Judgment: Sega Reveals Replacement Character Model After Drugs Scandal

Apr 16, 2019 6:30 AM PDT The same, but different.

by Joe Skrebels

Sega has revealed the new model for Judgment character Kyohei Hamura after the game's original Hamura actor, Pierre Taki, was indicted for cocaine use.

The change is a fairly subtle one. The new Hamura is an original model, not based on a scan of an actor, and the character's movements and lip-sync remain the same.

You can see both versions in our comparison video below:

Yakuza Studio head Toshihiro Nagoshi previously explained how much had to be altered to remove Taki's likeness from the game:

“First of all we had to replace the character model and re-record all of the dialogue. But replacing the character model is only the start: We had to change all of the pre-rendered cut scenes Hamura appeared in; also, his face appears on some of the evidence that you present on your smartphone, so we had to replace those textures; and some trophies had to be changed too.”

Judgment was pulled from sale in Japan while the replacement character was created. Frozen, in which Taki provided the Japanese dub for Olaf, was also removed from sale, and the developers of Kingdom Hearts 3 also patched out his performance as the same character.

Despite the sudden development shift, Judgment is still on track for its western release of June 25.

We've played a couple of hours of the western version, and found it lived up to its promise as a spiritual crossover between Yakuza and Ace Attorney.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's UK Deputy Editor, and he will miss Pierre Taki's cool eyebrows. Follow him on Twitter.

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