Uma sequência ideal, que mantém a qualidade de seu antecessor, Judgment, mas que também melhora em diversos aspectos se comparado ao já excelente primeiro jogo.

Lançado em 2021, Lost Judgment é o jogo mais novo da RGG (se não contarmos o Like a Dragon Isshin Kiwami e o Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania, que são remakes) e ele se passa nas cidades de Kamurocho, a queridinha da franquia que apareceu em todos os jogos até hoje, sejam eles Yakuza ou Judgment, mas também temos o retorno de Ijincho, que estreou no Yakuza Like a Dragon.

Jogamos novamente a história de Takayuki Yagami, um ex advogado, agora detetive, que dessa vez se envolveu em uma situação peculiar: a onda de bullying que a escola Seiryo High está passando. Acompanhado de seu sidekick Kaito e também de Sugiura e Tsukumo, eles precisam parar com essas ações dos estudantes e investigar o que está acontecendo naquele colégio, que guarda histórias e casos muito mais sombrios do que esperados anteriormente.

A história é, na minha opinião, a mais complexa que a RGG já fez até hoje, com todos os acontecimentos tendo diversas camadas, múltiplos motivos para eles terem ocorrido e um envolvimento tanto com algo que aconteceu no passado quanto com algo que poderá vir a acontecer no futuro. Portanto, a escrita desse jogo é extremamente sagaz, mostrando coisas que podem não fazer sentido no momento, mas que depois de vermos cena x, conhecermos personagem y ou vermos o passado de personagem z, começam a se interligar na grande teia que é a história de Lost Judgment.

Os personagens desse jogo são fenomenais, com ele tendo possivelmente o melhor cast de um jogo só até hoje da franquia, pra mim tendo como competidores apenas Yakuza 0, Yakuza 6 e o seu antecessor, Judgment. Além disso, os plot twists envolvendo esses personagens são todos muito perspicazes, fazendo você chegar na metade do jogo sem qualquer ideia de quem é bom, quem é mau e sequer de quem você realmente está enfrentando. Gostaria de dar destaque para alguns, sem dar qualquer tipo de spoiler, com eles sendo Soma, Sawa e, principalmente, Kuwana. Para mim, todos eles são no mínimo top 25 da RGG. Entretanto, não só de personagens novos vive esse jogo, já que uma parte relevante dos personagens que aparecem com destaque no primeiro jogo voltam a ser importantes aqui, com alguns deles tendo inclusive uma relevância ainda maior (o maior exemplo obviamente é o Tsukumo, indo apenas de um amigo e ajudante do Yagami no primeiro jogo para um dos personagens mais importantes no LJ). E não se preocupem, o Yagami continua sendo um protagonista fantástico, tendo ganhado ainda mais meu apreço depois de jogar esse jogo.

O combate é algo bizarro, fácil o melhor que eu já experimentei em um videogame. Portanto, é de se imaginar a quantidade de detalhes e nuances que a gameplay desse jogo tem, com ele conseguindo arrumar um dos problemas de seu antecessor, que era o do estilo Tiger ser muito mais forte que o Crane. Enquanto isso, no Lost Judgment, todos os 4 estilos (Crane, Tiger, Snake e o de DLC, Boxer) são totalmente viáveis e devem ser usados a todo momento, pois o jogo incentiva o jogador a ficar o tempo todo alternando entre eles, dando juggle nos oponentes e tornando possíveis combos enormes. As Secret Arts de cada estilo ajudam demais também, com cada uma dela dando um benefício que, no último nível do upgrade, funcionam em qualquer tipo de combate que você esteja. A do Crane aumenta a velocidade de ataque, a do Tiger aumenta o dano causado, a do Snake te dá superarmor, deixando o Yagami praticamente colado no chão, sem cair por nada, e a do Boxer aumenta a EX Gauge depois de você fazer um counter. Todas essas skills devem ser aproveitadas e abusadas. Porém, eu tenho algo a reclamar do combate, que são os quick time events. Não só eles foram extremamente reduzidos, tendo apenas uns 4 ou 5 no decorrer da campanha inteira, mas a mudança de um botão para múltiplos, ao meu ver, não foi um acerto. A tensão de apertar um botão rapidamente para evitar uma catástrofe é bem maior do que a de ver a ação desacelerar e ter que apertar 2 ou mais botões em sequência para ver o resto do combate. Só que isso acaba sendo balanceado por mais Dynamic Intros excelentes e Action Sequences cada vez melhores, que não superam as do primeiro jogo para mim mas se aproximam demais disso.

A quest secundária nesse jogo são as School Stories, que se passam dentro da Seiryo High, escola que tem uma importância grande na lore. Nela, o Yagami vira o conselheiro do clube de Pesquisa de Mistérios (MRC é a sigla usada no jogo), onde a líder do clube, Amasawa, está a procura do Professor, uma figura que, pelo seu site obscuro, ajuda diversos alunos a fazerem coisas que eles não deveriam, como machucarem colegas, roubarem dinheiro ou até mesmo conseguirem empregos como sugar babies. Logo, a Amasawa pede para o Yagami usar os seus talentos de detetive para se infiltrar em 9 outros clubes da escola, a procura de qualquer pista possível que os leve a esse tal Professor. Então, ao entrar nesses clubes, temos uma gama enorme de minigames para explorar, como por exemplo danças, batalhas de robôs, corridas de moto e até mesmo partidas de Virtua Fighter. Devo dizer que o plot final dessa história me deixou bem boquiaberto, quanto mais eu ia eliminando as possibilidades e me aproximando de quem realmente poderia ser a Mastermind por trás de tudo, mais eu percebia como a escrita desse jogo é fenomenal.

O jogo tem um começo mais devagar, sou obrigado a admitir, mas ele mais que compensa por isso com os capítulos seguintes, que a partir de um em específico, o jogo só acelera e não para mais, crescendo, crescendo, crescendo e crescendo, com o seu plot tenso e que causa nervosismo no player ao aguardar o que pode acontecer nos próximos minutos.

Eu joguei Lost Judgment esperando um jogo fantástico, considerando que eu só ouvia elogios sobre esse título, mas ainda assim eu consegui sair surpreendido, parabéns Ryu Ga Gotoku studios, vocês conseguiram de novo.

Upon completing Lost Judgment, my immediate thought was that this was a video game made for me. While the original Judgment was its own enjoyable ride, I reached the end of the trek only to look back on a mixed journey, curbed by some mechanical imbalances but steady enough with an investing story and acceptable combat. The sequel doesn’t just address these issues, it looked at everything done well and said, “We can try to top that.” The result is a serious candidate for my favorite title played this year; a game that emphasizes Rya Ga Gotuku Studio’s understanding of asset reuse and their growth as developers. Yes, I am calling Lost Judgment a legitimate masterwork.

While character-driven narratives are a core aspect of the franchise, Lost Judgment’s story is billed from the opening screen to be a more delicate topical. Lost Judgment deals with the difficulties adolescent youth face - and the extenuating responsibilities and failures of the adult world to address them. To be upfront, it’s ultimately impossible for me to have what feels like a measured take of the writing here, given it’s a matter that is incredibly close to my personal and professional experiences. But I will say this: in media depictions reflective of everyday circumstances, children are often dismissed as inconveniences that adults have to indoctrinate into society - nobody tries to understand the inherent value of a relationship between youth and their mentors. Lost Judgment pulls zero punches as far as showing how hard it is to be a kid, between the struggles of finding self-identity to the traumatic mistreatment at the hands of bullying - the latter of which being an essential topic here. There’s a level of respect taken here that’s so endearing, and it’s more prevalent as far as how the adult roles are portrayed. Children actively impact adult lives and vice versa - Lost Judgment emphasizes how valuable your time as an adolescent is and how mentor figures matter here. Detective Takayuki Yagami was shown to be a book-smart, determined investigator with a drive for earnest humanity and truth in Judgment, but here, through the students of Seiryo High, we’re shown a man who can live vicariously to give the students the adolescent joys he didn’t get to while being someone who values, respects, and listens to them. Greater society is often indifferent to children, but the plot, whether it be through a miraculously-conceived antagonist or the aforementioned interactions with youth, demonstrates how institutions fail and can succeed with children. With complex moral questions added that really embody how change is needed without right answers being in sight, nothing feels meaningless in the grand scheme of the writing. I feel it’s unfair to compare this game’s story to its predecessor, namely that the priorities are so different, yet I can say they match each other for my money.

But where Lost Judgment blows away the original is in its combat. The original Judgment, to paraphrase, was a functional beat 'em up offset by some weaknesses, namely, how one of Yagami’s two styles was superior, and how encounter design relied upon mobs with some inconsistent superarmor than diverse variety. Lost Judgment is the game that Judgment could have been from a combat standpoint, taking all of Yagami’s movesets, adding new skills, and redefining old successes. I’ve read how many can call this game a culmination of RGG Studio’s lessons about making strong gameplay feedback loops and, while my experience is limited to only three games of the series, it certainly feels like this statement is the case.

Previously, Yagami’s crane style was useful for its speed and multi-targeting attacks, but it lacked core components that tiger style could on its own, namely catered around building meter and being able to guard break consistently. Now, crane is virtually unrecognizable from what it was prior: it maximizes Yagami’s agility to its max. The sky dancer ability gives an alternate dodge that introduces new aerial attacks, though successfully pulling off a perfect dodge adds speed buff to Yagami, turning him into a whirlwind flurry of arcing attacks smashing into entire crowds at mach speeds. Comparatively, tiger remains mostly the same, but this still caters to its strengths, being a more offensive approach. The emphasis upon chaining charge attacks and combo finishers is rewarded with an attack boost buff and there are more counters Yagami can launch off blocking - thereby making it the ideal one-on-one tool for aggressive players who want to deal damage. But Lost Judgment upps the ante with a third style, snake, which revolves entirely around grabs and parries. The RGG games are known for using grabs to some effect, but snake takes that to the next level: like tiger, snake emphasizes staying in proximity, but redirecting enemies into bad positions or throwing them into one another - a way to stay aggressive while being defensive. A perfect parry can buff Yagami with additional poise, making it harder to stagger, let alone drop, him. It says a lot that each of these styles feel distinct enough situationally, yet versatile enough that not a single one doesn’t have some answer for any scenario. It ultimately is up to player for how they weaponize each one - and the more skills unlocked, the more creative they can be. By the end, I could say not a single style actually felt better than another - and I think that was essential to nail down.

(Note that there is a style behind DLC that I have not played with called “Boxer”.)

What takes all of this to the next level is that you can switch between any style whenever you want, even mid-combo. While the juggling tech in Judgment was resigned to a small assortment of combos, numerous new launchers allow players to keep enemies locked in beatdowns for extended periods more than ever. Juggling isn’t necessarily even the main approach for handling enemies - and finding those moves to make and maintain them raises the skill ceiling. What’s even better is that the aforementioned buffs each style gets can carry over as the player style switches once fully upgraded, thereby leading to even more chains players can use to beat down enemies. That’s the thing that gets me about Lost Judgment’s combat: everything has some benefit on its own, but the synergy between it all leads to a constant stream of momentum. The only real change I’d make is allowing players to customize the order they let Yagami switch styles but this feels like an obsolete nitpick because switching styles mid-combat pauses the entire screen until the switch is done.

The enemy design has also received a change or two: While many of the key tenets of RGG’s foes still show here - vulnerable to all tools, have some grabs, variety, open to environmental collisions - the most noticeable addition is the sheer size of the mob battles. While Judgment was no stranger to numerous foes swarming the rooms, Lost Judgment ups the ante regardless of how the room layout because Yagami’s improved defense and mobility means he can afford to take on - and blow through - more of them. This means the game is willing to include mini-bosses to try and make you work for victory. At least, they aren’t bloated HP sponges with inconsistent superarmor like Judgment had. Certain moves can still and will break superarmor down for regular moves to work - you just have to pay attention to which finishers in your combos can pull that off. Deadly attacks return, only they’re given a counter done by a well-timed dodge to turn the tide, but only in proximity and at the risk of a game over if you don’t pay attention. Just hope these sturdier enemies don’t have firearms - because you can’t grapple away weapons from them for some reason.

I think the point on boss-like thugs being supported with lackeys being better still runs the risk of falling into an issue I had with Judgment: at some point, bosses accompanied by regular enemies either bloats the encounter into a messy affair or are hiding how the boss lacks an interesting moveset - especially if the boss is an HP-sponge. Fortunately, Lost Judgment, while still having some recurring leftover habits here, does away with this by making major fights either solo affairs and having more fleshed out moves than ever. From the grab-centric physicality of Akutsu to the angry overhand swings of Detective Watanabe, the bosses become more distinct with their movesets, but, if they are accompanied by mobs, it’s noticeably not the cluster that led you to fall into unescapable attacks. Moreover, the bosses that are in 1v1 settings are the peak of the game and, fortunately, the two standouts of the game, Soma and Kuwana, play into everything an RGG boss should be. Soma’s defensive, parry-based style reinforces creative offense from players more than just about any other opponent in the game. I’ll, comparatively, keep details on Kuwana to myself, but he may well be the best mechanical boss the series has produced at this point.

There’s really only one debatable thing Judgment rivals Lost Judgment on - and it’s its final boss quality, but otherwise, there’s no contest on which game’s combat works more. The latter is one of the best I’ve played of any action game release in the last five years, period.

The fact that there’s still all of the available side content is just an added bonus, but side activities feel more rewarding. Minigames are spaced between genres through the many school-associated clubs Yagami investigates in a side plot, ranging from rhythm dancing to a surprisingly-fleshed out boxing-based versus mode. You don’t have to do any of these and some are better than others - the robotics club is catered towards players who like strategy and builds - but you have to appreciate the sheer amount of variety at play. Narratively-speaking, because some of Yagami’s characterization is built into enriching the lives of the students he interacts with, there’s ultimately no better way to do it than interacting with these clubs and solving their problems - further reinforcing how yes, youth do have relevant issues that adults can help with. And even then, the same side missions are available in some excess, ranging from the bizarrely chivalrous to the most roundabout-absurdity, there’s a lot to do between Kamurocho and Ijincho.

There’s genuinely so much more to say about this one, but I’d say, in encapsulation, that seeing Lost Judgment as an extension and improvement of its predecessor is all that really needs to be emphasized. It’s rare to find many developers who take the care to craft a product with experimental aspects balanced by feedback they receive from players, but that’s something Rya Ga Gotuku Studio continually does. Lost Judgment is a fantastic game, now among one of my favorites, and I really could go on about how it is a title, from intriguing start to an all-timer endgame, that I’ll remember so much that I can’t wait to replay.

Talvez o jogo que mais me deixou pensativo após terminar, de forma positiva e um pouco negativa. Precisei de um tempo pra amuderecer ele na minha cabeça, pensando sobre o final, sobre os temas, sobre como a história a partir de um certo ponto deixa o mistério de lado e foca na discussão que o envolve, passei até um bom tempo falando com um amigo sobre a conclusão

Um comentário sobre bullying, sobre como a lei é falha e não funciona, e uma discussão moral a respeito do quão longe se deve ir para tentar mudar algo. Lost Judgment fala sobre tudo isso de uma forma pesada, ao mesmo tempo madura e relatável, em vários momentos eu fiquei verdadeiramente desconfortável com o que estava vendo na tela, por serem situações que realmente acontecem na vida real e pouco se dá atenção, até coisas semelhantes com o que já presenciei, realmente não recomendaria o jogo pra alguém que tem algum tipo de trauma com relação a esses assuntos

LJ é bem corajoso e com certeza sua narrativa afastou bastante gente que esperou algo igual ao primeiro. O cenário é bem diferente, começamos numa escola e boa parte da gameplay se passa nela; é menos pessoal em relação ao Yagami; a maioria dos plot twists são previsíveis, o que eu não acho uma coisa ruim, porque dessa vez o foco não está em quem fez, e sim como fez e por quê. Também é uma abordagem mais simples, o fato do mistério não ser muito complexo faz você sentir como se estivesse lá junto a eles desvendando as peças do quebra cabeça. O cast de personagens é incrível, os que já tiveram seu desenvolvimento no jogo passado não vão ser muito aprofundados nesse, mas os novos são muito bons, principalmente os vilões, tendo meu novo antagonista favorito da RGG, com a melhor dinâmica com o protagonista, a dualidade deles é simplesmente incrível porque não dá pra dizer que nenhum lado está totalmente errado (na verdade dá, mas não vou falar disso pra não dar spoiler), algumas pessoas vão jogar e realmente torcer contra o Yagami. A bossfight final é tão épica quanto a do primeiro, porém mais emocional dessa vez, uma das melhores lutas que já vi em videogame, é só foda demais ver dois homens trocando socos porque é a única forma que sabem de resolver alguma coisa, enquanto toca unwavering belief

Apesar de tudo, eu ainda acho a história do primeiro jogo um pouco 🤏🏻 melhor porque na reta final tudo fica muito mais bem amarrado. Lá pro final do capítulo 9 do Lost, você já tem praticamente todas as respostas e ainda sobra 4 capítulos focados na construção do tema, e eu não tenho nada contra essa ideia até porque essa é a parte boa, e problema é que ainda sobra algumas dúvidas do porquê certas organizações estão envolvidas e isso é 2x menos interessante que o resto, tem umas revelações ali meio que jogadas de última hora e uma conveniência de roteiro bem estranha pra fazer o enredo funcionar. Nada que diminua a qualidade geral, porque no final das contas ainda vai ser uma das melhores escritas que você vai encontrar em videogame, e o último capítulo é incrível

eu poderia muito bem parar minha review por aqui, mas acredite ou não, tudo que eu comentei acima é 1/5 do conteúdo. O verdadeiro jogo são as school stories. Lá nos primeiros capítulos somos introduzidos à Amasawa (gosto bastante dela, espero que retorne em jogos futuros), líder do clube de investigação da escola, depois de uma sequência de eventos o Yagami precisa de uma forma de continuar investigando o lugar sem parecer suspeito, então ele dá um jeito de se tornar conselheiro desse clube. A partir daí a aventura começa, porque somos introduzidos à toda uma storyline em que o MRC (clube de investigação) tenta descobrir quem é a pessoa por trás de certos eventos estranhos na sehyo high school, então nos infiltramos em 9 clubes diferentes, cada um com um minigame único e sua própria storyline, que sempre vai dar pistas em relação ao mistério principal. E meu amigo, até tu jogar todas até o final de cada pra finalmente completar a investigação vai levar tempo, no total é umas 10 horas maior que a própria main story

Eu amo as school stories. Minha única reclamação é que às vezes me parece que a existe a mentalidade de que quantidade = qualidade, a maior parte das stories podiam ter 2/3 do tamanho e seria mais dinâmico e mais divertido, cansa em alguns momentos, mas ainda é ótimo. É muito legal tu ser um mentor pra vários adolescentes, os clubes vão abordar de uma forma bem legal temas diferentes como insegurança, inveja, depressão etc., num tom mais leve que me lembra até Persona, a diferença é que você está na perspectiva de um adulto lidando com jovens, então você percebe esse exagero nas problemáticas porque nessa fase da vida todo probleminha pode virar a coisa mais dramática do mundo. Abaixo vou comentar um pouco cada uma delas:

clube de boxe: Muito foda. O minigame tem um combate de boxe surpreendentemente complexo considerando que é uma coisa bem secundária, tem muita skill diferente pra tu desbloquear e lá pro final tem adversários que tu precisa adaptar sua maneira de jogar se quiser vencer. A historinha desse é uma das minhas favoritas, tem não ironicamente um desenvolvimento de personagem melhor que muita coisa famosa por aí

clube de dança: o clube que veio pra suprir a falta que faz um joguinho de ritmo em um yakuza, muito daora, único problema é que só tem 4 músicas. Muito fofinho o Yagami todo orgulhoso na platéia quando o time da escola vence

clube de robótica: esse aqui tem um pessoal que não gosta e eu entendo porque de início é bem confuso, mas quando aprendi a fazer build dos robozinhos e as melhores estratégias pra vencer se tornou um dos meus favoritos, é satisfatório demais. +é bem legal como no início todo mundo desse clube é um cuzão com você mas aos poucos se ganha a confiança deles

gangues de moto: um suposto minigame de corrida, mas o foco está mais no combate, fazer drift pra aumentar o turbo e derrubar todas as motos. Na gameplay fica meio repetitivo após um tempo, mas a storyline é bem legal, é muito foda a ideia de que se tu vencer o rival na corrida, ele faz o que você quiser

esses acima foram os principais digamos assim, de resto tem alguns mais simples que não tem muito o que comentar. O de skate que é bem legal e dá pra terminar em 30 minutos, o casino, as garotas do bar, o de e-sports e o clube de fotografia. Só vou citar que o clube de fotografia e poderia não existir, a história dele é bem foda-se e conta com 3 das missões mais chatas do jogo, incluindo uma horrível de stealth

obviamente as school stories não são as únicas atividades secundárias, ainda tem os minigames da cidade que são quase os mesmos do primeiro judgment com uma melhoria ou outra, e não podia faltar também as substories (ou side cases se preferir). Tem menos side cases que no primeiro jogo, mas continuam muito bons e sem aquele sistema de amigos, tem um side case em específico em que você investiga uma estátua amaldiçoada de um gato, que se tornou um dos meus favoritos da franquia

mudando de tópico agora: finalmente vou falar do combate. E nesse aspecto, essa foi a maior mitada da dragon engine, que combate bom. 3 estilos, o Crane que era quase inútil em judgment se tornou meu favorito nesse, o Tiger continua tão forte quanto e o Snake foi uma puta adição, um estilo focado em desarme, agarrão e parry, bem divertido de usar, não dá pra dizer que um é melhor que o outro, você vai sempre querer usar os 3. Tem 30 skills desbloqueáveis pra cada fora as skills que servem pros 3, é muita coisa pra fazer, umas 5 horas minhas no jogo foi brincando com o combate. As heat actions estão brutais, tu sente o peso da destruição, é muito foda a aura do Yagami aparecendo enquanto tu executa o inimigo. É o único Yakuza que eu ativamente procurei inimigos na rua pra brigar ao invés de evitar eles. Aliás, pela primeira vez eles acertaram nas street fights, elas não são escassas que nem no judgment, nem aparecem a cada esquina como no kiwami e no yakuza 5, e bem fáceis de fugir se não estiver afim. E também é o primeiro combate a ter um sistema que te recompensa por jogar bem, como eu queria que existisse isso em todos, se você fizer certas coisas em batalha vai ganhar um bônus de XP, é uma boa forma de te incentivar a pensar no que vai fazer e não ficar só spammando quadrado e triângulo, dá pra farmar bastante dessa forma. Único problema, como de costume, é a dificuldade. No geral os inimigos não vão te oferecer muito desafio nem vão aguentar muito tuas pancadas testando o combate, tanto que não recomendo muito upar o ataque até lá pro capítulo 7. Só no final tem umas long battles e umas bossfights complicadas, fui no hard e morri umas 5 vezes no último capítulo

conclusão: Lost Judgment é um dos melhores jogos dos últimos anos. História, combate, side content, visuais, tudo em alto nível. O fato de esse ser o Yakuza mais recente me alegra, porque estamos vivendo o auge da série, é só mitada atrás de mitada, e ainda vem mais em 2023 e 2024

Mas que jogo INCRÍVEL, como sempre a Rgg Studios fazendo o peak dos games !!!

História extremamente envolvente e boa demais, abordando temas como bulling e e justiça de uma forma tão bem integrada, coesa, instingante e muito respeitosa com os temas abodados e que você fica pensando quem esta certo no seu lado do argumento, simplesmente tocante a história desse jogo.
A gameplay consegiu melhorar o que ja era bom, apesar de ainda ter estilos melhores que outros e coisas de fora para ser vendido como dlc 🫤, com mais fluidez nos seus movimentos uns dos combates mais satisfatórios da que a Rgg já fez.
Trilha sonora simplesmente banger demais tinha partes que eu nao sabia se eu para escutar a ost ou jogava o jogo, e em certa parte simplesmente ela eleva ao 200% o nivel de fodisse da cena (sim eu estou falando da final boss).
O carima que e carinho que esse jogo possui e anormal de bom eu não esperar que ele seria tão bom quanto o primeiro judgment mas ele conseguiu ser uma continuação na altura do seu antecessor e ate em melhor que alguns yakuzas mainlines ,talvez seja o hype de eu ter acabado zerar que esteja falando mais alto mas so o tempo dirar, mas no momento esse jogo e SIMPLESMENTE MARAVILHOSO e explica porque esse studio e o meu favorito da atualidade ❤️

NÃO TEM COMO A RGG STUDIOS E GENIAL !!!

I have to admit, I wasn't really much of a fan of the first Judgment game, while I certanly did enjoy the game overall, it had some problems that I couldn't really ignore, such as the pacing of the story and the sorta lackluster combat. Safe to say, Lost Judgment pretty much fixed all these problems. The story takes place 3 years after the first one, and our private detective is sent to Yokohama to investigate a murder of which prime suspect has an airtight alibi, being caught for a different crime at the exact same time the murder took place. Since this game is a sequel, it does not need to waste time to establish most of the main cast and can jump right in on the plot, never losing any sort of momentum along the way.

The combat this time around is way more refined, and probably is the best combat that the series ever had. Crane style this time around has some new perks that keep it from being replacable from the Tiger style and a new style called Snake based on counters and grabs keeps the combat fresh and varied for the player to do some experimentation.

While the main plot is good enough on it's own, the side content is nothing to skip over. Playing detective on Seiro High School with the School Stories was surprisingly fun. Infiltrating various clubs and participating in dancing, boxing, robotics, skating, bike gangs and more is entertaining enough to keep the player hooked on this small scale mystery.

Safe to say, RGG made another banger, and you can see why it is regarded as the best RGG game of the series.

The best game in the Yakuza franchise so far and it ain't even close. Gameplay is the best, OST is peak, and the story is fantastic too even if I overall prefer the first Judgment's.

I guess if I had to explain it, I would say Judgment has a more interesting plot and stuff about Yagami, while LJ has a more fun overall cast and a much more fun antagonist. Both are top-tier in the franchise as far as I'm concerned, though!

Combat is so goddamn fun in this thanks to Yagami's returning styles getting improved upon and the addition of Snake style which is great. Plus going all in on juggling pays off. It feels a bit odd at times, though, compared to the first Judgment, since you need to rely much less on some of Yagami's unique tools like vaulting and wall jumps, which I liked because it felt like you had to be more "crafty" than in this. Nonetheless, it's fun as fuck and the best combat in the series.

I like the new "detective" mechanics a lot, including the Squirrel Search side content (although having skills locked behind random Squirrel Search targets is stupid as hell). Tailing missions being much less frequent in favor of parkour and stealth segments is also very welcome. They're a nice change of pace. I also really like how you find out about some stuff by just listening in on people's conversations on the streets, though I wish it was used more.

Also the most fun 100% by far as it has almost no grinding (besides Robotics Club parts and things like 100 Skills in Paradise VR, but nothing compared to the shit Y7 pulled right before it).

Which, on that note, I absolutely loved the side content in this. Side Cases are great, other than the "Dastardly Detective" chain which sadly makes up most of the side cases list. Which is only an issues because this game only has 42 Side Cases (without the DLC, which I have and I did because I'm on PC and it comes bundled in).

The slack, however, is vastly picked up by the School Stories side content, which is the main reason why I think LJ has the best amount and variety of side content since Y5.

There's far too many new/revamped minigames and shit for me to talk in detail, but I wanna give my opinions on them all quickly:

-Gambling 100/5, because you can get cheat items with extreme ease.
-Boxing 100/5, fucking fun as hell gimme more.
-Robotics Club 4/5, pretty fun but the only real grind for 100%. Dunno why people get filtered by this one, tho?
-Photography Club 2.5/5, funny story and gameplay concept but way too short.
-Bikers 4.5/5, fun as fuck and has banging music but can get repetitive.
-Dance Club 3.5/5, fun but the notecharts feel a bit off and the last song sucks.
-Paradise VR 2.0 4/5, anyone who prefers the OG is wrong.
-Aircelios 2/5, would be better if power ups worked differently.
-Skate Park 3/5, fun but too basic.
-Skate Racing 4.5/5, feels a little janky sometimes but otherwise fantastic.
-E-Sports Club 4/5, because VF5 is peak fighting and it's hilarious that its the only game the club plays.
-Girls' Bite 2/5, fun storyline but the bar itself is just a terrible mix of Y6 bar chat and hostess clubs.
-Drone Racing 4/5, I kinda prefer the Kamurocho tracks from the first game but it's still fun as fuck.

Lastly, I want to mention that this game made me realize that the Master System fucking sucks. The closest thing to a good game on the blasted thing is Fantasy Zone II and they basically had to remake that one to get it on par with the first game anyway!

While I thought Judgment was a flawed but fun game, its sequel fixes most of its problems.

The gameplay here is possibly my favorite out of all RGG games. All 3 styles (not including the boxing style because I don't own it) are amazing and unlike the original judgment, crane is actually good, it's probably my favorite here. Juggling is so fun. The extracts are fun to play with. It's just perfect imo.

The detective mechanics are not so good tbh. While the returning mechanics like tailing are slightly better here, they're still not the greatest thing ever. The main problem comes with the 2 new ones. Stealth and Parkour. They're bad. Moreso stealth tbh it's so handholdy and it's so stupid that Yagami somehow can't hit these random grunts. Once you're caught it's immediately game over. I think I'd genuinely prefer if these were scrapped for the next game, or at least completely revamp them.

The school stories are great. I spent a lot of time in them. They're well written and most of the minigames are fun. It's obvious that the bottom 5 stories are weaker than the top 5 but still they're not bad at all. My favorites were the Dance Club and Boxing Gym.

The OST here is great. The street battles themes here are way better than Judgment imo. A lot of memorable tracks. Unwavering Belief. Very strong OST, one of the best in the series.


SPOILER WARNING
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The story here starts off strong. I really enjoyed the way this game tackled bullying. It continues to be quite interesting until a certain event. It just lost me after that. Every conversation between Yagami and Kuwana just became basically Kuwana explaining how the law doesn't grant everyone justice and that some people aren't punished for their crimes and then Yagami goes: "but what about Sawa-sensei?" Obviously the way Kuwana grants people justice isn't good. He blackmails the bullies and torments them and he's a killer, but I want Yagami to have a more powerful counter-argument than "but Sawa-sensei died because of you". Kuwana is very well-written. Probably one of my favorite RGG villians, but I think Yagami doesn't really do him justice. He acts as if Soma wasn't the one who killed Yoko Sawa.

Even with the flaws in the story, I do think Lost Judgment has basically perfect combat, so of course I liked it. If certain parts were written better it would definitely be my favorite in the series. It's still top 5 though.

THE YEAR OF THE DRAGON

From the get-go, Lost Judgment already displayed how much of a glow-up it is technically from its predecessor. The experience RGG had with their powerhouse of the Dragon Engine feels the most polished here, delivering unquestionably the best real-time action gameplay they’ve ever done, even more so than the mainline Yakuza/Like A Dragon entries. While not quite to the lengths I prefer it to be taken, the premise of following a detective feels better taken advantage of with unique gameplay additions like radar detection and a dog to help sniff out the map. Judgment was still a great game, but its biggest blemish that dragged it from being an absolute peak was the side-content being… much less than desirable. Something which has been mostly addressed here, with side-cases feeling more entertaining showcases of Yagami as a detective and extra mini-games beyond Drome Racing and Paradise VR. They took cues from Yakuza 0 and greatly reworked his moveset to incorporate four different brawler styles with revamped skills worth buying. Yakuza/Like A Dragon may shift gears to an attempt at turn-based combat, but I think what RGG cooked with the gameplay here proved there’s still room for the older real-time action combat to stick around alongside it. From the sounds of it, I’m very impressed by how much of an improvement Lost Judgment was from Judgment and even consider it to be, overall, just a better game. Except… despite how much I preferred playing this more over Judgment, I still think it fell short in one department where the other game still had an edge over it.

I was completely surprised by how Lost Judgment’s story tackled sensitive topics that I never thought RGG would think themselves capable of making a game about. It’s unexpected as a direction to take after a mystery like the first game, but I applaud the bold approach in shinning a light on the cyclical nature of bullying. The actual threats are hardly ever held accountable for their actions, and so no justice was truly delivered by a broken system that continuously failed the victims who suffered. While Yagami isn’t quite interesting here as he was in Judgment, his dynamic with the main antagonist underlined his conviction as someone who believes law, imperfect as it is, needs people like him to make it by protecting the ones it couldn’t save. The main antagonist definitely deserves to be included in the conversations of amazing RGG villains, perhaps being the most complex and sympathetic. I really enjoy aspects of the wider narrative but the actual ‘storytelling’ itself left a lot to be desired, if that distinction makes sense. Judgment’s story may be a more typical mystery conspiracy thriller with much less to say about current social issues, but it was one that felt personally involved with set-up that paid off in what I still see as one of the best final stretches of any RGG game. The Judgment Four all had a personal stake in the conspiracy that linked them all together to put a stop to the root of their troubles. It wasn’t so much about Yagami and the gang solving a mystery to unearth the truth, but to ensure judgment was given to those responsible for ruining people’s livelihoods, including the ones closest to them. Here, they’re all underutilized within the plot, except for Yagami, never having a personal stake for why they’re investigating a murder mystery together that made you feel like these guys are a team working towards a common goal. It made the narrative feel emotionally disconnected, despite Yagami reminding you constantly what’s driving him about this, which felt artificial after a while as a motivation compared to the last game. I would try to weigh in my thoughts on its message about bullying but to be honest this is out of my range to give a nuanced discussion on, so all I can say is that I think RGG just aren’t the best developers to tackle this subject matter, even if I respect the attempt.

I’m not familiar with the current status of the Judgment subseries, too afraid to do some deep-diving research for the sake of potential spoilers for Infinite Wealth, but I hope this isn’t the end. Despite their imperfections, I'm grateful for their efforts to enhance and broaden both the story and gameplay aspects of Yakuza/Like A Dragon. I definitely think there is a Judgment game from the potential kept brewing here to be a close favorite of mine. A certified all-timer, even. Yagami is already an honorable mention for one of my all-time favorite fictional protagonists, so I just want my newfound GOAT to get the perfect game he deserves.

A magnificent follow up to one of RGG's best titles that somehow surpasses everything the original did.
An incredible story with a very engaging antagonist

I love the addition of a third style into the mix adds more variety to the combat which is more improved than the first title.
The only thing I wasn't a fan of were the stealth sequences but thankfully there wasn't much of that.
All in all, a fantastic game that I hope there will be a third game someday.

a sequel to the first judgment, and this one doesn't disappoint. a very good story (the first had better mysteries tho), with the same great cast, and probably the best villain in any yakuza game. gameplay goes up points here, making every fighting style viable, and some STUPID broken (looking at you boxer). this game is seriously close to perfection.

so lets get into the less than good parts: kamurocho gets pretty easily identified as part of yagami in the first game, intergal to this character, etc etc; in this game it feels STRONGLY underutilized. though i dont know how they could integrate it naturally without changing the story up, but it still is noticable. the other being school stories: this is one of the few games that feels like there's TOO much to do, and all of the clubs vary from pretty good to BAD (robotics).

still, if you loved the first game, you probably already got this one. this one sits towards the top of my yakuza list, and i cant imagine it gets shifted unless the third judgment is just balls to the wall.

RGG Studios just never misses huh? Lost Judgment maintains the level of greatness of its predecessor, and it even surpasses it in some areas, which can be seen clearly in its gameplay. Gone are the pacing-breaking detective minigames, the only ones that are left are the ones that were actually fun and even then they're sparsely used. The combat has also got a new coat of paint, the crane style finally feels good to use and the new snake style is incredibly cool, even if in my opinion it overshadows the tiger style. As for the story, it's pretty good, not necessarily better than the previous game's, but in terms of themes I feel it's the better one of the two. The new characters are amazing, specially the two antagonists, but I would have preferred that some of the og gang had more to do, specially Kaito who is barely in this game (and yeah I know he has his own story DLC but still). Overall Lost Judgment is a pretty fun and solid game, and I wish the franchise continues to grow in the future.

Judgment was a pretty good game, but wow, this is such a massive improvement over the first that I can't see myself going back to it after playing this. Other than having a story that is slightly better paced, there is nothing JE does that LJ doesn't do a 100x better.

The biggest improvement, by far, is the combat system. After years of playing through the Yakuza series, I can finally say there is a Yakuza game whose combat system has surpassed Yakuza 0's. So much more fluid, so many options, no more mortal blows, the returning styles got major tweaks and the new styles are fantastic in their own rights, and being able to mix them up and juggle enemies like it was Tekken is exhilarating. From this point forward, every beat-em-up style Yakuza title should strive to reach this level. If you can't juggle enemies in newer titles, it's immediately inferior to this game.

The story is also fantastic, and while it's not quite as compelling as JE's story was, LJ more than makes up for it with who is probably the best antagonist in the entire series. Yakuza games have always had a tendency to adopt a very black and white moral view throughout their storyline, and this is the first time we've gotten such a morally gray character and dilemma in the series, I loved it. All the new characters and antagonists introduced are so memorable.

Technical aspects are also vastly improved. This is, without question, the best looking any game in the Yakuza series has ever been. The Dragon Engine has been perfected so that the prerendered cutscenes look worse than actual in-game cutscenes, and the lighting has also been improved drastically (especially from Y7's awful lighting). The soundtrack is great, and the new QOL improvements are welcome. I can't believe it took this long to be able to fast travel from anywhere.

If I had to point out some flaws in the game though, it would definitely be the school subplot with the MRC, because some of the minigames are definitely better than others. Boxing, robot club, dancing, girl's bar, they were fun and interesting. The others, not so much, and some of them, especially the biker race, just got really repetitive and frustrating. Most of the substories are also pretty lackluster.

But other than those 2 aspects, this is easily one of the best games that RGG has ever put out, and I genuinely hope a third game is in the works somewhere down the line. Powerful story, memorable and interesting characters, a fantastic antagonist that acts as a dark mirror to the protagonist, an extremely fluid combat system that makes me want to engage in random battles instead of running away, and some great minigames, this game has almost everything I could ever want in an RGG title.