After having come off the exceptional Judgement (2018) I was super pumped to get into it’s sequel, Lost Judgement, I honestly did not think I would prefer this game to the original due to hearing about this game focusing on a school and crimes surrounding it, but gosh.
Just for some context before I begin, Judgement is a detective series set in the world of the Yakuza games (under the umbrella title of Ryu Go Gotaku / Like A Dragon series). It stars the protagonist Yagami, lawyer turned detective, investigating cases in various japanese cities. The series stays mostly detached from Yakuza only with common clan names and places shared, aside a few cameos, though these are minor.
Almost everything in Lost Judgement’s main story intertwines at some point, all the way from the prologue, the writing here is exceptional. Sub stories are exceptional as usual with Ryu Go Gotaku games, I did around 30 of them and all were exciting and very rewarding, the mission structure here is so much better than the main game.
My complaints with the first game boiled down to frustrating mission design at times - notably in the tailing missions. Tailing missions are very minimal here and only appear in the main story once, at the beginning, even then they aren’t bad due to a new feature called ‘act casual’ which makes the subject not suspect you when searching. I must say though I do prefer the chase missions of the first game to these chase missions, It doesn’t really make sense why the enemy has a health bar depleting while chasing them? Eh whatever, they’re still fun.
A small complaint I must say is the minigames in Lost Judgement. They are still great don’t get me wrong but many are exactly the same as the predecessor and they do not feel as rewarding as the first game.
Ijincho (the new town, also present in Yakuza: Like A Dragon) could feel barren at times but this isn’t so bad due to the revised taxi system, allowing it to be accessed from the pause menu. Ijincho is a huge area so thanks RGG for the skateboard, such a fun mechanic! I hope it returns in future RGG entries. Using the skateboard in Kamurucho wasn’t very practical though, but Kamurucho is small enough to run around so that is passable.
The soundtrack to Lost Judgement is exceptional as with the first game, many tracks are re used which is completely fine and these re used tracks only appear in side cases it seems. The soundtrack will always complement the cutscenes, especially in the court scenes, the final act was exceptional. Potentially my favourite final act in any game. Having vocal themes to the game was nice as well I must say!
I’m not sure how I haven’t wrote this already but WOW! The combat and general gameplay in Lost Judgement are absolutely phenomenal, it upgrades the already slick and fluid Judgement combat to the next level introducing a new style known as ‘Snake’ (and a dlc style which I didn’t get.), I would recommend checking out YouTube videos on the combat as it can’t really be put into words. Definitely my favourite combat in a game, especially when you upgrade the skill trees.
There are many areas I have not covered here but I will be looking into doing a fuller / revised review in the future, when this happens i’ll say on my Instagram (@ccrackedactor). Overall Lost Judgement has blew me away, definitely on the high end of a 9/10! Please play Judgement and Lost Judgement if you can, even if the core Yakuza series does not interest you.
Just for some context before I begin, Judgement is a detective series set in the world of the Yakuza games (under the umbrella title of Ryu Go Gotaku / Like A Dragon series). It stars the protagonist Yagami, lawyer turned detective, investigating cases in various japanese cities. The series stays mostly detached from Yakuza only with common clan names and places shared, aside a few cameos, though these are minor.
Almost everything in Lost Judgement’s main story intertwines at some point, all the way from the prologue, the writing here is exceptional. Sub stories are exceptional as usual with Ryu Go Gotaku games, I did around 30 of them and all were exciting and very rewarding, the mission structure here is so much better than the main game.
My complaints with the first game boiled down to frustrating mission design at times - notably in the tailing missions. Tailing missions are very minimal here and only appear in the main story once, at the beginning, even then they aren’t bad due to a new feature called ‘act casual’ which makes the subject not suspect you when searching. I must say though I do prefer the chase missions of the first game to these chase missions, It doesn’t really make sense why the enemy has a health bar depleting while chasing them? Eh whatever, they’re still fun.
A small complaint I must say is the minigames in Lost Judgement. They are still great don’t get me wrong but many are exactly the same as the predecessor and they do not feel as rewarding as the first game.
Ijincho (the new town, also present in Yakuza: Like A Dragon) could feel barren at times but this isn’t so bad due to the revised taxi system, allowing it to be accessed from the pause menu. Ijincho is a huge area so thanks RGG for the skateboard, such a fun mechanic! I hope it returns in future RGG entries. Using the skateboard in Kamurucho wasn’t very practical though, but Kamurucho is small enough to run around so that is passable.
The soundtrack to Lost Judgement is exceptional as with the first game, many tracks are re used which is completely fine and these re used tracks only appear in side cases it seems. The soundtrack will always complement the cutscenes, especially in the court scenes, the final act was exceptional. Potentially my favourite final act in any game. Having vocal themes to the game was nice as well I must say!
I’m not sure how I haven’t wrote this already but WOW! The combat and general gameplay in Lost Judgement are absolutely phenomenal, it upgrades the already slick and fluid Judgement combat to the next level introducing a new style known as ‘Snake’ (and a dlc style which I didn’t get.), I would recommend checking out YouTube videos on the combat as it can’t really be put into words. Definitely my favourite combat in a game, especially when you upgrade the skill trees.
There are many areas I have not covered here but I will be looking into doing a fuller / revised review in the future, when this happens i’ll say on my Instagram (@ccrackedactor). Overall Lost Judgement has blew me away, definitely on the high end of a 9/10! Please play Judgement and Lost Judgement if you can, even if the core Yakuza series does not interest you.