rodrigo548
1 review liked by rodrigo548
Lost Judgment
2021
I love RGG games and I loved the first Judgment a ton, however Lost Judgment feels like it leaves a lot to be desired for me. A lot of what I liked about the first Judgment was Yagami's scrappy detective lifestyle clashing with the Kamurocho setting as a nice change from what Yakuza had been doing. A lot of the minigames they added were nice novelties and pretty cute additions to try and break pace with what Yakuza was, but they still expanded on the combat in its own way.
I'm happy to say, Lost Judgment is generally an improvement on all of those fronts. The combat is as dynamic as it was before with even more additions and updates such as a whole new style in Snake style and making Crane feel pretty fun now. It's awesome hopping from enemy to enemy switching styles on the fly into something else like you are in your own martial arts film. Mortal Wounds are now a hell of a lot better in the continuing effort to make boss fights in Yakuza fun, I actually had a ton of fun with some of the bosses and sequences in this game.
Narratively the game also goes with some very different themes for this game that while not new for Japanese media are still pretty cool and handled with respect and grace here. The main antagonist of the game is honestly one of the best antagonists RGG has ever made being a pretty understandable dude, but not appearing entirely monstrous for his actions. The music is pretty damn excellent too.
Now where the game feels like it starts to kinda stumble is that I think the first half of the game honestly kinda sucks. The first chapter has a fun start to the story, but after a while I feel like it starts to spin its wheels on its message and narrative. Dealing with these dipshits teenagers for like 3 chapters got super tiring as did having to put up with the new gameplay features. Parkour is fucking bad. It's not unplayably bad, but it's not what I would ever call fun or feels like it's not wasting my damn time. The same goes with investigations with this game which are virtually unchanged except they lost the searching for cat stuff so now they feel more hollow and tedious. I remember the game actually has a pretty thrilling final chapter, but it breaks it up with like four sequences where you either investigate or do parkour after you just beat some ass and it made me feel like I was losing steam on enjoying myself and starting to get annoyed.
The sidequests also started to bug me too, because I actually enjoyed how Judgment's operated in the first game with the friends you could meet and then the occasional side quest storyline you would take. The entire game is now all of the latter and I got pretty bored of what was being offered for sidequests very quickly. The MRC thing is a cute idea, but holy shit do I not like investigation at all and try to avoid it as much as possible. The rhythm game thing for the dance club is a fun thing too, but after a few times it's stupid easy even on the hardest difficulty and gets boring.
I also can't help but feel like the use of Isezaki Ijincho is a very stale reuse of their Yakuza 7 assets. Not that this studio isn't known for doing this, but I had thoroughly seen this place already in Yakuza 7, there is nothing new to offer here exploration wise. It's the same fucking place. Which you could argue was the case with Kamurocho in the Yakuza games, but the Yakuza games aren't about exploration of the city so much as its citizens and weird stories you get pulled into. I feel like RGG Studio thinks this is how they make the setting feel fresh, but imma tell you right now chief I was in Survive a million times in Y7 and I don't care to see it again as Yagami in this game.
Cast wise I also feel like the game doesn't have a lot for the returning cast to do. In the first Judgment a lot of the cast had their own personal stories and drama going on which gave you a lot to invest yourself in and think about. In this game Sugiura and Tsukumo feel like they're just kinda there. I appreciate pulling a bit character from the first game like Tsukumo into the main cast, but he is very blatantly just the tech guy to the point where it feels superfluous they even used him. The other main antagonist also kinda feels like something of a rehash of Judgment's main antagonist in both personality and honestly doesn't look that different from him.
I also have to ask why did they add the skateboard if it's just not usable in most locations of the game? Like navigation in these games is cumbersome after a point which is why they offer taxis to fast travel, but the skateboard isn't that fun to use or even that fast and doing stuff with it feels like it loses its luster super quickly. Just a bunch of weird choices like that made here and there that make the game feel a lot less special and more like they're trying to throw darts at boards to see what works and missing the mark.
Overall, I'd say I enjoyed Lost Judgment despite my criticisms. The game has a lot of strengths and I can see why a lot of people seem to love it even over the first, but the stuff that bugs me really gets my goat and made it a chore to play at times. Regardless, I'm looking forward to whatever RGG Studio pushes out next.
I'm happy to say, Lost Judgment is generally an improvement on all of those fronts. The combat is as dynamic as it was before with even more additions and updates such as a whole new style in Snake style and making Crane feel pretty fun now. It's awesome hopping from enemy to enemy switching styles on the fly into something else like you are in your own martial arts film. Mortal Wounds are now a hell of a lot better in the continuing effort to make boss fights in Yakuza fun, I actually had a ton of fun with some of the bosses and sequences in this game.
Narratively the game also goes with some very different themes for this game that while not new for Japanese media are still pretty cool and handled with respect and grace here. The main antagonist of the game is honestly one of the best antagonists RGG has ever made being a pretty understandable dude, but not appearing entirely monstrous for his actions. The music is pretty damn excellent too.
Now where the game feels like it starts to kinda stumble is that I think the first half of the game honestly kinda sucks. The first chapter has a fun start to the story, but after a while I feel like it starts to spin its wheels on its message and narrative. Dealing with these dipshits teenagers for like 3 chapters got super tiring as did having to put up with the new gameplay features. Parkour is fucking bad. It's not unplayably bad, but it's not what I would ever call fun or feels like it's not wasting my damn time. The same goes with investigations with this game which are virtually unchanged except they lost the searching for cat stuff so now they feel more hollow and tedious. I remember the game actually has a pretty thrilling final chapter, but it breaks it up with like four sequences where you either investigate or do parkour after you just beat some ass and it made me feel like I was losing steam on enjoying myself and starting to get annoyed.
The sidequests also started to bug me too, because I actually enjoyed how Judgment's operated in the first game with the friends you could meet and then the occasional side quest storyline you would take. The entire game is now all of the latter and I got pretty bored of what was being offered for sidequests very quickly. The MRC thing is a cute idea, but holy shit do I not like investigation at all and try to avoid it as much as possible. The rhythm game thing for the dance club is a fun thing too, but after a few times it's stupid easy even on the hardest difficulty and gets boring.
I also can't help but feel like the use of Isezaki Ijincho is a very stale reuse of their Yakuza 7 assets. Not that this studio isn't known for doing this, but I had thoroughly seen this place already in Yakuza 7, there is nothing new to offer here exploration wise. It's the same fucking place. Which you could argue was the case with Kamurocho in the Yakuza games, but the Yakuza games aren't about exploration of the city so much as its citizens and weird stories you get pulled into. I feel like RGG Studio thinks this is how they make the setting feel fresh, but imma tell you right now chief I was in Survive a million times in Y7 and I don't care to see it again as Yagami in this game.
Cast wise I also feel like the game doesn't have a lot for the returning cast to do. In the first Judgment a lot of the cast had their own personal stories and drama going on which gave you a lot to invest yourself in and think about. In this game Sugiura and Tsukumo feel like they're just kinda there. I appreciate pulling a bit character from the first game like Tsukumo into the main cast, but he is very blatantly just the tech guy to the point where it feels superfluous they even used him. The other main antagonist also kinda feels like something of a rehash of Judgment's main antagonist in both personality and honestly doesn't look that different from him.
I also have to ask why did they add the skateboard if it's just not usable in most locations of the game? Like navigation in these games is cumbersome after a point which is why they offer taxis to fast travel, but the skateboard isn't that fun to use or even that fast and doing stuff with it feels like it loses its luster super quickly. Just a bunch of weird choices like that made here and there that make the game feel a lot less special and more like they're trying to throw darts at boards to see what works and missing the mark.
Overall, I'd say I enjoyed Lost Judgment despite my criticisms. The game has a lot of strengths and I can see why a lot of people seem to love it even over the first, but the stuff that bugs me really gets my goat and made it a chore to play at times. Regardless, I'm looking forward to whatever RGG Studio pushes out next.