Starting with the positives: combat is a significant step up from 7. Leaning into positional requirements is a cool angle, and while manual movement is a great change, there's still a bit of frustration that can come from allies and enemies shifting around just enough to screw up what you were trying to do. Basic attacks being a powerful and viable option with combo attacks, back attacks, follow up, and SP regain is also fun to play with. Even though your strategies don't change a massive amount of the time (in late game, most fights had large packs, which meant I would use whatever strong skill hit as many enemies as possible, then clean up the rest), there's usually just barely enough going on to mix you up, like an enemy guarding and requiring a grapple break. If every job was as cool and in depth as Dragon of Dojima, this would be a pretty incredible game, because that's by far the most interesting and engaging one here. You can tell in the back of the RGG's heads that they still know that a brawler is just the right fit for these stories a lot of the time though, especially in that one moment in a certain boss fight. Also, a lot of the side content was pretty good, and Honolulu, while not my favorite RGG city, was a fun new environment to explore.
On a more critical note though, the story is easily one of the weaker ones in the franchise. For a lot of the runtime, it remained either frustrating or uninteresting to me. The first goal of the main plot remains the main goal for like 85% of the game (despite being achieved briefly in the middle) without really giving you quite enough of a reason to care as much as the characters seem to. This is especially true on the Hawaii side, which I was definitely into at the start, but failed to progress in a way that kept me super invested. The one big twist there was super poorly executed, especially after playing Gaiden, and the way it set back the characters' goals just kept me so checked out or annoyed. The Japan side is a little better, though honestly that's completely to do with Kiryu and almost none to do with the actual plot going on there, which has its own share of frustrating turns. Maybe I just don't like Ichiban enough for him to carry a plot in the same way Kiryu can; ironically, this game eroded my confidence in him as a protagonist who can stand on his own going forward.
A trend that I've picked up on that stands out as bizarre to me is the last few games completely lacking confidence or respect for what just happened in the previous game, walking back decisions and saying "actually that thing they did was stupid and doesn't work." Consequences and fallout that change the game's world are cool to see in general, but Lost Judgment handled a post-7 world in a much better way than 8 to me. This is especially frustrating as someone who really liked and respected 6, which it does not feel like RGG themselves do (which they already showed with 7). In some ways, this feels like a reactionary apology for some of the complaints that people had about 6, but pulled off in a way that just reinforces to me that they were correct to have 6 play out how it did. (Some vague spoilers ahead) Pulling in key characters from Kiryu's past only to have them not really do much other than get 1 more fight and then get a 5 minute spotlight feels like a "there, sorry we didn't do that before, are you happy now?" kind of gesture without much relevance or substance to me. And I get that part of the theme is letting Kiryu not have to be a stubborn solo hero, and having him push forward, but a more focused solo journey works a lot better as a sendoff to me. The Life Links and Memories of a Dragon were sort of in the same camp. Sure, it was nice to see a lot of characters and places from throughout the series acknowledged one more time and hear some brief thoughts from Kiryu on each, but the execution makes them feel all like a bit of a tease and not super vital to Kiryu's story. All of the Daidoji stuff is also done in such a weird way that sometimes feels in line with 6/some of Gaiden, sometimes feels totally irrelevant, sometimes bafflingly ignores other happenings in the story, and then eventually decides to recognize those developments without a word about doing so. It cheapens 6 and what came earlier in 8 itself in a very unsatisfying and frustrating way. I think there's a story in here, if you combine most of Gaiden and bits and pieces of 8, that would be a truly worthy follow up and sendoff for Kiryu, but it's buried under a load of other plots, fallout from 7's decisions, and incohesive twists. Where it eventually ends is a solid enough spot, but it got there in such a way that didn't deliver on almost any of its potential and has extremely little narrative or emotional payoff.
And a couple nitpicks that didn't fit elsewhere: this game made me realize how much I dislike Ichiban's suit (and most of the 7 cast's Japan outfits overall). Going to Hawaii was an instant improvement after the brief PTSD endured from (Chapter 1 spoilers) infiltrating the Seiryu base again, in the same outfits, with the same jobs, with the same underground dungeon and the same theme as in 7. I groaned when eventually the suit returned. Also, it feels like there is no good language to play this game in if you speak English. I played in Japanese, which was good overall, but major American characters speaking completely incomprehensible English really took me out of it, and one character in particular really suffered from it. This game also contained one of the best substories in the franchise (Let It Snow), perfectly showcasing their unique balance of goofy and emotional, but also a slew of just awful "romance" (literally just assault) substories. And finally, there were 1-2 standout new characters to me that I did generally enjoy overall and are probably what I'll remember fondly from this game as it ages (name spoilers): Yamai and maybe Tomizawa.
On a more critical note though, the story is easily one of the weaker ones in the franchise. For a lot of the runtime, it remained either frustrating or uninteresting to me. The first goal of the main plot remains the main goal for like 85% of the game (despite being achieved briefly in the middle) without really giving you quite enough of a reason to care as much as the characters seem to. This is especially true on the Hawaii side, which I was definitely into at the start, but failed to progress in a way that kept me super invested. The one big twist there was super poorly executed, especially after playing Gaiden, and the way it set back the characters' goals just kept me so checked out or annoyed. The Japan side is a little better, though honestly that's completely to do with Kiryu and almost none to do with the actual plot going on there, which has its own share of frustrating turns. Maybe I just don't like Ichiban enough for him to carry a plot in the same way Kiryu can; ironically, this game eroded my confidence in him as a protagonist who can stand on his own going forward.
A trend that I've picked up on that stands out as bizarre to me is the last few games completely lacking confidence or respect for what just happened in the previous game, walking back decisions and saying "actually that thing they did was stupid and doesn't work." Consequences and fallout that change the game's world are cool to see in general, but Lost Judgment handled a post-7 world in a much better way than 8 to me. This is especially frustrating as someone who really liked and respected 6, which it does not feel like RGG themselves do (which they already showed with 7). In some ways, this feels like a reactionary apology for some of the complaints that people had about 6, but pulled off in a way that just reinforces to me that they were correct to have 6 play out how it did. (Some vague spoilers ahead) Pulling in key characters from Kiryu's past only to have them not really do much other than get 1 more fight and then get a 5 minute spotlight feels like a "there, sorry we didn't do that before, are you happy now?" kind of gesture without much relevance or substance to me. And I get that part of the theme is letting Kiryu not have to be a stubborn solo hero, and having him push forward, but a more focused solo journey works a lot better as a sendoff to me. The Life Links and Memories of a Dragon were sort of in the same camp. Sure, it was nice to see a lot of characters and places from throughout the series acknowledged one more time and hear some brief thoughts from Kiryu on each, but the execution makes them feel all like a bit of a tease and not super vital to Kiryu's story. All of the Daidoji stuff is also done in such a weird way that sometimes feels in line with 6/some of Gaiden, sometimes feels totally irrelevant, sometimes bafflingly ignores other happenings in the story, and then eventually decides to recognize those developments without a word about doing so. It cheapens 6 and what came earlier in 8 itself in a very unsatisfying and frustrating way. I think there's a story in here, if you combine most of Gaiden and bits and pieces of 8, that would be a truly worthy follow up and sendoff for Kiryu, but it's buried under a load of other plots, fallout from 7's decisions, and incohesive twists. Where it eventually ends is a solid enough spot, but it got there in such a way that didn't deliver on almost any of its potential and has extremely little narrative or emotional payoff.
And a couple nitpicks that didn't fit elsewhere: this game made me realize how much I dislike Ichiban's suit (and most of the 7 cast's Japan outfits overall). Going to Hawaii was an instant improvement after the brief PTSD endured from (Chapter 1 spoilers) infiltrating the Seiryu base again, in the same outfits, with the same jobs, with the same underground dungeon and the same theme as in 7. I groaned when eventually the suit returned. Also, it feels like there is no good language to play this game in if you speak English. I played in Japanese, which was good overall, but major American characters speaking completely incomprehensible English really took me out of it, and one character in particular really suffered from it. This game also contained one of the best substories in the franchise (Let It Snow), perfectly showcasing their unique balance of goofy and emotional, but also a slew of just awful "romance" (literally just assault) substories. And finally, there were 1-2 standout new characters to me that I did generally enjoy overall and are probably what I'll remember fondly from this game as it ages (name spoilers): Yamai and maybe Tomizawa.