The Yakuza development team and its head recently revealed in an exclusive interview that swapping a certain character from Judgment was the right call.
Judgment controversial character replaced
The recent interview talked about the difficulties of the Yakuza team experienced when they replaced the actor Pierre Taki in the game. They also talked about how they avoided in delaying the Western release of the title. Head Toshihiro Nagoshi stated that they replaced the character in time and they used an original character and not a performance version. Players will have to wait and see what it will look like in the game.
Toshihiro talked about how Taki’s arrest on cocaine charges was revealed on March 12, and what they were going to do about it. He knew about it just like everyone else via news. He suggested within 30 minutes different options on how to approach this problem, and within an hour they already had a firm plan, which was to replace the character. By the following morning they already had an estimate for the cost. There was an option to leave it as it is, but he personally wanted to change the character and he felt it was the right decision.
The studio head thanked his team for the swift response. They were thankful that they were still able to launch the game in the West, and also keep its same release date as well.
Judgment will be launched back in Japan at an unspecified date. The western version will still be launched on June 25 this year. It will be available on PlayStation 4.
Source: IGN