Character Analysis: Kyohei Hamura (Judgment)
The centerpiece of a complex crime story — and RGG Studio’s best antagonist
Este texto foi publicado originalmente em português para o GameBlast.
Judgment (PC/PS4/PS5/Xbox Series X|S, 2019) opens its curtain on a typical story for the Japanese justice system. The body of a young bottom-tier yakuza is found at a bar’s back alley. There are signs this crime has been committed by a serial killer; the victim had both his eyes removed post-mortem, something that had already happened twice before to members of the same organisation in the recent past.
The police chooses not to correlate the two cases, considering the new crime an isolated incident, and for it arresting the most obvious suspect: a member of another yakuza group, at war with the victim’s, last seen pushing him to the inside of the bar.
In yet another night in the district of Kamurocho, Tokyo, a private eye winds up in a fight with local delinquents who had attempted to rob him. In the middle of the action, a yakuza — an old acquaintance, essentially the detective’s “brother”, and that same man who would be arrested later — appears to protect him. The action is deemed unnecessary, but he insists: to him, punishing the enemies of the boss’ adopted son is about defending the family’s honour, no matter how much he resents the boy.
This is how we are introduced to Kyohei Hamura, captain of the Matsugane Family and the most important antagonist of the next couple game hours. Hamura is a figure that exudes power; he nets the Matsugane so much money that he’s more influential to the group’s activities than his own boss/father figure. Judgment’s first chapter is nothing more than showcase after showcase of said power, in every scene he next appears in — and things will stay this way for the rest of the game, which, little by little, paints the picture of one of the best antagonists the Yakuza franchise has ever birthed. This is his story.
“The illustrious Captain Hamura… He’s snide as ever.”
Judgment begins with Hamura’s defence, as conducted by lawyer Masamichi Shintani with the help of that private eye from earlier, Takayuki Yagami — as well as the discovery of his nature. He hasn’t, in fact, killed anyone, though a bitter scent lingers in the air.
One of the biggest elements to compose his alibi is the fact that, during the time period where prosecution claimed he would be committing the murder, street cameras spotted him drunk out of his mind, punching a passerby for no real reason as he left the local sauna; a perfect portrait of our defendant’s character. Nothing hints at any legal retribution stemming from this event.
During investigations of the case, Yagami finds out there’s a lot more to it. The Matsugane captain may be innocent this time, but there are several aspects indicating that there could be a larger conspiracy around the incident. Yagami’s theory is that Hamura created an opening for someone else to commit the crime, and then left in order to craft an alibi for himself.
It is not, however, the defense’s job to solve the case. All Shintani and Yagami had to do was to prove the client’s innocence. The lawyer is contented to do as much, but not the detective; this is where Judgment’s story definitively starts, as Yagami sets out to find the accomplice he believes Hamura has.
It is also at this point that the relationship between the two characters begins to develop. The seeds had already been sowed in that aforementioned first scene; the two of them are essentially adopted children of a same man, yakuza patriarch Mitsugu Matsugane. Yagami, who has a law degree but no longer works in the area (yet still acting alongside his former colleagues, like now), is the family’s voice in the civilian world; Hamura, the older brother, the moneymaker, is the one to truly guide the Matsugane through the seas of the underworld.
Their mutual resentment is palpable even when they should be helping each other. Hamura talks of Yagami with pride in order to intimidate the thieves and keep Matsugane Family honour intact, but as he presents his “brother” to his new subordinates, he recounts the detective’s worst mistakes while laughing to his face. It’s a coded message. “You may be our father’s favourite, but I’m the one who calls the shots.”
“I spent my entire life chasing that dream for you!”
Indeed, it is the need for Matsugane’s love and attention that guides all of Hamura’s actions. At first sight, his power plays, such as when he conspires to expel his biggest rival from the family and forces the one who witnessed his plan to commit murder, seem to only take place in the name of power itself. There is a concern that Hamura might be out to usurp his patriarch, but the truth is far, far away from that.
Decades ago, Matsugane expressed a wish to have a successful family. Hamura heard him. He knew that what his father wanted was impossible to attain without bloodshed — and got his own hands dirty to keep the boss’ clean.
The captain’s cruelty and arrogance are displays of love, in a certain way, condescending they may be. He made himself the biggest power player in the family out of feeling like he was the only one up to the burden; every other prominent figure had too strong a moral compass, but he had already abandoned all of that long ago.
At a certain point in the story, Yagami confronts Matsugane’s inaction before so many lives lost in his name, saying that, in the past, he would never have been ambivalent. The patriarch only responds: “Don’t make me repeat myself. Times have changed. Hamura is the Matsugane Family now.”
Things have gotten to a point such that Matsugane has completely abandoned his dream, but it is too late. Hamura has already cast aside too much of his own humanity — and has already gotten in bed with all the wrong people.
There is a flashback that illustrates the character’s slow descent, showing just how out of his own depth Matsugane’s dream has taken him. In the scene, he is intimidated (intimidated!) into keeping on working with corrupt figures, after having completed what he thought was just another one-off job in the company of his usual hired assassin.
Said assassin, many years ago, had been but an information broker. It was him who suggested to Hamura that they started killing people for a profit; the most interesting part is that, in the beginning, the captain was resistant to the idea.
Judgment starts out with the impression that Hamura is just a heartless thug guided by a thirst for power, but, as the puzzle pieces snap together, the story changes. He’s never wanted to be here.
He is a puppet in a stage much bigger than himself, as Matsugane describes him. He is the family’s salvation and moral bankruptcy. He is a man forced to take on a position he is not ready for. He is the eldest child, the one who does everything for everyone and never gets a thanks — and he seeks it even though he knows he doesn’t deserve it.
“I’ve already lost my chance. You, on the other hand, might still have yours.”
During his first appearance, Hamura helps Yagami in the name of the Matsugane Family’s honour. He does the exact same thing the last time they meet; this time, however, the personal cost is endlessly steeper for him.
After having finally been broken to the core, he knows there exists no more place for him in the conspiracy he got himself caught in. The decision he makes is that of exiting scene on his own terms, taking down all those who forced him to play his role.
When Matsugane’s two sons see themselves on the same side for the first time, it is so that Hamura finally pays for what he has caused. Matsugane had said that this had all been his own fault; “I wasn’t good at the business side, and because of that, you had to protect the family by crossing the line”.
Maybe it is true. Maybe he prioritised Yagami too much — gave attention only to the son that could keep himself clean, even if only because of the other’s dirty work bankrolling his law school. Maybe the “brothers” would have had a better relationship had Matsugane tried harder.
It doesn’t matter to Hamura. It is his mistakes that bear correcting, and that is what he does, no matter how late. All these years, he has acted out of love for Matsugane; at the end of the story, he notices that the biggest display of love he could put on is to simply atone for his own sins, and to notice Yagami never should have been his enemy. A humble ending to a man who has always attempted to project arrogance.
