Having a spin off title of the Yakuza/ Like A Dragon series be focused on a washed up lawyer detective was not something I thought I wanted or even be interested in, yet here we are. Judgment does a great job of not only differing itself from it's mother series, but carves out it's own identity of what it wants to be. While it certainly has hiccups, and some what repetitive gameplay; overall Judgment is a series that grips you with a good overarching mystery and likeable characters.
Now when I say hiccups, I certainly do mean hiccups because I genuinely don't think Judgment really has anything bad per say, but just things they could have done better. For instance, there is nothing inherently bad about tailing (in the game, in real life this could led to a restraining order), but it certainly does get boring after the 5th time you have to do it. There honestly just isn't more to this aspect aside from waiting, and slightly moving forward. If we could have gotten more interactions or more complications to it I certainly think it would have been a far more interesting aspect aside from the usual break it provided an otherwise combat focused game. Investigating crime scenes is also a nice change of pace, but largely we get next to nothing to do and only go through these kind of things once or twice a chapter. The fact this is a detective game, and we honestly don't do a lot of detective work is sad. Yagami isn't Kiryu, and having the game more focused on the finding out over fucking around really would have helped separate this game with Yakuza / Like A Dragon far more.
On top of these minimal detective parts, we have an over abundance in fighting parts with the Keihei gang. While it does get subtly introduced, slowly the alerts and rampage of the Keihei gang is annoying to the player way into the games end and throughout post game. Not only do these higher rates of Keihei gang make the leaders of the gang show up, but the encounter rate for fights get to unbearable levels of suffocation. While they are not always present, and can be easily avoid, the point still stands that they are annoying. I get that the presence of this gang basically helps get you into more fights and gain more experience, but overall I would have preferred more detective experience than combat. In other words, there really are just some moments that suck about Judgment, but it's never enough to get the player to quit or lower the quality of the experience that the story provides. Not bad, just annoying.
The cast of characters is by far the main selling point, and between the oddball cases that it's mother series is known for, Judgement isn't lacking in personality. Heck, a really cool thing about Judgement having slight connections to Like A Dragon is subtle references or nods to the main series with cameos or references during side missions. Plus all the character introductions and chemistry is simply on point throughout. From subtle dialogue choices to slowly learning about a person's past, Judgement really makes their larger ensemble cast shine in a way that the Like A Dragon series doesn't even do.
Really the main course of the game is the mystery behind it all, and while I wouldn't say that it's predictable, it certainly does give the player enough clues to solve it before even Yagami does. It's fairly gripping to on how everything connects throughout, and how each member in Yagami's crew tie into the whole situation. It really is a good mystery in the sense that it's captivating throughout, and while it isn't always at the forefront, largely the game doesn't waste time with it.
Conclusively, Judgment is a wonderful game with a good mystery, great cast of characters, and some annoyances that can be looked over. Considering this is the start of the series, it makes me hopeful that the games only improve on the foundation, and give us more interesting stories about Kamurocho.
Now when I say hiccups, I certainly do mean hiccups because I genuinely don't think Judgment really has anything bad per say, but just things they could have done better. For instance, there is nothing inherently bad about tailing (in the game, in real life this could led to a restraining order), but it certainly does get boring after the 5th time you have to do it. There honestly just isn't more to this aspect aside from waiting, and slightly moving forward. If we could have gotten more interactions or more complications to it I certainly think it would have been a far more interesting aspect aside from the usual break it provided an otherwise combat focused game. Investigating crime scenes is also a nice change of pace, but largely we get next to nothing to do and only go through these kind of things once or twice a chapter. The fact this is a detective game, and we honestly don't do a lot of detective work is sad. Yagami isn't Kiryu, and having the game more focused on the finding out over fucking around really would have helped separate this game with Yakuza / Like A Dragon far more.
On top of these minimal detective parts, we have an over abundance in fighting parts with the Keihei gang. While it does get subtly introduced, slowly the alerts and rampage of the Keihei gang is annoying to the player way into the games end and throughout post game. Not only do these higher rates of Keihei gang make the leaders of the gang show up, but the encounter rate for fights get to unbearable levels of suffocation. While they are not always present, and can be easily avoid, the point still stands that they are annoying. I get that the presence of this gang basically helps get you into more fights and gain more experience, but overall I would have preferred more detective experience than combat. In other words, there really are just some moments that suck about Judgment, but it's never enough to get the player to quit or lower the quality of the experience that the story provides. Not bad, just annoying.
The cast of characters is by far the main selling point, and between the oddball cases that it's mother series is known for, Judgement isn't lacking in personality. Heck, a really cool thing about Judgement having slight connections to Like A Dragon is subtle references or nods to the main series with cameos or references during side missions. Plus all the character introductions and chemistry is simply on point throughout. From subtle dialogue choices to slowly learning about a person's past, Judgement really makes their larger ensemble cast shine in a way that the Like A Dragon series doesn't even do.
Really the main course of the game is the mystery behind it all, and while I wouldn't say that it's predictable, it certainly does give the player enough clues to solve it before even Yagami does. It's fairly gripping to on how everything connects throughout, and how each member in Yagami's crew tie into the whole situation. It really is a good mystery in the sense that it's captivating throughout, and while it isn't always at the forefront, largely the game doesn't waste time with it.
Conclusively, Judgment is a wonderful game with a good mystery, great cast of characters, and some annoyances that can be looked over. Considering this is the start of the series, it makes me hopeful that the games only improve on the foundation, and give us more interesting stories about Kamurocho.