Kurohyou: Ryu ga Gotoku Shinsho

Kurohyou: Ryu ga Gotoku Shinsho (or Yakuza Black Panther to the "Americans") is a Japanese Def Jam ripoff developed by Syn Sophia that tells the story of a retarded high school dropout who gets kidnapped by the yakuza and forced to fight randos in an underground ring, ending in his spectacular death to an autistic assassin atop a tower in the middle of Tokyo.

Note: Despite the title, nobody in the game is nicknamed "Black Panther". Maybe Syn Sophia were too afraid of copyright?

The Story

Our story begins on a rainy night in August, 2010. Tatsuya Ukyo attempts to rob a yakuza office for 23 (twenty-three) yen and is instead zapped and decoyed to "Dragon Heat", an underground arena owned by the family of the man he purportedly killed. After getting the hang of mixed martial arts, Tatsuya goes on to become a professional UFC fighter for precisely 3 months, defeating various legendary fighters such as:

TOMOKI the idiot who thinks he knows Karate, Masumi Yuki the teacher who will kill his students for misspelling "Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia", Hayato Makabe the man whose passport was revoked because he bit a police officer, and Amamiya Taizan the worst father known to mankind.

After his successful venture in professional fighting, he is invited to the top of the Millennium Tower in Tokyo for a special grudge match against Reiji Shinjo, the student of Taizan's worst enemy Masatoshi Tsutsui. This ends in Tatsuya getting his brains blown out across the helipad by Reiji's toes.

The Characters

Kurohyou is filled to the brim with deep, well-written and thought-provoking characters.

Tatsuya Ukyo: our protagonist. After dropping out of high school, he was arrested for killing 2 gang members using a broken beer bottle and the 54th page of his favorite hentai magazine. He went on to become a legend in the MMA world, violently murdering multiple of his opponents and drinking toxic energy beverages such as Staminan X and Rekindle ~Gold~ in the middle of fights.

Saki Kudo: Tatsuya's girlfriend and Dragon Heat's assisstant medic. She enjoys being an abusive piece of shit, engaging in acts such as sticking needles into Tatsuya's open wounds and refusing to give him back his clothes after he comes out of the shower (this often results in him catching hypothermia). Whether or not she has had sex with him yet is completely unknown.

Amamiya Taizan: Tatsuya's father, an MMA legend himself. He abandoned his son and wife after he realized his pathetic income as a fighter was not enough to support them, and after a career-ending injury (see below), instead found a job working as a medic for Dragon Heat. In his free time, he enjoys disfiguring people's spinal cords and preaching useless garbage like fighting philosophy.

TOMOKI: the Karate Monster. He let his middle school karate fantasy go to his head and was promptly gifted permanent brain damage by Tatsuya.

Masumi Yuki: Tatsuya's high school teacher. Apparently a sadomasochist, as he lets his students beat him up before killing them in ways so brutal and horrific they cannot be described here.

Hayato Makabe: this is what happens when you don't bully your local furry into thinking something is wrong with them.

Koumei Cho: a Chinese guy. That's it.

Tetsuji Shima: if you so much as touch this former world champion boxer's head, he will G. What a G means is unknown - but none who tried it came back alive. Attempt at own discretion.

Masatoshi Tsutsui: Taizan's worst enemy, a karate champion who was renowned for crippling people using the brutal Okinawan Karate "toe kick" technique. Kicked Taizan in the left arm out of anger when Taizan got in the way of his Big Mac order. Has since become a fat old fucker who sells land for inflated prices.

Reiji Shinjo: Tsutsui's secretary, whom he scouted as an autistic kid on the streets of Okinawa. Learned Okinawan Karate from his boss and killed multiple innocent people by accident while trying to perfect the toe kick, not knowing he was already the better one at performing it. May or may not be a vehement fan of Sonic the Hedgehog.

Busta Rhymes: literally only here to emphasize the Def Jam connection. Oh, and he sells automotive paint in his free time. Pay him a visit.

Kazuma Kiryu: because Kurohyou is apparently a Yakuza (SEGA) game as well.

The Gameplay

Kurohyou is a Def Jam ripoff, and as such uses the EXACT SAME combat system with one minor change: all the buttons have been reversed. Because Japan.

It features 20 fighting styles, ranging from Boxing to Xinyiliuhequan. However, only 5 styles are of any importance:

• Brawler. The first style, and surprisingly not the worst one. Very useful for slowly killing opponents for when you feel particularly sadistic, because its damage output is that shitty.
• Kudo Extreme Instant Death Martial Arts. Nobody can agree what martial art this style is based on, but everyone likes it because of what a jack-of-all-trades style it is. (It has nothing special!)
• Extreme Flexibility. AKA the "skill issue" style. Recommended for retards who love abusing the parry system and the cheapass grabs instead of actually learning how to use combos.
• Extreme Fortitude. Hey, are you a fan of Antonio Inoki? Do you like destroying people's legs by kicking them repeatedly until they collapse in a visceral pool of blood and bones, writhing in the agony of never being able to walk again? This is the perfect style for you!
• Extreme Man. Because who said Kung Fu was useless? (wrestling throws included, too.)

The Development

Fun facts about the development, release and marketing of this wondrous game!

Kurohyou was conceptualized as a fever dream by the leader of Ryu ga Gotoku Studio, Toshihiro Nagoshi, as a game where one could tame and domesticate wild black panthers and train them to maul people! It was changed to a generic anime game after he presented the idea to SEGA's shareholders, however.

During pre-release, playtesters kept ranting about how shitty of a style Instant Death is, so it got scrapped and replaced with Kudo Martial Arts instead!

The game was also released in South Korea in addition to Japan, but the Korean version never got any subtitles! How thoughtful!

Why does this game exist?

Kurohyou was originally meant to be a sequel to the well-received Def Jam: Fight for NY but due to Syn Sophia's drastic switch from fighters that are for EXTREMELY MANLY MEN to games that attract young girls and their overall laziness, they decided against it being a sequel to FFNY and made it an original title instead! Most of the various animations that were originally from FFNY and Def Jam: Vendetta can still be seen during combat, indicating its former status as a FFNY sequel.

Is Reiji Shinjo autistic?

This fact cannot be verified and is currently open for speculation