I ended up with about 81% complete (I question it because the final screen said I completed 3/10 school stories, but I finished that entire thread).

Lost Judgement is the least good RGG game. All the edges have been sanded down so smooth that there isn't a lot of actual game in here. There are stealth, following suspects, investigating, and climbing mechanics, all crucial to the plot, but they are barely utilized. Most of the school story mini games were half baked, fun for a minute, but quickly tiring, with built in methods to just win. Robot wars, motorcycle races, and boxing were all way too long, and photography, the most enjoyable one, was way too short.

The fighting isn't crunchy like previous entries, I never really felt like I was in full control of Yagami, in part because almost all the fights were melee against groups, like Kiwami 2 and Yakuza 6.

There was very little one on one, so most of the fights really were just button mashing affairs, even on the highest difficulty. Because of this, there was no time to really refine fighting, so the first few boss fights were really hard because I didn't know how to fight just one guy.

There's also a Master System emulator and boy are those games bad. Playing Alex Kidd, it's a fucking miracle we ever got to Mario. There's a rewind button, but even with that, the game is impossible. What a turd of a system.

The story was very good, however. Nice and twisty and grimy, a solid crime story, with a solid conclusion, and a plot where you follow the "all the way to the top".

This will probably be the last Yakuza/RGG game I play in this style. I've played all 10 of them (Yakuza 0 - 6, Judgement, Lost Judgement, Fist of the North Star) at this point, and I think it's just done. I don't think there's anything else to do here, and that's okay! They did 10 of these things!

After another 4 - 8 months (about how long I take to recharge between entries), I'll be ready to do one more and play Like a Dragon. I hear that the shift in styles reinvigorates the series.

Reviewed on May 18, 2022


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