10 Obscenely Evil Video Game Villain Plans

In a way, Ryo Aoki from Yakuza: Like A Dragon can be read as a commentary on villains like Shido, who only want the most surface level form of power to sate their own over-inflated egos. Aoki knows that if you want capital-P Power, you don't become Prime Minister - a useless title and a fancy chair, there to provide a face for the public's grievances - you become mayor of Tokyo.

The world's largest city, with a population and GDP higher than most entire countries, everything in the world that goes through Japan, goes through Tokyo. If you want real POWER, you become the head of that. The problem was, while Aoki had policy and charisma and all that, there was the small problem of him being the adopted son of a high-ranking member of the Yakuza. Any suspicion of that, and his career would be over.

So how does one divert away from that while securing public opinion at the same time? Why, by weaponizing the politician's favourite tool: the moral panic!

For this, he founded the activist group Bleach Japan, a bunch of moralistic busybodies who want to clear out all the "grey areas" from their country. That of course put anyone who was homeless, an immigrant, or anything else they deemed "deviant" right in their crosshairs. They tear down homeless shelters, they illegally extradite immigrants back to their home countries, where they will most likely die, and overall do all the heinous stuff that gets a politician in good with the goldmine known as the conservative demographic.

Kasuga may love The Young Master with all his heart, but there's no denying Ryo Aoki deserved every punch Kasuga gave him at the end of the game.