Ichiban Kasuga has what many heroes is missing: a big heart and emotions

How would you introduce a former member of the Japanese Yakuza? A professional gangster worked in a male milieu in which violence, betrayal, murder and extortion stand on the agenda?

For many years, the Yakuza games found the same answer: cynical, dropped and distanced. Kazuma Kiryu, traditional Yakuza protagonist, was the personalization of this idea of ​​the unshakeable criminal with sense for justice - but then Ichiban Kasuga came.

Soft shell, soft core

With the change from Kiryu to Kasuga as playable heroes, Yakuza beat: Like A Dragon a new direction. From an action-packed brawl with several offshoots suddenly a round-based RPG with changeable classes became. Much stronger than the focus on new game mechanics looked at me but the character difference between the two protagonists. Because Ichiban Kasuga is pretty much the opposite of what we have habited from Yakuza so far.

Ichiban is an open, helpful daydream who wears his heart on the tongue and motivated by love for his fellow human beings. Sure, too, there is a sense of justice and the unconditional loyalty as a virtue - but it is still much more than that. Because Ichiban is what Kiryu and men in media representations generally - often not allowed: highly emotional. And emotionality I mean here in their full bandwidth, not only in terms of masculine threesome of anger, longing and grief.

My time with Yakuza: Like a Dragon, I especially enjoyed because I got a protagonist with Ichiban, who at least tries to avoid the toxic clichés of masculinity.

Instead of pondering and undercooling through the streets and let the fists speak the fists in the name of revenge, I can experience an adult man, as he reacts emotionally and empathic to his environment and needs and problems of other people.

When is a man a man?

Male heroes are often reluctant heroes. Actually, you have to intervene in the face of injustice and put things right - mostly paired with the late insight: I also need (sometimes) other people. I never needed this realization, because it is simply in his nature to hear about his own heart, never to suppress feelings and to offer help where it is needed. So he already protects the last Kaki fruit of a tree, simply because she makes a seriously ill girl hope for improvement.

In another side quest, he makes a small boy in a restaurant society that often has to eat alone because of its busy, single mother. For help, I do not just mean "bashing badges" for Ichiban - although he of course he does that - but also offer emotional support. Ichiban does not hide behind the social role of male hardness and open his innestly openly. This sometimes looks naive, sometimes strange but always sincere.

Fatal strokes are not a free trip for Misanthropen

This emotional complexity is not on the fact that Ichiban is the world question and the "real, hard life" has never met. On the contrary even: grew up as a full coare in the red light milieu, he belonged to the weakest of society from birth. His life was shaped by waiver and high burden, while his future looked through the social stand and the lack of education anything but rosy. Even the supposed improvement in Ichiban's life through the comradeship of Yakuza gave disappointment.

After a long, unlawful imprisonment of almost 20 years, I betrayed I betrayed by his father figure, shot and thrown halftot into the word-oriented garbage. Here are equal dozens of starting points for the usual bitterness, the broken men of this kind have so often in themselves. Despite these medium-sized circumstances and although he was left alone and cheated, the heart of Ichiban could not be greater. Despite his traumatic experiences, he may continue to remain a person.

ex-gangster with heart and soul

The reason for the novel JRPG gameplay, the Yakuza: Like A Dragon introduces, Ichiban's love for Dragon Quest, which he played as a child with enthusiasm. This escape into the heroic adventures have inspired his imagination so that he sees himself as a hero who wants to free the world from evil. Nerd playfulness and dreamy ideals are also not exactly properties that are granted bear-bianal video game men.

According to the creators of Yakuza: Like Dragon I got Ichiban (in German about "number 1") his name, because his life-annual character is in contrast to his brutal life reality. Sure, he is not always good and he has many things to process to which he often reacts indignantly and unress. In the end, however, he is in pure and his environment. In fact, I also serves with his unshakable charity and enthusiasm even as an inspiration for his naughty friends and companions.

In direct comparison, I may have more vulnerabilities than Kazuma Kiryu - too often the hero of Yakuza: Like A Dragon over his feelings, too often his confidence is disappointed in supposed friends. Nevertheless, Ichiban in the end is the bigger and better hero. Because despite these (human) weaknesses Ichiban is no less competent, not less strong, no less steadfast. He is equal to Kiryu in terms of fighting power, but also shows that for heroism more than just a powerful liver hook.