This is a really hard game to talk about for myself. Because there is things that really good and there is things that really really pushes me to say "why...?". I still liked a lot but I don't think it was a full slamdunk for it's favor.
Gameplay
With this game, styles finally back! There is now 2 styles our character Yagami uses: crane and tiger. Crane is a wide group control kick based style, Tiger is a more narrow but better suited for one on one action judo? Style. When I first played judgment, I found it pretty boring. Why? Because both Crane and Tiger felt pretty slow, at least crane had some fasty moves that hiding behind some combos. But enemies that interrupt your attacks really killed my enjoyment for it too. It was like yakuza 6 and kiwami 2 unfortunately (maybe if no hit bounce mod existed for it, it would made my experience even better). The problem with judgment is slow combat felt even more slower because of the yagami's anger inducing repositioning himself after rebounding kicks animation. I said okay whatever let's push through and I am glad I did. Because after getting the wall jump then grap upgrade(that one really helps for crowd control), couple of speed upgrades and tiger fissure for tiger style, game really started to feel fun. But unfortunately another problem came through and that is balance. I don't know why but they didn't put any hard hitting upgrade for crane style and because of that, it became more and more obsolete for me. I found this a bit upsetting because with only thing crane have exclusive at that point is a juggle move that you can do on the end of the combo. But it's pretty hard to do when rebound thingy exists so, because of that I feel like a upgrade like easier juggle or no interrupt upgrade like the one tiger has would pretty much solve this issue but that's the end product unfortunately. Another unfortunate thing is reused moves and heat actions for Yagami. I don't know how many people realised but Yagami uses akiyama's kicks, tanimura's turning slap and kiryu's all of the back attacks. Not just that, there is a lot of kiryu's copy pasted heat actions in there as well. Rather than copy pasting it, at least modify a bit to make it more true for the character? Other unfortunate thing is burst/spirit/devil trigger thingy is back and it works like 5. What I mean is you can't get damaged in it, I think they added this for the casual players if they struggle with the mortal system(big boss attacks can damage your max health and only expensive items can cure it), but it throws already unbalanced game straight to the garbage bin. I know that yakuza games designed for casual players but even in hard mod it does make the game too easy. What the hell? I mean yakuza 6 have it too but this is a bigger step back like the yakuza 5(I don't like this press to win system).
So I don't know what you think with combat but it felt to me one step forward, one step back unfortunately. I like the new moves don't get me wrong but things so unbalanced that half of it goes straight to the garbage bin for me unfortunately.
Side Content
"Catching minigame back with a vengeance"
I think this one sentence enough to convey to you how I feel about substories. why? Because I found them pretty pacebreaking when you can combo an enemy multiple different ways, but game thinks holding the control stick up is more interesting. This is not the only problem, there is now variation of it and it's following a person stealthily and it's sucks even more. Because only thing you do is hold the button up, then when the person you are following starts turning you press the hide button and that's it. Unfortunate thing is it takes A LOT OF TIME, even more time than a catching minigame...
There is also new side activites too, one is zombie railshooting minigame that comes from dead souls's assets and I found it pretty fun even though it's pretty short and drone minigame. I haven't completed the drone minigame because there is no story..? It felt pretty weird to me since there is an npc connected to it for the friendship system that goes nowhere.
Friendship system comes back from yakuza kiwami 2 I think? I haven't played yk2 but it was also in the og one and y0 so I know what it is, but in this one there is one annoying thing and that is, it's required to get to amon... I found this pretty stupid because friendship system is a huge chore to get through. You have to do one thing like eating, buying, baseball etc. Multiple multiple multiple times... For what reason? There is a fun substories connected to it yes but only small number of them have it. There is one substory that unlocks after you finished the friendship and it's pretty cool. But the amount of grind you have to put yourself is unreal! At this point I started to wonder are they padding time just to show full completion takes considerable amount time?
After I played substories I became sure of it. Why? Because at least half of the substories requires you to do same thing thrice! I am not kidding. They made it this way because there is only 20 or so "real" substories but with repeats, it becomes 50... I would even replay yakuza 1 substories because compared to judgment, at least they don't take your damn time. Only thing I can say good is amon fight was creative at least. Unfortunately you can cheese it with spamming burst, devil trigger/spirit thingy but at least it was something different.
Story
I look pretty negative ain't I? But now it's time to get positive because since yakuza 1 and 4. This game really tries hard to inject new life to kamurocho and I really felt the danger every point of the story like the yakuza 1 did! I couldn't believe it because it's sooo nicely done! There is a lot factions like new yakuzas, killings, strange ocurrings all over the town that you start to feel kind of unedge and that's super awesome. Not just that, slowly unrevealing the mystery keeps you intrigued in every moment. Unfortunately not every part of the mystery used to it's potential in my opinion(especially things happening after the second half of the game regarding to the serial killer). But rest of it was fantastic. You learn Yagami's past and his motivations to solve this case, you learn his partners that how connects to both past, present and the future, you see how things chaoticly go out of hand! Because of this reason alone just go and play this game, I am not kidding it. If you like detective work and slowly revealing the mystery you are gonna like the main story with couple of exceptions.
World
Normally I would pass this part, but this time I wanted to talk about it. I already talked about uneasy feeling the main story does but there is more. The music tone they use on the overworld is more mysterious and dark this time. Also I wasn't a big fan of friendship thingy yes but seeing some of your friends in random places of the Kamurocho makes it feel alive. Combine this with the mysterious song list and bum. Vibes are flowing into me! Also I forgot to talk about how they added small shorcuts to Kamurocho too! They really tried their best to make Kamurocho feel fresh with this small changes. Because of that like I said I had emotions similar to Yakuza 1(ps2)'s Kamurocho. I mean Yakuza 1 still have the crown for atmosphere but this game is just behind it with yakuza 2.
So... Good game. Fun but badly balanced combat. Masterpiece level of atmosphere. Monotonous side quests. Really good story with an unfortunate weak villain. They balance itself together with positives and negatives so unfortunately it doesn't go as far as to masterpiece level. But still recommended.
Gameplay
With this game, styles finally back! There is now 2 styles our character Yagami uses: crane and tiger. Crane is a wide group control kick based style, Tiger is a more narrow but better suited for one on one action judo? Style. When I first played judgment, I found it pretty boring. Why? Because both Crane and Tiger felt pretty slow, at least crane had some fasty moves that hiding behind some combos. But enemies that interrupt your attacks really killed my enjoyment for it too. It was like yakuza 6 and kiwami 2 unfortunately (maybe if no hit bounce mod existed for it, it would made my experience even better). The problem with judgment is slow combat felt even more slower because of the yagami's anger inducing repositioning himself after rebounding kicks animation. I said okay whatever let's push through and I am glad I did. Because after getting the wall jump then grap upgrade(that one really helps for crowd control), couple of speed upgrades and tiger fissure for tiger style, game really started to feel fun. But unfortunately another problem came through and that is balance. I don't know why but they didn't put any hard hitting upgrade for crane style and because of that, it became more and more obsolete for me. I found this a bit upsetting because with only thing crane have exclusive at that point is a juggle move that you can do on the end of the combo. But it's pretty hard to do when rebound thingy exists so, because of that I feel like a upgrade like easier juggle or no interrupt upgrade like the one tiger has would pretty much solve this issue but that's the end product unfortunately. Another unfortunate thing is reused moves and heat actions for Yagami. I don't know how many people realised but Yagami uses akiyama's kicks, tanimura's turning slap and kiryu's all of the back attacks. Not just that, there is a lot of kiryu's copy pasted heat actions in there as well. Rather than copy pasting it, at least modify a bit to make it more true for the character? Other unfortunate thing is burst/spirit/devil trigger thingy is back and it works like 5. What I mean is you can't get damaged in it, I think they added this for the casual players if they struggle with the mortal system(big boss attacks can damage your max health and only expensive items can cure it), but it throws already unbalanced game straight to the garbage bin. I know that yakuza games designed for casual players but even in hard mod it does make the game too easy. What the hell? I mean yakuza 6 have it too but this is a bigger step back like the yakuza 5(I don't like this press to win system).
So I don't know what you think with combat but it felt to me one step forward, one step back unfortunately. I like the new moves don't get me wrong but things so unbalanced that half of it goes straight to the garbage bin for me unfortunately.
Side Content
"Catching minigame back with a vengeance"
I think this one sentence enough to convey to you how I feel about substories. why? Because I found them pretty pacebreaking when you can combo an enemy multiple different ways, but game thinks holding the control stick up is more interesting. This is not the only problem, there is now variation of it and it's following a person stealthily and it's sucks even more. Because only thing you do is hold the button up, then when the person you are following starts turning you press the hide button and that's it. Unfortunate thing is it takes A LOT OF TIME, even more time than a catching minigame...
There is also new side activites too, one is zombie railshooting minigame that comes from dead souls's assets and I found it pretty fun even though it's pretty short and drone minigame. I haven't completed the drone minigame because there is no story..? It felt pretty weird to me since there is an npc connected to it for the friendship system that goes nowhere.
Friendship system comes back from yakuza kiwami 2 I think? I haven't played yk2 but it was also in the og one and y0 so I know what it is, but in this one there is one annoying thing and that is, it's required to get to amon... I found this pretty stupid because friendship system is a huge chore to get through. You have to do one thing like eating, buying, baseball etc. Multiple multiple multiple times... For what reason? There is a fun substories connected to it yes but only small number of them have it. There is one substory that unlocks after you finished the friendship and it's pretty cool. But the amount of grind you have to put yourself is unreal! At this point I started to wonder are they padding time just to show full completion takes considerable amount time?
After I played substories I became sure of it. Why? Because at least half of the substories requires you to do same thing thrice! I am not kidding. They made it this way because there is only 20 or so "real" substories but with repeats, it becomes 50... I would even replay yakuza 1 substories because compared to judgment, at least they don't take your damn time. Only thing I can say good is amon fight was creative at least. Unfortunately you can cheese it with spamming burst, devil trigger/spirit thingy but at least it was something different.
Story
I look pretty negative ain't I? But now it's time to get positive because since yakuza 1 and 4. This game really tries hard to inject new life to kamurocho and I really felt the danger every point of the story like the yakuza 1 did! I couldn't believe it because it's sooo nicely done! There is a lot factions like new yakuzas, killings, strange ocurrings all over the town that you start to feel kind of unedge and that's super awesome. Not just that, slowly unrevealing the mystery keeps you intrigued in every moment. Unfortunately not every part of the mystery used to it's potential in my opinion(especially things happening after the second half of the game regarding to the serial killer). But rest of it was fantastic. You learn Yagami's past and his motivations to solve this case, you learn his partners that how connects to both past, present and the future, you see how things chaoticly go out of hand! Because of this reason alone just go and play this game, I am not kidding it. If you like detective work and slowly revealing the mystery you are gonna like the main story with couple of exceptions.
World
Normally I would pass this part, but this time I wanted to talk about it. I already talked about uneasy feeling the main story does but there is more. The music tone they use on the overworld is more mysterious and dark this time. Also I wasn't a big fan of friendship thingy yes but seeing some of your friends in random places of the Kamurocho makes it feel alive. Combine this with the mysterious song list and bum. Vibes are flowing into me! Also I forgot to talk about how they added small shorcuts to Kamurocho too! They really tried their best to make Kamurocho feel fresh with this small changes. Because of that like I said I had emotions similar to Yakuza 1(ps2)'s Kamurocho. I mean Yakuza 1 still have the crown for atmosphere but this game is just behind it with yakuza 2.
So... Good game. Fun but badly balanced combat. Masterpiece level of atmosphere. Monotonous side quests. Really good story with an unfortunate weak villain. They balance itself together with positives and negatives so unfortunately it doesn't go as far as to masterpiece level. But still recommended.