Lost Judgment is interesting as a fan of the developers and of Judgment 2018. Lost Judgment takes a few steps forward as in having 2 hub cities loaded with content, A hugely expansive cavalcade of side content that could be its own game. The combat is the best in the series. Its challenging, buttery smooth, technical, and easy to learn. All these make Lost Judgment worth the price for returning fans.
However, in terms of recommending this game to someone who has never played any of the yakuza games or judgment I would actually not recommend this as your first outing. Simply because at the end of the day the heart and souls of what makes these games tick is the story. Unfortunately, Lost Judgement has the weakest story in the series in my opinion. For one, I get these games have some convoluted plots and at times ridiculous plot twists, Lost Judgment gets too bogged down in too many characters to establish, develop, and have some payoff to the story. The returning cast is strong but if you don't know any of them you will be completely lost. The new cast is mostly forgettable and take too much time away from the returning cast, which would be fine if the new cast members were 1/3 as interesting. It felt like the plot and characters were constantly getting sidetracked to make room for others but it doesn't feel nearly as cohesive and neatly tied together as the previous outings.
Needless to say, I ended up leaving Lost Judgment overall satisfied but disappointed. I love the series and hope for more but only time will tell if the rumors about this being the last judgment game are true.