Lost Judgment is the latest in RGG’s series that is supposed to be replacing Like a Dragon as RGG’s action game series. Even among potential rumors of an announcement of a third installment to the Judgement series, its potential future is up in the air. Some disagreements between RGG studios and Johnny's, the talent agency that represents Takuya Kimura, Yagimi’s voice actor and model inspiration for the character, led to a delay of the Judgment and Lost Judgement PC ports that only saw such release to PC this year. Regardless, for now, Lost Judgement is the currently last adventure of Takayuki Yagami, lawyer turned detective in the fictional city of Kamurocho. This time, Yagami is summoned to Yokohama to assist returning characters Sugira and Tsukumo with a case regarding bullying at a local high school. From there the plot goes on several twists and turns with lives at stake.

Lost Judgment’s plot is pretty great. Sure, it's basically a lot like standard Like a Dragon plots with a detective instead of a Yakuza, but this story in particular is very compelling. Lost Judgment does something that RGG has only occasionally done, but hasn't accomplished in a way that I enjoyed. RGG managed to keep the story fairly personal and low key (in comparison to other RGG plots) and I think the story succeeds greatly because of it. There is one fairly small element that I wish was kept out of the plot but I won't elaborate for the sake of spoilers.

RGG has also refined the beat em up formula to a mirror shine on this entry. With the introduction of the snake style for Yagami, Lost Judgement’s combat gets to a point where it is very similar to Yakuza 0’s combat, but has been more refined since that installment's release. Combos feel smooth and satisfying, EX attacks feel weighty and powerful.

Yokohama is basically a cut and paste from RGG’s 2019 effort Yakuza: Like a Dragon with some minor changes. This is fine, RGG is the master of reusing environmental and combat assets without it feeling too samey from game to game, so its something I am fairly willing to excuse from them. 

Overall RGG succeeds with Lost Judgement in a way that I am very excited to see how their next beat em up game is. They have refined the beat em up game to a mirror shine formula, I am excited to see what bells and whistles they create for us next time.

This review was cross posted from The Fig Tree, linked here: https://figleafgamingnetwork.wordpress.com/2023/06/02/lost-judgment-review/

Wow, just wow. What an absolutely incredible game. Lost Judgment improves on its predecessor in every single way. Early on we are introduced to a lot of this games new and improved features such tailing, stealth and parkour. This is also the only mandatory tailing mission in the main story so I’m sure a lot of people were happy about that. We also get to see a wall run feature during chases which is cool.

As for the story, this is easily the second best RGG have produced. What starts out as a high school drama quickly expands into something much, much bigger. The characters we meet along the way are brilliant and there is a huge twist around half way through the game that is one of my favourite twists in gaming history. Speaking of favourites, the combat here is the best gameplay of all time in my opinion, especially for beat em up games.

The two fighting styles from the previous game are improved and we are also introduced to a new one called snake (there’s a boxing one too but I think that’s DLC/sub story unlockable). Initially I was loving snake but as I progressed and upgraded the styles, I found crane to be the best for me. This game also might have my favourite boss battles of the franchise, with Tesso and Soma being standouts. Tesso battles are simply a blast and Soma’s are epic as fuck, as is his boss music “viper”.

And with that I’ve finally finished the franchise, other than Ishin which I need to buy. This is easily my favourite video game series of all time, with this specific game being in my top 5 along with Yakuza 0. I would highly recommend this series to anyone as both gameplay and storytelling are top tier. I’m kind of sad it’s over but now I get to go back through every game and complete the subs stories so here’s to a solid 1000 hours of more Yakuza.

gameplay wise, this is easily the perfect rgg studio game. im glad the team learned from their mistakes and gave the dragon engine the treatment it deserves, albeit 4 games late.
wish i could say the game itself was perfect. it's got killer substories (thanks to the school kids) and does a lot to spice up the formula, however the story is a lot more disappointing this time around. it starts off pretty strong, with interesting mysteries tackling some pretty deep themes, but at the end the plot just gets too confusing for its own good, and ultimately isn't as good as the first game.

apart from that? yeah this might be the greatest game ever made

Sawa-senseiiiiiiiiiiiiii, I s2g if I hear Yagami say it one more time

Anyway, this is a marginal step down from the original. The stealth sucks, the side activities suck, the new QTEs suck, the investigating sucks, the parkour REALLY sucks, and the final dungeon is probably one of the dopiest sequences in the franchise. In this more than any other RGG game, the gameplay besides the fighting seems incredibly perfunctory - like this should really just be a beat 'em up with a bunch of cutscenes between fights. But the fighting is still good and it's got that old YAKUZA charm, so it can't ever dip below passable, really.

Also, you can just freely beat the everloving SHIT out of high school students in this game, and in fact need to for the plot. Gotta get some points for that.

I can't believe it finally happened. I finally found a RGG Studio game that can stand toe-to-toe with Yakuza 0, I never thought I'd see the day.

Lost Judgment easily has the best combat in the series, I cannot tell you how much I loved using the snake style and just obliterating enemy after enemy standing in front of me. Plus, switching between styles has never felt so natural and cathartic before, they've basically mastered what combat should be like for this series going forward.

I also adored the story. It's another dumb, overly-complicated conspiracy story as every RGG game is, but just like with its predecessor, having the protagonist be a smart detective instead of a strong yakuza man who just punches everything helps make the story feel so much more believable and engaging. This is also the first time since Yakuza 2 where I've actually felt something for the main antagonist, to the point that I kind of wanted to be on his side instead. And the way everything unfolds is just so amazing, this is easily in my top three RGG plots.

What most surprised me though was the implementation of side content. I find side content in these gamed to be pretty overwhelming after a while, and I end up just ignoring everything at some point. But the choice to have the majority of side content intertwined into one big plot about "the professor" was genius, it made me feel like I was constantly pushing forward with a main goal, instead of just doing random activities. I hope every game made by RGG does something like this in the future.

I have pretty much nothing but positive things to say about Lost Judgment, though I do have one big criticism: the DLC. It sucks that several side missions, girlfriends, and a whole fighting style are locked behind a paywall. The game is till great without this content, but it's still extremely annoying.

Still though, despite that one big grip, I love Lost Judgment. I think it's so close to topping Yakuza 0 in terms of overall quality, but 0 still wins out just because of how consistently fun that game is. But now I'm very excited to see what else is in store for the Judgment series, if this game is any indication to go by, the next game may be the best one in RGG's entire catalogue.

This sequel to one of RGG studios greatest games and I finally finished it after a few years of procrastinating. This game takes every mechanic of the last and improves on nearly every aspect. The combat is by far the best in the entire series, each style is fun and unique, tying them together is so satisfying and the Dragon Engines physics make this game the most fun in the series. It also is probably the best looking game in the series, the graphics and art design in this game are a bit more cinematic than the LAD games and I prefer the darker contrast. The music is once again steller and every cutscene is engaging to watch. The detective aspects are still so interesting and are what make these two games stand out from the others, observation mode can be a little tricky at times to find what you're looking for but overall I enjoyed it. The story while not as captivating or deep as the first game is still excellent and will keep you playing the detective to the very end. The villians each have motives and you even understand why they do what they did. Overall amazing game, I would love to see more in the Judgment Subseries, hopefully legal issues don't keep that from happening!

A magnificent follow up to one of RGG's best titles that somehow surpasses everything the original did.
An incredible story with a very engaging antagonist

I love the addition of a third style into the mix adds more variety to the combat which is more improved than the first title.
The only thing I wasn't a fan of were the stealth sequences but thankfully there wasn't much of that.
All in all, a fantastic game that I hope there will be a third game someday.