Judgment is an action-adventure game played from a third-person perspective. The game is a legal thriller set in the Yakuza world of Kamurocho and follows private detective Takayuki Yagami as he investigates a serial murder case. It stars Japanese actor Takuya Kimura and employs a fighting system similar to that of Yakuza 0 where players can change into different styles, namely crane-style which is more focused on fighting groups and tiger-style which is more focused on fighting individuals. Additionally, the game features an investigation mode where the player must find traces of the criminal.
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Funny lawyer man does stuff
Best iteration of RGG's take on their combat gameplay and the usage of the Dragon Engine. With their transition for Like a Dragon to turn-based and the focus of the Judgment series in combat-oriented scenarios, I'm excited to see what Lost Judgment would bring as well as the future of the studio.
Yakuza but what if you were a law guy instead of a Yakuza guy?
The new detective angle allows for new methods of storytelling and a fresh cast of characters, all taking place in the same universe without relying on calling back to the games that came before it outside the main location and yakuza gang. And the story itself is a pretty solid mystery, with fantastic over the top action sequences that you just have to see for yourself.
The detective angle incorporates itself into gameplay too with varying degrees of success. The best of these are the chase sequences, brought back form Yakuza games but feel faster than ever. There's also lock picking which is a nice little distraction. This is the best of them though, the others tend to feel superfluous like selecting your keys to unlock a door, to drawn out and boring like tailing people which was tense at first but the further in the game they become too long.
You play as Yagami, not named Light, who in terms of combat I'd say is like Akiyama with a dash of Kiryu. He has the Crane and Tiger styles, which are best in mobs and 1v1 respectively, which generally makes it a simple choice which one to use at each given time but sometimes in mobs you can Tiger to focus on a specific one then back to Crane for the rest, so even in a simple system there's still strategy to be had.
All in all, Judgement is an interesting new storytelling spin with a fresh batch of characters in the Yakuza world. My Judgement? If you like any Yakuza game, you'll like this without a doubt.
peak gaming
Yakuza 4 if the story was actually good.