This is a tough game for me to review, because I want to say I adore it, and parts of it I absolutely do. However, It's marred by flaws that sour the experience to the point where I can't say that.
One of the parts that I adore is the story. This is hands down the best narrative in the entire series and a big part of it is thanks to how it's set out. Judgment has an episodic feel to its plot as the main story consists of several smaller cases that all tie into the games main mystery and unravelling how everything is connected as the game progresses reaches levels of intrigue that's unlike anything in the series. As it reaches its crescendo in the final 3 chapters, it becomes an absolute rollercoaster of reveals, hard-hitting dialogue and incredibly satisfying resolutions. The cast is strong too, Yagami, while not being a fountain of personality, has a level of cheek to him which, when coupled with the banter he shares with character like Kaito, makes for some really enjoyable dialogue. The supporting cast is also very likeable and despite the game only being 13 chapters long, I feel everyone gets a decent amount of screen time. Even with all that said though, it's impossible for me to do the story justice, you just have to experience it for yourself.
The only blemish on the story is the fact that you're forced to do side cases during it. In fairness, these are some of the stronger side cases in the game, but when you're forced to do them during the game's main story, it just feels like padding that ends up hurting the stories pacing. That brings me to one of my main issues with Judgment, for a game in the Yakuza series, the side content here is much weaker than usual. To begin with, side cases feel really repetitive here since a lot of them get repeated up to 3 times, like the Bomber side cases where you just find a bomb 3 different times, or when you have to find a kid who is hiding 3 different times. The game has 50 side cases total but it really only feels like there's about 20 with how much repetition there is. There simply wasn't as much effort placed into these side cases and a big reason why is because of the Friend Events. Friend Events have you befriend people in Kamurocho by performing various tasks like beating up people who are threatening them or buying food at their restaurant. I'm split on this system since while it does make the town of Kamurocho feel more alive than ever and having certain friends help out during combat does feel really cool, the storylines in Friend Events are mostly really generic and forgettable.
However, the side cases still have a lot of highlights like the Haunted Apartment or the Twisted Trio cases which are both hilarious, and that goes for the game as a whole. Judgment retains the absurdity of the mainline games and it makes for some of the most hilarious moments in the series. The payoff for completing all side cases and friend events is great too as you see the friends you've made help out in The Golden Mouse side case which was really heart-warming. Also, this game has the best Amon fight so far. As for other parts of side content, it's hit and miss. The girlfriend stuff is just creepy and Paradise VR is too RNG-Based for my liking (and getting play passes is a pain). Drone-racing is awesome though
As for combat, I'm not very fond of it here. It might just be me, but Yagami's attacks feel really rigid, there's also a huge amount of endlag on his moves which only makes the combat feel more awkward. I did eventually get used to it though, also, this game has the coolest looking heat actions in the series. It's the only Yakuza game in which I went out of my way to see as many obscure ones as possible. This wasn't too hard, since you're constantly fucking bombarded with enemies from the Keihin Gang and it's honestly the worst part of the game. Trying to do side cases and friend events only to have the Threat Level rise to 100% and having to constantly hide from enemies is just infuriating.
Another rough spot in terms of gameplay for me would be all the detective-work based segments. Taking incriminating pictures, Thumb turn bypass and lock-picking are ok but chasing and tailing segments are just awful. Chasing segments seem impossible to fail and sometimes, even when you do the QTE properly, it still feels like you slowed down. Tailing segments are even worse since while they're just as mind-numbingly easy with how rudimentary the "stealth" is, they're also extremely long and are insanely overused. Waaaaaaay too many side cases just boil down to you tailing someone for the vast majority of the mission.
Even with all my complaints about the gameplay, the one thing that remains consistent during it is the quality of the soundtrack. This is my favourite OST in the series. It manages to be just as hype when it needs to be, while having a great level of variety and a way bigger emphasis on jazz which I enjoyed.
Being a spin-off is a blessing and a curse for Judgment. It gets to tell a standalone story without being shackled by past games, but on the flipside, it feels it has to do things differently from the Yakuza games in terms of gameplay, and barely any of it pays off. Even with that said though, I really enjoyed my time with it overall.
One of the parts that I adore is the story. This is hands down the best narrative in the entire series and a big part of it is thanks to how it's set out. Judgment has an episodic feel to its plot as the main story consists of several smaller cases that all tie into the games main mystery and unravelling how everything is connected as the game progresses reaches levels of intrigue that's unlike anything in the series. As it reaches its crescendo in the final 3 chapters, it becomes an absolute rollercoaster of reveals, hard-hitting dialogue and incredibly satisfying resolutions. The cast is strong too, Yagami, while not being a fountain of personality, has a level of cheek to him which, when coupled with the banter he shares with character like Kaito, makes for some really enjoyable dialogue. The supporting cast is also very likeable and despite the game only being 13 chapters long, I feel everyone gets a decent amount of screen time. Even with all that said though, it's impossible for me to do the story justice, you just have to experience it for yourself.
The only blemish on the story is the fact that you're forced to do side cases during it. In fairness, these are some of the stronger side cases in the game, but when you're forced to do them during the game's main story, it just feels like padding that ends up hurting the stories pacing. That brings me to one of my main issues with Judgment, for a game in the Yakuza series, the side content here is much weaker than usual. To begin with, side cases feel really repetitive here since a lot of them get repeated up to 3 times, like the Bomber side cases where you just find a bomb 3 different times, or when you have to find a kid who is hiding 3 different times. The game has 50 side cases total but it really only feels like there's about 20 with how much repetition there is. There simply wasn't as much effort placed into these side cases and a big reason why is because of the Friend Events. Friend Events have you befriend people in Kamurocho by performing various tasks like beating up people who are threatening them or buying food at their restaurant. I'm split on this system since while it does make the town of Kamurocho feel more alive than ever and having certain friends help out during combat does feel really cool, the storylines in Friend Events are mostly really generic and forgettable.
However, the side cases still have a lot of highlights like the Haunted Apartment or the Twisted Trio cases which are both hilarious, and that goes for the game as a whole. Judgment retains the absurdity of the mainline games and it makes for some of the most hilarious moments in the series. The payoff for completing all side cases and friend events is great too as you see the friends you've made help out in The Golden Mouse side case which was really heart-warming. Also, this game has the best Amon fight so far. As for other parts of side content, it's hit and miss. The girlfriend stuff is just creepy and Paradise VR is too RNG-Based for my liking (and getting play passes is a pain). Drone-racing is awesome though
As for combat, I'm not very fond of it here. It might just be me, but Yagami's attacks feel really rigid, there's also a huge amount of endlag on his moves which only makes the combat feel more awkward. I did eventually get used to it though, also, this game has the coolest looking heat actions in the series. It's the only Yakuza game in which I went out of my way to see as many obscure ones as possible. This wasn't too hard, since you're constantly fucking bombarded with enemies from the Keihin Gang and it's honestly the worst part of the game. Trying to do side cases and friend events only to have the Threat Level rise to 100% and having to constantly hide from enemies is just infuriating.
Another rough spot in terms of gameplay for me would be all the detective-work based segments. Taking incriminating pictures, Thumb turn bypass and lock-picking are ok but chasing and tailing segments are just awful. Chasing segments seem impossible to fail and sometimes, even when you do the QTE properly, it still feels like you slowed down. Tailing segments are even worse since while they're just as mind-numbingly easy with how rudimentary the "stealth" is, they're also extremely long and are insanely overused. Waaaaaaay too many side cases just boil down to you tailing someone for the vast majority of the mission.
Even with all my complaints about the gameplay, the one thing that remains consistent during it is the quality of the soundtrack. This is my favourite OST in the series. It manages to be just as hype when it needs to be, while having a great level of variety and a way bigger emphasis on jazz which I enjoyed.
Being a spin-off is a blessing and a curse for Judgment. It gets to tell a standalone story without being shackled by past games, but on the flipside, it feels it has to do things differently from the Yakuza games in terms of gameplay, and barely any of it pays off. Even with that said though, I really enjoyed my time with it overall.