Character Index
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In General
One way or another, there will always be lone wolves. Those who wish to run by themselves, to etch out their own legacy, or those who just don't like being in a group. In a nutshell, that's exactly what Wanderers are.
Wanderers are unaffiliated drivers who do not belong to any team. They might've used to, they might in the future, but for one reason or another, they now fly their own colors, bearing unique stickers to separate them from the other highway racers.
Some Wanderers are quirky, in that they'll only appear and/or challenge the player under some specific circumstances. If those aren't met, they won't accept the player's challenge, else they won't show up at all.
Things get a bit more complicated in the Drift subseries. Most rivals in those games are independent, and as such, they're divided into categories. Wanderers in a more traditional sense are split in the following:
- Trickers, who, like normal Wanderers, require specific conditions to be met before being battled, and are far faster than normal rivals.
- Supporters, who are introduced in the second Drift game, have a strong influence and following amongst street racing circles, and will cause the player to grow in popularity upon being defeated.
- Gamblers, who are introduced in the second Drift game, gamble on battles they partake in. Be it credits, car parts, or entire cars. The player will usually need to put something on the line as well in order to be allowed to face them. They have a subcategory, called High Gamblers, who bet things with an even higher value.
- Lovers, who only appear in the second Drift game, play the role of Love Interests and begin messaging the player upon being defeated.
- Medalists, who are introduced in the second Drift game, require special conditions to be met before being battled, much like Trickers, but are even tougher than them. Upon being defeated, though, they will award the player with a unique prize.
- Bragging Rights Reward: If you're going for the 100% Completion, you'll have a hard time beating every single one depending on their criteria. With Z.E.R.O. in 2 and Zero being the worst offender since you can only face him at the Wangan Line after one in-game year.
- Elite Mook: Along with the team leaders and bosses throughout the franchise.
- Fanboy: The "Supporters" in the Drift subseries can become this to the player, should they manage to defeat them. Because they have a big following themselves, they'll also make their own fans fans of the player by proxy.
- The Gambler: The "Gamblers" and "High Gamblers" in the Drift subseries will bet credits, parts, or even entire cars in battles against them. The player will, more often than not, have to match their bet in some way to have the chance to battle them, though.
Kamikaze Koji
White Panther
Scorching Storm
Caffeine X3
- Due courtesy.
- Dub Name Change: Crave's translation changes his real name to "Don Yang" in 2 and "Peter Pang" in Zero. Likewise, his street name is changed to "Caffeine Addict" in 2. in the US localization of 2 and Zero.
- Later-Installment Weirdness: Because the FB isn't part of the car roster of either Street Supremacy or Import Tuner Challenge, he has a different car in those games. In the former, he has an FC3S, the second generation of the RX-7. In the latter, he has a Nissan Fairlady Z33.
- Must Have Caffeine: The only thing he loves as much as the number three. Koichiro believes that drinking caffeine increases his concentration and makes him a better driver. Issue is, because he drinks three cups of coffee every time before driving out on the Expressway, he quickly becomes jittery, overly excited, and completely loses his focus after... you guessed it, three minutes.
- Numerical Theme Naming: His street name can be read as "times three", reflecting his obsession over the number. See Rule of Three below for more details.
- Rule of Three: Exaggerated, to the point of being Played for Laughs. Koichi is obsessed with the number three, which he deems his lucky number. How obsessed?
- He lives on the third floor of an apartment block located on Shinjuku Route 3.
- He drinks three cups of coffee before setting off for the Expressway.
- He only drives up to third gear, and never past that, even if it means blowing up the engine.
- His license plate is 33-33, and only because license plates in Japan must have atleast four numbers, else it'd be "333".
- He insists on still being 33 years old. A claim that could've made sense until 3, but by the time of Import Tuner Challenge, so much time has passed since he started racing that it's all but impossible.
- Finally, in Import Tuner Challenge, he drives a Fairlady Z33.
- Trademark Favorite Drink: Coffee.To the point it's in his street name!
Illusion B
Master Position
Wild Child
Street Murder Gambler
Mosquito Lemon
Impatient Speed Princess
Cutie Hip
Straying Idol Freak
Bloody Mary
Glamorous Mami
Stalking Hammer
SPEED BOX
- Welcome back to Tokyo Highway!
- Caps Lock: Very likely to differentiate him from his old team, Nagano-san's street name is always written as "SPEED BOX", all caps.
Gold License
"Paul" Suzuki
- The best image quality! I highly recommend it!
- The Alleged Car: His various cars note are a noticeable span below the ones belonging to other highway racers, making him easy pickings for any well-prepared player. As to why this is the case, that's due to the cars being so overloaded with... "merchandise" and "equipment" to sell off that they are probably over their carry capacity.
- Black Market Produce: Suzuki's job, at first, was to deliver a wide variety of illicit and explicit media, alongside bootlegs of varying nature, to anonymous customers in the middle of the night. By the time of 3, he became a full-fledged business owner, using his job as a seaman as a cover to illegally import "in-demand" material from overseas.
- Bowdlerise: His street name was changed to "Paul" in the Crave translation to allow the games he appears in to retain their ESRB E Rating. Even his bio was changed, making it slightly more ambiguous in the process, just to be on the safe side. The censors, however, probably didn't even glance at it, because it's laughably easy to read through the lines and figure out what his true occupation is.
- Dub Name Change: In Crave's translation, his real name is changed to "Greg Nishi" in 2 and "George Diaz" in Zero. Where the "Paul Suzuki" street name came from, as a result, is anyone's guess.
- Improbably Cool Car: Somehow gets his hands on an ASL Garaiya in Chain Reaction, of which only 200 were ever produced. Partly mitigated, as the same car is readily accessible to the player as well.
Raspberry Kiss
Whirlwind Fanfare
"Whirlwind Fanfare" Chika Fukui
- Children can grow up carefree.
- Action Mom: Downplayed. While Chika is a housewife and a mother of a single child, she has gotten interested in street racing while owning a car with a decent amount of horsepower even though it's implied that she's not the best at going ahead of her rivals rather than chasing them down.
- Groupie: In spite of being a mother, Chika loves chasing after her favorite bands through-out the Japanese archipelago. Which is probably why she became a street racer in the first place. She can be found roaming Osaka in 3, but has returned to Tokyo in later games because of her husband's return from an overseas business trip.
- Dub Name Change: The Crave translation changes her real name to "Shannon Leung" in Zero. Her Japanese street name, meanwhile, is "Dash Fanfare".