This is a breath of fresh air from some of the other yakuza games. I have been playing all the Yakuza games within this year, and I have to say jumping into this after finishing 3 - 6 within about 3 months time was such a nice change of pace.
So many good things to say here:
- The story and pacing was pretty great all the way through (suffers a bit at the beginning and a little at the end but not much)
- Some of the best side missions / stories since 0 and Kiwami 2. I literally was about 15 hours in before I got past the halfway point of the main story because I was just playing the side missions so much.
- The girlfriend system I liked a whole lot more than the cabaret system they introduced in the later half of the Yakuza series, felt more personal I guess? And just had more to do.
- Combat (once you get past the beginning of the game) is so buttery smooth.
However, it's not all perfect:
- One of the new features I came to end up not caring for as much is tailing. While the tailing aspect was fun at first, it quickly became rather tedious and boring, especially when a lot of the side missions had this involved in it too. If it was a bit more spaced out and not as much, I don't think I would complain as much on it.
- The minigames that are here are nice, but they kind of don't really do much for me. It's never a good sight when I think my most played side game was Darts (don't get me wrong, I love darts but that shouldn't be my most played). Drone racing did not interest me at all and the VR game was cool but only for a few times before I never really went back to it.
- This is a personal thing, but give me MINI MAP ROTATION. I can't stand not having the mini map rotate with me and ended up getting me lost more often that not.
All in all, this game is a fantastic experience and tbh, if you want to try a "Yakuza" game but are scared of the length of the main series (7 games all 20+ hours each), Judgment is a great place to dip your feet in.
So many good things to say here:
- The story and pacing was pretty great all the way through (suffers a bit at the beginning and a little at the end but not much)
- Some of the best side missions / stories since 0 and Kiwami 2. I literally was about 15 hours in before I got past the halfway point of the main story because I was just playing the side missions so much.
- The girlfriend system I liked a whole lot more than the cabaret system they introduced in the later half of the Yakuza series, felt more personal I guess? And just had more to do.
- Combat (once you get past the beginning of the game) is so buttery smooth.
However, it's not all perfect:
- One of the new features I came to end up not caring for as much is tailing. While the tailing aspect was fun at first, it quickly became rather tedious and boring, especially when a lot of the side missions had this involved in it too. If it was a bit more spaced out and not as much, I don't think I would complain as much on it.
- The minigames that are here are nice, but they kind of don't really do much for me. It's never a good sight when I think my most played side game was Darts (don't get me wrong, I love darts but that shouldn't be my most played). Drone racing did not interest me at all and the VR game was cool but only for a few times before I never really went back to it.
- This is a personal thing, but give me MINI MAP ROTATION. I can't stand not having the mini map rotate with me and ended up getting me lost more often that not.
All in all, this game is a fantastic experience and tbh, if you want to try a "Yakuza" game but are scared of the length of the main series (7 games all 20+ hours each), Judgment is a great place to dip your feet in.