2 YEARS LATER: Honestly screw my nitpicks about the story. It was damn good and I undersold the moral dilemma here. It’s one of the best RGG stories.
I absolutely loved Judgment. I loved it a lot more than a few of the Yakuza entries and really enjoyed the detective mechanics it added. I had a few problems with this one, but it's still a good entry.
I can safely say combat has greatly improved in this one, adding two brand new styles (one DLC exclusive) and getting rid of the fatal injury system was definitely a good call.
The amount of minigame content in this one astounds me and I enjoyed all of the school stories, including the ones that were only around 30 minutes long.
The part that somewhat disappoints me is the story...which I found to be lacking in certain areas. Don't get me wrong I very clearly understood the message and found it to be an extremely creative way of continuing Yagami's struggle to uphold justice when the law fails, but the pacing in this is even worse than Yakuza 3's.
Really, I loved what this game was trying to convey, both the bullying plot point and the moral dilemma Yagami and a certain new character is given were compelling. But the plot is hindered by frequent scenes which regurgitate info throughout the story as it slowly inches along at a snails pace. Luckily things finally pick up near the very end, with the finale absolutely being one of the best in the franchise.
My nitpicking aside, this was tons of fun to play and I loved the game overall.

I really don't know how RGG Studio are so consistent. Always writing great narrative, always pushing their gameplay up another level with each entry, always with stunning visuals. Lost Judgment is no exception.

Yagami's three fight styles in the game are an evolution of the system first introduced in Yakuza 0. The tiger style for big heavy attacks, the crane for dancing around and taking out lots of enemies, and the snake for when you want to parry and grab with ease. Each style has loads of unique EX moves and strengths, and none of them feels lacking. They all feel so fluid and dynamic, and battles are the biggest they've ever been with what, at times, feels like 30+ enemies at once. I think RGG studio could make a stellar musou game right now if they wanted to.

In terms of side content, this is the most ambitious game since Yakuza 5. In addition to the major activities from the first Judgment (Paradise VR and Drone Racing), we have a whole new entire side PLOT revolving around the high school in the game. Investigate the dance club to play a rhythm game, the robotics club to build a robot and do battles, the boxing gym to use an entirely unique combat style, the list goes on and there are 9 of these clubs to investigate with an overarching plot tying them together. To be totally honest, it takes the spotlight away from the main story at times.

And as for the main story, it is pretty good in itself. It's not quite as high-stakes as previous Yakuza games, and its a little more grounded too. I would say that the first Judgment game told a lot more personal of a tale. All of the main character's backstories and motivations are explored, and with this game its more seeing how these characters have continued on and deal with a new case and a new city. There is plenty of mystery and some stand out moments, and it makes me hope this series continues (and pushes its way through the controversy surrounding Yagami's actor).

I'll likely continue to play it for just a little bit more to wrap up some outstanding side content, but Lost Judgment certainly ranks up there with its predecessor.

I finished Judgment earlier this year in my binge of RGG games. I was in the middle of Yakuza 5 when I stopped to take a break and play some other stuff before Lost Judgment came out. I wanted to give this game its due time and not rush through it, so I took about a month to play it, and "finished" it today. I logged 48 hours, having completed the main story, 7/10 school stories (which I plan to go back to ASAP), and the majority of side cases, with a couple not done. Suffice it to say, this is one of RGG's best games, with the best gameplay the studio has put out to date, a killer story, incredible visuals, and an amazing soundtrack. This will probably be a fairly (very) lengthy review. Spoilers for character archetypes and general plot details ahead, but no names associated with deaths / crimes.

The first thing I'd like to cover is the general differences between this and the first game. Judgment is one of my favorite games, but that's with the caveat that the gameplay is not without its issues, and the story carries those weaknesses. Lost Judgment improves on every single detriment that plagued the first game. Annoyances like the constant Keihin Gang fights are completely gone, and tailing missions and chases have been cut back drastically, as well as improved. Tailing missions are relatively harder, with your targets being more on alert, and you have more options for hiding in public, as well as contextual cover. Chases are sort of the same, albeit less common. Of the ones that do exist, they might go on for ~30 seconds too long, but that's pretty minor. Ijincho is a wonderful playground, just like in 7. In fact, when the game actually wrangled me back to Kamurocho for story moments, I was a bit disappointed. It wasn't until the first time that happened that I realized how much I enjoy Ijincho and how much it makes this game feel different from the previous. There are a couple places from 7 I wish could’ve been included in this version of the map that aren’t, but that’s the RGG way, I suppose. Being able to skateboard around is a godsend. It makes traversal faster and more fun. I was expecting it to be absolutely awful (RGG historically has an inconsistent relationship with their physics engine) but I was completely wrong. The new gameplay additions, stealth and climbing, are just okay. They don't show up much, and when they do they're short sequences without much opportunity for failure. The best new inclusion is probably either the detective dog or the Buzz Researcher, which enables the Chatter scraping from the first game to act as a source of side cases. Probably the most interesting way to go about getting side cases in the series' history. I didn't play much of the Master System games but they're a neat inclusion.

Combat was improved massively. Snake style is one of the best and most fun styles in the series' history, and has great utility. All of Yagami's moves are faster and more easily comboed, and switching styles is now nigh-instantaneous. Boxing style (DLC) is fantastically fun as well, and upgrading it alongside the story it's associated with is neat. In fact, it may be too strong, since it burned through the final bosses. Mortal wounds are gone, but mortal strikes exist to enable the mortal counters, which are fun and add a level of tension to any boss fight. There are an insane number of upgrades, and the change to SP (notably, increasing it by 5000% over the original) matches that. I think this game might be, overall, easier than the first game, and there are one or two chapters where I really felt there needed to be a boss fight and there wasn’t one, but the game gives you ample opportunity to play around with the new combat system. The finale includes a rather lengthy fight that definitely helped me drop some of that concern. Overall you have a massive amount of options, tons of variety, and a real sense of power in Yagami’s moves. I got to see a section of Judgment purely by chance yesterday at a friend's house and it was good to see just how different (and worse) that game's combat is by comparison.

Talking about the story is difficult since I don’t want to spoil it, but I’ll try my best. If you want a TL;DR: It’s very good and very interesting, with good villains and interesting motivations and investigations. To be more in-depth, it weaves a very interesting tale of bullying and murder across multiple years, creating this giant web of events and people that are hard to piece together. The Ehara case makes for a great stepping stone, and the first chapters are genuinely head-scratching. They transition into the bigger story well, and the events that ramp it up are cool and have some great setpieces. This game also deals with the fallout of Yakuza 7's story in some pretty interesting ways, which I'm not sure I expected. Yagami (who I haven’t really talked about) is as good a character as ever. His pursuit of justice is central to this game’s plot and his writing is fantastic. He’s funny, witty, and above all empathic. Kimura’s performance here is even better than the first game. I’m curious as to how Greg Chun does, but I haven’t played the dub.
To use the puddle / lake analogy, Lost Judgment is a medium depth lake that's very wide, whereas Judgment is a slightly deeper lake that's less wide overall. Which is to say that Lost Judgment goes more places and has more threads than the original does, but the key moments in the original may surpass it in "surprise factor". Although, a caveat: some of the things that LJ deals with are darker and more complex, and the bullying angle is really front and center, giving it a grounded vibe. In fact, the story itself unravels in more natural and interesting ways in LJ, really taking its time to even include moments where the gang is unsure of where to go or what to do. The original's story could, at times, make large leaps in logic to the next story beat, which helped with surprising the audience, but makes the story less believable overall. Lost Judgment's story evolves in very natural ways, and the conspiracy that's unraveled is shockingly realistic in origin, even if that origin ends up having a little less “amaze” factor. There are some really fantastic chapters in here, with a couple that either retread on something or don’t go anywhere, but they’re still consistently good. The beginning 2-3 chapters are incredible, as is the finale, with Chapter 7 being maybe one of the strongest chapters in RGG’s games.

Characters are what really shine in Lost Judgment. The gang from the original all return, and all receive interesting development or new circumstances. Having Yagami, Kaito, Sugiura, Higashi, and Tsukumo all working together is a blast, and the team is genuinely written like a bunch of friends, teasing and all. Making Tsukumo and Sugiura one of the factors that kicks off the game was really smart, and them introducing the gang to Ijincho makes perfect sense. The Genda Office team returns, and Saori, yet again, steals the show. She takes a real central role in this game, spearheading the law side of the cases at hand, and aids in the investigation at times as well. She's just as fun and well-written as the first game, with some new patter with Yagami and Hoshino as well. She’s easily the strongest female in RGG’s history and makes for a fantastic addition to the cast, as opposed to Mafuyu, who still does nothing in this game. Why are you even in this series? The biggest new addition is Tesso, who quickly makes himself into a lovable guy, despite his sharp claws. Loved seeing him and hope we do see more of him in the future. The school characters are all really good as well. Sawa-sensei makes for a fantastic inclusion to the case, and her interactions are really human and believable. The assorted students are good, the bullies, while not central to the story for the majority of the game, have good development and their inclusion is definitely interesting. RGG has never written teenagers very well (when rarely they did), so including them in the plot makes this game stand out. The BIGGEST standout at school is Amasawa, the head of the MRC and deuteragonist in the school stories. She’s interesting, cool, and endlessly funny. She and Yagami make for a great team across the many hours of that mode’s content. As does her dog, Ranpo. Back to the main story, Kuwana is a very cool character as well, his motivations are interesting and his interactions with Yagami are gold. I’ll be slight about the antagonists and their motivations, but rest assured that the leaders of RK (one in particular) are really cool, and definitely rank in the series’ best villains. The final boss fights are fantastic and the soundtrack absolutely knocks it out of the park. I’m not sure if I prefer those fights to the final fight in Judgment (as well as the final boss theme), but they’re definitely comparable, at the very least. All in all, this is probably the strongest cast in the series, and increasing the number of characters after the first game was a good call.

The side content blew me away. I’m not quite done with Yakuza 5, but the School Stories are very similar to that game’s system in the sense that they are completely bespoke stories with fleshed-out minigames and progression to complete that is entirely separate from the main game. Their setting is amazing, too. Seiryo High has got to be one of my favorite locations in the series, up there alongside Ryukyu’s market, K2’s golden temple, and Judgment’s ADDC. It’s lovingly rendered, with some great attention to detail, and genuinely begins to feel real after awhile. It’s also really pretty at night, the gym in particular. Standouts for the stories include the dance club, boxing, skateboarding, and biking. If there’s one criticism I have, it’s the inconsistency in length across the stories. The ones I’ve highlighted are the longest (1.5 - 2 hours+), while some like esports and photography clock in at less than 20 minutes. Robotics club is the low point as far as gameplay is concerned, and I have to admit that I got pretty frustrated at a couple points. The game does a bad job explaining that mode in particular, which stinks as it’s the most in-depth of the whole set. The sheer scope of it is ridiculous at first, but ultimately if you upgrade for speed and give your controlled bot a powerful hammer and the AI some guns and speed, you’ll be fine. Capturing the enemy base itself is the main objective, NOT territory control, which the game doesn’t emphasize. Once I had those things figured out it was mostly smooth sailing, but still a relatively clunky gamemode that overstays its welcome. The actual story tying these differing modes together is interesting and offbeat, with its own set of characters and politics. Amasawa and Yagami are the glue that holds it together, and I think it’s very much worth the player’s time. Side cases are overall better than the first game, and maybe the most consistently good side cases in the series. I went through the list and genuinely only a handful are cheap or forgettable. Standouts: SRC’s Hunt for the Truth, Body Model Walks at Night, Dueling Dojos, Forbidden Taste, Chaos of the Masked Writer (this one is crazy good IMO), and Dastardly Detective: Seiryo High. Haven’t fought Amon yet, but I might.

I just want to briefly highlight the presentation of this game. I think this is the prettiest the Dragon Engine has ever looked, and it really helps sell some of the sequences. Historically, RGG games have a couple tiers of cutscenes: unvoiced with minimal movement, unvoiced with movement, voiced with movement, cutscenes with dialogue, and the full-on pre-rendered cutscenes. In LJ’s pre-rendered cutscenes, facial animation is some of the best I’ve ever seen, period. There’s one sequence in chapter 3 or 4 that blew me away, and I genuinely forgot for a minute that I was playing a game and not watching a live action drama with Kimura in the leading role. There are some subtleties here that are seriously impressive. The direction is more impressive too, with some combat sequences that feel right out of Jackie Chan films. When this game wants to wow you with a cutscene, it really does. The soundtrack is phenomenal as well.

Lost Judgment feels like an iteration in the Judgment series, which is a good thing. It feels like a sequel, not a DLC or a separate series. Kimura made his acting name on dramas like HERO, so this game's iterative nature feels like an episode or a movie in a detective / lawyer series. Judgment was an origin story, both for the series itself and Yagami, tying the events of the case back into his own history and character motivations, something Yakuza could never really do with Kiryu. Lost Judgment was never going to be able to match that kind of writing as a sequel, but it succeeds in spite of that, crafting a game that is wholly separate from the threads of the first while building on everything that made that game great. I feel like there’s probably things I forgot to talk about, but I suppose that’s inevitable. I’ll just end by saying that Lost Judgment was everything I wanted it to be from the day it was announced. It improves on nearly everything from the first game while being its own separate thing. It’s endlessly FUN to play, the side content is massive and engaging, the characters are something special, and the story is on par with the first. I hope this isn’t the last we see of the Yagami Detective Agency, and I'm looking forward to the Kaito DLC!

Easily one of the best improved sequels out there. The story is definitely more gripping, the stakes are higher, and there's plenty more to do than before. Almost too much. The school stories are practically somewhere between a sub story and the main plot in length, and there's 10 of them. It's crazy how much I kept going long after the story ended. Easy recommendation if you're a fan of the Yakuza series and wanna keep up with one of Kiryu's unintended successors.

But that Robotics Club can eat a dick, god damn

Absolutely one of the best games this year & my Game of the Year by far!
The story & its characters are so well written. Characters' motives are explored indepth, from Kuwana to Sawa. Each character had their place & was executed brilliantly in both writing & acting in the Japanese performances. The combat is never tiring & always a joy to take hold in with the amount of moves you can chain together with the 3 styles at hand. The combat is as exciting as you can make it.
Yokohama is a jaw dropping to explore & its even more intensified with the game's soundtrack. A game I will never forget. Absolutely recommend to anyone.

[Working Review]
Lost Judgment is a lot better than it’s predecessor but sadly it still hits a lot of the same snags. The tailing and chase segments aren’t really improved but the school clubs side quests are much more fun and engaging than what was in the first game.

It’s a shame they’re so unbalanced, with boxing having a load of opponents while dancing only has 4 songs, but it’s still been fun for the most part and only really started to lose me ~60 hours in.

The plot is also improved in my opinion, it’s still not Yakuza level but I care more about this than I did the first game. interested to see how it plays out

A sequel that doesn't reinvent the wheel but instead focuses on the best stuff the first game brought to the table.

More detective work, another wonderful, twisting plot which constantly ups the stakes, loveable characters with believable relationships and motivations and not one but two cities full of things to do and see.

Sure, the minigames are still varying in quality and the (although improved) suspect tailing sections are still present, most of these have been moved into the side quests. Some of these are still genuinely hilarious, too.

It would be criminal if we don't get another Judgment game because of some bullshit likeness rights stuff.

Lost Judgment is a step up from its predecessor in almost every aspect: the already-fun combat has been given greater depth, side content is surprisingly expansive, and much of the tedium has been removed. Moment to moment, it's as fun to play as these games ever have been.

The one thing I can knock it for is that the story and writing didn't achieve the same impact for me as other games from RGG Studio; it feels like it's already played its biggest surprises well before the main plot wraps up. There are still great moments along the way, but it falls short of being a perfect package.

This is my personal game of the year 2021. I had to start out this review by saying that because I adore this game it is one of the best that RGG has put out, and it is worth the 100+ hours I spent on it.

Story: For starters, I like to state that this game deals with some heavy topics, so keep that in mind, and at the beginning, the game is very good at stating the heavy topics that are involved. It, not every day a story has me questioning everything I think is right or wrong, this story is one that I say goes in with an open mind, but expect to be very invested in it. Usually, when I do Yakuza style games I try to do as much side content as I can, while I did do some during the main game, most were done after the main game cause the story was pulling me in the further I got and since this was a global release I did not want to get spoiled. In this case, the story is a gripping one with a few missteps along the way that do not take away from the experience.

Gameplay: I will say with every dragon engine game that has this action style combat RGG knows how to make improvements, and boy is the combat smooth in this game. Going from LAD to this made me feel right at home, and showed how much I miss this style of combat. I always have a heart for the turn-based style combat but there is just something totally different when doing the action style stuff of Yakuza games. But then there flops to the gameplay, the new mechanics were not very implemented in a good way. Parkour was very nice t have but could be finishing at times, and then there the stealth in the game. I am not going to beat around the bush the stealth in this game was not my favorite stealth. I am not a stealth type of player, but in some cases, I can tolerate (like this game), but I think that it can be improved for later entries in the series if we get them.

Music: Ah the music in this game is just perfection. There are going to be tracked in this game that I will be listening to for a long time afterward. All the boss themes were bops, and are worth going back to listen to on their own.

Sidequests: So the main beef of this game is its side content. Most of like I said earlier was done post-game cause I wanted to get through the story to avoid spoilers. Let m just say this game is loaded with side content I spent 60 hours after beating the game to 100% because the game is just that big. They are school stories which in its own sense is another game in this game, it has so many activities in it that I would say take 10-20 hours alone. Side cases are still very good but I think they had more duds in this one to me. All the minigames are good, some are frustrating but that Yakuza, the climax battles have made a return to which are known as the gauntlet in this, and I had to do some (thankfully not all) to get the plat. When I say this game is loaded it is loaded.

Platinum experience: For the plat for this one, it is typical yakuza. Getting 100% including skills, side cases all shops, city, and school missions involved. I am glad I got this plat, and I plan on doing it again when I redo this game on the ps4 version but I will say if you're going to go for it do another alongside it. When I mentioned the gauntlets earlier thankfully not all were required for the plat cause tose were nerve-wracking to the point where I just got very lucky in the ones I needed to do. Plat requires 2 playthroughs to one on the highest difficulty alongside the initial one.

Overall thoughts/Enjoyment: Lost Judgment builds upon what its predecessor does while also showing how mechanics need to be reworked if they do ever decide to come back. 9/10

I think the best game Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio has ever made in recent times. The best combat in the game that I spent hours just messing around trying to do combos on enemies. The side stories are the best in the Yakuza series in my opinion, especially the school side stories that feels like GTO anime as in you're helping students with their problems and their school activities as a counselor teacher which is really fun as each after school club has different gameplay styles. Such as a dancing rhythm game, skateboarding, play Virtua Fighter, and many more. except for the Robotics club. Screw that minigame. The story is top notch but can't go into details due to spoiler but it had me in my seats. I highly recommended if you have a modern home console.

Easily one of the best, most memorable games with an impact that will stay with me for a long time.

Overall I'd say it falls short in terms of story when compared to the first game, but that is quickly ignored when you factor in the sheer amount of gameplay upgrades and QOL additions.

This is by far one of the greatest games in the last while, and it's a shame that it isn't really a GOTY contender due to the fanbase not being as big as others.

When my wife and I started to play Lost Judgment, we were faced with a question: Which one of us was going to start the game? While we knew that we’d be trading off from time to time, we came to the conclusion that it didn’t really matter who started, because the first chapter would basically be a wash, consisting of the standard cutscenes and sparse tutorial gameplay that Ryu Ga Gotoku games always start with.

Turns out, we were wrong.

Much to our surprise, Lost Judgment starts far snappier than any other entry in the franchise. It presents a much more confident tone in an introductory sequence that keeps you active as it walks you through the game’s various mechanics, as though it’s proud of just how much it’s expanded on the groundwork set by the first Judgment.

And, honestly, the RGG team has every right to be proud. Judgment was no slouch, and it’s a game I’ve only looked back on more fondly, but it was clear pretty early on that Lost Judgment would have to do something immensely wrong to not be my favorite in the RGG franchise.

It didn’t.

Honestly, there’s very little I can bring up to the game’s detriment. I can say that the game’s economy isn’t as tight as the first game or Yakuza: Like a Dragon, but that’s more of a matter of preference, and any aspects of the game that do wear thin thankfully don’t overstay their welcome. What stands out way more is everything the game gets right, which is just a laundry list of me gushing about the characters, the combat, the main story, the extensive school stories, and everything in between.

It’s easily my favorite game in the RGG franchise, and I’m very excited to see what comes next, whether it’s with Yagami Takayuki or one of the other pairs of characters that Lost Judgment sets up as potential new protagonists, should appeasing Takuya Kimura’s representation ever prove to be too much.

It's story becomes very messy near the end when the scale of the conspiracy gets too large for its own good which holds this game back from being a perfect sequel in my opinion. The point of losing itself in its own nonsense is the taxi ride scene where the game and writing will not acknowledge an aspect of the dilemma that is very apparent and would have made for a more interesting story is the characters reflected on what is uncovered after this scene. So many times post this moment i wished characters would just tell Yagami he isn't seeing the bigger picture, give him the very obvious counter argument to be had. But all narrative issues aside in the last quarter, Lost Judgement is still a very solid entry worth playing. They actually made the dragon engine have fun combat......only took 4 games.........