"How far is one willing to go for justice for those who have been wrong'd by it" is a question lingering in the back of the mind, and one our protagonist, Takayuki Yagami, will face, as he encounters the people struggling with how much the system will let people get away with crimes and take it out for themselves, as the laws are flawed, and justice is tenuous.

In this sequel to the 2018 legal thriller, Judgment, Yagami and his partner, Masaharu Kaito, are asked to meet up with old allies, Fumiya Sugiura, and Makoto Tsukumo in Isezaki Ijincho, Yokohama to investigate a bully incident at a school, and then asked to investigate a criminal, Akihiro Ehara, who has committed both murder and sexual harassment, and get involved into a cycle of incidents along the way as they meet characters like Yoko Sawa, a teacher for the school Yagami investigates, a Yokohama handyman going by Jin Kuwana, the reinvented yakuza; now known as RK, along with the old allies of our last adventure.

Being the successor for the brawler combat as the mainline entries have switched to turn based starting with 2020's Yakuza: Like a Dragon, it is the smoothest RGG has ever been, with moveset additions to the Crane and Tiger style along with the new style of the Snake, which heavily focuses on defense capabilities, while at the same time distincting a lot of Yagami's animations from Kiryu to keep his more agile and acrobatic style more in tuned, and like every RGG title, there is so much content to be explored, one being the School Stories, where Yagami becomes a club advisor and tackles on the clubs a school will offer, all providing different gameplay elements like rhythm and skateboarding, only to solve a mystery within the school's circle with his new sidekick, Kyoko Amasawa. There are also new additions to your detective kit, like a dog to search for smell-based clues, climbing buildings, and enhanced stealth which just makes the gameplay even smoother and adds more variety to mystery solving, further distincting itself from the Yakuza series.

But where the game really shines is the music and storytelling. First of all, the music is really experimental, with tracks like Viper, Dig in Your Heels, Vorephelia, and Unwavering Belief, all remain fitting and just good for the ear, but also stay traditional with tracks like Green Vibes, Tenacious Red, and Blue Stompin', Fog, and 1811.

Onward to the storytelling, it is some of the best RGG has put out, and where it shines are the new characters and especially the antagonists, The new group known as RK, a group of ex-yakuza recovering from the events of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, are really threatening, along with the fact they really started experimenting making more morally grey characters, the character on hand with a savior complex and an obsessed view on vigilante justice, how much damage shining the truth will bring, who gets involved, and the causalities brought along the way, the game will really shine on it and let you, the player, decide your own ideals. However, that goes without saying that the screentime for some characters are not really balanced, and for one of them they basically do nothing for the entire game, but within the given time, some of them do have the substance or needs more of it. Another thing I liked what was handled is how personal it can get to the player with its school setting and how eerily close the game got to our issues with the law and school systems. Along with the fast pacing, and build up to the twists, there is enough to keep the player interested and intact. The last part of the main story I want to add is that it does try to be standalone as possible for new players, but it's substories add on as continuation from Judgment, but with context to catch you up, and some side cases are new and enjoyable as ever and like every RGG title, just flat out goofy to distinct itself for a good breather from the game's darker story.

Overall: I really enjoyed Lost Judgment, it's storytelling and amazing gameplay definitely made it my favorite out of 2021, and my 2nd favorite RGG title, here's hoping a Judgment 3 happens.