Ended up stumbling upon a page that has quite a few different Yakuza interviews from Japan:
http://fftranslations.atspace.co.uk/rgg/index.html
There's a whole ton of info I hadn't heard of before, its well worth a read but its spoilery stuff at points so tread carefully. But one awesome non spoilery piece of info is the Suda51 guest appearance in Yakuza 2 (I've no idea if this character shows up again in Kiwami 2):
■ Lots of famous people appear as voice actors including Tetsuya Watari and Hiroshi Tachi, but are there are other shock celebrity performances sneaked in there?
■ First of all, the voice of Chairman Yamazaki who appears as an opponent in the arena was provided as a cameo by Goichi Suda (*1). The leader of Cabaret Grand, Suzuki, and the voices of the youth around Kamurocho were also a cameo by Kazutoshi Iida (*2). (Sega)
――T-thse are quite some amazing cameos for game fanatics! These people are so famous that it would be shameful for long-time gamers not to have heard of them. For those who are unaware, refer to their detailed profiles below. (Editors)
*1) Born in 1968. Joining Human Inc. in 1993, he led creation of
Twilight Syndrome, an adventure game that was the king of its time. Later, in 1998, he went solo and established Grasshopper Manufacture, creating several hits such as
The Silver Caseand
Killer7. He is well-known as a competent director at the forefront of the gaming industry.
*2) Born in 1968. After graduating from university he joined Artdink, becoming famous in 1995 for planning, directing and working on graphic design for
Aquanaut's Holiday, a title that broke out of the existing borders of gaming. Later, he worked on games with a unique worldview, such as
Tail of the Sun and
Doshin the Giant. He is a playful person who even wrote a short review of the game he made himself on
Doshin the Giant's Amazon page.
