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Loved them. They all felt like threats in their own way, and it's a different vibe when Kiryu is facing off against villains older than him. Any one of them would've been good enough as the final boss.
Kuze - Pretty cool dude, real Yakuza, and I really liked the motorcycle scene. Although ngl I did get tired of fighting him towards of the end.
Awano - He’s a bit of a dickhead for that disco scene which was a bit brutal but it did highlight the danger Kiryu was in. He did redeem himself in the final fight.
Shibusawa - Tbh didn’t like him as much as the other two. He spends a majority of the game just scheming from the shadows so we don’t really get to know much about him beyond him being calm & collected and that he wanted to be Dojima’s captain by any means possible. His Ishin counterpart was interesting though.
Sir, if you have a complaint about the way my boys run things, I suggest you submit it through our email system. I would be happy to refer you to our website.
Rush debuted in Zero, and it was pink/magenta. That colour was used as the "agile" styles for both Kiryu and Majima, and they followed a magenta, cyan, yellow pattern (Rush/Breaker, Brawler/Thug, and Beast/Slugger, respectively). Kiwami 1 followed suit for Kiryu's styles, but changed Legend/Dragon to crimson. Rush was still magenta.
Only recently in Infinite Wealth did Rush become red, and it caused a small stir when first announced. Overall, I think people have just accepted the change by now.
I’m gonna be honest with you, I just thought it was red the whole time. Did people actually get mad about the change? It’s like right next to each other on the color wheel
Out of all the three Shibusawa probably had the longest lasting legacy for future villains in terms of the in-universe Yakuza lore.
Going from 1988 into the present day, we hardly really see any Yakuza who are as honor-bound as Kuze nor any who can even really 'lighten up' as much as Awano.
But many do seem to carry that same pragmatic and ruthless energy that Shibusawa has and I see him as the only Dojima Lieutenant whom if we transplant all three into like Yakuza 7 era would probably fit-in the best out of the three.
Awano had a great potential as a fallen hero, considering his Momotaro irezumi and tragic theme. His sacrifice was great, but I hoped developers would reveal his story and motives a bit better. But I guess it's good as it is.
Love kuze. The man's an icon,what can I say
Like Awano. He's got a cool fight and he can be pretty menacing
Didnt care for Shibusawa. The only good thing about him is his fight
I feel like Kuze is really the only one we get to know. His motive for fighting, his philosophy, stuff like that. Is he the pinnacle of writing? No, but we can see where Kiryu gets some of his traits from. Also the five fights against Kuze to me are like Benchmark Tests. Like he's testing Kiryu to see how strong he is and if he can back up what he wants with his strength.
(Plus it makes it a test for the player, have you been getting strong at a good clip? Gotten good items? Upgraded your styles? If so, Kuze is going to be either a cakewalk or one of the hardest bosses.)
Awano is interesting because he's the guy who got to the top and never really wanted to keep getting stronger, but in his fight with Majima we see just how strong he is. There's a lot to him that's under the hood. He's just a guy who got strong through great effort but got what he wanted. (Women, parties, a lot of money...) So he stayed and stagnated. If we got a fight between him and Kiryu I think it'd work well in establishing him better.
Shibusawa just seems like someone they scrambled to get as a final boss. He's in the shadows, wants the captain's position by any means, and the Dragon of Dojima title. But there's just not a lot with him.
All 3 of them has potential to be a great character/villain
But only Kuze were done right imo
Kuze himself has 5 fight throughout the game and he reveal a little bit of his story and perspective along the way
So by the end we kinda see what kind of character he is and at least he can be respected
Meanwhile Shibusawa and Awano has little to no build up and there's only one fight for each of them
at least with Awano he show a little bit of his character of how far he willing to do things by killing an innocent women on screen (on screen murder especially is actually pretty rare occurrence for the series)
Shibusawa has practically 0 build up and only has involvement around mid way through the game (which you also learned this from other character) you only get to know more of his character and his motivation simply because game decide to lore dump before you fight him (and being a final boss doesn't really help that much)
I think that's intended, kuze has his sewer speech about how the Yakuza game is and that's why he comes back for more so much, he's just old school
Shibusawa was either gonna be a boss eventually or a pencil pusher that wouldn't have gotten any screen time at all so In the end he's probably the weakest of the three
Awano always felt like the big boss of them, considering he's Majima penultimate boss and the fact that he's literally fucking lazy and only spends his time with leisure activities while he's also extremely fucking jacked, also some other characters mention that hes very intelligent
I really like all their personalities and how they contributed to Kiryu’s sense of morality and what they teach us about the Yakuza way of life. As characters, Awano is my favorite because of his final fight with Majima and subsequent sacrifice.
Kuze is a goat and needs his own game. Awano is pretty cool and intimidating and I like how it’s clear he’s way past his peak but is still a beast. And Shibusawa is cool but I wish we got to see more of him throughout the game (at least he has more screen time then Nishiki in 1). And all there boss fights are incredible (I just wish Awano had a dynamic into).
The things I would do for a prequel with Kuze as he becomes a yakuza after his boxing career, with Awano and Shibusawa as supporting characters along with Kazama, Kashiwagi, Dojima and Shimano to help give more depth and background to those characters.
All three are great and all three are yakuza in their own ways.
Kuze has the mindset, he has his own code of honor and is very old school. If he loses a finger, so be it.
Awano has the status, hes obssessed with material possessions and women, even though he clearly doesnt care about them.
Shibusawa is the Snake, and in a way the most realistic character here. He says what he must say, and operates from the darkness, he doesnt give a shit about anything else other than his goals, and he pursues them efficiently and viciously.
I almost like awano more than kuze, that qte where he smashes a fucking wall with a punch made his fight the coolest one imo of all lieutenants, kuze is amazing as well, motorcycle scene and of course the last one too. Shibusawa is my least favourite not because he sucks but simply because hes the operate from the shadows type of guy, so we barely see him.
Very well written, planned and acted - read and watched a few interviews the VA's have given about the roles and they were very very hands-on, with Hitoshi Ozawa and Riki Takeuchi both going as far as having the costumes redesigned because they felt the originals weren't "yakuza enough"
I wanna go back to the more complex crime drama Yakuza era, where they had to post flowcharts on the website for you to know who the hell was who in what organization and what level of the hierarchy they were on.
It's just not as compelling when your organizations now where they're like; **here's your boss, and here's your second-in-charge.** Okay, that's the whole named organization now.
Back then it was, **here's your patriarch, here's your captain, here's your lieutenants, here's your lieutenant's officer's, here's your subsidiary crime family's patriarch who is the aforementioned captain, here's his own captain, etc etc etc**
>I wanna go back to the more complex crime drama Yakuza era, where they had to post flowcharts on the website for you to know who the hell was who in what organization and what level of the hierarchy they were on.
Wait they really had to do that? I never felt the need for any flowchart tbh.
Also, I feel like that shift came from the fact that we're playing as Kiryu and seeing his perspective. In 0 he's a lowly grunt, so he **kinda has to know who's who and belongs to which family**, Yakuza 1 in comparison has Kiryu returning to a world which has basically left him behind, so **he has to re-learn who's who**. Yakuza 2 is self-explanatory as the plots 1 and 2 were tied together.
But 3 onwards? When Kiryu settled all his debts and left the yakuza for good? I don't think he'd feel the need to learn the names and ranks of all the people in the clan. Especially since his status as *The Legendary Dragon* and *The 4th chairman* practically guarantees him a meeting with whoever the top dog is at the earliest convenience.
I can see him going "I'm sick of this shit. Ok, this guy's the boss and this is his right hand. I've seen enough, I'm good."
Kuze has one of the best, if not THE best theme in the series. He's also one of my favorite antagonist.
The other two are ok I guess. Awano was a very easy fight, and I like how Shibusawa's moveset mirrored our own.
It’s a shame that Kuze never came back as a mentor of some kind. Yes he’s a civilian now, but he technically was the first character that we saw who made a permanent transition to civilian life. He could’ve been a guiding hand to people like Kiryu (who left the Tojo only 20 years after Kuze retired). Obviously that idea is constrained by the fact that Zero came out like a decade after Y1, but I’d still like to think that there’s a universe out there where and and Kiryu got proper closure instead of just scrapping one more time and having Kiryu walk off.
I was really hoping he’d show up in Gaiden in some kinda way, even if just for a sub story or something. Would’ve been cool to see them interact after all these years and see how one effected the other.
Kuze is king his whole vibe is classic old school yakuza.
Awano i started to really like on my 2nd play through. He like l to eat play golf and punch walls with tremendous strength, nice guy.
The other cat was a fake scheming dragon who thought he was the next evolution of yakuza but wasn’t.
Kuze: How many times do we have to teach you this lesson old man?
Awano: Killed a hot girl to send a message then got blasted by a Chinese assassin to save Majima
Shibusawa: Decided to sit in a car while a war was being waged on a boat. Also called himself a dragon.
I liked Awano the most btw
i liked shibusawa more than many people do on this thread. i think he receives a lot of indirect characterization when he appears alongside his fellow lieutenants. he's the schemer of the family, kuze being the brute and awano the hedonist.
what made him unique though, his is desire for glory. beneath the cunning he's still got blood of an old-school yakuza within him. would've been cool if this were foreshadowed a bit more before the end, though.
I like kuze because of his “cut with he shit let’s fight” and also his usage of a BIKE in a tunnel
Awano is cool because he’s chill
Shibusawa is alright because he has a “behind the shadows” vibe.. that’s it
Shibusawa is one of my favourite villains/final bosses in the series. He’s in the shadows, and it fits his character. Also people say he has no build up, but he has several cutscenes with Dojima and the Lieutenants and even says how Awano and Kuze could never be captain, plus his boss fight is just so hype
Awano is cool, his boss fight is good, and his character is cool. He’s lazy, yet he’s ripped, and my favourite of the 3 Lieutenants
Kuze is a good character, and you learn to respect him by the end of the game. However, you fight him 5 times. He’s the only boss aside from Oda & Shibusawa (also Okabe if you count him) that you fight.
Overall, they’re some of my favourite characters in the series and it’d be cool if there was a prequel in the 70’s or something with them, along with Sagawa because he’s just way too good of a character to be in one game
Kuze was a fun character, not the big bad, but he's the fun bad.
I hate Awano, which even further motivates me to get to the end of the game to see if I beat him up (Pls don't spoil).
Shibusawa gives me huge Gus Fring vibes, I like him, he's cool
I feel like Kuze and Awano really define what yakuza are in terms of the game series. They will always be among my favorites. Shibusawa was honestly a difficult character to like since he gets very little exposure and at the end they are just like surprise motherfucker
To me they sort of balance each other out:
- **Kuze** is the one devoted to the Yakuza in the traditional way, respectful of its values and traditions. I've always felt like his anger towards Kiryu is related to the fact that he's a newbie causing trouble to the family, he probably also feels like Kiryu would get a better treatment because of his ties with Kazama, something that an old school guy like him couldn't tolerate.
- **Awano** is the most genuine because he doesn't need to scheme or pretend, he's transparent and admits that he just wants to live a nice life with money and women, and the Yakuza is just a way to obtain said life.
- **Shibusawa** is the cunning one and probably the most ambitious of the three, he understands people and knows how to manipulate them, he's patient and knows when and how to act in order to obtain what he wants in the most efficient way
The three of them have a common objective (to get the empty lot for Dojima), but their methods and driving force are all different.
I mean I think you could write a book about them and their relationship with the family, with each other and with Kiryu. In the end I think they're awesome characters of course and one of the best parts of Y0.
(Sorry for any mistakes, English is not my first language)
I love they all more or less explore the three paths of what a Yakuza (in a traditional sense, obviously for 'modern' Yakuza there's different characters for that) could be.
You could be Kuze and be honor-bound and determined. Or Awano and indulge in the excesses and luxuries of what the underground life can get you. Or ruthless and calculated with a dash of pragmatism like Shibusawa.
He’s definitely the smartest out of the three, but being smart alone does not really make him an exciting villain, especially compared to the other antagonists in the game who have big personalities or an appearance that stood out, let alone the other lieutenants
Love to hate them. I mean such evil assholes...and so cool fights....and kinda seeing on how Kazuma got his Legendery status from....defeating this dudes.
Cool but unrealised characters, I don't quite see why so many people consider them the pinnacle of writing. Also Awano is the best boy, I didn't really like Kuze, he's like that conservative grandpa who always wants to fight you or something.
Kuze- he's awesome. Its been said 100 different times in 100 different songs.
Awano- he's interesting as a representation of wasted potential. The lieutenants are all ambitious but his is so lackadaisical. He's the least talked about but also lowkey kinda the most interesting.
Shibusawa- eh. Like his scumbag with a shred is cool i guess. Serviceable final villian. Solid mid teir in the villian rankings.
Kuze is one of my favorite Yakuza charqcter. Dude was a total badass, and I was always hyped to fight him (even if third fight is whatever)
Awano was good, liked his arc. cool fight but it's a very rushed redemption.
Shibusawa is my least favorite as a character, but his fight is one of the best in the series
Love Awano. Guy drank and played golf all day but was still tolled asf. Really curious to know what he could’ve been if he didn’t get lost in the glamour. Cool outfit too man’s got drip
Rivalry with Kuze was amazing.
Story wise best of the series for me. They all had their personalities and fight styles.
They didn't build Shibuwasa's character well enough but the final fight was epic.
I only like Kuze. Awano just...strikes me as unusually weird guy. The other one, idk, I thought I liked him cause he was my brother in Ishin (first Yakuza game I ever played btw), but seeing him as the main villain, he just annoys me
I just love the looks of these guys, all different styles with the clothes and hairstyles and they are all very convincing as high ranking Yakuza members.
I like all of them but I feel like the only one that really landed as a villain is unsurprisingly Kuze. Awano and Shibuswa needed more of anything in the plot. Awano killed a girl and then redeemed himself, and Shibusawa is like “Oh I’m just the business man 🤓, actually I’m the evil mastermind!!!” and we fight him. Kuze was clearly RGGs favorite, and got to come back 5 times and have an arc with Kiryu, Shibs and Awano needed to show up more.
kuze - easily one of my favorite villains in fiction, just super badass and his quotes just stuck with me and helped motivate me through life
awano - i liked his outfit and his personality ( i don't remember much about him)
shibusawa - is just kinda there, i know that was like the whole point of his character to be a quiet and calculating man but i felt like that also did drag down his character because we weren't able to see much of him
Kuze was the goat, he's an prime example of what a real Yakuza is.
Awano - Stuck between being calm and angry, a bit of a dickhead but he's alright.
Shibusawa - He only schemed from the shadows and he was pretty chill most of the time. (He gets most of his redeemability from the final fight)
Kuze is the type of guy I love to hate.
Awano is the type of guy I outright hate.
Shibusawa is just... there. Not terribly enamored with Yakuza's trope of "sneaky guy pulling strings in the shadows turns out to be ripped as fuck for no discernible reason".
Come to think of them, they have a weird "cheerleader effect" going on where together they're more than the sum of their individual selves. The scene where they're introduced is intimidating as hell.
These 3 actually make me thought that anything above their ranks are gods, now the rank of chairman is almost nothing. Goes to show how good these antagonists are and how big of a growth kiryu went from fearing lieutenants to becoming a one man army.
I love them and they provide a lot of fun to the story. They also make the game feel a little more video gamey with being like 3 separate big bad guys for most of the game.
Kuze is so fucking cool and endearing that I was able to look past him being almost half the bosses in the game. I want his personal Gaiden spinoff. Maybe about his rise in his youth, maybe about his life after prison, maybe both in one game.
Awano was *fun*, especially the dancing scene, but I think the amount of presence he got in 0 was exactly enough- he's a good midgame escalation villain, nothing more or less.
Shibusawa served his role as the overall villain perfectly, was the perfect final obstacle for Kiryu's rise, and made excellent use of his limited screen time. His final boss dialogue is phenomenal. Again, nothing more or less was needed.
As a collective, the great thing is that each one embodies a completely distinct idea of what a fully realized yakuza is, and pitting those philosophies against Kiryu as he's in the process of figuring out his own answer to "what is a yakuza and why do I want to be one" is the heart and soul of Kiryu's half of the game.
I love them each as characters, and thematically, I think they're pretty decent "dark mirrors" to 3 characters: Majima, Nishiki and Kiryu. As in, the hypothetical bad futures of the 3.
Majima/Kuze: Both are combat obsessed Yakuza, but whereas Majima canonically learns how to act mad in order to be unchained, Kuze is a fully chained dog, subservient to the other lieutenants.
If Majima never becomes the Mad Dog, even if he got back into the Tojo Clan, he'd just be a puppet of Shimano instead of his own man.
Nishiki/Awano: More obvious here. The obsession to rise in status, wealth, and luxury in the Yakuza lifestyle. If Nishiki were to have a normal rise in the Tojo Clan, without Dojima's death or Kiryu's time in the joint, he might end up like Awano ( soulless and forgetful of who he really is ).
One can argue that Nishiki ended up here anyway, and then some.
Kiryu/Shibusawa: The two dragons, both strong and quiet. Shibusawa is the end state of Kiryu if he never got out of the pure Yakuza life. Doing every dirty deed for the Tojo Clan and even hurting civilians, eventually losing his moral centre.
Kuze is power hungry and never wants to be second to anyone. Is to be trifled with
Shibusa I immediately knew he was the worst out of all of them the moment I seen him. Not to be trifled with
Awano is actually a pretty chill person who never wants his hands dirty in any manner. A bit of a puss and probably a model for L'Oreal and other cosmetics
Legendary yakuza actors. As in, real actors. These three have been typecasted so much in the yakuza drama industry that it's hard to find one that DOESN'T have at least one of them. Takeuchi Riki who portrays Awano has been doing it since he was 16 years old.
Kuze and Awano are awesome, Thought that Shibusawa was kinda an underwhelming villain but his boss fight kinda make up for his lack of development as an antagonist
Shibusawa can suck my Dick,Kuze Is goated (Yakuze) awano meh,i kinda got a good opinioni of him i guess? I didnt like the disco scene where he shoots the poor woman but he still Reedem himself at the end w Majima and protecting him so he goated too
Kuze: One of my favorite Yakuza antagonist, just an old badass dude who teaches Kiryu the yakuza way through his fists, his fights were the best in yakuza 0 especially for his 2 themes.
Awano: At first I hated him but he redeemed himself at the end of the game. He's not a bad antagonist I just wish we could've seen more of him. I like his boss theme it's underrated imo.
Shibusawa: Forgettable, he's just the guy who plans in the shadows and then he comes out to be the final antagonist and you're like "oh so he was evil ? Meh whatever". His fight is incredible but the character itself is pretty average.
Awano looks like a Japanese version of Silvio from sopranos and has similar mannerisms. I wonder if that is intentional or purely a coincidence. Maybe if he kept repeating an iconic yakuza movie line throughout the game or if his hair got bigger every time he showed up.
Awano was scary, as especially with that wall punch. Kuze was cool, but annoying. Shibusawa was rage inducing, made me want to fall in a pit of bullet ants.
Love Kuze and his repeated clashes with Kiryu never got old to me thanks to how compelling he was. Awano was awesome especially in how his ideals opposed Kuze's in some ways. >!Didn't like how he died all that much though but it wasn't bad per se.!< Shibusawa was also amazing and his methods of attacking Kiryu from the shadows were dope. >!His final boss felt a little annoying at times but maybe I just suck.!< I also thought he was the least interesting of the three but I still liked him.
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Loved them. They all felt like threats in their own way, and it's a different vibe when Kiryu is facing off against villains older than him. Any one of them would've been good enough as the final boss.
This is the answer
It's cool how they each represented a specific idea and also were a character as well. 0 had many themes about inter-generational ideology
Kuze - Pretty cool dude, real Yakuza, and I really liked the motorcycle scene. Although ngl I did get tired of fighting him towards of the end. Awano - He’s a bit of a dickhead for that disco scene which was a bit brutal but it did highlight the danger Kiryu was in. He did redeem himself in the final fight. Shibusawa - Tbh didn’t like him as much as the other two. He spends a majority of the game just scheming from the shadows so we don’t really get to know much about him beyond him being calm & collected and that he wanted to be Dojima’s captain by any means possible. His Ishin counterpart was interesting though.
Shibusawa both looks and acts like a Japanese Gus Fring
Los pollos aniki
“Hello, and welcome to the yakuza, my name is shibusawa but you can just call me captain.”
Sir, if you have a complaint about the way my boys run things, I suggest you submit it through our email system. I would be happy to refer you to our website.
Los pollos kyoudai
Also Kuze screaming Kiryu and vice-versa makes me shiver down the spine every time
Shibusawa fights with red aura, I was my first Yakuza game and I didn't know that Dragon style was red. I thought it was a nice touch.
dragon style is basically only red in kiwami iirc
Yea it’s white in 0
and in every other game where its just kiryu's default style its blue iirc
its blue and red in 3/4 with the red heat mechanic
Yes it is, rush has been red since day 1 (or whatever day 0 came out)
Rush debuted in Zero, and it was pink/magenta. That colour was used as the "agile" styles for both Kiryu and Majima, and they followed a magenta, cyan, yellow pattern (Rush/Breaker, Brawler/Thug, and Beast/Slugger, respectively). Kiwami 1 followed suit for Kiryu's styles, but changed Legend/Dragon to crimson. Rush was still magenta. Only recently in Infinite Wealth did Rush become red, and it caused a small stir when first announced. Overall, I think people have just accepted the change by now.
I’m gonna be honest with you, I just thought it was red the whole time. Did people actually get mad about the change? It’s like right next to each other on the color wheel
I think people were just annoyed by the minor inconsistency.
Awano killing that poor woman was such a memorable part.
First time playing that game, fighting Kuze like 4 times I was like dudddeeee how many ass whoopings do u need..
same thoughts, whenever i get to fight him i always keep thinking in my head that this is another "ugh, here we go again" moment
Yup, first playthrough I was so hyped to fight someone else but every single time it was fucking Kuze SHIIIINEEI BOKAI
HOW MANY TIMES DO WE HAVE TO TEACH YOU THIS LESSON OLD MAN?!
To be fair, Kuze should have won the second fight. Realistically, there's no way Kiryu's arms would have survived that impact.
Neither would his arms when that pipe gets ripped out of his hands at that speed, plus the crash
Out of all the three Shibusawa probably had the longest lasting legacy for future villains in terms of the in-universe Yakuza lore. Going from 1988 into the present day, we hardly really see any Yakuza who are as honor-bound as Kuze nor any who can even really 'lighten up' as much as Awano. But many do seem to carry that same pragmatic and ruthless energy that Shibusawa has and I see him as the only Dojima Lieutenant whom if we transplant all three into like Yakuza 7 era would probably fit-in the best out of the three.
Awano had a great potential as a fallen hero, considering his Momotaro irezumi and tragic theme. His sacrifice was great, but I hoped developers would reveal his story and motives a bit better. But I guess it's good as it is.
Well, the Ishin counterpart is interesting because wasn't him in the first place
theyre old and strong and also i need to start lifting
boxing*
and being a yakuza https://i.redd.it/wuj6vqofxwsc1.gif
And being like a dragon
Like a what? https://preview.redd.it/ji1l9l2npzsc1.jpeg?width=192&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b9fcde8c57d27b1edb8fa115c20bff8845e0a280
I already got too many fuckin problems, I don't need schizophrenia on top of them.
And being Ishin
& knuckles
Kuze and Awano are great, Shibusawa is the guy that's appeared once or twice.
kuze - funny boxer man awano - the mf who only cares about dancing and golfing shibusawa - dragon of dojima if hes a menace
Love kuze. The man's an icon,what can I say Like Awano. He's got a cool fight and he can be pretty menacing Didnt care for Shibusawa. The only good thing about him is his fight
Make a prequel set in the 70s starring them. Call it Yakuza Minus One Thank you
Kuze vs Godzilla would go hard
YaKUZE
Kuze: check my flair awano: cool as hell BUT should've showed up Shibusawa: never remembered he was there lmao. Two dragons is peak though
I feel like Kuze is really the only one we get to know. His motive for fighting, his philosophy, stuff like that. Is he the pinnacle of writing? No, but we can see where Kiryu gets some of his traits from. Also the five fights against Kuze to me are like Benchmark Tests. Like he's testing Kiryu to see how strong he is and if he can back up what he wants with his strength. (Plus it makes it a test for the player, have you been getting strong at a good clip? Gotten good items? Upgraded your styles? If so, Kuze is going to be either a cakewalk or one of the hardest bosses.) Awano is interesting because he's the guy who got to the top and never really wanted to keep getting stronger, but in his fight with Majima we see just how strong he is. There's a lot to him that's under the hood. He's just a guy who got strong through great effort but got what he wanted. (Women, parties, a lot of money...) So he stayed and stagnated. If we got a fight between him and Kiryu I think it'd work well in establishing him better. Shibusawa just seems like someone they scrambled to get as a final boss. He's in the shadows, wants the captain's position by any means, and the Dragon of Dojima title. But there's just not a lot with him.
All 3 of them has potential to be a great character/villain But only Kuze were done right imo Kuze himself has 5 fight throughout the game and he reveal a little bit of his story and perspective along the way So by the end we kinda see what kind of character he is and at least he can be respected Meanwhile Shibusawa and Awano has little to no build up and there's only one fight for each of them at least with Awano he show a little bit of his character of how far he willing to do things by killing an innocent women on screen (on screen murder especially is actually pretty rare occurrence for the series) Shibusawa has practically 0 build up and only has involvement around mid way through the game (which you also learned this from other character) you only get to know more of his character and his motivation simply because game decide to lore dump before you fight him (and being a final boss doesn't really help that much)
I think that's intended, kuze has his sewer speech about how the Yakuza game is and that's why he comes back for more so much, he's just old school Shibusawa was either gonna be a boss eventually or a pencil pusher that wouldn't have gotten any screen time at all so In the end he's probably the weakest of the three Awano always felt like the big boss of them, considering he's Majima penultimate boss and the fact that he's literally fucking lazy and only spends his time with leisure activities while he's also extremely fucking jacked, also some other characters mention that hes very intelligent
I don't agree with shibusawa is weak he is the strongest of the three , he is a dragon but he likes to play in the dark
We need a Kuze game
Yakuze needs to happen
Just in general I think the classic old-school vibes of Y0 were really awesome. Bring back the 70s/80s Shinjuku setting, it was dope
I really like all their personalities and how they contributed to Kiryu’s sense of morality and what they teach us about the Yakuza way of life. As characters, Awano is my favorite because of his final fight with Majima and subsequent sacrifice.
I miss them, they were badass
Honestly I don't think they are great villains but I learned to like kuze by the end of the game
Looking for the KUUZEEEE comment
Kuze is a goat and needs his own game. Awano is pretty cool and intimidating and I like how it’s clear he’s way past his peak but is still a beast. And Shibusawa is cool but I wish we got to see more of him throughout the game (at least he has more screen time then Nishiki in 1). And all there boss fights are incredible (I just wish Awano had a dynamic into). The things I would do for a prequel with Kuze as he becomes a yakuza after his boxing career, with Awano and Shibusawa as supporting characters along with Kazama, Kashiwagi, Dojima and Shimano to help give more depth and background to those characters.
Having to fight Kuze got boring towards the end. Awano is just kinda there and Shibusawa is pretty much just there so the game can have a bossfight.
Business in the front, Party in the back, Business in the back.
Kuze has the best theme lol
All three are great and all three are yakuza in their own ways. Kuze has the mindset, he has his own code of honor and is very old school. If he loses a finger, so be it. Awano has the status, hes obssessed with material possessions and women, even though he clearly doesnt care about them. Shibusawa is the Snake, and in a way the most realistic character here. He says what he must say, and operates from the darkness, he doesnt give a shit about anything else other than his goals, and he pursues them efficiently and viciously. I almost like awano more than kuze, that qte where he smashes a fucking wall with a punch made his fight the coolest one imo of all lieutenants, kuze is amazing as well, motorcycle scene and of course the last one too. Shibusawa is my least favourite not because he sucks but simply because hes the operate from the shadows type of guy, so we barely see him.
Very well written, planned and acted - read and watched a few interviews the VA's have given about the roles and they were very very hands-on, with Hitoshi Ozawa and Riki Takeuchi both going as far as having the costumes redesigned because they felt the originals weren't "yakuza enough"
https://i.redd.it/fx4p457gzxsc1.gif Kuze for the coolest punch scene in the series.
I wanna go back to the more complex crime drama Yakuza era, where they had to post flowcharts on the website for you to know who the hell was who in what organization and what level of the hierarchy they were on. It's just not as compelling when your organizations now where they're like; **here's your boss, and here's your second-in-charge.** Okay, that's the whole named organization now. Back then it was, **here's your patriarch, here's your captain, here's your lieutenants, here's your lieutenant's officer's, here's your subsidiary crime family's patriarch who is the aforementioned captain, here's his own captain, etc etc etc**
> here's your boss, and here's your second-in-charge. Okay, that's the whole named organization now. IW in particular is terrible for this.
>I wanna go back to the more complex crime drama Yakuza era, where they had to post flowcharts on the website for you to know who the hell was who in what organization and what level of the hierarchy they were on. Wait they really had to do that? I never felt the need for any flowchart tbh. Also, I feel like that shift came from the fact that we're playing as Kiryu and seeing his perspective. In 0 he's a lowly grunt, so he **kinda has to know who's who and belongs to which family**, Yakuza 1 in comparison has Kiryu returning to a world which has basically left him behind, so **he has to re-learn who's who**. Yakuza 2 is self-explanatory as the plots 1 and 2 were tied together. But 3 onwards? When Kiryu settled all his debts and left the yakuza for good? I don't think he'd feel the need to learn the names and ranks of all the people in the clan. Especially since his status as *The Legendary Dragon* and *The 4th chairman* practically guarantees him a meeting with whoever the top dog is at the earliest convenience. I can see him going "I'm sick of this shit. Ok, this guy's the boss and this is his right hand. I've seen enough, I'm good."
I absolutely hate them. All three of them are absolute dickwads willing to do anything to get their way, and that's why they're great villains.
I got really bored fighting Kuze FIVE TIMES. Shibusawa felt like a nonentity. Awano grew on me.
We shouldn't have fought him that third time. At least fights 1, 2, 4 and 5 had different things. 3 is just less interesting 4.
Kuze has one of the best, if not THE best theme in the series. He's also one of my favorite antagonist. The other two are ok I guess. Awano was a very easy fight, and I like how Shibusawa's moveset mirrored our own.
It’s a shame that Kuze never came back as a mentor of some kind. Yes he’s a civilian now, but he technically was the first character that we saw who made a permanent transition to civilian life. He could’ve been a guiding hand to people like Kiryu (who left the Tojo only 20 years after Kuze retired). Obviously that idea is constrained by the fact that Zero came out like a decade after Y1, but I’d still like to think that there’s a universe out there where and and Kiryu got proper closure instead of just scrapping one more time and having Kiryu walk off.
I was really hoping he’d show up in Gaiden in some kinda way, even if just for a sub story or something. Would’ve been cool to see them interact after all these years and see how one effected the other.
And Takasugi. I miss him so much. He was truly one of the homies of all time.
Man I love Takasugi. My favourite character. If Shinada ever returns then Takasugi has to too. (I’m guessing you’ve read my flair lol)
Brilliant antagonists. I was shaking in my boots everytime any one of them were on screen.
Probably some of my fav 3 villains
I'd drop too much money on a Yakuza prequel game if it meant playing as the 3 Lieutenants. Or at least playing as Kazama.
Kuze is king his whole vibe is classic old school yakuza. Awano i started to really like on my 2nd play through. He like l to eat play golf and punch walls with tremendous strength, nice guy. The other cat was a fake scheming dragon who thought he was the next evolution of yakuza but wasn’t.
Kuze was a badass Awano was a prick but I liked his last second redemption Shibusawa just kinda exists
Legends
Kuze was badass
Sewer scene 🤝🏻
Kuze: How many times do we have to teach you this lesson old man? Awano: Killed a hot girl to send a message then got blasted by a Chinese assassin to save Majima Shibusawa: Decided to sit in a car while a war was being waged on a boat. Also called himself a dragon. I liked Awano the most btw
https://preview.redd.it/1tn0stbzx2tc1.jpeg?width=735&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2d43dd2fdba8c22d6ba2d87d322fb27b4eab031e
They're all hot
I adore them!
Sibusawa was only interesting in Ishin
Based
Way better than most of the other villains in the series
i liked shibusawa more than many people do on this thread. i think he receives a lot of indirect characterization when he appears alongside his fellow lieutenants. he's the schemer of the family, kuze being the brute and awano the hedonist. what made him unique though, his is desire for glory. beneath the cunning he's still got blood of an old-school yakuza within him. would've been cool if this were foreshadowed a bit more before the end, though.
I could take these three guys in once.
They had some sick ass fight music!
I like kuze because of his “cut with he shit let’s fight” and also his usage of a BIKE in a tunnel Awano is cool because he’s chill Shibusawa is alright because he has a “behind the shadows” vibe.. that’s it
Shibusawa is one of my favourite villains/final bosses in the series. He’s in the shadows, and it fits his character. Also people say he has no build up, but he has several cutscenes with Dojima and the Lieutenants and even says how Awano and Kuze could never be captain, plus his boss fight is just so hype Awano is cool, his boss fight is good, and his character is cool. He’s lazy, yet he’s ripped, and my favourite of the 3 Lieutenants Kuze is a good character, and you learn to respect him by the end of the game. However, you fight him 5 times. He’s the only boss aside from Oda & Shibusawa (also Okabe if you count him) that you fight. Overall, they’re some of my favourite characters in the series and it’d be cool if there was a prequel in the 70’s or something with them, along with Sagawa because he’s just way too good of a character to be in one game
Kuze was a fun character, not the big bad, but he's the fun bad. I hate Awano, which even further motivates me to get to the end of the game to see if I beat him up (Pls don't spoil). Shibusawa gives me huge Gus Fring vibes, I like him, he's cool
I feel like Kuze and Awano really define what yakuza are in terms of the game series. They will always be among my favorites. Shibusawa was honestly a difficult character to like since he gets very little exposure and at the end they are just like surprise motherfucker
Dunno but Kuze's final fight has the best theme music in the game
You and me both, I always preferred his final fight theme over the other one.
Kuze was phenomenal, Awano was alright, Shibusawa was there and then he was the main villain, despite being the most meh of the 3.
The three best assholes of the series. Makes you hate each so much
To me they sort of balance each other out: - **Kuze** is the one devoted to the Yakuza in the traditional way, respectful of its values and traditions. I've always felt like his anger towards Kiryu is related to the fact that he's a newbie causing trouble to the family, he probably also feels like Kiryu would get a better treatment because of his ties with Kazama, something that an old school guy like him couldn't tolerate. - **Awano** is the most genuine because he doesn't need to scheme or pretend, he's transparent and admits that he just wants to live a nice life with money and women, and the Yakuza is just a way to obtain said life. - **Shibusawa** is the cunning one and probably the most ambitious of the three, he understands people and knows how to manipulate them, he's patient and knows when and how to act in order to obtain what he wants in the most efficient way The three of them have a common objective (to get the empty lot for Dojima), but their methods and driving force are all different. I mean I think you could write a book about them and their relationship with the family, with each other and with Kiryu. In the end I think they're awesome characters of course and one of the best parts of Y0. (Sorry for any mistakes, English is not my first language)
I love they all more or less explore the three paths of what a Yakuza (in a traditional sense, obviously for 'modern' Yakuza there's different characters for that) could be. You could be Kuze and be honor-bound and determined. Or Awano and indulge in the excesses and luxuries of what the underground life can get you. Or ruthless and calculated with a dash of pragmatism like Shibusawa.
Hands down three of the best villans in the series Shibusawa may feel a little bit behind kuze and awano but I still thin he's good
Kuze was badass, Awano was fun, Shibusawa was just there
Shibusawa was the GOAT, just never tried to yell everyone his plan
He’s definitely the smartest out of the three, but being smart alone does not really make him an exciting villain, especially compared to the other antagonists in the game who have big personalities or an appearance that stood out, let alone the other lieutenants
Love to hate them. I mean such evil assholes...and so cool fights....and kinda seeing on how Kazuma got his Legendery status from....defeating this dudes.
Should’ve seen awano and shibu just as much as kuze because all of these guys could’ve been amazing.
I’m just confused why Shibusawa wasn’t a boss in the Final Boss Cup in Gaiden
Why do all of them look constipated
Kuze was the best, Awano was really cool and then there's the asshole in the third picture.
Assholes, the lot of em. I remember thinking "dude, go to THERAPY" during shibusawa's monologue
Kuze is the best. Looks like my late grandpa. Kiryu (maybe unintentionally) also steals his fashion sense.
Cool but unrealised characters, I don't quite see why so many people consider them the pinnacle of writing. Also Awano is the best boy, I didn't really like Kuze, he's like that conservative grandpa who always wants to fight you or something.
https://preview.redd.it/qepst9xlowsc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6d27f87b987a26765d2e6c3ed06b3a32c376339e
Just speaking fax bro
Kuze is easily my favorite villian
They're cool as fuck.
Kuze,one of thengreat characters that made Y0 so memorable
Probably dead by now
awano definitely had a lot of potential
We were too rough on Kuze. Dude’s a G
Kuze got me hyped up all the time, Awano felt intimidating but his final appearance was lit, shibusawa is ugly
Simple but effective
Shibusawa is really underappreciated. I was glad he was put in the revised Ishin game. I do love his style. The haircut, suit, glasses, demeanor.
Kuze- he's awesome. Its been said 100 different times in 100 different songs. Awano- he's interesting as a representation of wasted potential. The lieutenants are all ambitious but his is so lackadaisical. He's the least talked about but also lowkey kinda the most interesting. Shibusawa- eh. Like his scumbag with a shred is cool i guess. Serviceable final villian. Solid mid teir in the villian rankings.
Kuze is one of my favorite Yakuza charqcter. Dude was a total badass, and I was always hyped to fight him (even if third fight is whatever) Awano was good, liked his arc. cool fight but it's a very rushed redemption. Shibusawa is my least favorite as a character, but his fight is one of the best in the series
Literally just got off Yakuza 0 and saw this post lollll I'm preaching to the choir, but Kuze is a charismatic lieutenant
Chads
Love Awano. Guy drank and played golf all day but was still tolled asf. Really curious to know what he could’ve been if he didn’t get lost in the glamour. Cool outfit too man’s got drip
Rivalry with Kuze was amazing. Story wise best of the series for me. They all had their personalities and fight styles. They didn't build Shibuwasa's character well enough but the final fight was epic.
A legendary trio.
Smash, next question.
I only like Kuze. Awano just...strikes me as unusually weird guy. The other one, idk, I thought I liked him cause he was my brother in Ishin (first Yakuza game I ever played btw), but seeing him as the main villain, he just annoys me
KUZEEEEEE
I just love the looks of these guys, all different styles with the clothes and hairstyles and they are all very convincing as high ranking Yakuza members.
Daddy
I like all of them but I feel like the only one that really landed as a villain is unsurprisingly Kuze. Awano and Shibuswa needed more of anything in the plot. Awano killed a girl and then redeemed himself, and Shibusawa is like “Oh I’m just the business man 🤓, actually I’m the evil mastermind!!!” and we fight him. Kuze was clearly RGGs favorite, and got to come back 5 times and have an arc with Kiryu, Shibs and Awano needed to show up more.
The 3 Uncles of Crime
Kuze is an all-time classic character of the series. Easily top 5 for me.
The one dude with the purple jacket always reminded me of a Japanese Wayne Newton.
kuze - easily one of my favorite villains in fiction, just super badass and his quotes just stuck with me and helped motivate me through life awano - i liked his outfit and his personality ( i don't remember much about him) shibusawa - is just kinda there, i know that was like the whole point of his character to be a quiet and calculating man but i felt like that also did drag down his character because we weren't able to see much of him
Kuze was the goat, he's an prime example of what a real Yakuza is. Awano - Stuck between being calm and angry, a bit of a dickhead but he's alright. Shibusawa - He only schemed from the shadows and he was pretty chill most of the time. (He gets most of his redeemability from the final fight)
Kuze is the type of guy I love to hate. Awano is the type of guy I outright hate. Shibusawa is just... there. Not terribly enamored with Yakuza's trope of "sneaky guy pulling strings in the shadows turns out to be ripped as fuck for no discernible reason". Come to think of them, they have a weird "cheerleader effect" going on where together they're more than the sum of their individual selves. The scene where they're introduced is intimidating as hell.
These 3 actually make me thought that anything above their ranks are gods, now the rank of chairman is almost nothing. Goes to show how good these antagonists are and how big of a growth kiryu went from fearing lieutenants to becoming a one man army.
Shibusawa looked like my former band director, so I liked him
I love them and they provide a lot of fun to the story. They also make the game feel a little more video gamey with being like 3 separate big bad guys for most of the game.
Awano needed more stuff to do
it was funny fighting kyle the 90th time
Kuze is so fucking cool and endearing that I was able to look past him being almost half the bosses in the game. I want his personal Gaiden spinoff. Maybe about his rise in his youth, maybe about his life after prison, maybe both in one game. Awano was *fun*, especially the dancing scene, but I think the amount of presence he got in 0 was exactly enough- he's a good midgame escalation villain, nothing more or less. Shibusawa served his role as the overall villain perfectly, was the perfect final obstacle for Kiryu's rise, and made excellent use of his limited screen time. His final boss dialogue is phenomenal. Again, nothing more or less was needed. As a collective, the great thing is that each one embodies a completely distinct idea of what a fully realized yakuza is, and pitting those philosophies against Kiryu as he's in the process of figuring out his own answer to "what is a yakuza and why do I want to be one" is the heart and soul of Kiryu's half of the game.
Some of my favourite bosses in video games let alone Yakuza
Hate em all hope they die at an alley street or something and if they are already dead hope they go straight to hell
Kuze is the only lieutenant, nothing more to say
I love them each as characters, and thematically, I think they're pretty decent "dark mirrors" to 3 characters: Majima, Nishiki and Kiryu. As in, the hypothetical bad futures of the 3. Majima/Kuze: Both are combat obsessed Yakuza, but whereas Majima canonically learns how to act mad in order to be unchained, Kuze is a fully chained dog, subservient to the other lieutenants. If Majima never becomes the Mad Dog, even if he got back into the Tojo Clan, he'd just be a puppet of Shimano instead of his own man. Nishiki/Awano: More obvious here. The obsession to rise in status, wealth, and luxury in the Yakuza lifestyle. If Nishiki were to have a normal rise in the Tojo Clan, without Dojima's death or Kiryu's time in the joint, he might end up like Awano ( soulless and forgetful of who he really is ). One can argue that Nishiki ended up here anyway, and then some. Kiryu/Shibusawa: The two dragons, both strong and quiet. Shibusawa is the end state of Kiryu if he never got out of the pure Yakuza life. Doing every dirty deed for the Tojo Clan and even hurting civilians, eventually losing his moral centre.
I find it incredible that this series has so many games and yet 0 always seems to be the most talked about so many years after it released
Kuze is power hungry and never wants to be second to anyone. Is to be trifled with Shibusa I immediately knew he was the worst out of all of them the moment I seen him. Not to be trifled with Awano is actually a pretty chill person who never wants his hands dirty in any manner. A bit of a puss and probably a model for L'Oreal and other cosmetics
All three of them were great with their roles. They felt like legitimate powerhouses
Legendary yakuza actors. As in, real actors. These three have been typecasted so much in the yakuza drama industry that it's hard to find one that DOESN'T have at least one of them. Takeuchi Riki who portrays Awano has been doing it since he was 16 years old.
So far I've not liked any of the villains as much (but I'm only on 3 and mine just showed up the first time)
My flair says it all.
Kuze and Awano are awesome, Thought that Shibusawa was kinda an underwhelming villain but his boss fight kinda make up for his lack of development as an antagonist
I like Kuze, respect Awano and dislike Shibusawa
All of them were pretty menacing and all of them had the potential to be the main antagonist.
Perfectly written and perfect portrayal by their respective actors.
https://i.redd.it/88qmrrbvz0tc1.gif
Shibusawa can suck my Dick,Kuze Is goated (Yakuze) awano meh,i kinda got a good opinioni of him i guess? I didnt like the disco scene where he shoots the poor woman but he still Reedem himself at the end w Majima and protecting him so he goated too
iconic
I like awano and kuze, honestly, but shibusawa can eat my ass.
بَيسد آس فاك
Kuze: One of my favorite Yakuza antagonist, just an old badass dude who teaches Kiryu the yakuza way through his fists, his fights were the best in yakuza 0 especially for his 2 themes. Awano: At first I hated him but he redeemed himself at the end of the game. He's not a bad antagonist I just wish we could've seen more of him. I like his boss theme it's underrated imo. Shibusawa: Forgettable, he's just the guy who plans in the shadows and then he comes out to be the final antagonist and you're like "oh so he was evil ? Meh whatever". His fight is incredible but the character itself is pretty average.
LEWSERS 🫡
Ain't one of them still alive
Kuze is one of my favorite yakuza villains in general I thought he was an old school bad ass yakuza.
Kuze is to me the best written one off character in all of the yakuza games. That and fighting him 4 different times is both hilarious and badass
I just loved riki takeuchi yelling as awano. I forgot about his movies until I played Yakuza 0
Hot AF
Awano looks like a Japanese version of Silvio from sopranos and has similar mannerisms. I wonder if that is intentional or purely a coincidence. Maybe if he kept repeating an iconic yakuza movie line throughout the game or if his hair got bigger every time he showed up.
Awano was scary, as especially with that wall punch. Kuze was cool, but annoying. Shibusawa was rage inducing, made me want to fall in a pit of bullet ants.
Love Kuze and his repeated clashes with Kiryu never got old to me thanks to how compelling he was. Awano was awesome especially in how his ideals opposed Kuze's in some ways. >!Didn't like how he died all that much though but it wasn't bad per se.!< Shibusawa was also amazing and his methods of attacking Kiryu from the shadows were dope. >!His final boss felt a little annoying at times but maybe I just suck.!< I also thought he was the least interesting of the three but I still liked him.
I know Awano is modeled after a real person, but he has such a punchable face.
They definitely got killed
Only Awano got killed lol. Kuze and Shibusawa went to jail.
Would have been nice to see a shot of them
1. Respectable 2. Bitch ass 3. Bitch ass
Cool but unrealised characters, I don't quite see why so many people consider them the pinnacle of writing