This mod restores Judgment’s original Hamura

A new PC mod replaces the face and voice of a character from Judgment whose original likeness was pulled rough several years ago following a drug arrest.

Originally, the character model and character voice of Judgment Kyohei Hamura was based on Japanese musician and actor Pierre Taki. Shortly after his drug arrest, however, Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios rushed to replace him with the voice and likeness of Japanese actor Miou Tanaka instead.

Modder Timo 654, however, brought Taki back to life – so to speak – by meticulously restoring the original voice lines and likeness.

“The purpose of this patch is to restore Kyohei Hamura’s original appearance and Japanese voice to the likeness of the actor who portrayed him in the original launch version of Judgment, Pierre Taki, who was replaced because that he was arrested for possession and use of cocaine.”, explains the description on Nexus Mod (thanks, TheGamer).

“This is a port of the mod originally created for the PS4 version, remade to work with the remastered PC version.”

If you fancy running the mod yourself on PC, you will need the Ryu Mod Manager to do so.

At the time of the scandal, Japanese companies pulled products featuring Pierre Taki. Sega pulled Judgment’s shipments and sales, and Square Enix fixed Taki’s lines in Kingdom Hearts 3, where he played the snowman from Frozen.

Sega recently announced that a Western version of the historic Yakuza spin-off, Like a Dragon: Ishin – which has been “rebuilt from the ground up” – will be coming to PS4 and PS5 next February.

Like a Dragon: Ishin was originally released for PlayStation 3 and PS4 in Japan as Ryū ga Gotoku Ishin! in 2014, transplanting the chaotic Yakuza formula to the late Edo period for a historic slice of samurai action. It follows protagonist Sakamoto Ryōma as he returns home to Tosa where, after an altercation with a high-ranking samurai, he is sentenced to be executed. It will only feature Japanese voice acting and no English voice acting, producer Masayoshi Yokoyama has confirmed.