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.
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.
DeckOfUlysses
9 months ago