Koji Masuda (増田 光司) is a character from Ehrgeiz. He is Yoko's estranged father and the archeaology professor of Clair Andrews in the side game, Forsaken Dungeon. He is also the current 3-time reigning Ehrgeiz champion.
History[]
Father of Yoko Kishibojin (Yoyo Yoko), and 3 time consecutive reigning champion of the Ehrgeiz Championship Tournament. He is also an archaeologist seeking to uncover the truth behind the mysteries surrounding the ancient ruin.
In the side quest, Forsaken Dungeon which takes place after he sends the letter to his daughter, Yoko to carry out in acquiring the Ehrgeiz and to investigate its suspicious activities.
He simply explains to his student and partner, Clair Andrews about the history of age which it begins everything as few scholars throughout the world believe this. Clair notices him for being one of the top scholars and Koji tells her that this idea does not accept as a theory. Koji now explains about the ancient weapon from 50 years ago where a former lord of the castle in Germany holds this ancient weapon through a transaction of the local merchant and the ancient weapon he holds was embedded with the stone and that stone was the key to answer the mystery of immortality (Ken "Godhand" Mishima, Dasher Inoba and Lee Shuwen are also seeking for the ancient weapon and its power in their stories). Clair happily decides that both of them are going to search for it which Koji simply agrees making Clair excitedly to take on the adventure.
Arriving at the ancient ruins, Clair noticed the ruins is in 1000 BC and Koji knows it was a decoy to make an ultimate-artifact, both proceeds to get down and Clair found the stairs to go down as they went straight through another staircase and the scene flashes in white. Koji ends up in a bed as he wakes up while Clair is with him. He meets the hotel manager who found them unconscious on the outskirts of the town and he was the one who brings them to his hotel. The hotel manager gives him a dagger, a shield, and both fire and ice materia in order to survive the dungeon survival within the Forsaken Dungeon. He manages to explore throughout the Forsaken Dungeon where he defeats most guardians who guard the materia and dodging several traps within the dungeon. Upon reaching through a deeper dungeon, Koji encounters a T-rex monster who guards the ultimate materia and he manages to defeat it in order to obtain it. Therefore, he also encounters Ultros who guards the well within the deeper dungeon. Koji later defeats a Minotaur another materia guardian who guards the Holy materia until he was later attacked by an unknown assailant which resulted being knocked unconscious and ends up in a hotel to be rested which forces his student, Clair to continue their search for the Ehrgeiz stone. However when Clair defeated the red and black dragon with her own two hands, she was severely blown in a deadly fire explosion that renders her dead and its ark power does not work. Koji later awakens from his consciousness after sensing his student is in trouble as he proceeds to find her through the dungeon. Koji later finds Clair who was killed in a deadly fire explosion which he becomes upset after what happened to his student and soon decides to find a way to revive Clair. Koji now fights a monster Phoenix which is the final guardian of the Forsaken Dungeon. After defeating the monster Phoenix, it drops a Phoenix Down which he takes it and he uses this to revive Clair.
After Clair was miraculously back to life with the use of the Phoenix Down, the loss of the Phoenix has taken away the only remaining link to immortality throughout the dimensions. This marks the end of the challenge against the guardians and seals away the mystery and ambition into the eternity of time.
Koji was later unaware that his daughter, Yoko manages to gain the Ehrgeiz Sword after she defeated the Red Scorpion and to stop their suspicious activities within the Ehrgeiz tournament. And the Ehrgeiz stone that they were searching within the Forsaken Dungeon was not in the dungeon and the stone was currently embedded within the Ehrgeiz Sword and the ancient weapon was currently wielded from his daughter's hands.
Appearance[]
Koji has short brown hair and black eyes. He also has a scar on his right brow and his left cheek.
His primary appearance is a beige openly dress shirt as the right sleeve are ripped to make it sleeveless and the left sleeve is folded to make it a short sleeve. Underneath is a red tank top, brownish gray pants with a brown belt and side pouch and brown leather shoes. He also wears a black fingerless gloves.
In Forsaken Dungeon, he is able to equip in different types of armor, helmet and boots which it was dropped by dungeon monsters that he encounters through the dungeon.
Personality[]
Personality wise, Koji appears as a calm and a serious man who wants to seek to uncover the truth behind the ruins as he simply explains to his partner Clair. He is also very close to his daughter Yoko after he and her mother divorced due to his travels and his job as both archaeologist and an explorer. He also becomes very concern to his daughter after he entrusted the letter to her to acquire the Ehrgeiz and to investigate its suspicious activities. However, he is also unaware that the stone they were searching was actually embedded from the Ehrgeiz Sword and it was currently wielded by his daughter at the time they are continuing their search within the Forsaken Dungeon.
After Clair was killed in a deadly fire explosion in a near end of Forsaken Dungeon, Koji becomes determined and a worrywart and also to show his grief after his student was killed and it also shows his vengeance by killing the Phoenix which it drops the Phoenix Down in order to revive Clair.
Gameplay[]
Unlike his daughter Yoko who fights with her mother's fighting style, Kishibojin-ryu Jujutsu, Koji's fighting style is a Mixed Martial Arts and Assassination Arts which his role in the game as a mixed martial artist who became the 3-time reigning Ehrgeiz champion. Koji can take down his opponent with both punches and kicks especially few of its wrestling type moves are used such as knocking his opponent with a heavy blow in mid-air and doing Moonsault on his opponent. His unique ability has him like most mixed martial artists do is to take down his opponent by tackling them through the ground and unleashes a flurry of punches on his downed opponent and throws them down to the ground as an additional blow. During charge, he is expert in assassination throws which he breaks his opponent's right arm and left leg. He can also breaks his opponent's neck and a combo of break throws that can incapacitate his opponent by breaking both arms, legs, neck, spine until he stomps them with his own foot towards his decapitated opponent's face while on the ground.
In Forsaken Dungeon, he maintains his fighting abilities and he is able to wield a short sword, a long sword and a shield to make a strong damage to his opponent with several strikes. He can also wields two-handed sword and Cloud's Buster Sword to make heavy damage and he can be equipped with an helmet and armor to make resistance to damage. he also can cast several kinds of materia at his disposal.
Trivia[]
- So far, Koji is the current reigning Ehrgeiz champion.
- When the player plays as him, his surname Masuda is used.
- The Ehrgeiz stone that both Koji and Clair was searching in the Forsaken Dungeon was not in the dungeon itself and the stone was currently embedded within the Ehrgeiz Sword and the ancient weapon was kept within the Red Scorpion.
- His fighting style is similar to Nina Williams in the Tekken series in terms of fighting style and gameplay
- Interestingly he also gains Nina's Assassination Throws from her fighting style, Koppojutsu based on Assassination Arts as his charging attack and his unique ability are influenced Craig Marduk's Jab Body Combo.
- Two of his special attacks such as Hammer Impact and Moonsault are also influenced King II, Armor King I and II's respectively as basic wrestling moves are also used in Mixed Martial Arts.
- Both also shares the ability to stomp the opponent with their foot. In Nina's case, she stomps through their chest on her downed opponent with her foot.
- In Forsaken Dungeon, instead of searching for the stone. Koji will gain a Phoenix Down after defeating the Phoenix the final boss of the game after Clair was killed from the red and black dragon's deadly fire explosion.
- Koji was unaware that his daughter Yoko currently holds the Ehrgeiz Sword embedded with an Ehrgeiz stone which both he and Clair are currently search for it.
- Koji's voice actor, Hiroya Ishimaru is also the voice actor of Lei Wulong in Tekken 4 until the crossover game, Street Fighter X Tekken. In both Tekken 4 until Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection, he is the only Japanese voice actor can speak in broken English.
- Interestingly, two of his knockout grunts would later developed into Lei's knockout sounds when he was defeated by his opponent in both games.