taxi driver and an heiress. A newspaper ad◊ for Infinite Wealth describes the crew as "The unluckiest but happiest people in the world".
• Running Gag: Several of them, particularly in party chats.
  • Ichiban's hair getting made fun of, both in the main story and side conversations.
  • Nanba's poor hygiene and being broke.
  • Adachi's eating habits, particularly him sneaking in food while trying to maintain a diet.
• Russian Roulette: One of the Essence skills in Like a Dragon, belonging to the Dealer class, where the user would land on an empty chamber before turning the gun to an enemy. Naturally, the second chamber is loaded.
• Seinfeldian Conversation: The group love having chats about various inane topics, ranging from how great croutons are to the nature of movie spoilers.
• Shield Bash: Many of the moves for the "Enforcer" class make use of their riot shield.
• Slobs Versus Snobs: The group represents the Rock Bottom of Japanese society, ranging from the financially down-on-their-luck (Ichiban, Nanba, Adachi), those working in incredibly seedy industries (Saeko) as well as ethnic minorities (Han, Zhao). Together they end up opposing not only the elites of the Yakuza world but of the Japanese political society who plan to secure ultimate power at the cost of the poor and desperate.
• Stronger Than They Look: In Infinite Wealth, since all the characters can now use environmental objects, even dainty-looking women such as Saeko and Chitose can swing around trash cans and bikes under the right circumstances.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Like previous Yakuza protagonists, the team doesn't kill anyone regardless of how absurd combat gets. This includes the hitman Joon-Gi Han and the former crime lord Zhao who use pistols, knives and swords. The latter two do make occasional reference to having killed before, much to Ichiban's discomfort.
• Token Evil Teammate:
  • Downplayed since they never do anything explicitly evil while in the group but Joon-Gi Han and Zhao are, respectively, a hitman and a former crime lord. Compared to the rest of the group they come across as far less clean. On top of them, Nanba temporarily betrays the group, though he turns face again after.
  • During Chapter 14 when Ichiban nearly beats a thug to death out of frustration with revelations about his true parentage Nanba, Adachi and Saeko try to stop him and are clearly horrified. Joon-Gi Han and Zhao, on the other hand, are noticeably quiet and don’t disapprove or try to dissuade him even though they’re present in the scene.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl:
  • Saeko and Eri, respectively, in Like a Dragon. The former is a heavy drinker, smoker and treated as One of the Guys while the latter is much more soft spoken, shy and demure. Ironically their stats are opposite with Saeko having a high healing stat making her optimal for the Idol job and being the party’s designated healer while Eri is much better at attacking and dealing damage.
  • Saeko and Seonhee to Chitose in Infinite Wealth. While all three of them spend a lot of time with the guys, Chitose seems to be more soft spoken and demure than the other two, with her even being an Action Survivor compared to them. As Saeko has plenty of experience from the previous game while Seonhee is as dangerous as you'd expect the Geomijul's head brass to be in a fight.
• True Companions: They're very close to one another, particularly Ichiban, Adachi, Nanba and Saeko. Various scenes show them just drinking, hanging out with each other and bonding as a group. It's best shown when Ichiban meets Arakawa once again in the Omi HQ the rest of his party (knowing what happened the last time they met) immediately form a wall between them, which Arakawa takes as a sign that he's found solid comrades.
• Two Girls to a Team:
  • Eri and Saeko are the only women in the group in Like a Dragon. Averted if Eri is never recruited due to her nature as an Optional Party Member.
  • Zig-zagged in Infinite Wealth, as the first half of the game has Chitose as the sole girl in a group of Ichiban, Kiryu, Tomizawa, and later Adachi and Nanba. Then the party splits: while Ichi's group keeps Chitose as its sole female, Kiryu's party has both Seonhee and Saeko in it, playing the trope straight. Finally, the post-game averts it again as the group merges into a party of ten.
• Undying Loyalty: To each other. While Ichiban's the most blatant, each and every single one of them stick by each other, no matter how desperate the situation gets.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: They all love to give each other crap, particularly the first four members, but they’ve got each other’s backs no matter what.
• Weak, but Skilled: According to the power-scale of Yakuza protagonists, the Heroes of Tomorrow are rather weak, being glorified Elite Mooks in comparison, and requiring teamwork to take on enemies previous protagonists usually handles alone. Through teamwork and strategy, however, they come out on top regardless.
• Weapons of Their Trade: With a few exceptions, All jobs are locked into using weapons specifically that would fit into having that job. Construction Foremen use sledgehammers, Idols use Magical Girl-esque microphones, etc.
• Your Size May Vary: The women don't have much height difference between each other, usually. If one's a "Night Queen", and uses the Essence of Titillating Claws on the other, the height difference is comparable to if either used it on one of the guys.

Original Party

For Eri Kamataki's guest appearance as a party member, please see her folder here

Ichiban Kasuga

See Ichiban's page

Koichi Adachi

Voiced by: Akio Ōtsuka (Japanese), Andrew Morgado (English) ^{Other Languages}Wang Yuhang (Chinese)

^{Click here to see Adachi as he appears in Infinite Wealth.}

A former detective who was handed an unreasonable demotion by his boss, Jurou Horinochi, the current Commissioner of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, for defying him regarding the true culprit of a case. After investigating his boss, he discovers a bribery scandal between Horinouchi and Masumi Arakawa. Adachi teams up with Ichiban Kasuga to get close to Masumi Arakawa, who seems to have the evidence he needs.

His default job is "Detective", a powerful Stone Wall pseudo-tank class designed to enrage enemies and force them into attacking him, wherein he can apply defensive techniques to stop their attacks and strike back with gusto. His personal skills revolve around enraging enemies and controlling the battlefield.

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• 1-Up: Detective's True Grit is Adachi's own version of Ichiban's Peerless Resolve, in that it will automatically revive him if his HP hits zero.
• Acrofatic: His stockier build doesn't stop him from keeping up with his leaner teammates. He can even be reclassed into the "Breaker" job. Infinite Wealth reveals that he actually has a Heroic Build under that thick jacket.
• The Atoner: The reason he's so intent on trying to bust Horinochi is because Adachi once arrested a man for murder who turned out to be innocent, only for Horinochi to engage in witness tampering to keep said suspect in prison to avoid a scandal. This eventually led to the man to commit suicide in prison, leaving behind a wife and child.
• Anonymous Benefactor: One of the reasons why he's had money troubles is because he's been financially supporting Takashi, the son of the man he falsely arrested. He does this by pretending that he's a wealthy philanthropist named Yamada since Takashi would otherwise not want anything to do with the man indirectly responsible for the death of his father. It's revealed in Adachi's substory that Takashi always knew and never blamed him for his father's death since Adachi was the only one who tried to argue for his innocence till the end.
• Berserk Button:
  • Horinouchi is this for him. While he's pretty calm when discussing him with the other party members when he finds out from Ogasawara that he's part of Aoki's plot and gets denied evidence, he loses his cool and threatens to beat the information out of him. Ichiban has to calm him down before anything happens.
    Adachi: A son of a bitch is what you are—!
    Ichiban: Adachi-san! Calm down!
  • During his Drink Link He gets furious when he sees Takashi, actually Takashi's roomate, tried to con him. Revealing himself as a poor unemployed cop and ready to lay a verbal trashing to "Takashi". Adachi is really serious about atoning for his wrongful arrest and things like Horinouchi's promotion and this that make a mockery of his effort gets his blood boiling.
• The Big Guy: He has the most health of the party and has the stockiest physique. He's also strong enough to lift crates that typically require two people to lift. Infinite Wealth also shows that he's arguably as muscular as Saejima.
• Bomb Disposal: His Essence of Cut and Run has him attempting to defuse a bomb while his enemies are tied up in a chair nearby. He fails and is forced to haul ass as the bomb blows up, taking said enemies with it.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's awful with money and despite being working at the DMV knows little about traffic laws, but is both a keen investigator and a capable fighter. Mirror Face is utterly baffled as to how he managed to stay in the DMV as long as he did.
• Charles Atlas Super Power: He's strong enough to lift a crate by himself that other warehouse workers needed pairs to move, to say nothing of some of the absurd Heat Actions he can pull off. The latter might be Ichiban's overactive imagination distorting reality, but the former isn't, as it happens in a cutscene.
• Chekhov's Skill: His past as a Detective comes in very handy at several points. This is best illustrated when the party is investigating a Soapland girl who's been oddly irregular with her work hours; while Ichiban and Nanba are in favor of a direct confrontation, Adachi plants his phone in a nearby potted plant to get some valuable intel beforehand.
• Clark Kent Outfit: Infinite Wealth shows that he's actually absurdly muscular for a man in his sixties.
• Color Motif: Blue. His usual jacket and Breaker outfit are both blue, his Bodyguard outfit has a blue tie, his Host outfit has both a blue undershirt and a blue pocket square, and his Devil Rocker outfit has both blue accents and blue face paint.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: To Date. Like Date, Adachi is a disgraced detective who quickly allies themselves with a recently released ex-Yakuza in hopes of solving a larger conspiracy. However, while Date is largely a Non-Action Guy who helps Kiryu by providing information and being his Friend on the Force, Adachi actively fights alongside Ichiban and is unable to serve the latter two functions, since he's just as in the dark as Ichiban and sticks with him, and because he's been kicked out of the force and therefore can't access any police intel or flex any connections. Notably, the two are friends likely due to their similar ideas of justice.
• Cool Old Guy: He's 59 years old but can still throw down with the best of them. He's also the Stone Wall of the party. He's pretty lively, and age hasn't dimmed his intuition as an investigator. Infinite Wealth takes it further, as he's now 63 and still is able to fight side-by-side with people a third of his age with no issue.
• Corpsing: In-Universe. He can't help but to laugh his ass off when he sees Ichiban's new hairdo.
• Cowboy Cop: Adachi has traces of being one due to his willingness to investigate his own superiors for their suspected corruption, which gets him Reassigned to Antarctica. He still continues his investigation despite the retaliation (which eventually culminates in him losing his job entirely). Adachi might come off as sleazy and untamed, but he is, at his core, an honest police officer who wants to do right. It's enough that Makoto Date, who's a veteran police officer, knows him by name and holds him in high regard.
• Crazy-Prepared: He sent copies of the evidence incriminating Horinouchi to both the Media and the Director Inspector of the police before he confronted the man himself, ensuring that Horinouchi cannot weasel himself out of it.
• Crippling Overspecialisation: He's genuinely talented at every aspect of detective work, but he's a miserable failure at any other skill required of a police officer or, indeed, any kind of professional adult. This has made seeking other employment extremely challenging.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Because of his age, stout figure and laid back personality it’s easy to forget that he’s a police detective with over 20 years of experience. He easily overpowers Ichiban during an early scene and he manages to disarm people pointing guns at him and the party twice without any hesitation or fear.
• Didn't Think This Through: His lack of fiscal responsibility meant that he was counting on his pension to get by. As such, his actions in helping Ichiban infiltrate the Omi Alliance meeting in the beginning leads to him getting fired and thus leaving him completely broke.
• Dirty Old Man: By his own admission, he blows most of his money on booze and women. He's also very enthusiastic about the girls the party encounters in a Chinese hostess club.
• Earn Your Happy Ending:
  • It takes Adachi many years, unreasonable demotions, and eventually being cut loose with no pension, but he finally achieves his goal of taking down Horinouchi.
  • His Drink Link storyline also ends with Takashi, whom he's been financially supporting all of his life, revealing that not only does he hold no hard feelings towards Adachi for falsely arresting his father (knowing that he did everything he could to get him released) but that thanks to his support he passed the Bar Exam and no longer needs the financial support.
• Feeling Their Age: One of his idle comments is about his back hurting and various party chats mention that he can’t do things like eating too many fatty foods like chips since he has to lower his sodium intake.
• Formerly Fit: He mentions in a Party Talk in Infinite Wealth that he used to not have such a gut in his younger years. Not that this shows up when he's shirtless.
• Gameplay and Story Integration:
  • As a burly ex-cop with riot training, he's a natural fit for the Enforcer and Bodyguard jobs and requires the least amount of effort among the party to qualify for them.
  • He's a crass, heavyset guy well past retirement age, and so requires a lot of effort to qualify for the Host job, which revolves around being suave and refreshing.
• Heroic Ambidexterity: Wields his police baton in his left hand when his Job is Detective but otherwise relies more on his right hand for weapons in other Jobs.
• Hidden Depths: A few Party Chats reveal one of Adachi's hobbies is gardening.
• Informed Flaw: While implied to be somewhat out of shape, Infinite Wealth shows that he's actually extremely muscular underneath his clothes.
• Lawman Baton: His default weapon for his "Detective" class is a baton, with other weapons being anything that can be used as a baton. He can use a baton in conjunction with a riot shield if given the Enforcer job class.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: His reaction to Ichiban seeing the Dad Hunters that they encounter in Chapter 4 transform into the enemies that they would encounter for the rest of the game is basically this.
  Adachi: You know this isn't a video game, right?
• Macho Masochism: When advising Ichiban on where to take Saeko for a date in Infinite Wealth, he suggests an Indian restaurant with a secret dish that measures 1.2 million on the Scoville Unit on the basis that surviving said dish in front of Saeko will surely impress her. Ichiban and Nanba aren't entirely convinced.
• Mighty Glacier: He's a little slower than his teammates by default, but what he lacks in speed (for the most part, see Acrofatic above), he makes up for in sheer damage output and endurance.
• Money Dumb: He's absolutely terrible with money since he doesn't see the point in saving money to the point that he bet everything on his DMV pension as a safety net. As such, thanks to him getting fired helping Ichiban out in the prologue and losing said pension he's left just as broke as Ichiban and Nanba.
• Not With the Safety On, You Won't: Being voiced by Solid Snake's VA, he's capable of easily disarming people with guns in cutscenes via this trick.
• One-Hit Kill: In practice. His Detective's Arrest skill, assuming it hits, will instantly remove an enemy unit from the fight regardless of how much health they had before the attack landed. This understandably will not work on bosses and certain larger enemies, however.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: As punishment for trying to out Horinouchi as corrupt he was transferred to the DMV. Adachi himself wonders why he wasn’t just fired though it was likely to avoid causing a scene.
• Real Men Hate Sugar: Notably averted. Despite him being a coarse, womanizing Japanese man, one Table Talk has Adachi thoroughly enjoying some artisanal sweets.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: His damning takedown of Horinouchi amounts to this, especially when Horinouchi accuses him of bluffing because Adachi 'wouldn't profit from it'. It shows in stark detail that while Horinouchi might run the cops, Adachi was the only one upholding the law between them.
• Seen It All: By the time of Infinite Wealth, the idea of fighting construction equipment gets dull exasperation from him, something Chitose is utterly baffled by.
• Singing Voice Dissonance: In the English dub only. When he sings in karaoke, Andrew Morgado drops his gruff voice entirely in favor of a voice that sounds much smoother and younger.
• Spin Attack: His "Essence of Hell's Wheel" has him grab an enemy and start spinning like a wheel that runs down all other enemies on the field before ending in a suplex.
• Stone Wall: Has the highest health on the team in his default class and can go even higher if put into the Foreman or Enforcer classes.
• Stout Strength: The biggest guy in the party and also the strongest. A handy demonstration of his strength is easily being able to lift a crate by himself that other warehouse workers needed pairs to move.
• Support Party Member: He tends to be best as this, whether it be as a tank, or as a Musician (since others with access to the Musician class have other options better suited for their stats).
• Team Dad: Gruff and crass yet kind-hearted and protective, and older than all of them (even Kiryu in Infinite Wealth), he's this to his group of friends. It becomes more pronounced in the sequel, where Ichiban's party expands to include the considerably younger Tomizawa and Chitose, and Adachi often steps up to offer the new arrivals guidance and support.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: In the end, he's finally able to get Horinouchi arrested on corruption charges thanks to the Ryudo Clan inadvertently uncovering a list of people bribed by the Arakawa Family, including the Commissioner himself. Similarly, the end of his Drink Links has Takashi reveal that not only does he know that Adachi was his benefactor and holds nothing against him but thank him for his support by telling him that he no longer needs to financially support him.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Booze and Napolitan pasta according to his official bio and Table Talks. Meanwhile he dislikes shiitake mushrooms.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives a scathing and damning one to detained Horinouchi in the ending by using evidence he obtained from the Omi Alliance full of his List of Transgressions of all the crimes he committed under the sun and for almost ruining Adachi's life along with all the people that were involved.
• Unknown Rival: He hates Horinouchi with a passion but the man himself barely notices he exists - as far as he’s concerned he’s just another Yokohama cop he stepped on to become commissioner. When they finally meet in the ending Horinouchi doesn’t recognize him at all, causing Adachi to sarcastically ask if he doesn’t remember him.
• Wire Dilemma: Essence of Cut and Run, one of his new skills in Infinite Wealth, has him deal with one of these while the enemies are strapped to chairs near a bomb. He cuts the wrong wire and high-tails it out of there, letting the bomb blow up in the enemies' faces.
• Wrestler in All of Us: His Breaking Top special is basically a Giant Swing.

Yū Nanba

Voiced by: Ken Yasuda (Japanese), Greg Chun (English) ^{Other Languages}Cheng Zhichao (Chinese)

^{Click here to see Nanba as he appears in Infinite Wealth.}

A former nurse who was stripped of his license after channeling the medicine from the hospital he worked for to the black market, and now lives in the depths of poverty in Isezaki Ijincho. After Ichiban was shot by Masumi Arakawa and lost consciousness, Nanba saves his life and begins working with him.

His default job is "Homeless Guy", which is a Squishy Wizard setup involving strong area-of-effect skills and strong debuffs. His personal skills revolve around healing for his allies and himself.

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• Acquired Poison Immunity: Due to his life on the streets he has an innate resistance to the poison and cold status effects.
• Action Survivor: Unlike most playable characters he's not a particularly physically strong man nor is he some hardened streetfighter. He's just a hobo with a passing interest in martial arts who's managed to pick up some tricks from the streets but still ends up in the standard Yakuza plotlines that inevitably pits him against killers and crime lords. More impressively, he came to Ijincho to specifically investigate the Geomijul, meaning he was already prepared to deal with a criminal syndicate before meeting Ichiban.
• The Artifact: By the time of Infinite Wealth he's no longer homeless and has a stable job, but his class is still known as "Homeless Guy" since it still utilizes his hobo tricks And the fact that he loses his job after the game starts
• Badass Bookworm: Being a former nurse, he is for all intents and purposes a medical professional with decades of experience and probably the most formally educated of the group.
• The Beastmaster: Under the Homeless job, he's able to summon and command whole flocks of pigeons to attack enemies through scattering birdseeds.
• Black Mage: He has the highest base Magic stat in the party and has access to numerous, powerful offensive Magic skills. This also makes him the best character to recast as a Musician, Host or Fortuneteller.
• Big Damn Heroes: Comes back just in time to help out the party after they had to fight while outnumbered and exhausted in Chapter 10.
• Booze Flamethrower: A fair amount of his more potent attacks are him downing some flammable liquor and unleashing a gout of flame by spitting it out onto the flame of a lighter.
• Breath Weapon: Besides his habit of becoming a human flamethrower with flammable booze and a lighter. He can utilize his halitosis in combat to either debuff enemies or to (inadvertently) revive allies.
• Brutal Honesty: Years of being homeless has left Nanba with no filter when it comes to the hard truth about things, a good example being when he chews out Ichiban for giving their fellow homeless false hope and acting like their problems are so easy to fix. However, this actually works in Nanba's favour, as once he lays bare just how dire their situation really is, Ichiban realises what an ass he was being and sheepishly apologises.
• Cane Fu: Most of his weapons take the form of canes or umbrellas. He acknowledges at one point that reading a book about using canes for self defense inspired his main weapon. He also comments about Sawashiro's own Cane Fu skills and is very impressed by them.
• Chekhov's Skill: His background as a former nurse comes in handy when the party needs to infiltrate Sunlight Castle.
• Clark Kent Outfit: Having him wear Majima's signature snakeskin leather jacket will show off a surprisingly impressive build on Nanba's part, what with him being formerly homeless and looking like he's of average build at best. Of course, it's mostly because the costume just swaps his torso model with Majima's.
• Color Motif: Green. His usual outfit and Breaker outfit are both green, his Bodyguard outfit has a green tie, his Host outfit has both a green undershirt and a green pocket square, and his Devil Rocker outfit has both green accents and green face paint.
• Combat Medic: In his default job, he's capable of naturally learning healing abilities stemming from his medical training, although his best strength shines in more offensive situations. He's best used as an off-healer to the dedicated Idol healing class, or using his potent self-heals to keep himself in the fight has one of the worst natural defense stats in the cast.
• Cowardly Lion: Nanba tends to be the one to act hesitant or show fear with fighting the various criminals the heroes go up against. This is despite him being the party’s resident mage with access to devastating fire and AOE attacks. By the end of the game he even notes how he never thought that he'd end up fighting against Tendo, a boxer whose career he's followed and someone he always saw as the last person he'd want to get in a fight with.
• Deadpan Snarker: Nanba usually points out the absurdity of his misadventures either matter-of-factly or through tired sarcasm, especially in the English dub.
  Nanba: [after Bleach Japan brings out baseball bats] Seriously, you brought bats? What, were you hoping for a quick ball game during the protest?
• Dirty Old Man: Zig-zagged. He's middle-aged, and his time as a homeless guy has left him without much class when it comes to the opposite gender. He immediately and openly begins leering at Saeko moments after seeing her, having confused her for her twin sister Nanoha. This amusingly gets tossed out the window as Nanba and Saeko quickly turn into something more akin to vitriolic best buds, and unlike Adachi he rarely tries to openly flirt with women and doesn't really expect them to take an interest in him in turn.
• Easily Forgiven: Ichiban's crew really doesn't hold it against him that he effectively sold them out and played a role in the Omi Alliance's invasion of Ijincho in Like a Dragon. The fact that they were so willing to welcome him back is what contributes to his Heel Realization.
• Enemy Summoner: His boss version that is fought alongside Ishioda in the Geomijul HQ in chapter 9 can summon additional Bleach Japan mooks to bolster their numbers.
• Foreshadowing: Compared to Adachi and Saeko, the first two Bonding Ranks for Nanba are rather incidental, focusing on his stealing a bottle of booze from the Barkeep rather than going into any details of his background. And then his bond gets locked after the second rank. This was the giveaway that Nanba was only part of the party for ulterior motives.
• Friendship Denial: Keeps denying that he’s Ichiban and the party’s friend when he betrays them to help Bleach Japan in order to find his brother. The heroes don’t believe him and it’s clear he’s more trying to convince himself than them.
• Gameplay and Story Integration:
  • He's a malnurished bum among a party of reasonably healthy people. Naturally, he has the lowest HP growth of the group and poor physical stats overall.
  • He innately qualifies for the Musician job. Besides having a surprisingly good singing voice, years of living on the streets have made him no stranger to busking.
  • As a scruffy, tactless guy with terrible personal hygeine, it's only natural that it takes a lot of effort to get him to qualify for the stylish and charming Host job. Ironically, the Host's magic-oriented skillset makes Nanba a great fit for it.
  • Unlike the other party members, his bond remains capped at rank 2 during the early chapters and can only be raised at Chapter 10. He admits during Chapter 7 that the only reason he joined Ichiban because he wanted to use him to get close to the Geomijul and that he even planned to leave without telling the group.
  • In Infinite Wealth, his stats have been boosted all around, and he's much more able to take hits than he was in the previous game. Getting a good job and having access to proper nutrition will do that.
  • Also in Infinite Wealth, when Namba and Adachi join Ichiban in Hawaii, Namba won't have any Bond Bingo markers on the map unlike Adachi. It clues the player that Namba isn't going to stay in Hawaii for long.
• Good Is Not Nice: Nanba’s pretty quick to resort to threats and beatings in order to accomplish the party’s goals. Ichiban has to tell him to calm down more than once when he threatens to beat down people for information. This is most likely a side-effect of having spent so much time homeless.
• The Ghost: Not him but rather his brother. Despite his main reason to join the party (and later betraying them) being to find out what the Geomijul did to him, Nanba meets him just once offscreen and rarely mentions him in future talks.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: He joins Bleach Japan in order to find his brother, but after the Geomijul literally burn down their counterfeiting operations and Seonhee reveals the true circumstances of what happened to Nanba's brother, he switches back to Ichiban's side after some consideration.
• Heel Realization: He ultimately is unable to properly disclose the counterfeiting to the public, due to the Geomijul actively burning down their stronghold and thus the proof of the counterfeiting in the first place, and in his despair at not being able to verify his brother's fate he refuses to move. Once Seonhee reveals that his brother actually joined the Korean organization, and noting that his partners still risked life and limb for him despite his, Nanba decides to escape the blazing Spiderweb with them.
• He's Back!: Returns in Chapter 10 after temporarily betraying the party with higher levels, equipment and a brand new Kiwami move in Like a Dragon. Lampshaded by Ichiban who states that returning party members always seem to get buffed stats.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Eventually becomes this with Ichiban. They typically spend the most time hanging around each other compared to the other party members. Ichiban even calls him his brother despite finding out that he healed him primarily to use him to find the Geomijul. It’s clear that Nanba is touched by this despite claiming otherwise.
• Hidden Depths:
  • He is actually a big fan of martial arts, kung-fu in particular; it’s why he wields an umbrella as a weapon. He's also knowledgeable enough about professional boxing to know about Tendo's background as well as his fighting style. He's also the one to realize Sawashiro's improvised weapons were actually being used properly as martial arts.
  • In Infinite Wealth, a conversation with Saeko and Seonhee over nail polish reveals that one of Nanba's hobbies is making mecha model kits.
• Hobo Gloves: Wears a pair of worn finger-less gloves in his default outfit.
• Homeless Pigeon Person: Can summon pigeons in his unique Job.
• In the Hood: His hobo clothes involve a hoodie underneath his jacket, he usualy has it down but when entering combat he has it up, although this is mostly because of Ichiban's wild imagination.
• Ink-Suit Actor: Modeled after his Japanese voice actor, Ken Yasuda.
• Jaded Professional: When talking about his past as a nurse, he states that while he started off as an idealist who wanted to follow in the steps of his hero Florence Nightingale, the years eventually led to him burning out by the time he was in his 40s.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Puts on a tough and self-interested front but he’s far more kind than he lets on. Ichiban lampshades this during one of their first conversations. See Senseless Sacrifice below for a good example of this.
• Kill It with Fire: Many of his natural skills involve assaulting the enemy with flames via Booze Flamethrower, and his ultimate weapon for the Homeless Guy job boosts fire damage.
• Kiss of Life: Parodied; His "Essence of Resuscitation" involves attempting CPR on a fallen ally, only for them to jolt awake after taking a whiff of his breath instead.
• Knight Templar Big Brother: He's absolutely set on finding his missing little brother or at least confirm his death at the hands of Geomijul. To that end, he's willing to work with Bleach Japan in order to blow Geomijul's operations wide open.
• The Lancer:
  • He tends to be the one to rein in Ichiban’s enthusiasm and acts as a voice of reason and logic.
  • He takes responsibility in making sure that Kiryu doesn't overexert himself due to his cancer.
• Last-Name Basis: While everyone usually calls each other by their surnames sans Ichiban, Saeko and Eri, Nanba is notable in that the menus or minigames (e.g., Darts) never show his given name, Yu, at all. This is despite his given name being confirmed both by Hello Work and later the Geomjiul, through Nanba himself.
• Magical Homeless Person: He is a homeless man whose "magic" attacks include summoning pigeons and breathing fire using alcohol and a lighter.
• Manly Tears: Breaks down in tears when the party accept him back wholeheartedly and forgive him for temporarily turning against them.
• Not So Above It All: Due to his time as a homeless person he has a few quirk of his own. For example when he confessed to Ichiban that he drank the whole bottle of legend Malt and replaced it with cheap liquor he is basically pissing himself at the thought of getting caught.
• Number Two: It’s all but stated to become this in Infinite Wealth. Since Ichiban is away from Yokohama, Most of the characters defer to Nanba for information on Ichiban and look to him for making the calls to action. He’s also in charge of keeping an eye on Kiryu’s failing health.
• Only Sane Man: Seems to be the only person who realizes just how absurd the Yakuza world is. Ichiban’s often bizarre behavior, in particular, leaves him shaking his head.
• The Pig-Pen: For some reason he continues to wear his dirty and ragged homeless clothing throughout the game and one of his idle comments is that he feels itchy. He even weaponizes it by using his horrible breath to debuff enemies, breath out fire or even revive party members during attempted CPR. By Infinite Wealth, he now dresses in much cleaner, more refined clothes, although he still has horrible breath despite brushing his teeth (and can still weaponize said bad breath despite it), so it's implied that part of his issue is that he just has natural halitosis.
• The Red Mage: His default class comes with a variety of ways to deal potent magical damage as well as to debuff enemies and heal him and his allies.
• Reluctant Hero: Among the heroes he’s always first one to suggest leaving a problem alone and often has to be coerced or dragged into getting involved. Makes sense considering he only joined because he wanted to investigate the Geomijul. This aspect of his character goes away after he rejoins.
• Parasol of Pain: His starting weapon is a rolled-up umbrella that he uses like a bludgeon. He states later on during the fight with Sawashiro that it’s because of a martial arts book he read.
• Seen It All: Has this reaction when flashed by a degenerate in the "Who's That Sujimon?!" substory.
• Senseless Sacrifice: Nanba eventually reveals that his drug smuggling charge was because he took the heat for a younger nurse who stole drugs to pay off her family's debts but was nonetheless devoted to her job. He figured he had nothing to lose compared to her so it was better he get fired than she did. However... said nurse was actually a scam artist who stole because of her gambling addiction and that the devoted nurse role was just an act. She even sneers that Nanba was just a middle-aged pervert who was attracted to her, much to Ichiban's rage. Ichiban tries to get her to fake being a good nurse going off overseas like Nanba thought she was, but he reveals he knew all along after overhearing the Survive bartender's phone call. He does still appreciate Ichiban trying, though.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: By the time of Infinite Wealth, he seems to have adopted this dynamic with Adachi being the manly man to his sensitive guy. Case in point, when both of them are giving advice to Ichiban for his date with Saeko, his advice tends to consist on Ichi showing his sensitive and caring side, as opposed to Adachi's suave and macho counsel.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Pretty much everything around Nanba is appropriately one of these.
  • His two Drink Links in Like a Dragon are about how he accidentally downed the contents of a bottle of very expensive liquor in Survive and how he had to swap it with convenience store sake to hide it. At the end of the second link the truth is revealed. The Bartender, after convincing a hot-shot to leave because the sake had sentimental value to him, lied and said that the bottle itself was initially empty so he just poured the cheapest alcohol he could find and put it on display.
  • He betrays the party in order to find the truth about his brother, but it's ultimately revealed his brother is not only alive but happy in the secret underground residence beneath Geomijul. This ultimately means he ends up playing into the main villains plans for nothing.
  • When you do the second half of his drink link focused on his backstory as a nurse it turns out the girl he took the fall for stealing medicine for was actually a selfish gambling addict who was lying about doing it to support her parents.
  • Even Ichiban's attempts to hide this fact ends up being thwarted when he just happens to overhear him and the bartender talking about it over the phone. However by that point Nanba seems used to being in shaggy dog stories, as he's more moved by Ichiban trying to spare his feelings than disappointed he gave up his career for nothing.
• Squishy Wizard: Besides wearing a hood like one, he has the lowest health and highest magic damage of all the males.
• Stay in the Kitchen: Somewhat. During a fight after Saeko joins the party he tries to get her to stay back because she’s a woman. After she refuses and proves she can take care of herself he never brings it up again. In fact he seems to have learned his lesson since not much later he remarks that random muggers don't stand a chance against her.
• Straight Man: Pretty much all of his comedy comes from reacting like any rational person would to the weirdness the other characters take in stride. He also has this dynamic with Ichiban, who continues to act like a Chuunibyou despite having been shot in the chest and dumped in a junkyard. It's clear that Nanba never quite manages to wrap his head around this part of his personality, but he eventually decides he likes Ichiban all the more for it.
• Taking the Heat: The truth behind him losing his nursing license was that he took the fall for a younger nurse who was forced to steal and sell hospital drugs in order to make ends meet, deciding that she still had a legitimate future ahead of her while he was an old burnout.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: Nanba himself lampshades this in one of the Party Chat, saying he's lightened up ever since joining Ichiban and his group.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Warm milk, as revealed both in his official bio and one of the Table Talks.
• Walking Spoiler: He plays a huge role around the middle parts of Yakuza: Like a Dragon.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He joins Bleach Japan to expose Geomijul's counterfeiting operations and hopefully find his brother in the process.
• What You Are in the Dark: He was actually planning to use Ichiban to investigate the Geomijul's counterfeiting operation and find his brother after finding a counterfeit bill on him. Despite being disappointed by Ichiban's lack of knowledge, he still chose to nurse Ichiban back to health and stick by him.
• Younger Than They Look: He looks like he's pushing 50 but he's 41, making him younger than Ichiban.
• You Need a Breath Mint: Two of his Skills use his bad breath to his advantage.

Saeko Mukoda

Voiced by: Sumire Uesaka (Japanese), Elizabeth Maxwell (English)^{Other Languages}Wu Di (Chinese)

^{Click here to see Saeko as she appears in Infinite Wealth.}

A woman who manages the cabaret club run by Nonomiya, owner of the long-standing soapland (brothel) Otohime Land. Trusted by Nonomiya greatly to the point of letting her run the shop herself, she gets to know Ichiban Kasuga after a certain event.

Her default job is "Barmaid", a squishy debuff-centric skillset designed to put enemies in uncomfortable positions and open them up for her allies to finish them off. Her personal skills revolve around buffs, be it powerful attack bonuses for her allies or defensive maluses for her enemies. In Infinite Wealth, this job was reworked to replace some skills with ones from the Hostess job, including that job's ice-based attacks.

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• Action Girl: Is the first playable female character in the series who can participate in battles. She never turns down a battle and fights alongside her teammates every chance she can get.
• Action Survivor: Compared to other playable characters she's not a hardened thug or cop. She's just a hostess club manager who's done some boxercising but gets embroiled in criminal conspiracies and goes up against violent crime lords, tigers and construction vehicles.
• Affectionate Nickname: She's the giver of these, calling Nanba "Nan-chan," suggesting "Han-chan" for Joon-gi, and the receiver of one, being called "Sa-chan" by some party members. While it's mostly confined to optional dialogue and her drink link, she occasionally also calls Ichiban "Icchan."
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Subverted. She finds Joon-gi Han attractive but was turned off by his personality, and she's a romance option for Ichiban, an ex-yakuza but is a good person at heart.
• Ambiguously Bi: She has two rather suggestive skills that can be used on women just the same as any other party member: a Kiss of Life, and a Night Queen-exclusive healing move that involves her... pleasuring the target. In turn, the women can use those same skills on her, too.
• Ascended Fangirl: Gets to work alongside Yuki and Koyuki from Four Shine in Infinite Wealth as part of a Bucket List story for Kiryu. She's a huge fan of both, even having read a book Yuki published an unspecified time back about cabaret club management (which makes sense, as she is the mama of her own club in Ijincho).
• The Baby of the Bunch: Assuming Eri is not unlocked, Saeko not only doubles as the only girl in the party, but also the youngest of the group.
• Battle Couple: With Kasuga, if you complete her romance route.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: In cutscenes in the which the party is exhausted, Saeko never sweats like the rest of the group. There's never a point where she's shown bleeding or visibly injured, either, aside from the same generic red lined effect all characters get when they're suffering from the bleeding status effect. Infinite Wealth averts this by occasionally showing her covered in bruises and cuts as much as the men.
• Big Eater: Implied. Saeko participates in a considerable amount of Table Talk sessions when dining at eateries, with her dialogue indicating that she greatly enjoys what she's eating, which the others sometimes take a jab at. In addition, the Culture Shock Party Chat in Sotenbori has her suggesting that the group stop by Nagoya on their way back, but not because she's hungry for the local ramen at all.
• Big Sister Instinct: Her Drink Links are about her trying to figure out how to get her sister away from her scumbag of a boyfriend.
• Blood Knight: Out of all the Heroes of Tomorrow, she's the one most likely to immediately throw down with the enemies they encountered.
• Boxing Battler: She utilizes Boxercise in one of her default specials.
• Brutal Honesty: Saeko does not like to mince her words, especially if she's annoyed.
• Color Motif: White. Her usual suit and Matriarch outfit are both white, and her Idol outfit has a white suit jacket.
• Combat Stilettos: Saeko wears high heels in her default Barmaid job, which doesn't hinder her kicking all the butts one bit.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Compared to the previous series female lead, Haruka. She's an active participant in battle unlike Haruka who only at most participated in dancing minigames against opponents in 5, is an adult woman as opposed to a child who grows up into a young woman in her early 20s, and formerly worked in a Cabaret Club as opposed to the infamously clean idol business. Also whereas Haruka remains mostly out of the loop of whatever conspiracy Kiryu tries to stop (Even in 5, where she plays a more active role). Saeko is significantly more active in helping Ichiban in his quest, often using her charm and business savvy to get information.
• Control Freak: Not currently but she confesses during her drink talks that during her youth she became distant from her family because she often took charge and made choices for them, which led to both her twin sister and her father resenting her. She left home at a young age because of it and it's clear it weighs heavily on her. The rest of the party don't seem to mind it though, Ichiban and Adachi affectionatily teasing her by calling her 'Mama Saeko' when she lectures them to be careful to not stab themselves with their chicken skewers in one table talk.
• Deadpan Snarker: Saeko can dish out some exasperated quips against her teammates whenever they make a dumb comment.
  Adachi: (after meeting Seonhee) Don't worry, nobody that beautiful could be evil.
  Saeko: If you don't start thinking with the right head, you're gonna get us all killed.
  • She also adopts a higher register for her dialouge in the Idol job, which when combined with "lyrics" like "make the ouchies go away" indicates Saeko holds a certain amount of contempt for the job.
• Dude Magnet: Fitting for a former hostess she draws a lot of male attention. The Yokohama Liumang warehouse chief, Ishioda, Adachi, Nanba and to an extent Ichiban all show attraction to her at various points in the story.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Made her initial debut in the April Fools' 2019 trailer for Yakuza Online, sporting a different outfit and name than what she has in the final game.
• Everyone Has Standards: She may not have thought too much about Nonomiya, but even she's disgusted by Kume disgracing his memory while they were still mourning him, no less.
• Faux Action Girl: Only in cutscenes. Despite being a bonafide Action Girl who never runs away from a fight, she’s never shown attacking anyone in cutscenes and her role tends to be supporting the others or being knocked down during boss intros.
• Feminine Women Can Cook: She can indeed, although she also takes great delight in using it to mess with poor Nanba and make him carry the grocery bags.
• The Gadfly: Saeko loves to playfully mess with her fellow party members, especially in the Party Chats.
• Gameplay and Story Integration:
  • She works as the Mama at a hostess club when not spending time with the party and worked as a hostess herself for many years. As such, she qualifies for the Hostess job innately in Like a Dragon and is generally seen as a better fit for it than Eri due to her superior Magic stat.
  • She's noted to be a heavy drinker with an even higher tolerance for booze than her male comrades. This is reflected in-game by her taking the longest of any party member to become drunk after consuming alcoholic drinks.
  • She's shown to have a short temper, and in gameplay she's highly suseptible to the Rage status effect.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Despite being a capable fighter in-game, she's never actually been shown physically fighting with anyone in a cutscene. This is taken further in Infinite Wealth, as both Chitose and Seonhee are shown duking it out with various people in cutscenes, while Saeko is relegated to a supportive role (such as catching someone when they're knocked back)
• Groin Attack: Her "Jewel Breaker" is a swift punt to the nuts.
• Handbag of Hurt: Her base class of Barmaid uses handbags as the main weapon. Switch her over to the Hostess class in Like a Dragon, and she gets a clutch/pouch bag instead.
• Has a Type: She seems to have a thing for Pretty Boys, since her initial impression of Joon-Gi Han is that he's hot like a K-Pop idol. Though she does say that his stoic personality is a turn-off. Likewise, she seems to like stylish guys, since the stat you need to max out for her romance sidequest is the Style stat.
• Hate at First Sight: Saeko became hostile towards Seonhee basically the very instant they met, having sussed out that the woman is more shady than she lets on. While she never really grows on Saeko, she eventually does come to respect her as she's the first one to agree to helping defend Geomijul when she puts her pride aside to ask for their help and explains the weight of such a gesture to the rest of the party to convince them to do the same. This has eased off by Infinite Wealth, where she has no real issue fighting alongside her.
• Hidden Depths: Despite her seemingly no-nonsense attitude in her introduction, she quickly reveals herself to be quite silly when prompted. Several group chats have her slipping into characters to play out scenes with the boys - for example, it takes no prodding for her to improvise a needy Osaka girlfriend to Adachi's sugar daddy.
• Identical Twin Mistake: When the party meets her for the first time, they assumed she was Nanoha after a supposed makeover with the money she got back from the Sunlight Castle scam. She shortly shoots down their assumptions before clarifying and introducing herself as Nanoha's twin sister.
• I Know Madden Kombat: One of her Specials in her Barmaid job involves Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs derived from Boxercise.
• Implied Love Interest: With Eri being a non-entity outside the business sidequest, for the most part, and with Saeko having Ship Tease with Ichiban whether or not you romance her, she's the most likely choice for the future Mrs. Kasuga. The sub-story for completing her Romance is even fittingly titled Girl of My Dreams, and based on Ichiban's reaction to being kissed by her in his sleep, it would appear that he also has a crush on her as well.
  • More or less confirmed in Infinite Wealth where it's shown that Ichiban has a huge crush on her. Unfortunately, at the end of their first date he decided to propose to her, causing her to friendzone him and distance herself from him for an entire year.
    • While a proposal on the first date is indeed an important factor in her reaction, another glaring one in her eyes is that, throughout his confession, all Ichiban did was list a bunch of pros and cons to marrying him and not once tells her his feelings, or rather, the three magic words: I love you. By the end of the game, he does just that, to which she happily accepts. Up until Ichiban goes overboard once more and reveals the "I LOVE SAEKO" shirt he's wearing under his regular clothes.
• Kiss of Life: Her "Essence of Remotivation" has her reviving an ally by giving them a smooch.
• Lap Pillow: Gives one to Ichiban after he gets knocked out by Kiryu.
• Male Might, Female Finesse: She's the Female Finesse to the Male Might of the rest of the initial four. As opposed to the guys using nearly no finesse, she utilizes boxing derived from Boxercise, a Martial Arts throw involving proper stance work, and so on.
• The Medic: While Nanba is the ex-nurse of the group and has a few healing spells. Saeko tends to be the default White Mage of the group, since she gets the Idol job soon after you can change jobs, and the only other possible Idol in the group is an Optional Party Member. On top of that, she has a much better Healing stat than other party members, making her far more effective at the job.
• Miss Kitty: Despite appearances, Saeko is actually in charge of an entire hostess club as its Mama, having been promoted by Nonomiya into that position after a long stint of being its best employee, and is by all accounts a pretty Benevolent Boss.
• Nerves of Steel: On a technical level, since Saeko's Boxercise training provides her with greater psychological resilience towards Fear, Drunk, Charm, and Silence than her teammates, which are classified as mental status effects.
• Nice Girl: Brutal Honesty and Gadfly habits aside she’s quick to befriend the group and functions as the Team Mom, cooking meals and breaking up arguments during optional conversations.
• Nice to the Waiter: Since she works in the service industry she puts a lot of stock in how people treat staff. At the end of her Drink Link storyline in Like a Dragon she tests Yamashita's worthiness as a potential suitor for Nanoha by asking how he treats waiters and him responding that he believes in treating them politely earns her approval.
• Now or Never Kiss: Saeko's optional romance scene in Like a Dragon is not available until near the end of Chapter 15, right before the Point of No Return.
• One of the Boys: Treated as one by the party for the most part. She even takes some slight offense when Ichiban says he finds her drinking wine kind of odd since he’s used to seeing her passed out on the couch with a sake bottle on one hand. Given that she is by all means the only female party member with any story relevance (factoring in Eri's role as an Optional Party Member), she plays off well being the only lady in a predominantly-male group.
• Parental Substitute: Was one to Nanoha after her mother passed away. She got a job while in high school and even tried to get Nanoha to attend a certain college, unfortunately this made their relationship turn for the worst. And even after they split apart Saeko still looks after her from a distance to ensure she's not in any danger.
• Polar Opposite Twins: With her sister, Nanoha. Nanoha is very meek, while Saeko is a tough ass-kicker.
• Platonic Life-Partners: With Nanba and Adachi, particularly the former who she teases and drags along whenever she needs to buy food for cooking. She even laughs when Adachi suggests that her future love might be someone in the group. May or may not be this with Ichiban as well but their Ship Tease moments and conversation confirming she has a crush on him imply otherwise.
• Precision F-Strike: Had some choice words to say to Kume and his Bleach Japan crowd after he mocked Nonomiya's death.
  Kume: I feel the same way I do when I finish my spring cleaning.
  Saeko: (Bitch slaps him in response)
  Kume: Who do you think you are?!
  Saeko: Get the fuck out of here!
• Relationship Upgrade: Potentially with Ichiban should you pursue her romance route. This has no bearing on the main story though. Justified since she plays off kissing him as just a dream so Ichiban and her aren’t actually in a proper relationship. By the time of Infinite Wealth, Ichiban is shown to have a serious crush on her to the point that he attempted to propose after the first date, which led to her friendzoning him. At the end of the game however, Ichiban is able to properly confess his feelings for her, which she accepts.
• Ship Tease: With Ichiban especially if you pursue her romance, however they have moments together regardless if you do or don’t.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: She treats Nanba and to a lesser extent Joongi Han as this. Seonhee to a much greater extent - even before she starts threatening the group Saeko is annoyed by Ichiban, Nanba and Adachi being tricked by her looks and teasing personality.
• The Smurfette Principle: Unless you unlock Eri, she's the only female party member in Like a Dragon.
• Soiled Dove: Being a hostess meant she had her share of sexual interactions and isn't too concerned with Ichiban walking in with only his towel after taking a shower while she was wearing a bathrobe. Furthermore when Saeko protested when Zheng tried to lick her armpit, she told him that, if he was going to be a creep, he could've at least stuck to kissing or groping, which amused and baffled Nanba.
  Nanba: That's a unique perspective...
• Sore Loser: Implied. If Ichiban plays darts with her and he wins, Saeko will throw a minor tantrum about it.
• Squee: She has a real fangirl moment when meeting Yuki and Koyuki in Infinite Wealth, given that she also runs a hostess club and idolizes the pair of them. She also mentions reading a cabaret club management book Yuki wrote.
• Support Party Member: Her Character Skills are mostly support abilities that buff her party or debuff her enemies, and one of her most common classes is the Idol job.
• Squishy Wizard: Does more magic damage and healing than Eri, but has less health. It's of somewhat nominal use since the base class doesn't really have many magic or healing options, making it ideal to swap her job into either Hostess or Idol.
• Team Mom: Despite claiming otherwise, and being the youngest of the party outside of Eri, she fulfills this role in many optional diner conversations. One instance even had her scold Ichiban, Adachi and Joongi Han for arguing, the last of whom even incredulously asks why he’s apologizing afterwards. Ichiban and Adachi even sarcastically call her mom in another conversation.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: She smokes like a chimney, is always itching for a fight, establishes quickly she's not some delicate flower and drinks all of the boys under the table, including Adachi; even Ichiban is intimidated by her ability to knock 'em back. Nevertheless, she's quite conventionally attractive, and lacks the more boorish traits associated with the archetype. Her character skills are also much more feminine, involving things such as using makeup and perfume or exploiting her cuteness to stat-boost her allies.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Cream lattes and tomato onion soup, according to her official bio and Table Talks.
• Twin Switch: Disguises herself as her sister to trick Nanoha's jerkass boyfriend into breaking up with her.
• Vague Age: While she is explicitly younger than Ichiban and Nanba, who are both in their early forties, her exact age is never given, and promotional materials explicitly refuse to state an exact number ("None of your business!"). A few conversations poke fun at her for being an Old Maid who's aged out of being a traditional hostess, and combined with her having enough experience to be a successful Mama, it's suggested that she's in her mid-30s.
• Weight Woe: Implied. Ordering the Samgye-tang item at Eomeni's Vow will have Saeko hastily giving the rest of her dish to Ichiban after Zhao revealed how rich in calories it is.
• White Magician Girl: Her high healing stat means she's optimal to reclass as an Idol, which emphasizes healing and buffing party members.

Joongi Han (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Voiced by: Yūichi Nakamura (Japanese), Keong Sim (English) ^{Other Languages}Liu Zhaokun (Chinese)

The right arm of Geomijul leader Seonhee. Together they sustain the organization. While he can be rational and calm, he also has a ruthless side as a hitman who will calmly eliminate anyone in his way. He's not the same Han from 6, instead being a body double. His real name is Yeonsu Kim.

His default job is "Hitman", a Lightning Bruiser class designed to focus on immense single-target damage at both short and far ranges. His personal skills are designed to debuff enemies and place status ailments on them so his damage can go even higher.

If you were looking for information on the previous Joon-Gi Han, click here.

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• Abusive Parents: His father was an alcoholic thug who beat him regularly and saw nothing wrong with turning his own son into a body double without his consent, when even the real Joon-Gi Han saw something wrong and only approved of how practical it was for him.
• Actually Pretty Funny: When he describes how he and his family were treated like slime and forced to run away, Ichiban can't help but compare it to Metal Slime from Dragon Quest. Luckily, he understands the reference and doesn't get offended by it.
• Agent Peacock: It's subtle, but group chats and dinner conversations quickly reveal that he's pretty vain - he particularly perks up whenever he can flout his beautician and dietary expertise. Ichiban quickly endears himself to him by praising his looks.
• All the Other Reindeer: Tells Ichiban that in the past he and his family were rejected both by the Japanese and other Korean communities. As an adult after the original Joon-Gi Han’s death he was rejected till he found the Geomijul. Helps explain his Undying Loyalty to them.
• Always Second Best: He admits that no matter how much of his speech, mannerisms, and style he imitates, he'll never be on the same level as the real Joon-Gi Han.
• Badass Longcoat: His main outfit is a black raincoat. Interestingly, it is reminiscent of the one worn by The Mole from Judgment, though this similarity is not commented on. In Infinite Wealth he switches it out for a t-shirt since it'd be incredibly uncomfortable to wear in Hawaii.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Aside from the fact that he uses Knuckle Dusters as a primary weapon, and a couple skills use a Karambit and guns, he's still the premier master fistfighter in the game as a Hitman.
• Batman Gambit: His Bonding Events reveal that the real reason why he still uses the Joon-Gi Han identity after the original's death is to lure the remnants of the Jingweon to Ijincho so that he can help them find a place in the Geomijul.
• Bavarian Fire Drill: He's introduced rescuing the gang by simply walking into a Liumang prison/execution facility and letting the goons there assume he's a senior officer.
• Berserk Button: Of all things, improper alcohol etiquette. Just try and pair brandy with cucumbers within earshot of him....
• Big Brother Worship: His subordinate Yeona is clearly smitten with him and calls him ‘Oppa’, a Korean term that more-or-less translates to ‘Big Brother’.
• Big Damn Heroes: He's first introduced coming in out of nowhere and freeing Ichiban from Mabuchi's interrogation.
• Body Double: He's not the Joon-Gi Han from Yakuza 6. As the conversation he has with Kiryu implies and the earlier reveal of the Ijin Three's counterfeiting operation outright says, this Joon-Gi Han is actually a body double. Increasing Ichiban's bond with him reveals that he had no choice in the matter—his abusive father drugged him and turned him into a body double so he could offer him as tribute to the original Han, just so he could get in good with the new Jingweon leadership.
• Boring, but Practical: His ultimate weapon for the Hitman job in Like a Dragon, the Darksilver Fists, has no special effects, but instead boosts his already high agility stat. And when stacked high enough, can possibly give him an Extra Turn or two during battle.
• Boxing Battler: Like the original, he has several boxing moves in his repertoire, though he adds some kicks as well as some actual weapons.
• Celibate Hero: He shows no interest in romance or sex outside of when the player takes the group to Hostess clubs. His subordinate Yeona is also clearly smitten with him, though he’s either oblivious or annoyed by it.
• Color Motif: Black and silver. His usual outfit and Breaker outfit are both black, his Bodyguard outfit has a silver tie, his Host outfit is a black suit jacket with silver accents and a silver undershirt, and his Devil Rocker outfit has both silver accents and silver face paint.
• Combat Pragmatist: Aside from the knives, poisons, and guns, even some of his boxing is dirty, including such illegal moves as stepping on an opponent's foot to pummel them more easily.
• Comically Serious: Han isn't above taking part in some of the frankly absurd conversations frequently take part in. The kicker is he maintains his stoicism no matter how silly the conversation gets.
• Critical Hit Class: As a Hitman, criticals are his bread and butter. To facilitate this, Joongi Han's Dexterity stat is the highest among the group, which can be further boosted by equipping him with optimal gear.
• Cultured Badass: He's a highly skilled professional hitman but is also a well-spoken gentleman with an appreciation for fine food and wine and a discerning eye for aesthetics.
• Deadpan Snarker: He's The Stoic with a sense of humour. This trope comes with the territory. When he does crack a joke, it's invariably as dry as a bone.
• Defeat Means Playable: It takes a while, but he does join the party after his boss fight inside the Geomijul HQ.
• Demoted to Extra: In Infinite Wealth, where he ends up not re-joining the party until Chapter 13, the penultimate chapter of the game. His lack of involvement is lampshaded heavily.
• Devious Daggers: He wields a folding karambit (a small Indonesian dagger resembling a claw) in combat. He's also a stealthy assassin, who keeps quite a bit of secrets.
• The Fighting Narcissist: He didn't choose to have plastic surgery, and he dresses quite practically for a pretty boy, but there are subtle hints that he prides himself on his looks. He brags that he was handsome even before facial reconstruction, and is vain enough about his physique that he watches his figure and talks a lot about minding his diet and fitness even though he no longer needs to pass as Joongi.
• Final Boss: Of the darts minigame. Played with, as although he can be challenged at any time, Joongi Han's AI is actually the hardest difficulty-wise, since he will nail practically every single throw where they will get him the most possible points, making it difficult to beat him without some math work, getting lucky in Cricket (which he tends to make more mistakes at), or exploiting an Easy Level Trick in Count Up mode^note Bots will never attempt to hit Triples in favor of bullseyes in Count Up, making those shots a sure advantage against them if one aims for 17 and higher. To denote this, he's the only one who uses gold darts, which are the second best set in the game, whereas everyone else will just stick to the basic ones.
• Fitness Nut: He's very serious about staying fit. The free-roam conversations in Infinite Wealth reveals how he tries to stick to his workout routine and nutritional balance anywhere and anytime. The Big Swell bonus scenario exaggerates this trait of his even further, showing him lecturing about the health benefits of meat when the party is having a post-battle meal at a steak restaurant, then forcing the male party members to do squats in front of the joint, catching a mall security guard's attention.
• Flash Step: Essence of Phantom Drive has him zipping around the hapless enemy while repeatedly slicing into them with his karambit. Essence of Trick Shots does the same thing, only with a healthy dose of Gun Kata instead.
• Foil: To the original Joongi Han. While the original was a leader, he's instead a loyal follower of Seonhee and later Ichiban. And whereas the original was a Boxing Battler never shown even handling a firearm, he's an assassin who uses mostly karambits and handguns (though he also uses several of the original's boxing moves). Also, while the original was a Walking Shirtless Scene, his body is completely covered as to aid in his assassinations. Their demeanors are also opposites. The original was a Hot-Blooded Blood Knight, while he's The Stoic.
• Fragile Speedster: He's the fastest of the party, to the point of being able to act twice per round at high levels, and learns a variety of hard-hitting and versatile skills, but has lackluster defenses and is likely to go down quickly if the enemy prioritizes attacking him. While his HP isn't bad, it falls squarely in the middle of the party overall, only beating out fellow speedster Eri among the physically-oriented characters.
• Full-Name Basis: It's always Joongi Han. Never just Han or Joongi. Even the UI doesn't pick one or the other. Averted with Eric and Chitose in Infinite Wealth who call him Han-san.
• Gameplay and Story Integration:
  • He's noted in-universe to be a very handsome and suave man, and later reveals himself to have spent some time running the host club Stardust. Naturally, he's a perfect fit for the Host job and qualifies for it as soon as he joins the party.
  • As a professional hitman who previously worked as a body double, he innately qualifies for the Bodyguard job in Like a Dragon.
  • He admits in one of his Drink Links to not being very fond of singing in Like a Dragon. This is reflected by him being the only party member who doesn't have an associated karaoke song (even Eri, Optional Party Member as she is, has one), with the most participation he has in regards to this activity being the keyboardist for Hell Stew. Furthermore, he also requires the most effort among the party to qualify for the Musician job, which requires the character to sing in nearly all of its skills. Though he does eventually get a chance to sing in Infinite Wealth.
• Gratuitous French: One of his escape quotes is "Adieu!"
• Guns Akimbo: He often uses two 1911-esque handguns in tandem for some of his moves.
• Hidden Depths:
  • As it turns out, he's a pretty avid gamer himself, as revealed in one of his Bonding Events.
  • If the multitude of Table Talk sessions that he's part of are any indication, he's quite a knowledgeable gourmand who's well-versed in many different types of food, drink, and even desserts, and is often the member with the most insightful opinions in regards to specific meal combos next to Zhao. It's also implied that he likes sweets such as cakes, based from one of his Party Chat conversations.
  • A Walk & Talk event reveals he’s a fan of American Superhero comics.
• Hypocritical Humor: He left Japan to go to Hawaii (without Seonhee’s permission, despite his claims) because he felt left out of the adventure. He gave no warning to the person he left in charge, Yeona, and claims it was all proper procedure. When she proceeds to do the exact same thing, he calls her irresponsible and childishly defends himself from Ichiban by saying what he did was different. Ichiban says that it clearly isn’t.
• Inconsistent Spelling: Prior to Infinite Wealth, his name was hyphenated as "Joon-gi", but in Infinite Wealth the hyphen is dropped.^note For consistency with Seonhee's name.
• Injured Vulnerability: His Fatal Rush skill deals more damage to enemies afflicted with physical status conditions, which Joon-gi is good at inflicting by himself. Essence of Assassin Dive also deals more damage to paralyzed enemies.
• Insistent Terminology: His hair is not "white" and definitely not "grey". It's "silver ash".
• I Shall Taunt You: He runs his mouth quite a lot during his boss fight, sometimes in surprisingly childish ways such as making fun of Kasuga's name.
• Knowledge Broker: This is his role in the party story-wise, providing information he receives from the Geomijul for the party to plan ahead before carrying out on their missions.
• Late Character Syndrome: In Infinite Wealth, he joins the party at Chapter 13, the second-to-last chapter in the game. This could potentially leave him behind in Levels, Job proficiencies, and Bonds compared to the rest of the party. This is somewhat softened by the fact that his starting Hitman class has most skills (sans his last Essence) available from the get-go and the mandatory plot event that involves the rest of the party buying less conspiculous clothes for him instantly grants him around 8 friendship levels on top of what he can get from the Walk and Talk events.
• Legacy Immortality: He tells Kiryu that he has taken on the mantle of Han Joon-Gi, and that someday another will take over from him much like The Phantom.
• Leitmotif: The original Joon-Gi Han's theme, "Theory of Beauty" returns from 6 (which is in itself a remix of the Jingweon's theme from 2).
• Lightning Bruiser: His kit revolves around dealing insane amounts of damage as crits in a snap, which is facilitated by his amazing Dexterity and Agility stats. In fact, Joon-gi Han is the fastest party member in the game, beating Eri by a small margin Agility-wise.
• Magically Inept Fighter: Joon-Gi Han's default job, Hitman, heavily favors physical attacks. He's the only party member naturally able to learn abilities of all three physical types. The consequence of this is he learns no magic abilities, offensive or support, without going into the other jobs. That said, he has a respectable natural Magic stat and can innately reclass into the magic-centric Host job, meaning he can competently serve as a spellcaster.
• More Dakka: Many of his gun-related skills have him fire his pistols at staggering speeds, much faster than one would be reasonably expected to be able to do with such weapons.
• Moveset Clone: For very obvious reasons, his attack animations carry a lot of influence from the original Joon-Gi Han's own. Head Trauma for example is based on a similar grab attack Han in 6 can perform against Kiryu. He also has Ed's folding karambit and attacks from the same game. One of his Kiwami moves even comes from the final boss of Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise (who is also voiced by Yūichi Nakamura).
• Multi-Melee Master: He wields a combination of brass knuckles, dual pistols, and a karambit in his Hitman class and is the only party member who naturally learns abilities of all three physical types.
• The Musketeer: Since he's armed with a karambit and pistols, he's capable of dealing all three types of physical damage.
• Not So Above It All: As his Drink Links in Infinite Wealth reveal, he wasn’t sent to Hawaii by Seonhee. He went there on his own in large part because he felt annoyed and left out when Seonhee and Zhao went to go adventuring with Kiryu, leaving him to do the boring work. He even acts like a child when Ichiban calls him out on it.
• Not So Stoic: Downplayed. Though he never truly drops his stoicism, he does speak in a more relaxed tone in some moments. He also enjoys hostess clubs as much as the other male party members and has no problem participating in the various silly conversations that they all get into. He'll also actually yell at Ichiban for trying to pair cucumbers with brandy in a table talk.
• Oblivious to Love: Either oblivious or annoyed. His subordinate in Infinite Wealth, Yeona, is clearly smitten with him and engineers a Rescue Romance moment. Joongi doesn’t react to her obvious crush even before the incident and simply chews her out for being irresponsible.
• Older Than They Look: Going by his own comments he's actually 33 years old despite looking like a Korean pop star in his 20's, though that could be the plastic surgery. He looks no different in Infinite Wealth despite being roughly 37.
• Out of Focus: While a major character in Yakuza: Like A Dragon, he doesn't have as much screen time in Infinite Wealth. Seonhee has him doing paperwork off screen while she joins Kiryu's party. Joongi ends up going to Hawaii in the penultimate chapter because he felt left out of the adventure.
• Platonic Life-Partners: With Seonhee. The two are close, but there’s no hint of romantic attraction and Seonhee talks about him like a somewhat bothersome sibling in Infinite Wealth. Although the Big Swell DLC has a moment when the guys fish out a porn mag and start discussing their preferred women in the pabes. Joongi’s preferred woman looks similar to Seonhee, which the other guys mentally point out.
• Pretty Boy: Just like before he's a very handsome man with fine features. Saeko even comments on it though she finds his personality a turn-off. While this is due to his (unwilling) plastic surgery to look like the original Joon-Gi Han he tells Ichiban that he was just as handsome before the procedure.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Joongi is noticeably shorter than the other guys in the party (even Nanba with his generally slouched posture is slightly taller than him), but is no less of a badass for it and is probably deadlier as a professional hitman.
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: His default class and stated profession is a hitman. Since he only ever fights against and subsequently joins the Thou Shalt Not Kill Heroes of Tomorrow he never actually kills anyone in the story. That said, he does make the most use of real, lethal weaponry of any of the party, making him a particularly hair-thin Technical Pacifist.
• Promoted to Playable: Played With. He's not the real Joon-Gi Han, who was killed in the previous game, he still utilizes the same Boxing Battler style of the original. Some of his moves, such as Head Trauma, are taken straight from the original. The original's outfit can also be unlocked to complete the look.
• Retired Monster: While he was only a double for the Jingweon mafia, a criminal syndicate and borderline terrorist faction. His goal is to provide retirement plan to the Jingweon agents who can't go back to the mainland for their failure and can't be accepted by legal society by having them join the Geomijul, a slightly less violent Korean crime syndicate.
• Secret-Keeper: Joon-gi Han is the only member of Ichiban's party who knows exactly who Kiryu is in Like a Dragon. The two share a rather cryptic conversation, and when Ichiban tries to get an explanation, Han simply tells him that the two "share an acquaintance".
• Servile Snarker: Seonhee reveals in Infinite Wealth that he tends be very snarky towards her. In the Big Swell DLC, he’s clearly unhappy having to fan her while she lies on a beach chair and mutters under his breath.
• Socially Awkward Hero: As revealed in Infinite Wealth, Joongi is actually a bit of an endearingly awkward dork when confronted with things outside of his element - when the group of guys finds a dirty magazine while fishing (long story), he's asked about which girl he likes from it, only to immediately become flustered and shy.
• The Stoic: Strong emotions aren't really his thing, though he's still quite sociable. It makes him pretty frightening as a hitman. Apparently, that stoicism extends to his karaoke skills, or rather, lack thereof; he's the only party member who doesn't have a song to sing in Survive.
• That Man Is Dead: As revealed in his Drink Links in Like a Dragon, he no longer identifies as Yeonsu Kim, having fully adopted the original Joon-gi Han's name as his own after the latter's death.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: He's always been a kind man under the façade of aloofness, but when he joins Ichiban's party in Infinite Wealth, the years of peace in Ijincho have clearly been good for his personality, as he's a lot happier as a person overall. He's even softened enough to finally sing karaoke after having admitting in Like a Dragon that he doesn't like singing.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Actually enjoys bread, which Ichiban teases him about by calling him "Joon-gi Bun." Joon-gi's not very fond of the pun.
• Undying Loyalty: To Seonhee and the Geomijul as a whole. Later when he joins the Heroes of Tomorrow, he extends that loyalty to Ichiban.
• Walking Armory: There's a reason he wears that raincoat - unlike the real Joon-gi Han, he carries around an impressive array of small concealable weapons. In addition to his spiked knuckle duster, he has two semi-auto pistols, a karambit, a stun gun, and an unknown number of poison vials.
• Walking Spoiler: It's hard to talk about this Joon Gi Han without bringing up he's a body double. Or the fact that the original is also dead.
• You Are Too Late: A rare heroic one; Masato's last ditch attempt to appeal to the cops after the final battle falls flat after Han shows them Masato's confession video and then confirms that he had already uploaded it online, so any attempt at a potential cover-up had already been squashed.

Tianyou Zhao

Voiced by: Nobuhiko Okamoto (Japanese), Robbie Daymond (English) ^{Other Languages}Zhang Pei (Chinese)

The leader of the Yokohama Liumang, an organization that prides itself on its fighting, and sees anyone other than its fellows as enemies. He’s friendly enough, but he’s also a schemer whose true feelings are hard to discern. In a fight, he handles his Blue Dragon sword with skill, and his cooking is top-class too. His hideout is in the high-end Chinese restaurant Qing Jin.

His default job is "Gangster", a powerful sword-based class that is designed to strike at multiple foes at once with lots of forward momentum. His personal skills revolve around increasing his already powerful moveset with further buffs. In Infinite Wealth, his self-buffs have been replaced with the ability to cook up dim sum for himself and/or his teammates, giving passive healing over time and resistance to status effects.

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• Abdicate the Throne: After he is rescued, he steps down from his leadership position of the Yokohama Liumang and joins Ichiban's party, leaving the rest of his men in Seonhee's hands. Zhao reasons that the remaining members likely wouldn't be happy with the rash decision and opts to step aside from leadership in favor of Seonhee so that there would be less conflict between the two sides. As of Infinite Wealth, he's a chef full-time.
• The Ace: In his youth, he excelled in any sport or subject he took up and never lost a fight.
• Abusive Parents: He makes references to being raised rigidly as the heir to the Liumang, including his console being destroyed in front of him if he played video games for longer than an hour a day.
• Agent Peacock: He dresses quite flamboyantly and is the leader of a group that prides itself on fighting.
• Ambiguously Gay: His fashion sense, voice and affinity for Ichiban, being the only character to call him "Kasuga-kun" as well as the gushing reverence he treats Mabuchi with indicate this. He also tends to use gender-neutral language, at least in the Japanese language anyway. He's also visibly less enthused about visiting Hostess Clubs than the other male party members, even compared to Han.
  • His Imagine Spot in If I Could Love The One I Love does give him a female love interest, but seeing as she's the same woman seen in Joongi's cutscene, it's hard to say.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: If him being one of the party members with the highest damage output in the game is any indication, then he isn't the leader of the Yokohama Liumang for nothing.
• Badass in Distress: Before he joins the party in Like a Dragon, a coup happens and he gets held captive in his own base and Ichiban has to rescue him.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: His Gangster job might as well be called Kung Fu master, since he utilizes it in his base class. Heck, one of his skills is Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs by way of Drunken Boxing. The class weapon is the Dao, which is a sword, either way, but he does sheathe it for certain abilities, and Kung Fu teaches both fistfighting and weapons combat anyways.
• Beneath the Mask: When Ichiban and co first met him, he is a Soft-Spoken Sadist and seems rather unhinged and heartless judging by him sending assassins after Nanba, but that's just a façade. After joining Ichiban's party he is actually rather friendly, calm, easy-going and genuinely cares about the people around him.
• Beware the Nice Ones: While one of the more relaxed people of the party, he's still a former crime lord who doesn't actually balk at the things that said job entails (even casually mentioning that he's killed in the past).
• Birds of a Feather: Zhao and Ichiban end up striking an accord rather quickly during their bonding links, primarily because they tend to hold similar outlooks and principles to their lives in the Chinese Mafia and Yakuza respectively. Zhao's disintegrating relationship with Mabuchi also mirrors Ichiban's with Masato.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: He has everything that could make him a good leader except an interest in being in charge. It makes him quite jaded about holding the position despite having the brains and the brawn to fill it. It's also one of the reasons why he respected Mabuchi since he had both the talent and ambition to be boss but ultimately couldn't.
• Continuity Cameo: Doubling as a Continuity Nod, he makes a surprise appearance at a restaurant that Yagami and the rest of Yokohama 99 are eating at in Lost Judgment.
• Chef of Iron: Zhao still works on the line in the kitchens of the high-end Chinese restaurant he uses as a base of operations occasionally. He also cooks chili shrimp for the party that Nanba and Adachi praise to the skies. Zhao is also by far the most technically skilled fighter in the main party and is also the character that benefits most from a couple of levels in the "Chef" job, which specializes in both physical and magical attacks. As of Infinite Wealth he's officially a chef full time and not only does he gain some healing techniques focused on serving Dim Sum but even has the Limit Break "Essence of Wok and a Hard Place" where he stir-fries his enemies with a massive wok.
• Color Motif: Yellow. His usual outfit has a yellow undershirt, his Breaker outfit is completely yellow, his Bodyguard outfit has a yellow tie, his Host outfit has both a yellow undershirt and a yellow pocket square, and his Devil Rocker outfit has both yellow accents and yellow face paint.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: At the end of his Drink Links in Infinite Wealth, Zhao gets even with the food critic that review-bombed his restaurant by making him the dish he was originally going to review before they got into a fight and standing there, watching him eat, until the critic remembers the positive review he was going to give him.
• Culture Clash: He often acts as a sort of representative on Chinese cultural topics and issues broached by other party members, usually Ichiban. Fortunately, these conversations never result in any offense or judgment, and Ichiban is happy to learn about things he doesn't know.
• Deadpan Snarker: Has no choice but to be this with his humor, since it's extraordinarily rare for him to raise his voice outside a fight.
• Does Not Like Spam: A Table Talk between him, Ichiban, and Han reveals he doesn't like pineapples and won't eat them even on a dish like sweet and sour pork.
• Easily Forgiven:
  • No one in the party really seems to mind that he sent assassins after Nanba during his Face–Heel Turn. They even go out of their way to try and rescue him of their own accord. Between him meeting the party halfway about getting evidence that Mabuchi is a traitor and him willing to call off the hit for the rather selfless request they protect Geomijul while he was actively fighting a coup probably had something to do with it.
  • From his part, he doesn't hold much of a grudge against Mabuchi for his attempted power-grab because despite everything he still saw the man as a brother. However, when Mabuchi makes a return in his final Bonding Event Zhao makes it clear that the man has only survived so long because of his good will and that he'd better leave for good if he knows what's good for him.
• Everyone Has Standards: His Drink Link in Infinite Wealth revolves around a food blogger that harshly criticised his restaurant online after he was politely reprimanded by Zhao for breaking the restaurant rules. Zhao is mad at the blogger, but he thinks the Liumang go way too far when they start planning to physically harm him for it.
• Flaming Sword: His "Essence of Phoenix Blade" move has him light his sword on fire via a bottle of liquor and a lighter before slamming it on the ground, sending the flame at the enemy.
• Foil: He contrasts with Mabuchi in a way that's reminiscent of Ichiban's relationship with Ryo Aoki/Masato Arakawa. Zhao was born into a position of power, is easygoing, naturally charismatic and averse to power while Mabuchi was born from the gutters, naturally ruthless, uncharismatic and powerhungry.
• The Gadfly: Says things he clearly doesn't believe in to tease people, like claiming that pineapples are really necessary to bring out the flavor in sweet and sour when he doesn't like pineapples, or telling Adachi that gardening is a waste of time when he himself loves bonsai.
• Gameplay and Story Integration:
  • He's a Supreme Chef who's base is a Chinese restaurant. As such, he naturally qualifies for the Chef job and is widely seen as the best choice among the party for it.
  • Despite wielding a sword in his default class, he requires the most effort of the party to qualify for the sword-using Bodyguard job. As a former gang leader groomed from birth to serve that position, he's more than likely accustomed to having others protect him rather than the other way around. The Bodyguard job also uses japanese katanas in a two-handed Unskilled, but Strong manner, whereas Zhao's natural fighting style centers around graceful swordplay with one-handed chinese swords.
• Giggling Villain: Part of his Obfuscating Insanity act is a habit of breaking into creepy, high-pitched giggles at inappropriate times. He still does it a bit after dropping his guard and letting Ichiban's party see the real him, but mostly as an ironic in-joke.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Zhao is surprisingly good at darts. Although not described explicitly by the game, your party members are actually difficulty-graded bots when playing darts against them, and Zhao is the second hardest AI to beat behind Joon-gi Han, being able to quite reliably nail bullseyes at the drop of a hat.
  • He's surprisingly knowledgable about video games, and seems to have a particular affinity for ones made by Sega.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: In his Drink Link in Like a Dragon, he reveals that he gave Mabuchi the power that he had in the Liumang because he saw potential in him, as well as being talented enough to keep the Liumang afloat with his exporting business. Too bad for Zhao that this would come back to bite him and the rest of the Ijin Three in the ass later on.
• Inadequate Inheritor: Painfully aware of being this for his gang - he inherited the job from his father, and never felt like he wanted to do it or was particularly good at it. It shapes a great deal of his relationship with Mabuchi - he knows that the other man's grudge against him is justified, because he really should have become leader of the Liumang instead, even if he can't condone the path that grudge has led him down.
• Jerkass Façade: While technically acting as an antagonist, Zhao comes off as rather unhinged and ruthless. Later on you learn this was all a facade Zhao created because it was what was expected of him if he was going to be the leader.
• Martial Pacifist: Zig-zagged. His facade is that of an unpredictable and unhinged Triad leader, but he's actually quite calm and easy-going upon joining the Heroes of Tomorrow. Oh, and he's a pretty damn good martial artist, too.
• Magic Knight: Statistically his attack and magic stat are both on the higher end, meaning that he's capable of being both a physical and magical powerhouse.
• Master Swordsman: Kung fu encourages mastery of both armed and unarmed combat, with the lessons learned from one helping inform the other, and as an expert in the discipline, Zhao is far and away the most technically proficient swordsman of the main team (and one of the best in Ijincho, for that matter). The parts of his Gangster moveset that use a sword are much more graceful and advanced than the clumsy, brutal swordplay of the Bodyguard job, in particular.
• Not So Stoic: While often calm and easy-going, in his final bonding event in Like a Dragon, he lets out all the pent-up rage he has towards Mabuchi, making it clear that the man is only alive because of Zhao's efforts and how he'd better leave for good or else lose whatever protection he had.
• Obfuscating Insanity: The Liumang have a (not undeserved) reputation for cruelty and brutality, and he's learned how to make himself seem like an Ax-Crazy Soft-Spoken Sadist Giggling Villain to intimidate rivals and keep his boys in line. In truth, he's a talented and kind-hearted but insecure man who dislikes his job and just wants to keep his extended family alive and together (not to say that he doesn't have the capacity to get his hands dirty if need be).
• Out of Focus: He drops out of the main plot for the most part once he joins the party in Like a Dragon. Compared to the other party members he often has the least dialogue in a scene or just isn’t present for no explained reason (something he shares with Joon-Gi Han). He also rarely gets focus or special dialogue after joining outside of his drink talks.
• Rejecting the Inheritance: It is revealed in his Drink Link in Like a Dragon that he isn't really interested about inheriting the leadership of the Liumang from his late father, but he didn't have any choice in the matter. After his rescue following Mabuchi's coup within the Liumang to overthrow him in order for Mabuchi to become its new leader, Zhao willingly relinquishes his leadership position to Seonhee, effectively leaving the Liumang for good.
• Shut Up, Kirk!: He makes it very clear that he doesn't like to be lectured as he's holding Takabe at gunpoint.
• Significant Anagram: The restaurant he owns, "You Tian", is based on the letters of his given name. More accurately, it's the reading for the characters in his name backwards — "佑天" instead of "天佑".
• Sixth Ranger:
  • In the main story proper, he's the final party member to join the Heroes of Tomorrow. Otherwise, it's either him or Eri. He also tends to show up the least in cutscenes, either not being present at all or just hanging in the background with little to no dialogue.
  • He's technically the second-to-last party member you unlock during Infinite Wealth as a whole (as that honor belongs to Joongi Han), but he is still the Sixth Ranger to Kiryu's Party, at least.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: During his initial meeting with Ichiban in Chapter 6, he never raises his voice despite having Takabe held at gunpoint. He's also quite casual in threatening Ichiban that he'll have him killed should he fail to find any evidence that implicates Mabuchi in the Seiryu-Liumang War. However, much of this is actually an act he put on in order to survive as boss of the Liumang. When Kasuga asks him what ever happened to Mabuchi after his defeat, after toying with the idea that he was butchered and put into meat buns Zhao reveals that he simply let him run with his life.
• Spellblade: Fittingly for his Magic Knight geared stat spread, one of his unique Kiwami skills, "Essence of the Phoenix Blade," has him ignite his dao in flames before attacking.
  "You wanna see some magic shit?"
• Suddenly Shouting: He goes from 0 to 100 in terms of volume when he starts throwing down or singing.
• Supreme Chef: He runs a high-end Chinese restaurant as his base of operations and is an excellent cook. Becomes a Chef of Iron if he's actually specced into the Chef class.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He's pretty much the Majima to Ichiban's Kiryu, while he obviously has his differences. He shares a lot of similar traits with Majima in both appearance and style, in fact when the two actually meet for the first time. The two give each other some compliments before having to fight.
• Troll: He likes to quietly heckle and tease the party, Like mocking Adachi for growing his own vegetables only to reveal his hobby is growing bonsai.
• Undying Loyalty: Similar to Ichiban's own devotion to Masato, Zhao's admiration for Mabuchi was so great that he was willingly blind to his increasingly ambitious nature and went out of his way to protect him from the old guard of the Liumang who wanted him killed before he became a problem. Even at the end of his Drink Links, when Mabuchi returns for vengeance Zhao states that even for all the bad blood between them he cannot bear to see the man he sees as his brother die.

Introduced in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth

For Kiryu's appearance as a party member, please see his folder here.

Eric Tomizawa

Voiced by: Satoru Iguchi (Japanese), Matthew Yang King (English)^{Other Languages}Ma Yang (Chinese)

A Japanese-American taxi driver affiliated with the Yamai Syndicate that Ichiban meets in Hawaii.

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• Action Survivor: He's a petty thug, sure, but he's mostly just a cab driver and nowhere near the level of hardened fighter of people like Ichiban or Kiryu. Even his basic attack combo in his default class is just uncoordinated flailing with a heavy tool.
• Actually a Good Idea: Normally thinks Ichiban's ideas are pretty harebrained, but when he suggests that if Tomizawa ever gets the large van he wants that they should take everyone on a trip, he starts off with his usual dismissive attitude...and then admits that yeah, that would actually be pretty fun.
• Affectionate Nickname: Ichiban eventually starts calling him "Tomi". He doesn't like it at first, but quickly warms to it.
• The Alcoholic: In his drink links, he mentions being deep in the bottle after getting out of jail and separating from Marie. By the time Infinite Wealth rolls around, he got his drinking under control. He still likes his booze, sometimes saying "Drinks later?" after a battle.
• Amicable Exes: By the end of his drink link, it turns out that Marie did not want to leave Hawaii without speaking with Tomizawa one last time. Afterwards, both part with new opportunities for a better life.
• Badass Driver: He's a taxi driver by trade and his abilities are all themed around mechanics (such as tossing wrenches or zapping enemies with a car battery). A few cutscenes also show him putting his skills to use such as driving a car Out of the Inferno to rescue the party from Yamai and driving a bulldozer off a building and through another one
• Blue Is Calm: His shirt has a lot of blue, and he happens to be the only party member with a resistance to rage. When he isn't in a life or death situation, he's usually pretty chill as well.
• Blue Means Smart One: Has a blue-heavy shirt and is the most technically minded of the team, having a starting job based around knowing how cars work and even having a passion for cars outside his job.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: On the receiving end. Despite Yamai apparently being angered at his betrayal, he completely forgets about him as soon as Kiryu shows up. When Ichiban tells Yamai to stop hassling Tomizawa, Yamai bluntly tells him he doesn’t care about him. His own men seem to be angrier at Tomizawa than Yamai does. Even when the two share numerous scenes later, Yamai completely ignores him and Tomizawa is the one to start any conversations with him.
• But Not Too Foreign: He is Half-Japanese and Half-American, while also having an American first name and Japanese surname to boot.
• But Now I Must Go: Attempted in a later chapter when he says he’ll be staying in Hawaii when the rest of the party leaves to return to Japan. He changes his mind after they plead with him to come with them. Chitose jokes that he just wanted to make them beg.
• Butt-Monkey: Poor Tomizawa has luck on par with Ichiban's most of the time, and generally speaking if Ichi's not the butt of a joke in a given scene, odds are pretty good Tomizawa is the unfortunate sap being made to look the fool.
• Chekhov's Skill: His background as a Honolulu native and a taxi driver comes in handy several times during the plot. Aside from driving the party in a few key points, his knowledge of the city and its people help keep the party one step ahead.
• Combat Pragmatist: In his base job, he just swings around a wrench he uses for working on his car, and his skills all use similar tools.
• Cowardly Lion: Shared with Nanba from the first game. He tends to balk at the crazy and dangerous things the party gets up to. He gets over it later. He even fits this trope mechanically, as he is inherently weak to getting affected by the fear status effect.
• Drives Like Crazy: Weaponized with his "Essence of Buckle Up", in which he haphazardly drives the enemy around in his taxi before deliberately tipping the car and getting out before it crashes.
• Deadpan Snarker: Often forced into this role when contending with Ichiban's more out-there antics.
• Death Seeker: Averted, much to his anguish. After his stint in prison, he tracked down Dwight with a gun and planned to kill him even if it meant dying. However, despite having the perfect chance, he admits that he still feared for his life even after losing everything and backed off. Ichiban comforts him that it’s only natural.
• Defeat Means Playable: Much like Joongi in the last game, Eric becomes a playable party member not long after Ichiban beats him in Chapter 2.
• Did Not Get the Girl: His drink link ultimately concludes with him meeting his ex-wife and pulling an I Want My Beloved to Be Happy by blessing her new relationship. He’s happy she was able to move on and gets a brighter outlook on life because of it.
• Does Not Like Guns: Somewhat. He’s fine using them to threaten Ichiban early on, but he doesn’t have the nerve to fire and take a life and never uses one again after he joins the group. Doesn’t stop him from being able to use gun-heavy Desperado job, however.
• Earthy Barefoot Character: Downplayed, but as a resident of warm, beachy Hawaii, Tomizawa prefers to wear sandals by default. He complains when he’s forced to wear a tuxedo and even says that the socks and shoes make his feet itch.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Tomizawa was initially thrust into a life of crime he never wanted and ruined both his life and his ex-wife Marie. After meeting Ichiban, his life starts to turn around. He was able to get back at the police and Dwight whom pin the blame on a crime he didn’t commit, gained more friends after he spent the majority of his life in Hawaii as Yamai’s lapdog, is able to leave Yamai’s group, and overall became a better person out of it and wished to contribute in improving the state that Hawaii was in. He even gets to part with Marie amicably, and while the two don’t get back together, they leave content with tying up loose ends and begin to look towards a new lease on life.
• Endearingly Dorky: His character trailer even refers to him as "the loveable dumbass you can't get rid of". His English voice actor emphasizes this aspect in his nasally performance.
• Fall Guy: The incident that pushed him towards the Yamai Syndicate had his life upended by the police arresting him for a crime he wasn't even aware of, thanks to the Barracudas working with the police to push the blame for their wrongdoings onto civilians. It resulted in him being wrongfully jailed for five years. If he pleaded innocence, he would've ended up with fifteen.
• Foil: To Eiji. Both had their lives ruined by a criminal organization, the Yakuza (specifically the Arakawa family) for Eiji and the Barracudas for Tomizawa, with their actions driven by their tragedy. They differ in a lot of ways, however. Eiji avoided jail time but his reputation was ruined while Tomizawa was forced to plead guilty to avoid an even harsher sentence. Eiji joined Bleach Japan and became one of its leaders to try and get revenge against the Yakuza while Tomizawa was forced to join Yamai’s gang as a low level underling. Eiji makes a good impression to Ichiban by saving him from being arrested while Tomizawa tried to mug him and have him arrested. Eiji presents himself as a friend but turns out to be The Mole while Tomizawa is a loyal friend despite his horrible first impression. Finally, Eiji is willing to go to any lengths, even threatening to murder a child, to see his revenge while Tomizawa was willing to spare Dwight’s life after scaring him, albeit due to wanting to help Chitose.
• Forced into Evil: Considering his circumstances, he turned to the Yamai Syndicate out of desperation more than anything. Especially since he could've easily killed Ichiban at any point if he really wanted to (the latter even saying something to that effect).
• Good Is Not Soft: He doesn’t hesitate to threaten his enemies with dangerous weapons, blackmail and even death threats, which is a direct contrast of how he confronted Ichiban early on. However unlike Joongi, Zhao and Seonhee, he doesn't cross the line of murder, but he does comes close when he almost kills Dwight.
• Gratuitous English: Justified, as he is half-American. Accent aside, it's not too bad at all as can be seen when he tries to pull a Frame-Up on Ichiban for a quick score. In the English Dub, he instead speaks Hawaiian Pidgin.
• Heel–Face Turn: While initially a part of the Yamai Syndicate, he later joins the group after Ichiban convinces him to turn against Yamai when the two meet again at Akane's house.
• Hidden Depths: Has a genuine love of cars, used to game all the time on his Sega Genesis, and is so obsessed with energy drinks that he keeps track of flavor releases. He states that he cycles through flavors to avoid having his brain dull the effect of the drink due to associating said flavor with sleep if drunk too much, since he drinks them when he needs energy, therefore when he's sleepy when he doesn't want to be.
• Hypocrite: He despises Dwight and Roman for framing him for a crime and ruining his life. What does he do after Ichiban stops his mugging attempt? Call the cops and try to frame Ichiban as trying to mug him. If not for Eiji, he would’ve sentenced someone to the same horrid fate he went through.
• Hypocrisy Nod: After Chitose's history as Tatara Hisoka is revealed, Tomizawa is reluctant to trust them again, stating that a traitor is a traitor. When Ichiban points out that Eric himself betrayed not only Ichiban when they first met, but also betrayed Yamai to join him and Kiryu, Tomizawa concedes the point.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Through his Drink Links, this is how he ends up feeling about his ex-wife. He realizes that his prison sentence and her miscarriage likely led to her no longer being happy in Hawaii, and would rather she leave the country to enjoy life with her new boyfriend than try to force his way back into her life.
• Improvised Weapon: A lot of his attacks for the Cabbie class involve using mechanical equipment such as wrenches, wheels and car batteries as weapons. His "Essence of Steer Clear" has him using a car's steering wheel as a weapon, using it like a martial artist to attack and defend himself. Even finishing it off by using it's airbag to send the enemies flying.
• Ink-Suit Actor: Modeled after his Japanese voice actor, Satoru Iguchi.
• It's Personal: He has a personal beef with Dwight Méndez given that he ended up taking the fall for one of the Barracudas' crimes, costing him both his marriage and his unborn child. After the battle with him, Eric picks up one of Dwight's machetes and damn-near kills him himself.
• Jumped at the Call: It doesn’t take much convincing for him to join Ichiban and Kiryu’s search for Akane despite him having no horse in that race. He continues to help even when it involves going into the heart of Barracuda territory.
• The Lancer: Acts as one to Ichiban for most of the story, being a Hawaiian native who’s aware of the local power structures versus the clueless foreigner Ichiban.
• Last-Name Basis: Just like Nanba, he’s never called by his first name. It’s either Tomizawa or Tomi, never Eric,
• Magic Knight: His default Cabbie job is an offensive version of this trope that specialises in single-target elemental damage both physical and magical, burning down powerful enemies by targeting whatever their weaknesses are. Statistically, he's got high physical attack, magical attack, and MP to facilitate this, and access to every element except Blade (which is common enough to be easily accessible via Inherited Skills from other jobs).
• Must Have Caffeine: Downplayed, but if you get to know Tomizawa, you learn that he has a passion for coffee, and an obsession with drinking energy drinks to the point he cycles flavor so they keep their kick.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: He presents himself as "Thomas" the taxi driver to his ex-wife's new boyfriend. He prides himself on how such a simple disguise fooled him, but it turns out it didn't; Kondo figured him out immediately and just played along for Marie's sake.
• Properly Paranoid: He's absolutely correct to be suspicious of Chitose when she joins the party, as she is indeed working for the bad guys— that is, Eiji and Ebina— even after appearing to betray Dwight right before his first boss fight. However, Chitose's later Heel–Face Turn, motivated by Ichiban's sincere trust in her and willingness to forgive her actions, is indeed genuine, and Eric eventually accepts that she's part of the team.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Thoroughly antagonizes Ichiban in the early game, such as by eating the letter to Akane and attempting to rob him at gunpoint, but it's clear his heart isn't in it.
• Recurring Element: Like with Rikiya and Nagumo, Tomizawa is a lowly grunt for a crime organization who The Hero encounters around the start of the game, only to quickly develop into The Lancer once they get to know each other.
• Secret Test of Character: To Marie’s new boyfriend. Tomizawa wants to see if he has what it takes to make Marie happy. It would later turn out that Tomizawa is also this for said boyfriend. Marie still cares about Tomizawa, but the boyfriend is wary of him due to their history. Once it’s been made clear that Tomizawa is a decent man, he apologizes and allows Marie and Tomizawa to speak one last time.
• Spanner in the Works: Almost. Him nearly getting Ichiban arrested and eating Akane’s letter would’ve derailed Ebina’s plot to use Ichiban to find Akane and Lani. Had Eiji not been there to prove Ichiban’s innocence and give him a digital copy of the letter, the story would’ve ended right there with Ichiban arrested and Akane remaining in hiding.
  • Then later, it's completely played straight, because Tomizawa's meeting with Ichiban leads to Yamai's direct involvement and him safely getting Akane and Lani away from Bryce, leading to Ebina's plan actually collapsing in on itself.
• Stress Vomit: The appropriate reaction to have when one finds someone nailed to the wall, disemboweled, and with a machete in his chest, courtesy of the Barracudas. Even Kiryu warned Ichi and Eric that they wouldn't want to see it. He wasn't kidding.
• Undying Loyalty: To Ichiban. No matter how dangerous the stakes get, he never once considers bowing out. While the entire group shares this trait, Tomizawa is notable for sticking around despite having no personal investment in the plot and achieving his goal (revenge against Dwight) early on.
• Unknown Rival: To just about everyone he hates to the point of Running Gag. He dislikes or outright hates Yamai, Roman, and Dwight. None of them care about him in turn with the closest thing to respect he gets being when Dwight pisses himself when Tomizawa threatens to kill him. And even then, he brushes off Tomizawa’s threats in their last interaction since Bryce is scarier than the embarassing photo Tomizawa took. Tomizawa mutters that he should’ve just killed him.
• Vengeance Feels Empty: He doesn’t seem particularly satisfied when Roman and Dwight, the two people he ruined his life, are killed in front of him. He even deletes Dwight’s embarrassing photo rather than indulging in some Last Disrespects (at most calling him a piss-stain after otherwise saying to let the dead rest in peace).
• Wrench Whack: His default weapon is a wrench and one of his abilities is also tossing wrenches at his enemies.

Chitose Fujinomiya (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Voiced by: Anju Inami (Japanese), Suzie Yeung (English) ^{Other Languages}Xie Ying (Chinese)

^{Click here to see Chitose post-Chapter 11.}

A student studying abroad who's acquainted with Akane Kishida that Ichiban meets in Hawaii.

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• 10-Minute Retirement: She leaves the party at the beginning of Chapter 11 after confessing to everything she did, but re-joins about halfway through it after Ichiban makes it clear he doesn't hold anything against her.
• Action Survivor: She has some martial arts training, but has never had a good reason to put it to use before joining up with Ichiban, although Ichiban's rampant imagination makes her out to be far more skillful than she actually is.
• Affectionate Nickname: Ichiban takes to calling her "Chi-chan", which surprises her at first.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Implied by her karaoke song "Honolulu City Lights".
• Attack Animal: Her "Essence of Puppy Playtime" has her calling out three Labradors to blitz her enemies under the pretense of playing fetch with them.
• The Baby of the Bunch: She’s the youngest of the group, being in her early 20’s at most. Ichiban even brushes off Nanba’s idea of a May–December Romance by pointing out she’s at least twenty years younger than him. Chitose herself comments that Ichiban is only a few years younger than her 50 year old father.
• But Now I Must Go: After all things have settled with her revealing herself and apologizing for her actions as Tatara Hisoka, she decides to stay in Hawaii to step up as the new chairwoman of her family's company. This makes her the only party member who doesn't appear in the epilogue of the game.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Her sheltered upbringing has resulted in Chitose being a bit odd at times, from an obsession with childish, fart joke filled gag manga, to reacting to the gang finding a strip club and geuinely being interested in the types of dances the dancers would be doing - not for the expected reasons, but because she's a lover of dancing. Even Ichiban, who sees people as weird RPG monster men whenever he gets into a fight, finds this weird!
• Dance Battler: Her default "Heiress" class has her fight with various ballet moves. Her "Essence of Ballroom Blitz" move has her do some ballroom dancing with an enemy before she pummels them.
• Everyone Has Standards: When they first interact, Ichiban explains to Chitose that he intends to gift Akane a necklace containing Arakawa's ashes when he finally meets her for the first time. When Chitose later drinks Ichiban into unconciousness and robs him of everything, clothes included, in order to infiltrate the Barracudas, Ichi's necklace is conspicuously the only thing that he still has on him when he wakes back up.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: After finally accepting that she can't run from her family's business forever, she lets her hair out of her braids.
• Forced into Evil: She’s the original person behind Tatara Hisoka, and she was blackmailed by Ebina and Eiji in order to voice sensitive information, quitting in shame after that.
• Fragile Speedster: Has some of the highest Agility and Willpower in the game upon obtaining her, but at the expense of a below-average Health pool.
• Ink-Suit Actor: Modeled after her Japanese voice actress, Anju Inami.
• Interclass Friendship: It's one thing for her to be the youngest member of the crew, but she's also the wealthiest member as well, technically speaking. Though this is downplayed as she doesn't exactly have access to the Fujinomiya fortune. At least not at the time she recruited, anyway.
• Intrepid Reporter: As Tatara Hisoka, she's essentially a journalist in all but name, and is originally responsible for outing her own family's crimes to the public. Unfortunately, Eiji and Ebina eventually blackmail her into being a Bad Influencer that outright spreads fake news that explicitly ruins the livelihoods of Ichiban and Kiryu, and Adachi is caught in the crossfire as well, losing his security firm.
• The Man Behind the Curtain: The mysterious Bad Influencer Tatara Hisoka is a student trying to create a career she actually likes and was mostly being fed info by other people at risk of blackmail. She doesn't even dislike the people she's defamed all that much.
• Mr. Imagination: She is the one who has the female Job Revelations, as opposed to Ichiban having them for men, implying she is quite imaginative on her own.
• Ms. Fanservice: Many characters note how attractive she is, and she has a playful, flirty streak. Her default outfit includes a tight top that bares her midriff, and the game also contrives to show her in a flattering bikini and a slinky dress.
• The Mole: Subverted. She's Tatara Hisoka's actress, but the reveal of her identity comes packaged with the reveal that she was Forced into Evil and quit in shame for violating her journalistic ethics, her meeting Ichiban was a genuine coincidence.
• Not So Above It All: One of her Bond Talks has her talk about her interest in manga. Her favorite? Kids' comics; particularly ones with Toilet Humor a plenty, as Ichiban points out.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted; She shares the same name as Gary Buster Holmes' daughter.
• Precision F-Strike: Had a blunt response to Eiji after she got wounded in the arm by one of his men and he mockingly referred to her by her online alias.
  Eiji: Honestly... you'd shoot a man in cold blood? You know, your parents would be mortified by your behaviour. Don't you regret being such a disappointment... ...Tatara?
  Chitose: Fuck you!
• Rebellious Princess: Modern-day version. She's the heir to an extremely wealthy corporation, but besides her own moral discomfort with the business, it'd also make it impossible for her to be a VTuber. She ultimately chooses to sacrifice her preferred career to expose her identity as a witness to Bryce's vile actions.
• Renaissance Woman: Her party profile calls her such, describing her as a "true polymath."
• Spoiled Sweet: Comes from more money than she knows what to do with, but always wants to do the right thing and is actually very kind once her walls are down.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: From a gameplay standpoint, she nicely fills in the void left behind by Eri, being a Glass Cannon of a fighter with exceptional agility and reliable damage output, especially with her default Heiress class.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: She and Tomizawa tend to needle and poke fun at each other, but it’s never serious.
• Walking Spoiler: A lot of her characterization is hidden behind the fact that she is Tatara Hisoka, and is helping Ichiban out of guilt in her part in defaming him.

Seonhee

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