Judgment mod restores actor who was deleted by Sega

When Yakuza spin-off Judgment was released in Japan, where it’s known as Judge Eyes, the voice and facial capture for Kyohei Hamura—the captain of the Matsugane family, and an important character in its crime thriller story—were provided by singer and actor Pierre Taki. Three months later Judgment was withdrawn from sale, then re-released scrubbed clean of Taki’s involvement. Hamura’s face was remodeled, and his voice re-recorded by a different actor, Miō Tanaka.

The scandal that saw Taki put in the memory bin may seem tame by our standards: he was arrested for cocaine use. Japan’s zero-tolerance attitude toward drug use is serious business, however, and cocaine possession can result in a seven-year sentence (opens in new tab), though Taki was eventually given a suspended sentence of 18 months (opens in new tab). He was dropped by his label, Sony, who removed all his band’s music from both stores and streaming services, and Disney withdrew Japanese DVDs of Frozen—in which he voiced the snowman Olaf—from sale. Taki also voiced Olaf in Kingdom Hearts 3, which he was also removed from in a patch.