Lost Judgment is the latest in RGG’s series that is supposed to be replacing Like a Dragon as RGG’s action game series. Even among potential rumors of an announcement of a third installment to the Judgement series, its potential future is up in the air. Some disagreements between RGG studios and Johnny's, the talent agency that represents Takuya Kimura, Yagimi’s voice actor and model inspiration for the character, led to a delay of the Judgment and Lost Judgement PC ports that only saw such release to PC this year. Regardless, for now, Lost Judgement is the currently last adventure of Takayuki Yagami, lawyer turned detective in the fictional city of Kamurocho. This time, Yagami is summoned to Yokohama to assist returning characters Sugira and Tsukumo with a case regarding bullying at a local high school. From there the plot goes on several twists and turns with lives at stake.
Lost Judgment’s plot is pretty great. Sure, it's basically a lot like standard Like a Dragon plots with a detective instead of a Yakuza, but this story in particular is very compelling. Lost Judgment does something that RGG has only occasionally done, but hasn't accomplished in a way that I enjoyed. RGG managed to keep the story fairly personal and low key (in comparison to other RGG plots) and I think the story succeeds greatly because of it. There is one fairly small element that I wish was kept out of the plot but I won't elaborate for the sake of spoilers.
RGG has also refined the beat em up formula to a mirror shine on this entry. With the introduction of the snake style for Yagami, Lost Judgement’s combat gets to a point where it is very similar to Yakuza 0’s combat, but has been more refined since that installment's release. Combos feel smooth and satisfying, EX attacks feel weighty and powerful.
Yokohama is basically a cut and paste from RGG’s 2019 effort Yakuza: Like a Dragon with some minor changes. This is fine, RGG is the master of reusing environmental and combat assets without it feeling too samey from game to game, so its something I am fairly willing to excuse from them.
Overall RGG succeeds with Lost Judgement in a way that I am very excited to see how their next beat em up game is. They have refined the beat em up game to a mirror shine formula, I am excited to see what bells and whistles they create for us next time.
This review was cross posted from The Fig Tree, linked here: https://figleafgamingnetwork.wordpress.com/2023/06/02/lost-judgment-review/
Lost Judgment’s plot is pretty great. Sure, it's basically a lot like standard Like a Dragon plots with a detective instead of a Yakuza, but this story in particular is very compelling. Lost Judgment does something that RGG has only occasionally done, but hasn't accomplished in a way that I enjoyed. RGG managed to keep the story fairly personal and low key (in comparison to other RGG plots) and I think the story succeeds greatly because of it. There is one fairly small element that I wish was kept out of the plot but I won't elaborate for the sake of spoilers.
RGG has also refined the beat em up formula to a mirror shine on this entry. With the introduction of the snake style for Yagami, Lost Judgement’s combat gets to a point where it is very similar to Yakuza 0’s combat, but has been more refined since that installment's release. Combos feel smooth and satisfying, EX attacks feel weighty and powerful.
Yokohama is basically a cut and paste from RGG’s 2019 effort Yakuza: Like a Dragon with some minor changes. This is fine, RGG is the master of reusing environmental and combat assets without it feeling too samey from game to game, so its something I am fairly willing to excuse from them.
Overall RGG succeeds with Lost Judgement in a way that I am very excited to see how their next beat em up game is. They have refined the beat em up game to a mirror shine formula, I am excited to see what bells and whistles they create for us next time.
This review was cross posted from The Fig Tree, linked here: https://figleafgamingnetwork.wordpress.com/2023/06/02/lost-judgment-review/