Judgment is a weird product. Both its strength and shortcomings are from the fact it's inherently tied to the existing Yakuza series. It is also a game that tries to be different but also similar to its parent franchise. Result is an experience that is inconsistent, but nevertheless endearing.
Judgment was initially pitched as a J-Drama series, and it shows. The story is an amalgam of court drama, detective mystery and yakuza noir, with each genre working well with the other to present a consistent story that is quite rare from the studio. All the main casts give stellar performances, including Kimura Takuya, whose previous voice work in Howl's Moving Castle was met with much criticism despite his seriously impressive filmography. His performance absolutely carries this entire journey with incredible confidence and command, with some emotional scenes genuinely being the best acted scenes from the entire RGG franchise. The writing is witty but never too light, especially when it comes to sensitive subject it deals with, and the way it culminates at the end is immensely satisfying. It is a story that is rooted in the RGG universe but fundamentally different, and it succeeds precisely for this reason.
What is disappointing is that the gameplay is not as consistent as it should've been. Much of the newly added detective gameplay mechanics (investigations, trailing missions and chase sequences) ends up very repetitive without showcasing anything novel. You only need to do one trailing mission to realize it is annoying and extremely shallow, but you are forced to do it a lot more. Same goes for the chase sequences, which are mostly just Temple Run-esque gameplay with overused QTEs. Investigations are never interesting as they are in actual mystery games, and the rare moments where you actually present evidences in an interrogation, it is far too simple to be even compared to something like Ace Attorney. As a detective game, it is quite lacking, though handling various side cases (the "sub stories" of this game) as a detective still provides the usual fun that RGG games offer.
Then there is the combat. Despite boasting two impressive-looking movesets across two combat styles, the actual combat falls flat because of how enemy AI is designed. Most of the stronger enemies and bosses have automatic dodges and are able to automatically block your attacks mid-combo, and the way to break their guards are often incredibly inconsistent, resulting in a combat that feels utterly frustrating. The bosses also often have very little tells in their attack, meaning that much of the gameplay boils down to abusing rage mode by pressing R2 to face-tank their attacks. This admittedly was also a problem in Yakuza 6 as well, but unlike that game, because now the game's enemy AIs feel much closer to those from infamous Yakuza 3, the rage mode and heat actions are the only ways to reliably inflict damage on the enemy. What's worse is that the game also has "mortal attacks" from the enemies, where if you fail to dodge it, they inflict significant permanent damage to your HP bar that can only be fixed by spending money to an NPC who also happens to reside in the most secluded area of Kamurocho. The enemies that are easier to deal with, there is one move that you can spam to quickly dispatch them, meaning that combat is either using the same overpowered move over and over again or not being able to properly attack as you want due to unfair enemy guards, patterns and dodges. Add in the fact that the game frequently forces players to deal with the annoying Kehin system where the map has more random encounters with signficantly stronger enemies, the combat is sadly the most frustrating since Yakuza 3.
It is still a very much an RGG game, however, with all its quirky charms. Kamurocho as an open "world" is still one of the most lively one out there, there are a lot of side contents for you to enjoy, and when it clicks, it clicks hard. At the very least, this is the most consistent story and storytelling from the studio--I would even argue that it trumps Yakuza 0 in that regard. For all its faults, Judgment is very much an interesting departure-extention from the Yakuza series, one that I hope continues.
Judgment was initially pitched as a J-Drama series, and it shows. The story is an amalgam of court drama, detective mystery and yakuza noir, with each genre working well with the other to present a consistent story that is quite rare from the studio. All the main casts give stellar performances, including Kimura Takuya, whose previous voice work in Howl's Moving Castle was met with much criticism despite his seriously impressive filmography. His performance absolutely carries this entire journey with incredible confidence and command, with some emotional scenes genuinely being the best acted scenes from the entire RGG franchise. The writing is witty but never too light, especially when it comes to sensitive subject it deals with, and the way it culminates at the end is immensely satisfying. It is a story that is rooted in the RGG universe but fundamentally different, and it succeeds precisely for this reason.
What is disappointing is that the gameplay is not as consistent as it should've been. Much of the newly added detective gameplay mechanics (investigations, trailing missions and chase sequences) ends up very repetitive without showcasing anything novel. You only need to do one trailing mission to realize it is annoying and extremely shallow, but you are forced to do it a lot more. Same goes for the chase sequences, which are mostly just Temple Run-esque gameplay with overused QTEs. Investigations are never interesting as they are in actual mystery games, and the rare moments where you actually present evidences in an interrogation, it is far too simple to be even compared to something like Ace Attorney. As a detective game, it is quite lacking, though handling various side cases (the "sub stories" of this game) as a detective still provides the usual fun that RGG games offer.
Then there is the combat. Despite boasting two impressive-looking movesets across two combat styles, the actual combat falls flat because of how enemy AI is designed. Most of the stronger enemies and bosses have automatic dodges and are able to automatically block your attacks mid-combo, and the way to break their guards are often incredibly inconsistent, resulting in a combat that feels utterly frustrating. The bosses also often have very little tells in their attack, meaning that much of the gameplay boils down to abusing rage mode by pressing R2 to face-tank their attacks. This admittedly was also a problem in Yakuza 6 as well, but unlike that game, because now the game's enemy AIs feel much closer to those from infamous Yakuza 3, the rage mode and heat actions are the only ways to reliably inflict damage on the enemy. What's worse is that the game also has "mortal attacks" from the enemies, where if you fail to dodge it, they inflict significant permanent damage to your HP bar that can only be fixed by spending money to an NPC who also happens to reside in the most secluded area of Kamurocho. The enemies that are easier to deal with, there is one move that you can spam to quickly dispatch them, meaning that combat is either using the same overpowered move over and over again or not being able to properly attack as you want due to unfair enemy guards, patterns and dodges. Add in the fact that the game frequently forces players to deal with the annoying Kehin system where the map has more random encounters with signficantly stronger enemies, the combat is sadly the most frustrating since Yakuza 3.
It is still a very much an RGG game, however, with all its quirky charms. Kamurocho as an open "world" is still one of the most lively one out there, there are a lot of side contents for you to enjoy, and when it clicks, it clicks hard. At the very least, this is the most consistent story and storytelling from the studio--I would even argue that it trumps Yakuza 0 in that regard. For all its faults, Judgment is very much an interesting departure-extention from the Yakuza series, one that I hope continues.