Lost Judgment is nothing short of stunning. It's tightly-packed narrative never fails to enthrall, while its gameplay systems make navigating to each of its engrossing narrative beats an exciting experience in its own right.
Lost Judgment is a fantastic success. It expertly builds on the foundation laid by the first game while also continuing to differentiate itself from the Yakuza franchise in smart ways. It’s still very much a Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio Joint, but their brawling mechanics have never been sharper, their graphics have never been better, and this is one of the strongest stories they’ve ever produced. It’s a no-brainer purchase for fans, and new players will find it surprisingly accommodating.
The sequel has all the strengths of the main game and fixed also my complains with the first game. In my opinion you have the best story in the franchise. It deals with mobbing, revenge and the failings of the justice system. Atop of this there is a separate big case you can solve with a great pay off. Lets start at the beginning. Three years have past since the last game. Fumiya and Makoto from the previous game have set up their own Detective agency in Yokohama. They ask our protagonist Takayuki and Kaito for help. They are secretly hired by the director of the Seiryo High School to investigate a mobbing problem at the school. Meanwhile a prestigious legal case has a surprising turn of events. The defendant is a police officer that is charged for sexual battery. A case that has a lot of media attention as there are countless videos out and the defendant claims his innocence against all overwhelming evidence. The defendant makes a statement about a corpse the police just found minutes before and identified the victim when even the investigators had no clue. The victim drove his son into suicide years ago and the authorities failed before, during and after. He could not be involved or even know about this as he was in prison all the time. Here I stop to avoid spoilers. The story is magnificent and has lot of twist. It gives also a lot to think. Completely separate there is the case at the Seiryo school. There you got tons of side activities, new characters and a pay off that left me applauding and completely satisfied. I must admit that some mini games there are time consuming (Boxing and Races) but the final is worth all struggles. As always you have a lot of side quest and tons of activities. They fixed my problems with the previous game and improved the battles. For the first time in the Yakuza series the battles became not boring towards the end. In the previous game the battles were worthless for the ability point gaining. Now they have a reward system. Change styles, defeat enemies fast, use advance techniques and you get more ability points. This won me over. Also the tailing mini games are less dragging. They kept of cause the humor of the series. All old and new characters deliver. Again I forgot that those were fictional. Overall I think this is the best game in the franchise. A big surprise for me as I was skeptical first. I would recommend it even for people that never played a Yakuza game.
Ultimately, Lost Judgment is a great sequel, characterized by very inspired writing and a great dose of irreverence. A braver second chapter, more refined and extremely more elegant, which offers the possibility of being played by all those who have never had direct contact with the first episode or with the Yakuza saga. RGG Studio proves once again to be one of the most competent teams on the square, capable of diversifying the gameplay as few, giving full importance to the narrative component of their productions and deliberately omitting some technical details that are however irrelevant for the success of the project. Sure, maybe more could have been done with regards to exploiting the features of Dualsense, but this is more of a wasted opportunity than a real lack.
Lost Judgment is the legitimate sequel to Judgment, and does as well as its predecessor on most points. The faithful recreation of Tokyo and Yokohama is an invitation to exploration as the combat retains that franchise-specific intensity and technicality. As for the scenario, the latter literally takes the guts. The high school setting as well as the themes addressed perfectly compensate for the lack of a strong link with the Yakuza saga. Only certain gameplay mechanics that are too interventionist, and the noticeable absence of a new geographical area are to be deplored without this ruining the gaming experience.
For a detective game, Lost Judgment presents an intriguingly complex story and a decent variety of gameplay and gadgets. However, it takes a long time to get interesting and the actual detective work is a bit too linear for hardcore mystery fans like me.
Bit of an odd game. If you liked Judgment, you would like Lost Judgment. Better than the first game in some aspects, noticeably worse in others. Your mileage may vary in that regard. I do think the story overall was much more intriguing than the first game.
The storytelling isn't good, the fighting feels very clunky compared to the Yakuza series and the mechanics like stealth and detective work became very stale for me quickly. I liked all the Yakuza games but with this one Ihad to force myself to complete it.
This game has an interesting open world and I did like some of the minigames and side quests. Other than that, this game is garbage. The combat in this game is boring and repetitive. When I pay $60, I expect a combat system with depth and detail. All the developers did in this game is put pretty colorful lights during every move, to give players the illusion that the game is fun. None of that is fun for me. The physics are beyond horrible. The animations are pathetic. I've seen PS4 titles with way better animations.
There is no multiplayer. So once you beat the story, there is not a reason to touch this game again. Charging $60 for a game with no replay value is a cashgrab. Not to mention that the story is garbage in this game with bad voice acting. Or at least the English voice acting is bad. I recommend you wait to pick this game up until it is $15.
SummarySEIZE THE TRUTH - December 2021, Tokyo district court. Akihiro Ehara stands accused of groping a woman on a crowded train. A bystander’s video footage of his attempt to flee the scene and subsequent apprehension is all over the news, and public outcry demands a maximum sentence. “Three days ago, a dead body was found in an abandoned buil...