THE YEAR OF THE DRAGON

The frontrunner for the RGG game with the least amount of play testing done. Yakuza: Dead Souls is frustrating. It's not good, despite being a strange case study for the flexibility of the Yakuza/Like A Dragon series and its characters. You can take these characters and place them in the most outlandish situations, but the tonal harmony the series really mastered makes it all feel believably in character in how they react to it. It's hard to take much of the game seriously when it's made clear from the get-go this is taken with light ridiculous fun. Playing this was initially interesting because there's some unique stuff here for fans of the series to experience first-hand. This is the first time you play as Majima before Yakuza 0, the only time I think we'll ever get to explore Kamurocho Hills, and jump-started an interesting trend where it feels like RGG wanted to bring back Ryuji Goda properly in the main series but for whatever reason, this is the compromise. None of it helps prop up Yakuza: Dead Souls into something more than mediocrity, though.

What kills it is a horrid framerate, whether you emulate it or not it's still never a stable experience, and gameplay that left me miserable. You play as four protagonists Yakuza 4 style and each time I swap around I just wanted this game to be over already. You aim your gun but chances are it always sways away in a different direction for no reason, zombies spawn almost indefinitely even if you take out the mini-bosses, and the closed-in camera that Yakuza/Like A Dragon adopt for tight brawler combat doesn't translate well for shooting swarms of zombies in mostly tight spaces where the framerate gets nuked. I dunno, what I got after finishing this was that RGG should never ever make a shooter again? But then again, this experience got me buying Binary Domain out of morbid curiosity to see how they did this kinda thing again. Anyways, probably franchise bottom tier.

The Trans Daigo substory was unexpectedly memorable alright.

THE YEAR OF THE DRAGON

I love Kaito and think this makes, conceptually, a good case for how he should step-up as being a proper main protagonist in a hypothetical Judgment 3, but woof man this was mid incarnate. I was disappointed by how the supporting cast in Lost Judgment got shelved but this didn't bother to make up for that either. A very perplexing choice to make a story expansion around Kaito's past but Higashi is hardly involved at all and the Matsugane stuff isn't really deepened whatsoever. Outside of Jun and the final boss, the story was a total lull with occasionally fun gameplay sprinkled in, intentionally reminding you of early mainline Yakuza/Like A Dragon, but nothing memorable to write home about than just boredom. I don't know how RGG or Sega can look at this with the small content provided and think this was definitely worth charging 30 bucks.

THE YEAR OF THE DRAGON

From the get-go, Lost Judgment already displayed how much of a glow-up it is technically from its predecessor. The experience RGG had with their powerhouse of the Dragon Engine feels the most polished here, delivering unquestionably the best real-time action gameplay they’ve ever done, even more so than the mainline Yakuza/Like A Dragon entries. While not quite to the lengths I prefer it to be taken, the premise of following a detective feels better taken advantage of with unique gameplay additions like radar detection and a dog to help sniff out the map. Judgment was still a great game, but its biggest blemish that dragged it from being an absolute peak was the side-content being… much less than desirable. Something which has been mostly addressed here, with side-cases feeling more entertaining showcases of Yagami as a detective and extra mini-games beyond Drome Racing and Paradise VR. They took cues from Yakuza 0 and greatly reworked his moveset to incorporate four different brawler styles with revamped skills worth buying. Yakuza/Like A Dragon may shift gears to an attempt at turn-based combat, but I think what RGG cooked with the gameplay here proved there’s still room for the older real-time action combat to stick around alongside it. From the sounds of it, I’m very impressed by how much of an improvement Lost Judgment was from Judgment and even consider it to be, overall, just a better game. Except… despite how much I preferred playing this more over Judgment, I still think it fell short in one department where the other game still had an edge over it.

I was completely surprised by how Lost Judgment’s story tackled sensitive topics that I never thought RGG would think themselves capable of making a game about. It’s unexpected as a direction to take after a mystery like the first game, but I applaud the bold approach in shinning a light on the cyclical nature of bullying. The actual threats are hardly ever held accountable for their actions, and so no justice was truly delivered by a broken system that continuously failed the victims who suffered. While Yagami isn’t quite interesting here as he was in Judgment, his dynamic with the main antagonist underlined his conviction as someone who believes law, imperfect as it is, needs people like him to make it by protecting the ones it couldn’t save. The main antagonist definitely deserves to be included in the conversations of amazing RGG villains, perhaps being the most complex and sympathetic. I really enjoy aspects of the wider narrative but the actual ‘storytelling’ itself left a lot to be desired, if that distinction makes sense. Judgment’s story may be a more typical mystery conspiracy thriller with much less to say about current social issues, but it was one that felt personally involved with set-up that paid off in what I still see as one of the best final stretches of any RGG game. The Judgment Four all had a personal stake in the conspiracy that linked them all together to put a stop to the root of their troubles. It wasn’t so much about Yagami and the gang solving a mystery to unearth the truth, but to ensure judgment was given to those responsible for ruining people’s livelihoods, including the ones closest to them. Here, they’re all underutilized within the plot, except for Yagami, never having a personal stake for why they’re investigating a murder mystery together that made you feel like these guys are a team working towards a common goal. It made the narrative feel emotionally disconnected, despite Yagami reminding you constantly what’s driving him about this, which felt artificial after a while as a motivation compared to the last game. I would try to weigh in my thoughts on its message about bullying but to be honest this is out of my range to give a nuanced discussion on, so all I can say is that I think RGG just aren’t the best developers to tackle this subject matter, even if I respect the attempt.

I’m not familiar with the current status of the Judgment subseries, too afraid to do some deep-diving research for the sake of potential spoilers for Infinite Wealth, but I hope this isn’t the end. Despite their imperfections, I'm grateful for their efforts to enhance and broaden both the story and gameplay aspects of Yakuza/Like A Dragon. I definitely think there is a Judgment game from the potential kept brewing here to be a close favorite of mine. A certified all-timer, even. Yagami is already an honorable mention for one of my all-time favorite fictional protagonists, so I just want my newfound GOAT to get the perfect game he deserves.