I skipped this when it came out and more or less moved on from the Yakuza/Like a Dragon franchise until "The Man Who Erased His Name" came out and I was dragged back in.
While existing in the same universe, there's nothing you really need to know about the series lore wise. Kinda had me wondering if RGG wanted to make a detective game and this was the easiest way to do so. Never the less, if you're a long term fan you'll still see minor NPCs from prior games. The goofy townies that have inhabited this city for many titles now.
Story and character wise this would rank amongst the top entries. Every one of these gets long winded at best and incoherent at worst. While it's a lot to remember and a ton of characters and little threads to tie together, I think it all works out in the end. The villains have a sympathetic edge, the driving force of the plot adds up. Maybe Yagami is rather hypocritical in his actions at times but it's a video game. You gotta take what you can get sometimes.
Judgement has some unique gameplay features that are hit or miss for me and the misses hold this back a tad. On top of the typical RGG action, there's lock picking, chases (which have been absent since like 4?), tailing missions, drones, some crime scene investigation. There are all fairly bare bones. I don't have much beef with them but the lock picking is incredibly generic. It's the same minigame as always and it doesn't help the pacing when you're tearing through an office building of enemies and you need to slow the fuck down to do the boring lock-picking game from Mafia II. The tailing sequences were fine at first but they wear out their welcome. Especially later on when they get on longer. It's tedious filler.
The fighting does have it's own little quirks too. The mortal wounds, the police being a factor, the local gangs that come and go. I never personally had an issue with the Mortal Wounds despite many others feeling it makes the fights too challenging. I could really do without the text message every three minutes from that one old fart who goes, "AH JEEZ YAGAMI THE STREETS ARE UNDER ATTACK!" then his passive aggressive, "aw man, whaaa happen??" when I just ignore it.
After the main story's all said and done there's a plethora of side content. From the detective cases to the Friend system to the Girlfriends, the various minigames. It's a lot of bang for your buck as always with this franchise.
While existing in the same universe, there's nothing you really need to know about the series lore wise. Kinda had me wondering if RGG wanted to make a detective game and this was the easiest way to do so. Never the less, if you're a long term fan you'll still see minor NPCs from prior games. The goofy townies that have inhabited this city for many titles now.
Story and character wise this would rank amongst the top entries. Every one of these gets long winded at best and incoherent at worst. While it's a lot to remember and a ton of characters and little threads to tie together, I think it all works out in the end. The villains have a sympathetic edge, the driving force of the plot adds up. Maybe Yagami is rather hypocritical in his actions at times but it's a video game. You gotta take what you can get sometimes.
Judgement has some unique gameplay features that are hit or miss for me and the misses hold this back a tad. On top of the typical RGG action, there's lock picking, chases (which have been absent since like 4?), tailing missions, drones, some crime scene investigation. There are all fairly bare bones. I don't have much beef with them but the lock picking is incredibly generic. It's the same minigame as always and it doesn't help the pacing when you're tearing through an office building of enemies and you need to slow the fuck down to do the boring lock-picking game from Mafia II. The tailing sequences were fine at first but they wear out their welcome. Especially later on when they get on longer. It's tedious filler.
The fighting does have it's own little quirks too. The mortal wounds, the police being a factor, the local gangs that come and go. I never personally had an issue with the Mortal Wounds despite many others feeling it makes the fights too challenging. I could really do without the text message every three minutes from that one old fart who goes, "AH JEEZ YAGAMI THE STREETS ARE UNDER ATTACK!" then his passive aggressive, "aw man, whaaa happen??" when I just ignore it.
After the main story's all said and done there's a plethora of side content. From the detective cases to the Friend system to the Girlfriends, the various minigames. It's a lot of bang for your buck as always with this franchise.