Goemon Ishikawa

Goemon Ishikawa is a character who appears in Samurai Warriors. He is a professional thief who steals from the rich and gives to the poor. He is believed to be a former ninja of the Iga clan and is is quite afraid of Hanzo Hattori. He's symbolized by the kanji for "ruin" (壊) and "bomb" (爆).

Samurai Warriors
He seeks to steal the Plover Urn from Hideyoshi Toyotomi. He often speaks and acts like a kabukimono (i.e., a braggart with a big ego who will loudly announce his reputation to anyone who will listen). Something of a Robin Hood, He makes it a personal duty to keep peace in his hometown, Kyoto. He is hopelessly infatuated the dancing priestess Okuni and follows her for some time as a self-appointed bodyguard. In one of his endings, he survives being boiled alive by Hideyoshi and manages to kill the new Shogun, leaving him in the unexpected position of ruling Japan.

He isn't playable in Samurai Warriors 2 but he appears in the mini game Sugoroku. He randomly swipes someone's gold and gives it to the person with the lowest amount.

Warriors Orochi
He is playable in the crossover game Warriors Orochi, where he gets into serious trouble in the Shu storyline when he makes off with a treasure owned by Wei Yan. Wei Yan was given the treasure by Liu Bei himself, and takes off after the thief like the hound from hell. If the player destroys the boxes containing the treasure Goemon stashed, he becomes distracted and slows down. Before being caught, he manages to dupe passing swordsman Musashi Miyamoto into attacking the "thugs" pursuing him. In the Wei Storyline, Goemon apparently tried to steal from Nene's ninja army, and was locked in a cage when he got caught. If the player frees Goemon, he'll agree to help Dong Zhuo's army undo Nene's ninja magic.

In the Shu Gaiden stage, Escape from Chi Bi, Goemon is one of the random characters who'll appear in the opening dialogue to complain about the heat. He'll claim that it feels like he is "being boiled alive!", which is ironic, since this is how Hideyoshi Toyotomi had the real-life Goemon Ishikawa executed.

In the sequel, he at first joins another thieving and similarly-weighted character, Dong Zhuo in the Kingdom of Wu story mode. However, he is confronted by Okuni, whom he tries his best to resist listening to. He is eventually beaten by word and weapon, and is persuaded by Okuni into joining Sun Jian's army.

In Warriors Orochi Z, he appears with all the other ninjs in a dream stage cutscene. When the others leap off however, the overweight Goemon is comically left having to waddle after them on the ground.

Kessen
Goemon appears as a recruitable unit in the third Kessen. He needs to be defeated on the battlefield before he agrees to join Nobunaga's forces. He is one of the earliest ninja units in the game.

Development
Goemon was made to be the off-the-wall yet multi talented character. Designers remark that his final design is actually toned down from his even more bizarre concepts and joke that his cannon was literally pasted onto his back. Though they recognize that his particular character archetype may not be conventional, Goemon's actions and motions were kept to bring a funny and interesting contrast to the cast. Overall, they strove to make him the powerful yet chubby and charming action character.

When asked about the reasons behind his cut, the director said that it was simply too difficult to devise a "what-if?" story for him based on the game's new timeline.

Appearance
His alternate outfit in Samurai Warriors has him dressed in a stylized European gentlemen outfit, with a tuba replacing the cannon on his back. His alternate outfit in Warriors Orochi makes him look like a kabukimono from a kabuki play.

Voice Actors

 * Bob Papenbrook - Samurai Warriors (English)
 * Hisao Egawa - Samurai Warriors and Warriors Orochi series (Japanese)
 * Kentarō Itō - Kessen III (Japanese)

Quotes

 * "I'm Goemon Ishikawa, King of Thieves! Clearly you've heard the name before."
 * "Fire in the hole...Kaboom!"
 * "Hanzo... Hattori... The Iga ninja?!? Oh no!
 * "Yeah, I'm starting to gain some clout."
 * "Goemon Ishikawa, King of Thieves, at your service!"
 * "Hey, you're that ninja girl's master right? You've got to teach that girl some manners!"
 * Goemon expressing his opinion to Yukimura