Oh my god. They- They did it. They fixed every problem the original Judgment had. I almost can't believe it, never before have I played a game where they took everything from the first game and improved upon it in every single way. If you're new here I made a review on Judgment saying it was lost potential, but this game, dare I say the potential was found. Every criticism I had from the original Judgment here was taken and beaten over with tiger style. We've finally escaped the clutches of Kamurocho being the main setting and now this game mostly takes place in Ijincho, the area in Yakuza 7. I'm fine with them reusing because this place isn't as overused as Kamurocho is to the point where we're sick of it. It even offers the player a fun way to traverse via the skateboard. The combat is the best we've ever gotten in a dragon engine game, so fluid, so fast, so much fun. And we did it, boys, we found Yagami's 3rd fighting style, Snake. Reminds me heavily of Tanimuras fighting style from 4 but improved upon every way and is really fun to chain combos with the new combat system. We've reached DMC5 levels of combat with how fast you can style switch here, hell, even Yakuza 0 couldn't manage to do it this fast. They also removed the stupid mortal wounds mechanic and now the pace is perfect but the game still incentivizes you to avoid heavy attacks despite the risk not being that high anymore. This is a good trade-off for having fun combat that doesn't punish the player severely for just playing the game. The combat is beautiful, but what about the side content, well, you're not gonna believe this jimmy but this game features things we've never done in any other Yakuza game. Boxing, Skateboarding, Robotics, Bike races, Dancing, so much variety that it will leave you wanting to do it all. Not only did they add in more minigames but there are entirely new stealth sections and wall climbing sections that add more to the overall gameplay. For the first time ever these stealth sections actually don't suck, with how much you can do. THEY EVEN FIXED TRAILING MISSIONS, no longer are you forced to scramble trying to find out where Yagami can hide he will automatically hide if it's a reasonable spot to hide in. Along with giving you more options to save yourself should you get caught.

So they fixed the combat, side content, trailing missions, and detective content, what else did they do? Well let me you tell you, this story is even better than what the first game did. I feel like with the school setting we get more realistic situations other than a crime drama, bullying is a serious theme this game loves to discuss, and the way they handle it is done so masterfully that if the game's antagonist makes you stop and think then you're doing something right.

I almost still can't believe how much of a glow-up this was from the first judgment, I didn't think they could pull it off but they did it. Now I have no idea how they could top this one off with the next game but I suppose we'll find out in the future. Play, this, game, it is amazing, if the original judgment lost you, then this game will find you and bring you back into the realm of peak fiction.