Never have I felt so conflicted over a game more than this one. On one hand, when you solely focus on the gameplay aspect, it's fantastic. The combat is fun and the side content is enjoyable. You can easily make the argument that this is a game-of-the-year contender. On the other hand, the story is horrible and easily bogs down an otherwise great game.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth vastly improved its combat system over its predecessor's, Yakuza: Like a Dragon. While it was fine for a first attempt in the last game, it was rough around the edges. This game smooths over the edges and adds some nice additions to the combat. You can move the characters around in combat, strategically placing them so you can deal extra damage to enemies, do combo attacks with party members, and use the weapons that are lying around. All in all, it's a great system. There is only one thing I can complain about. Admittedly, this is mostly a nitpick but characters still have some pathfinding issues during combat sections. It's an improvement over the previous installment, but characters getting stuck behind objects happened often enough to be annoying.

The side content was fantastic in this game. There is so much to do here that one can easily get overwhelmed by it. The new mini-games they introduced were great. I especially liked the Dondoko Island game. The substories were thoroughly enjoyable here. The karaoke selection was also amazing. Bringing back fan favorites and introducing some new (and great) songs easily makes this the best karaoke selection in the series to date. I did have some problems with Kiryu's bucket list side quest, but I'll discuss that later.

I must say, I enjoyed the Hawaii map they introduced. Admittedly, I was skeptical about having the game set in America (mainly because I wanted them to explore other Asian countries before coming to the US) but they handled it well. Hawaii would have been my first choice for the series to take place in America and the Honolulu map was great. The atmosphere was so cheerful despite some plot points.

While I did enjoy all of those things, there's no dodging the game's story. It's a huge mess. Many plot points were seemingly forgotten, only to be brought back up again at the last minute. There were so many odd decisions/plot holes in this story. While I admit there were moments that I enjoyed, they mainly involved Kiryu. It feels like Ichiban got sidelined in his own game. Perhaps the reasoning behind that was the game was trying to be two things at once: a grand, emotional adventure for Ichiban while simultaneously being an epic sendoff for Kiryu. One was going to overshadow the other. Maybe handling the dual protagonists similarly to Yakuza 0, where you switch between the two near the start, could have helped prevent that since Ichiban and Kiryu don't split off until the midpoint of the game. Then again, other plot points in this game left me scratching my head. Were they making stuff as they went along the writing process (which wouldn't be the first time RGG did something similar) or were there a lot of script rewires? Either way, it's not a good look.

As I mentioned, one thing that bugged me was Kiryu's bucket list. I love the concept of it but the execution was so odd to me. It wouldn't bother me that much if most of them happened before a certain plot point in the game, but they happen after it. It's such an odd decision since these moments feel so disassociated from the plot because of their placement. I don't get it.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth certainly is a game. It has some fantastic gameplay and side content, but the story left a lot to be desired.

Lost Judgment is a vast improvement over its already great predecessor in every aspect except for the story. The combat and side content are far more enjoyable this time around. And while the story isn't as good as Judgement's, it's still pretty good.

This game easily has the best combat in the series to date. It's very fluid with little to no delays between switching among the different fighting styles. Besides that, the attacks feel great to lash out against a horde of enemies (and pretty fun too I might add).

What steals the show for me is the side content. While it is imperfect, Lost Judgment's side content is much better than Judgement's. The side cases are a bit more memorable this time around. Many of the mini-games are also excellent, like the dance club one. It's far from perfect, the robotics club could use some work, but the side content here is top-notch.

The only thing that Lost Judgement could work on is its story. Again, it's not bad, but it's weak compared to Judgement's. They did fix the pacing issues, but I can't say this game's story captivated me the same way the previous game's did. I kind of zoned out of it after the midway point. I will say it does send a good message to its audience.

Lost Judgment is a great game with some of the best gameplay RGG Studio has developed. While the story isn't amazing, it's still good.

Oh yeah, the Kaito Files expansion is so good. Go play it.

It's rather impressive how RGG Studios can consistently think of gripping narratives for their games. Judgment is a detective spinoff of the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series, and like those games, it delivers a gripping and emotional narrative. This is easily one of the best stories they have created yet. All the new characters the game introduces are great additions as well. However, while I thoroughly enjoyed the story, the pacing was abysmal. The plot would start moving only for it to take the longest pause for you to complete a mandatory side case. That's fine as long as the side cases are at least entertaining, but more often than not, they're rather boring. It felt like filler for a game that honestly doesn't need it.

The combat in this game allows you to switch between two styles: Crane and Tiger. Crane Style is more for a group of enemies while Tiger primarily focuses on one. The combat is fun but needs some work. A great song to listen to while playing this game is Tubthumping by Chumbawamba. Yagami gets knocked down, but he gets up again. The enemies will never keep him down (only for Yagami to get knocked down again). It's all too easy for enemies to knock Yagami out during combat sections.

This being a detective game, there's going to be investigations and trailing missions. The investigation missions are harmless, just look around the crime scene for clues. Nothing major. The trailing missions on the other hand are a different story. They're not annoying or overly frustrating, they're just boring. I also found the camera angles during these sections to be pretty bad. You could be hiding behind a wall to avoid being spotted, but the way the camera is positioned might prevent the target from being seen. Because of that, a countdown will start saying you're losing the target (even though they're right there). You would either have to stay there and hope the target starts moving before the countdown reaches zero or leave the hiding spot and hope you don't get spotted. It's a lose-lose situation.

The side content is okay at best. None of the minigames caught my attention, except for the VR one. The majority of side cases are rather forgettable. I found the friendship system to be rather tedious after a while. All in all, they could have done a lot better.

Judgment is a great introduction to a new spinoff series. The characters are great as well as its story despite some pacing issues. The combat is flawed but fun. Definitely check this game out if you are a Yakuza fan.