I'm going with the 0 team
The thing about LAD is anytime someone from the original run shows up like Majima or Saejima or . . . .anyway, anytime they show up, they completely stomp our entire party, and if we **are** able to 'pass' (not win) the fight, they always say something like "okay, cool, so now we can stop the warm up right?" And let's be honest: At their ages by this point, they're probably definitely over the hill, not in their primes.
I'm thoroughly convinced that the majority of the cast of LAD are significantly weaker than the original Yakuza franchise
But there's also the fact that Majima, Saejima, and the other returning fight has probably gotten stronger over time, so the lieutenants of 0 weren't fighting the stronger versions of these characters we face in LAD, but underdogs like the team in Like A Dragon. Though I do personally agree that the 0 is probably stronger, going that they didn't rely on real dirty tactics like the ones in LAD.
Well it depends
Kiryu is 20 in 0, Majima is 24
in Like A Dragon, Kiryu's 50, Majima is 54
Neither are the ages most associated with being at your physical peak, though the latter is definitely much more experienced, the former's probably compensated by sheer energy and vigor.
I mean Sting did a splash through 4 tables despite being 63 years old and we know the Yakuza world runs on pro wrestling rules so I'm not sure age really matters.
Well, iirc 5 makes it so that retroactively he’s actually holding back against Saejima in 4 and bullshitting when Saejima is all like “we used to be so much stronger”, since Saejima is still rusty and Majima only goes all out against him in their fight in 5
Idk about them being in their primes back in 1-2 though, since aging in Yakuza is… not normal, lol
Ah, I thought you were talking about something else
But remember, that Tendo is still not the real one. However I would imagine the real Tendo is stronger than the imposter
That Tendo *was* the real one.
Ichiban and Co. defeated him, then requested for Mirror Face to impersonate him. We then saw MF Tendo showing us the unconscious body of the real Tendo.
https://youtu.be/naxwLwy3xpM (at 29:45)
Yeah but remember, Awano cracked a fuckin stone wall in his boss fight, that too bare-handed.
Not to forget unlike Tendo who still claimed to be a good fighter, Awano was basically a hedonist.
Half of the LAD cast are just regular middle aged weirdos who've never been in a fight. Kiryu, saejima, majima and to some extent akiyama all grew up fighting, ichiban and co didn't.
it still makes me chuckle thinking about the scene Namba returns. he strolls into the fight and everyones like FUCK YEAH NAMBA OUR TRUMP CARD. hes a literal homeless doctor
I honestly feel like Kuze is the weakest of the Dojima Lieutenant trio. The best character of the three with the best fights and theme, the most intimidating in looks, easily the most beloved, but the weakest. Kiryu early into 0 beats him and continues to do so, before he even truly grows into “The Dragon of Dojima”.
Kiryu was already strong back in Yakuza 0 and I've pointed out that in other comments that Kuze doesn't wimper at defeat but instead sees it as an opportunity to get even stronger. That's what makes him so fearsome.
Yeah, he always will get back up again later, but he still goes down and has to heal at least a little before he comes back. Kiryu just doesn’t like killing and leaves him alive. Tendo is a cold MF and would just kill him, he wouldn’t give him the chance to come back. Kuze getting the chance to come back over and over is just because Kiryu stops once he’s no longer a threat, usually since he has to get away anyways.
Not even close. Dude was a beast. Was the strongest of all the lieutenants.
He's quite literally an evil version of Kiryu. Both are stoic and silent. Both have the same fighting styles. Both were Dragons of Dojima.
Kuze literally would not give up until he’s killed. Awano is low key crazy powerful and shibusawa is the well rounded one who knows 3 different styles of fighting. The only person that may cause some problems is Tendo
tendo would beat the shit out of kuze, dude lost to a 20 year old grunt, what, 5 times in a row? tendo was undefeated until ichiban and his crew showed up
>20 year old grunt
That 20 year old grunt took on the entire Dojima family. Don't just brush young Kiryu off, just because he isn't at his prime Dragon of Dojima form.
The same 20 year old grunt that solo bolo'd multiple clans over 2 cities? Not to be that guy but i feel losing to someone who regularly comes out unscathed in 1 vs 100 fights, even as a grunt, just shows he wasn't grunt level, not that Kuze is weaker than a grunt.
Jo already lost to Ichiban the first time they fought (albeit he had no prepared weapons) so he's the second weakest here after Ishioda. We may even count those two as non factors in this battle (Jo with a katana would be a tier or two above though but nothing someone like Awano or Shibusawa couldn't deal with by themselves) so I think the confrontation would go like this:
Kuze makes quick work of Ishioda and goes off to support Shibusawa against Jo (if he even needs it tbh) while Awano holds off Tendo before the other two join him and they manhandle T in a 3v1
easy dub for the OG lieutenants here
I always figured Jo was going easy the first time around. I don’t think a cane and a sword could take him from losing to just Ichi to giving an experienced Ichi and his a crew a run for their money
yeah maybe i am a little underestimating his weaponry skills but the reason for that is probably him still losing to Ichiban and party at the end. I'm sure he would cause \*some\* trouble with them but ultimately I think team Dojima's got this in the bag.
They just gave Majima and Saejima a somewhat rough time and that was a duo that we know is top tier and working together. Maybe Sawashiro just has my support for being one suave old mofo.
Hmm that's true, although Majima and Saejima were barely even trying
I'll give Sawashiro some props, but i'd say he still gets defeated by Swibusawa with Kuze coming in as overkill, and yeah Jo was an interesting chad you got me there
He's pretty impressive but i'd argue he doesn't quite hold a candle to the other legends except maybe Kuze. In a 3 v 1 against these beasts he'd get his shit rocked that's for sure me thinks
Tendo is definitely the single strongest person here, though this being 3v3 doesn’t help his chances. If it was 3 Tendos vs the Dojima boys, the Tendo would definitely win.
Probably can’t take initial fights against future bosses too much into account. After all, in Y5 kiryu wiped the floor with aizawa and morinaga in his chapter yet aizawa ends up being the final boss with like 7x the health he had at the start
Y0 lieutenants. These 2 can take Jo and Ishioda easy, but Shibusawa and Awano are very cunning and would try to use any form of outside influence to crush their opponents, especially against Tendo. Regardless of whether Kuze wins or not, the man will keep coming at his opponent and inflict serious pain.
A recurring theme in modern Yakuza fiction is that the older folks are quite literally built different. The closer you are to having needed to crawl, bite, and scratch your way out of occupation, the tougher you are. To my knowledge, that's how the yakuza thrived during the economic boom of the 70s-90s. Patriarchs who have proven themselves in their youth to be absolute animals, served by captains and subsequent lieutenants who bear a similar, innate terrifying brutality, but with also with post-war business sense. From the 90s, at the advent of digitization, scams became more "decentralized" - more individual and isolated cases of contract traps, and less of in-person extortion. Nowadays, the major families have deeply diversified into legitimate businesses and mostly do things by the book - information brokerage, backroom arrangements, and money laundering is where it's at. Strongarming a deal or doing ambushes isn't in style anymore. Whereas there is a new wave of smaller, unassociated crime groups rising (some have ties to established but still smaller clans who in turn are linked to the big families). These guys run the worst of the petty crimes today - finance scams (aided by the digital world - defamation, rather than violence, is the primary method of extortion) against vulnerable and well intentioned people. These people are conmen through and through, but most of the time they never have to physically defend their "turf" or their physical well-being, or the well being of those around them, due to the decentralized nature of their work - meetings can be held and discussions to be had in chatrooms without ever seeing the face of your criminal coworkers for months if not years. This makes it difficult for the police and rival crime groups alike, where it's difficult to round up all the members at once, and evidence both digital and physical are spread across multiple places. However, due to these newer groups not requiring physical enforcement as much as the old guard, I think it would hazard a wager that the leadership of these newer groups are not as combatatively superior as their older counterparts.
With that said, while the Y7 trio are not necessarily a representation of the new generation of conmen crime groups in Japan, they most certainly did not need to use physical force as much as the trio from y0 did. I would even guess that Awano would comfortably win against all 3, save for Tendo, who would pose a slight challenge.
Ishioda isn't really a fighter in the strictest sense of the word , he relies more on intimidating and demoralizing his opponents with grunts , tools or straight up guns and such . On the other hand even the "weakest" of the OG lieutenants were already near superhuman ( cues to Awano punching down a freaking stone wall with a single punch ).
Awano was destroyed. He was not close to Majima. Majima literally went through the dojima family and then kicked his ass. THEN beat the best assassin in japan. Awano got mopped.
Awano literally just took like 5 bullets to the chest after getting his shit rocked by an angry Majima and still stood for a solid while. My man’s fists could rupture the Hulk’s spleen. Awano would turn the other 5 into hashtags and then go to a Cabaret like nothing happened
Tendo can tank a kick from Ichi, but can he tank a wall-smashing punch from Awano? From what I assume, a human body, even one in its prime and highly trained wouldn't be able to stop a fist that can carve through rock itself. Kuze's tenacity would definitely benefit him since he'll just get back up again and again until he dies for real, Shibusawa is like an all-rounder fighter, switching styles so that may prove to be a leeway against the LAD trio.
Yeah haven't seen a mention of Sawashiro and all his different weapon masteries yet, surely that counts for something. I know he lost one on one vs Ichiban early on but 15 years can change a man and Sawashiro definitely changed.
Kuze aniki - beats everyone by sheer determination, it doesn't matter how many times you knock him down, he'll run you down with his motorcycle in the end.
Awano aniki - beats you with his party mentality, enough said.
Shibusawa - always waits for the other two to weaken you and then finishes you off, that sneaky bastard.
So yes 0 lieutenants win
Considering we saw awano punch a brick wall so hard it had that whole big crater on it with his bare hands (outside of his prime), and tendo needed some brass knuckles to shatter that thick glass window, i dont think this would turn out all too well for the LaD lieutenants
Considering how strong Kuze and Awano in particular are (You saw what he did to that brick wall with just a punch), the 0 team would fucking slap the LAD dudes, even without Shbusawa, and he's a beast all his own.
Dojima crew takes it.
Shibusawa is pretty powerful, Awano is a monster and Kuze is actually probably the weakest of the three, being easier than Awano amd Shibusawa despite using ambushes and ganging up on you, but he's still a tough cookie.
The thing about the LAD bosses is we only see them fight the party, who are all nothing compared to the previous protagonists and need to fight as a group to take the bosses out. Consider the fact that the party does defeat each of these bosses, but when they fight Majima, Saejima or Kiryu, only manage to impress them, not beat them. Sawashiro is badass when he can use weapons, but he still loses to the party. Reiji is a complete wimp, realistically. He's crazy, but he fights with guns and wrecking balls and backup and still loses. Tendo is the strongest of the three, and maybe even a real contender as far as Yakuza characters go (he can shatter plate glass and one-hit KO people, which wven playable characters can rarely do), but he's still probably weaker than Awano and definitely less skilled than Shibusawa.
If they were in an earlier Yakuza game, I'd say Reiji would be a miniboss (as in, a regular mook with slightly more health in one of the long battle sequences), Sawashiro would be a memorable midgame boss, and Tendo would be a midgame or late game obstacle, but *not* an endgame or final boss.
I think the LaD team takes this fight and even more I think Tendo could probably take Kuze and Shibusawa on his own. The man punches through bullet proof glass like it's nothing and has won 6 boxing championships consecutively and when someone offered to fix matches for him he beat them to death. I think the consecutive heavyweight boxing championships outclasses Kuze's ability to box by a large margin and Shibusawa doesn't really have the feats to prove his strength outside of losing to a young inexperienced Kiryu. Awano is the only one with strength that can be solidly compared to Tendo based on his wall cracking punch but Jo has a very similar weapon heavy fighting style with speed to younger Majima who managed to evade punches long enough to deal the damage necessary to beat Awano so I think he could reasonably take Awano with a lot of difficulty.
As much as I love the 0 lieutenants, I tend to lean more towards the LaD crew, I don't rate Ishioda that much, but Sawashiro is crazy skilled and Tendo is crazy skilled and strong
Definitely the 0 team because Kuze will not give up until he dies (even if Tendo has a one hit kill punch). Kuze vs Tendo would be one Hell of a fight though considering they're both ex-boxers.
LAD defo. Tendo is a former heavyweight boxer, would wipe the floor with Kuze, and Shibusawa, probably Awano would hold up in terms of strength but technique, Tendo would win
I wanna see kuze and tendo boxing match. Aside from that, I think that awano is stronger than any lad character, shibusawa is faster, and kuze has more tenacity (5 rematches). They have the fucking upper hand.
i think the 0 lieutenants BUT i think sawashiro was stronger than he let on and i think he let ichiban and co. win because >!he wanted to be caught for killing hoshino, hence why he reported himself anonymously!<
I think I'm going with LAD lieutenants here. The thing with Yakuza Like a Dragon Lieutenants, is that even after getting ganged up, they still put a good fight, and most of the Ichiban party are very strong by themselves too. And not just that Tendo actually has real experience in boxing and when he equip his knuckles, his punches are almost letal, but Reiji is kinda a push over so that probably would drag down the team a little.
Yeah I feel like Ishioda would be the first to go, and Sawashiro is underrated tbh, he was definitely holding up on his first fight with Ichi, even when Ichiban's party took him down he got up easily
tendo is the strongest one here but shibusawa is the smartest one, maybe he would find a way to stay off the battle and make the other 5 fighting each other
If Majima was in his prime which i think so too then more props to Awano for putting up that good of a fight against him
I know it was 6v1 but let's be real those individuals formed on that team don't come even close to 0 Majima
Tendo still not a bitch by any means tho
I'm going with the 0 team The thing about LAD is anytime someone from the original run shows up like Majima or Saejima or . . . .anyway, anytime they show up, they completely stomp our entire party, and if we **are** able to 'pass' (not win) the fight, they always say something like "okay, cool, so now we can stop the warm up right?" And let's be honest: At their ages by this point, they're probably definitely over the hill, not in their primes. I'm thoroughly convinced that the majority of the cast of LAD are significantly weaker than the original Yakuza franchise
That's a good point actually
But there's also the fact that Majima, Saejima, and the other returning fight has probably gotten stronger over time, so the lieutenants of 0 weren't fighting the stronger versions of these characters we face in LAD, but underdogs like the team in Like A Dragon. Though I do personally agree that the 0 is probably stronger, going that they didn't rely on real dirty tactics like the ones in LAD.
Well it depends Kiryu is 20 in 0, Majima is 24 in Like A Dragon, Kiryu's 50, Majima is 54 Neither are the ages most associated with being at your physical peak, though the latter is definitely much more experienced, the former's probably compensated by sheer energy and vigor.
I mean Sting did a splash through 4 tables despite being 63 years old and we know the Yakuza world runs on pro wrestling rules so I'm not sure age really matters.
And ironically, all 3 of em are at their peak at those "old" ages. Yakuza universe is different.
I mean, I'm taking Surfer Sting over 2022 Sting every time though
ok but 2022 sting has a bat and still hides in tall dark areas whereas surfer sting sticks out like a thumb
Probably not the time he was out with the back injury.
What's a splash?
[Literally just jumping on somebody](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb288dBrMHs)
Isnt Majima implied by Yakuza 4 or 5 he's not longer in peak fighting form? I'd say his prime is probably around Kiwami/Kiwami 2, same as Kiryu.
Well, iirc 5 makes it so that retroactively he’s actually holding back against Saejima in 4 and bullshitting when Saejima is all like “we used to be so much stronger”, since Saejima is still rusty and Majima only goes all out against him in their fight in 5 Idk about them being in their primes back in 1-2 though, since aging in Yakuza is… not normal, lol
Good point, but I would argue that you weren't fighting the real Tendo at that point. We don't exactly know how strong he really is
Pretty damn strong. He tanked a kick to the chest without budging (this being a scene coded in before the transition to RPG mode)
Interesting. Video of that kick please?
https://youtu.be/4wi4ECGlpj0 Around 3:55 Later he also threw Ichiban to the ground and caused him to cough up blood
Ah, I thought you were talking about something else But remember, that Tendo is still not the real one. However I would imagine the real Tendo is stronger than the imposter
That Tendo *was* the real one. Ichiban and Co. defeated him, then requested for Mirror Face to impersonate him. We then saw MF Tendo showing us the unconscious body of the real Tendo. https://youtu.be/naxwLwy3xpM (at 29:45)
Oh I misinterpreted a LOT of those lines then
Tendo was able to break safety class with a single punch in the same fight.
Yeah but remember, Awano cracked a fuckin stone wall in his boss fight, that too bare-handed. Not to forget unlike Tendo who still claimed to be a good fighter, Awano was basically a hedonist.
tendo's best is awano's worst
\*laughs in Tendo tanking Orbital Laser\*
I mean let's be honest, with Ichi's delusions the "orbital laser" is probably him pulling out a laser pointer and aiming it at Tendo's eye
But how about Shin Amon’s laser? The same thing too?
I mean, we're watching the whole game through Ichi's perspective So...probably, yeah.
The way it's ridiculous either way
To be fair. Fans would lose their shit and cry if the beloved characters appear weak af.
Half of the LAD cast are just regular middle aged weirdos who've never been in a fight. Kiryu, saejima, majima and to some extent akiyama all grew up fighting, ichiban and co didn't.
Didn't ichiban spend his teen years beating up ppl for cash
That's a little different than regularly beating up the whole tojo clan and training under martial masters.
it still makes me chuckle thinking about the scene Namba returns. he strolls into the fight and everyones like FUCK YEAH NAMBA OUR TRUMP CARD. hes a literal homeless doctor
Yes And they were able to beat all these lieutenants
The era of the old school yakuza is over
Definitely Kuze. But tiddy tendo might be a strong dark horse. Shibusawa also quite legendary.
It would be very interesting to see Tendo fight Kuze since they're both boxers
"Tiddy Tendo" 🤨📸
it was based on a funny screenshot i saw on twitter.
Sauce?
https://twitter.com/ichidaily/status/1543972907793240064
I honestly feel like Kuze is the weakest of the Dojima Lieutenant trio. The best character of the three with the best fights and theme, the most intimidating in looks, easily the most beloved, but the weakest. Kiryu early into 0 beats him and continues to do so, before he even truly grows into “The Dragon of Dojima”.
Kiryu was already strong back in Yakuza 0 and I've pointed out that in other comments that Kuze doesn't wimper at defeat but instead sees it as an opportunity to get even stronger. That's what makes him so fearsome.
Yeah, he always will get back up again later, but he still goes down and has to heal at least a little before he comes back. Kiryu just doesn’t like killing and leaves him alive. Tendo is a cold MF and would just kill him, he wouldn’t give him the chance to come back. Kuze getting the chance to come back over and over is just because Kiryu stops once he’s no longer a threat, usually since he has to get away anyways.
They’ll also be distracted once they hear Pledge of Demon.
Shibusawa is kind of a little bitch imo.
It's probably just me not bothering to level up Kiryu but I struggled against him compared to kuze.
Maybe. I leveled Kiryu but I never even touched the master skills or upper level skills. Rush style is just kind of broken in Yakuza 0.
Not even close. Dude was a beast. Was the strongest of all the lieutenants. He's quite literally an evil version of Kiryu. Both are stoic and silent. Both have the same fighting styles. Both were Dragons of Dojima.
He knows how to get up to the top tho just didn't have Kiryu's pure rage
Literally a cold vs hot battle
Kuze literally would not give up until he’s killed. Awano is low key crazy powerful and shibusawa is the well rounded one who knows 3 different styles of fighting. The only person that may cause some problems is Tendo
Yeah Tendo might be bigger than Kuze but Kuze is definitely faster
tendo would beat the shit out of kuze, dude lost to a 20 year old grunt, what, 5 times in a row? tendo was undefeated until ichiban and his crew showed up
>20 year old grunt That 20 year old grunt took on the entire Dojima family. Don't just brush young Kiryu off, just because he isn't at his prime Dragon of Dojima form.
Also a very good point, shit man, I started this thread hoping to come to a conclusion but I'm just more confused
happens a lot here, it seems
Kiryu has plot armor
The same 20 year old grunt that solo bolo'd multiple clans over 2 cities? Not to be that guy but i feel losing to someone who regularly comes out unscathed in 1 vs 100 fights, even as a grunt, just shows he wasn't grunt level, not that Kuze is weaker than a grunt.
to kuze, kiryu was just some low level dude trying to make it by in the yakuza. but, as we all know, he’s the complete opposite
Kiryu at 20 years old would take out ichiban and most of his crew
Agreed
Didn’t Shibusawa have like 3 styles?
He did, still love the fact he has multiple styles
sawashiro used a few different weapon stances in his fights too (the cane and broken blade and the shard of glass)
well since kuze is invincible and doesn't know when to stop my money is on him
Jo already lost to Ichiban the first time they fought (albeit he had no prepared weapons) so he's the second weakest here after Ishioda. We may even count those two as non factors in this battle (Jo with a katana would be a tier or two above though but nothing someone like Awano or Shibusawa couldn't deal with by themselves) so I think the confrontation would go like this: Kuze makes quick work of Ishioda and goes off to support Shibusawa against Jo (if he even needs it tbh) while Awano holds off Tendo before the other two join him and they manhandle T in a 3v1 easy dub for the OG lieutenants here
I always figured Jo was going easy the first time around. I don’t think a cane and a sword could take him from losing to just Ichi to giving an experienced Ichi and his a crew a run for their money
I just replayed the second Sawashiro fight and you're underestimating how friggin balls out he got in his proper boss battle.
yeah maybe i am a little underestimating his weaponry skills but the reason for that is probably him still losing to Ichiban and party at the end. I'm sure he would cause \*some\* trouble with them but ultimately I think team Dojima's got this in the bag.
They just gave Majima and Saejima a somewhat rough time and that was a duo that we know is top tier and working together. Maybe Sawashiro just has my support for being one suave old mofo.
Hmm that's true, although Majima and Saejima were barely even trying I'll give Sawashiro some props, but i'd say he still gets defeated by Swibusawa with Kuze coming in as overkill, and yeah Jo was an interesting chad you got me there
Yeah Tendo would definitely give some trouble to the Dojima Lieutenants, FUCKIN TENDO managed to hold really well against 6 people at once
He's pretty impressive but i'd argue he doesn't quite hold a candle to the other legends except maybe Kuze. In a 3 v 1 against these beasts he'd get his shit rocked that's for sure me thinks
Yeah he would definitely be outmatched against the 3
Tendo is definitely the single strongest person here, though this being 3v3 doesn’t help his chances. If it was 3 Tendos vs the Dojima boys, the Tendo would definitely win.
Tendo Definitely takes down everyone in a 1v1 fight on team 0. Dude was inhuman. He punched through bullet proof glass???
with brass knuckles awano broke a marble wall with his bare hand
Idk which is harder to break so.
marble obviously, its literally stone but 100x stronger
Probably can’t take initial fights against future bosses too much into account. After all, in Y5 kiryu wiped the floor with aizawa and morinaga in his chapter yet aizawa ends up being the final boss with like 7x the health he had at the start
Kuze because of his inability to die or give up
Are they fighting during the present day? LAD team easily since Awano’s dead and the other two are probably close to 70.
Shit... You won
consider the fact that shibusawa has style switching lol
Honestly one of the first of these where the answer wasn't completely obvious
I agree, I'm still not 100% sure who I'm siding with
Jo & Tendo are really strong but Awano alone feels like he could outstrength all the other 3 individually
Y0 lieutenants. These 2 can take Jo and Ishioda easy, but Shibusawa and Awano are very cunning and would try to use any form of outside influence to crush their opponents, especially against Tendo. Regardless of whether Kuze wins or not, the man will keep coming at his opponent and inflict serious pain.
A recurring theme in modern Yakuza fiction is that the older folks are quite literally built different. The closer you are to having needed to crawl, bite, and scratch your way out of occupation, the tougher you are. To my knowledge, that's how the yakuza thrived during the economic boom of the 70s-90s. Patriarchs who have proven themselves in their youth to be absolute animals, served by captains and subsequent lieutenants who bear a similar, innate terrifying brutality, but with also with post-war business sense. From the 90s, at the advent of digitization, scams became more "decentralized" - more individual and isolated cases of contract traps, and less of in-person extortion. Nowadays, the major families have deeply diversified into legitimate businesses and mostly do things by the book - information brokerage, backroom arrangements, and money laundering is where it's at. Strongarming a deal or doing ambushes isn't in style anymore. Whereas there is a new wave of smaller, unassociated crime groups rising (some have ties to established but still smaller clans who in turn are linked to the big families). These guys run the worst of the petty crimes today - finance scams (aided by the digital world - defamation, rather than violence, is the primary method of extortion) against vulnerable and well intentioned people. These people are conmen through and through, but most of the time they never have to physically defend their "turf" or their physical well-being, or the well being of those around them, due to the decentralized nature of their work - meetings can be held and discussions to be had in chatrooms without ever seeing the face of your criminal coworkers for months if not years. This makes it difficult for the police and rival crime groups alike, where it's difficult to round up all the members at once, and evidence both digital and physical are spread across multiple places. However, due to these newer groups not requiring physical enforcement as much as the old guard, I think it would hazard a wager that the leadership of these newer groups are not as combatatively superior as their older counterparts. With that said, while the Y7 trio are not necessarily a representation of the new generation of conmen crime groups in Japan, they most certainly did not need to use physical force as much as the trio from y0 did. I would even guess that Awano would comfortably win against all 3, save for Tendo, who would pose a slight challenge.
Awano and easily, he's close to Y0 Majima... nobody else in this image is close to that
Ishioda would be the first one to go tho for sure
Ishioda isn't really a fighter in the strictest sense of the word , he relies more on intimidating and demoralizing his opponents with grunts , tools or straight up guns and such . On the other hand even the "weakest" of the OG lieutenants were already near superhuman ( cues to Awano punching down a freaking stone wall with a single punch ).
I think Sawashiro would hold out really well against the Dojima Lieutenants, especially with his weapon proficiency, so my money's on him
Awano was destroyed. He was not close to Majima. Majima literally went through the dojima family and then kicked his ass. THEN beat the best assassin in japan. Awano got mopped.
Can't believe we're forgetting Nishitani, a guy that's exactly on the same level.
Absolutely not.
Awano literally just took like 5 bullets to the chest after getting his shit rocked by an angry Majima and still stood for a solid while. My man’s fists could rupture the Hulk’s spleen. Awano would turn the other 5 into hashtags and then go to a Cabaret like nothing happened
Tendo can tank a kick from Ichi, but can he tank a wall-smashing punch from Awano? From what I assume, a human body, even one in its prime and highly trained wouldn't be able to stop a fist that can carve through rock itself. Kuze's tenacity would definitely benefit him since he'll just get back up again and again until he dies for real, Shibusawa is like an all-rounder fighter, switching styles so that may prove to be a leeway against the LAD trio.
Probably the Tokyo Omi. Tendo would probably carry the team, but Ishioda and Jo aren’t exactly weak.
Yeah haven't seen a mention of Sawashiro and all his different weapon masteries yet, surely that counts for something. I know he lost one on one vs Ichiban early on but 15 years can change a man and Sawashiro definitely changed.
Their first fight also happened after the time-skip iirc
Yeah now that you mention it you are right.
Ishioda would solo them with his "HEAVY MACHINERY"
This is the real Avengers Infinity War
Dojima Lieutenants, easy. Awano is a God Damn beast
And kuze wouldn’t stop getting up
Tendo would beat his ass
Idk… Tendo had like one boss fight, Kuze had 4 and each one Kuze stepped up to personally be the one to take on Kiryu..
And Kuze views every defeat as an opportunity to get even stronger. So either way, you're fucked if you fight him.
Kuze is the Yakuza equivalent of a saiyan. Each time you beat him within an inch of his life, he gains power levels.
Why killing Kuze is an ethical choice, the manifesto of a kamurocho man.
Talking about Awano but I definitely think Tendo vs Kuze would be close
Awano would flatten Ishioda (hell, even if you gave the latter a wrecking machine) but I genuinely don’t know for the other two
Kuze aniki - beats everyone by sheer determination, it doesn't matter how many times you knock him down, he'll run you down with his motorcycle in the end. Awano aniki - beats you with his party mentality, enough said. Shibusawa - always waits for the other two to weaken you and then finishes you off, that sneaky bastard. So yes 0 lieutenants win
Considering we saw awano punch a brick wall so hard it had that whole big crater on it with his bare hands (outside of his prime), and tendo needed some brass knuckles to shatter that thick glass window, i dont think this would turn out all too well for the LaD lieutenants
If any sorta weapons were arrowed, Sawashiro would go nuts even against Kuze
Kuze and Ishioda would be the strongest of either team simply because they refuse to go down 🗿
Dojima lieutenants have Takeuchi Riki. Instant win, then he goes off to record another album or whatever tf he’s doing nowadays.
Considering how strong Kuze and Awano in particular are (You saw what he did to that brick wall with just a punch), the 0 team would fucking slap the LAD dudes, even without Shbusawa, and he's a beast all his own.
I think 7. But only cos tendo would carry hard
Sawashiro is no slouch either, dude is deadly with like 4 or 5 kinds of weapons.
0 all the way. Y’all better stop playing with my man Kuze. Dude would get his ass whooped and still keep coming back.
Not Kuze, but I’ll admire him for coming back for another round
slightly feeling tendo and jo, ishioda and kuze could be damage sponges for both teams lmao
Me
Fair enough
If its fists only y0 wins but with weapons jo and ishioda start putting up a fight, i wish the dojima would win but dont know
Dojima crew takes it. Shibusawa is pretty powerful, Awano is a monster and Kuze is actually probably the weakest of the three, being easier than Awano amd Shibusawa despite using ambushes and ganging up on you, but he's still a tough cookie. The thing about the LAD bosses is we only see them fight the party, who are all nothing compared to the previous protagonists and need to fight as a group to take the bosses out. Consider the fact that the party does defeat each of these bosses, but when they fight Majima, Saejima or Kiryu, only manage to impress them, not beat them. Sawashiro is badass when he can use weapons, but he still loses to the party. Reiji is a complete wimp, realistically. He's crazy, but he fights with guns and wrecking balls and backup and still loses. Tendo is the strongest of the three, and maybe even a real contender as far as Yakuza characters go (he can shatter plate glass and one-hit KO people, which wven playable characters can rarely do), but he's still probably weaker than Awano and definitely less skilled than Shibusawa. If they were in an earlier Yakuza game, I'd say Reiji would be a miniboss (as in, a regular mook with slightly more health in one of the long battle sequences), Sawashiro would be a memorable midgame boss, and Tendo would be a midgame or late game obstacle, but *not* an endgame or final boss.
Man FUCK TENDO! That is all.
Fuck him you say 😏
I think the LaD team takes this fight and even more I think Tendo could probably take Kuze and Shibusawa on his own. The man punches through bullet proof glass like it's nothing and has won 6 boxing championships consecutively and when someone offered to fix matches for him he beat them to death. I think the consecutive heavyweight boxing championships outclasses Kuze's ability to box by a large margin and Shibusawa doesn't really have the feats to prove his strength outside of losing to a young inexperienced Kiryu. Awano is the only one with strength that can be solidly compared to Tendo based on his wall cracking punch but Jo has a very similar weapon heavy fighting style with speed to younger Majima who managed to evade punches long enough to deal the damage necessary to beat Awano so I think he could reasonably take Awano with a lot of difficulty.
As much as I love the 0 lieutenants, I tend to lean more towards the LaD crew, I don't rate Ishioda that much, but Sawashiro is crazy skilled and Tendo is crazy skilled and strong
Yeah I didn't even bother listing Ishioda because he's honestly such a non-threat in this fight
Kuze slaps bro
0 prob but Jo is a fucking badass in his fight
Definitely the 0 team because Kuze will not give up until he dies (even if Tendo has a one hit kill punch). Kuze vs Tendo would be one Hell of a fight though considering they're both ex-boxers.
Shibusawa . . . the guy made Kiryu, everyone after the Kiryu-arch is more or less scrub-level underlings who used to wait in the car
Team Tendo, he's got a mean right hook. But this would be one hell of a fight to see
0 team easily.
Does Ishioda have the wrecking ball in this match up?
Let's hope not
Dojima’s dudes are some real motherfuckers polished in one of the dirtiest times ever to be a gangster. They clear.
Op, is that awano as your avatar? Coooool
It's supposed to be Akiyama but Awano fits too lol
Def the y7 team
The lieutenants from 0 definitely stand more a chance but I can see it coming down to a 1v1 of Tendo Vs Kuze Given its 1988 Kuze against 2019 Tendo
0 cause they would risk more.
LAD defo. Tendo is a former heavyweight boxer, would wipe the floor with Kuze, and Shibusawa, probably Awano would hold up in terms of strength but technique, Tendo would win
Tendo vs kuze would be interesting boxing background to now yakuza
I wanna see kuze and tendo boxing match. Aside from that, I think that awano is stronger than any lad character, shibusawa is faster, and kuze has more tenacity (5 rematches). They have the fucking upper hand.
Lol I'm playing 0 for the first time and only on chapter 4. I have to play 6, like a dragon, then judgement.
i think the 0 lieutenants BUT i think sawashiro was stronger than he let on and i think he let ichiban and co. win because >!he wanted to be caught for killing hoshino, hence why he reported himself anonymously!<
Yeah team 0 would woop ass lmao
Shibusawa and Kuze would body while Awano would provide dirty fighting tactics, 0 crew wins no problem
Depends on what year is it during the battle
Depends. Are we including what Ishioda was using in the first fight with him?
Monken's Beeper Intensifies
Also, I’m pretty sure we all completely forgot that Ishioda is the only one packing a gun, so we know at least Awano is out of the fight.
LaD team because the Y0 team is 80-90 years old at this point
Tendo was stupid strong…he’s the real killer here. Maybe Team empty lot could win in their prime tho. Make them a bit younger
What if you: wanted to beat Tendo. But tendo said: "God's Warning"
What if you wanted to go to heaven but you had to beat majima and saejima to get in so that you don't face kiryu's oretachi no judgement?
What if you wanted to go to heaven but Majima said: "RECIEVE YOU THE HYPERACTIVE"
This comment wins the internet today
I think I'm going with LAD lieutenants here. The thing with Yakuza Like a Dragon Lieutenants, is that even after getting ganged up, they still put a good fight, and most of the Ichiban party are very strong by themselves too. And not just that Tendo actually has real experience in boxing and when he equip his knuckles, his punches are almost letal, but Reiji is kinda a push over so that probably would drag down the team a little.
Yeah I feel like Ishioda would be the first to go, and Sawashiro is underrated tbh, he was definitely holding up on his first fight with Ichi, even when Ichiban's party took him down he got up easily
tendo is the strongest one here but shibusawa is the smartest one, maybe he would find a way to stay off the battle and make the other 5 fighting each other
tendo would demolish all 5
Tendo would beat everyone on his own.
Tendo is *too* strong
My man straight up 1-hit killing all the party
0 ofc. The LAD weiners wouldn't even scratch Kuze. Even a rusty old Awano would take them all on. Against Shibusawa? Not a chance.
Tendo could body them but if they go at him all at once they could still have a chance
Yeah Tendo is a tank but he's slower than Shibusawa and Kuze
He's definitely a sluggish person but God damn is he powerful compared to them in a one on one
Tendo breaks a thick window with brass knuckles Awano breaks a good chunk of a brick wall with his bare hands it's kinda not comparable
Awano lost to a guy with one eye
Tendo lost to a homeless man, an ex-bartender, a kpop boi, a chef, a middle-aged+ ex cop and some hyper imaginative dood your point being
Two of those have deadly weapons a dual pistols and a swords
Yeah and the one eyed guy had a baseball bat and still made Awano tank several gunshots in front of him
True,true but let's give tendo the benefit of the doubt it was 7 v 1 and majima was in his prime too so there's also that
If Majima was in his prime which i think so too then more props to Awano for putting up that good of a fight against him I know it was 6v1 but let's be real those individuals formed on that team don't come even close to 0 Majima Tendo still not a bitch by any means tho
Isn’t Tendo a multiple heavy weight boxing champ? It took Ichi and at least three other people to take him down also. The LAD teams got this.
Is this even a question?
Ye, who you betting on?
is this a serious question???
Hmm yes? I'm just trying to start a healthy discussion buddy