It took his work at a child orphanage for me to fuly understand 'Yakuza's' Kiryu and similarly it took his work at a high school for me to fully understand 'Judgment's' Yagami. There are many fewer substories here in 'Lost Judgment' than in a typical Rya Ga Gotoku (RGG) game, but the game makes up for it by including enormous side story content in 'School Stories,' eight intersecting stories that arise from Yagami becoming a faculty counselor for after school clubs. I finished 'School Stories' with 100% completion and this may have required more than half of the game's overall playtime. But it's what I most remember from the experience. Much of the fun I had took place in that school and certainly most was revealed there about Yagami as a character. Many reviews on Backloggd rail against the difficulty of Robotics Club but I breezed right through it. So long as you grind out matches to upgrade your robots, you'll have no trouble as well.

The main story is a good mystery wherein the man who commits a murder on camera is arrested at the same time in another part of town committing another lesser crime. It's a well paced mystery story with many reveals along the way. If I have any gripe it's that it attempts to tackle subjects (like sexual assault and bullying) that require a more delicate touch than RGG may possess. The combat is improved over the original 'Judgment' with four stances (including the brand new Snake Stance) and an actual incentive to swap among them. This may have been the first time in an RGG game that I didn't just settle into one preferred stance and play it out until the end.

'Lost Judgment' was too quickly overlooked on its release and the series may now be over, but what a treat these games have been for those few of us who bothered with them.