Judgment feels like the game people describe when saying newer Yakuza games are nothing like the older Yakuza games. That's to say older Yakuza were more story/combat focused and new Yakuza are more side stories/minigame focused. I think I've always landed on liking when a Yakuza game can balance the story with it's side content, but Judgment feels like it could never strike that balance, and I feel like the game suffers for it.
So how's does this poor balance affect the game? I noticed it the worst when trying to engage with the games story. What often would happen is a moment in the story would happen where Yagami has to wait for new information to come to him or get from point A to point B. In between this time, an unavoidable side event with nothing pertaining to the story would happen, which must be done to make story progress. This can vary from something at least more charming like an Ace Attorney homage in the law office, or literal who characters just showing up to make you do something for them.
I normally wouldn't point this out in a Yakuza game for being such a big problem, but I got this impression this game wanted to be a more focused crime drama type of story, but it's still falling into all the same pitfalls we've been dealing with since Yakuza 4.
The elephant in the room here is I've been calling it a Yakuza game for this whole review so far, despite the game not having Yakuza or RGG in it's name whatsoever. The reason for that is simple; this is a Yakuza game. And I think that's my biggest problem with it. I was excited for this game initially because I thought RGG Studios was finally making something that wasn't just template Yakuza again. But they just couldn't help themselves, I suppose.
It just sucks because there's some really fun ideas in this one, like incorporating wall running into combat for another layer of street brawling the series is so well known for now. But I also can't overlook how often the game felt like it was wasting my time when I wanted to see the story unfold and it would stop me for another side story.
I'll keep spoilers out of this review, but I will also say I felt like once I finally got there, the story ends up being a bit more of a mess than I was hoping for. For a detective crime drama story that also focuses on attorneys, the Japanese court system, and the law, a lot of revelations are made with no smart basis or evidence and are just accepted by so many characters as facts. It made for a really unsatisfying ending in my opinion, even if those last couple fights looked really cool.
Overall I think this game had some good ideas but just fell into the trap of being just another new Yakuza game despite the new cast and some new systems.
So how's does this poor balance affect the game? I noticed it the worst when trying to engage with the games story. What often would happen is a moment in the story would happen where Yagami has to wait for new information to come to him or get from point A to point B. In between this time, an unavoidable side event with nothing pertaining to the story would happen, which must be done to make story progress. This can vary from something at least more charming like an Ace Attorney homage in the law office, or literal who characters just showing up to make you do something for them.
I normally wouldn't point this out in a Yakuza game for being such a big problem, but I got this impression this game wanted to be a more focused crime drama type of story, but it's still falling into all the same pitfalls we've been dealing with since Yakuza 4.
The elephant in the room here is I've been calling it a Yakuza game for this whole review so far, despite the game not having Yakuza or RGG in it's name whatsoever. The reason for that is simple; this is a Yakuza game. And I think that's my biggest problem with it. I was excited for this game initially because I thought RGG Studios was finally making something that wasn't just template Yakuza again. But they just couldn't help themselves, I suppose.
It just sucks because there's some really fun ideas in this one, like incorporating wall running into combat for another layer of street brawling the series is so well known for now. But I also can't overlook how often the game felt like it was wasting my time when I wanted to see the story unfold and it would stop me for another side story.
I'll keep spoilers out of this review, but I will also say I felt like once I finally got there, the story ends up being a bit more of a mess than I was hoping for. For a detective crime drama story that also focuses on attorneys, the Japanese court system, and the law, a lot of revelations are made with no smart basis or evidence and are just accepted by so many characters as facts. It made for a really unsatisfying ending in my opinion, even if those last couple fights looked really cool.
Overall I think this game had some good ideas but just fell into the trap of being just another new Yakuza game despite the new cast and some new systems.
wondermagenta
1 year ago