Judgment Reviews

Another good RGG game. I find it a bit less interesting than the other yakuza games, but I guess this is because I had to get used to the MC. The story is definitely interesting, but the amount of times I complained about yagami's roundabout ways to get answers rather than walk into the building and slam furniture into people's faces until answers fell out. Then again, that wouldn't be fitting in a PI story, I'm well aware. Overall a good enough game, i'd give it 8/10

Great game, awesome story, well optimised, it's often on sale. I would recommend it to everyone

great story and game play

I struggled to decide whether to recommend this game, but ultimately decided I'd have to be a real jackass to recommend Yakuza 3 on a playthrough of this series and not this. The plot, characters, and setting are fine. If this had been the Kamurocho chapter of Yakuza 5 I'd have no complaints. In fact, it does so little to move away from Yakuza that I wouldn't be surprised if it began its life as exactly that. Unfortunately this game has a major failing. Players of previous Yakuza fans are going to think I'm insane for complaining about this, but this game wastes your time to insane degree. The Keihen Gang is designed to waste your time. Every group of thugs having 1-2 guys with extra healthbars wastes your time. The detective specific gameplay, which sucks, often involves standing still and waiting for things to happen. Several main story missions involve leaving your office to walk somewhere and walk back. The elixirs that replace weapons waste your time by expecting you to hunt for consumables on the ground, an unfortunate relic of a stupid trend of the time period this game came out in. The new type of damage, instead of adding some sort of mechanical challenge, wastes your time by making you go to one specific vendor. The two new minigames Drone Racing and DiQ, are long, boring slogs. Recommended for fans of the Yakuza series who want to wring every last drop of story from it.

Judgment and Yakuza 3 are my favorite RGG games, Judgment for Dragon Engine and Yakuza 3 for classic style gameplay, the game has pretty intense moments and the main story follows a very good logic, predictable sometimes but that's fine, there are a few forced missions that I felt they were not necessary but overall I enjoyed the game a lot, I even completed it to 100%. One very important recommendation I can do if you are playing Judgment for the first time: Just focus on the main story and enjoy it, don't even bother about doing the side stuff, playing all minigames, getting milestones, getting 50 friends or dating all 4 girlfriends, you can do all that AFTER you beaten the game OR right before you go to the final thing, you will get a very explicit warning when you reach that point to do whatever you decide to do because it doesn't matter if you try to complete all the side stuff early, a lot of side content is locked until you get to the final chapter anyway, so you are forced to progress in the main story in order to do all the extra stuff. Judment is an EXTREMELY MASSIVE and beefy game and you might end up feeling like you are playing just filler bloated content (because it is!, but that's also part of its charm!), once you are done with the main story most likely you will crave for more and that's what all the side missions, extra content and minigames are there for, the main story keeps a very serious tone most of the time but the humor truly shines in all the extra content, just check on a guide if you are hunting achievements, there are some missables that might require another playthrough if you miss them. About minigames, I wish they didn't removed Pinball and Puyo Puyo in this remaster but if they add those in a DLC I would buy them definitively. Although Mahjong is my favorite minigame but is very complex to learn given all the conditions and rules required to play, if you want to learn how to play Mahjong check HanaYoriUta walkthrough on YouTube. Oh yeah, the music is EXTREMELY GOOD. 10/10. You have fitting music themes for all moments and situations. Also I can confirm "Tiger Drop negates any damage" unlike other Yakuza games, so, the meme actually do apply on this one. Edit: I think it would be a really good idea to do an online Mahjong game based on RGG characters, that would be really awesome!

FIrst time playing a Yakuza Series game... it was pretty fun. Story, the over the top combat, cats, and my favorite card game Texas Holdem are amazing in this game. There are some tedious parts... encounter rate is high, the tailing music gets old quick, the combat can get annoying when its the same punks over and over again, some of the Sega games you can play in the game aged horribly, never thought I would hate racing with a drone... but with all that aside, it has given me a reason to play the rest of the Yakuza games.

Despite being a Yakuza/Like a Dragon spinoff, Judgment is as worthy as any installment of the root series, in its own special way. You can find many of the trademark features here: the Ryu Ga Gotoku combat engine, the substories (called 'side cases' here), its own set of "puzzly" minigames like tailing and chasing suspects, dialogues, analyzing crime scenes or photos in search for clues, lockpicking etc., as well as all those unwinding options such as Sega arcade games, gambling, claw machines, eating and drinking to recover health and earn XP and stuff like that. But of course, what makes Judgment stand out rather than being just another RGG game is its "personality" as an own game. The main story and the character development both deserves praise, they really merge very well to make the whole plot take a solo flight instead of being something completely dependant from the Yakuza games storyline (like a sequel, for comparison) - there are a few lore connections here and there, but mostly, the slightly edited Kamurocho map and the presence of the Tojo Clan on the main story are the notable ties to the root series. Bottomline, if you enjoy the Yakuza/Like a Dragon games, or even if you're a fan of 'open world' action-adventure games, you have no reason not to check this one out.

Fun spin off game to the Yakuza franchise where you play as a detective instead of a yakuza. If you played the Yakuza games you are going to be very familiar with this not really alot new outside of your a detective now. Otherwise its the same city with pretty much the same mini games. though they dont have bowling or Karaoke but have added drone racing. This game really carries itself on its story and its characters which are all done very well. They did a great job with the english dub. there's plenty of side stuff to do. They also added a VR game type thing where you can go earn money. They of course still have the Sega arcade though I really wish they had more games in it to play. Sega has a monster backlog of great arcade games. It would be awesome if i could walk into an arcade and play 15-20 classic Sega arcade games. Really wish they would bring Daytona USA to it since they wont bring it to PC otherwise. Length of this game will vary on how much side stuff you want to do as there is a lot of it. I clocked in at a little over 50 hours. The only thing that annoyed me in game was the gang wars it seems like every 20 minutes you get a text saying a gang has showed up. you can either go and fight the leaders (which is the same three over and over) and make them vanish for a short time or try to ignore them which will just annoy you as you will be having countless enemy encounters for awhile, making it hard to get anywhere. Other then that I really enjoyed the game. This series has been one of Sega's best in a long time.

[i]Dammit, these guys won't stop comin' on us![/i] [h1]Briefly[/h1] [i]Judgment[/i] is a story-based beat'em'up game with detective elements and traits of courtroom drama mixed in, based in the same world of the Yakuza franchise. It is a spinoff, which means it doesn't deal with the same adventures and misadventures as the past games - no more Kiryu running away from his past, this time it's a different character doing it - and tries new things far more often than the previous games, which sometimes works and sometimes does not, making the game a bit more polarizing and conflicting than the others. From the perspective of having played the far more comfortable successor [i]Lost Judgment[/i] first, Judgment has its strengths, such as a more grounded story with darker and more overarching topics than the mainline Yakuza games, a (mostly) interesting set of new characters and a (again, mostly) well thought out set of antagonists - and its weaknesses, such as occasional questionable character arcs, the overuse of tropes, clearly ill-thought-out mechanics and a new engine where you shatter bikes with a touch, walk on ice and people fly about when ragdolled - yet, despite a list of weaknesses that seemingly stands tall over the pros, it truly has the potential to leave the experiencee feeling that same familiar hollowness that comes from finishing a well-made piece of media. [h1]Pros and Cons[/h1] [b]The Good[/b] -Despite an ungodly amount of recycling, Kamurocho is very inviting. -Characters are (most of the time) well done. -Introduces one of the scarier villains in the series. -Story is a strong point thematically and is a bit more realistic in its presentation compared to the other games. -Refreshing viewpoint and shoes distinct from Kiryu's. -Side content. -Plentiful humor, even if sometimes in the wrong places or for the wrong reasons. -Less bullet sponging (very present in endgame mobs, however) and less health bars to fight through. [b]The Ambivalent[/b] -The Dragon Engine. The character doesn't control as clean as the other games, ragdolls are abundant and might fly around randomly, physics props shatter from a touch, the character might walk over stuff you don't want to. -A lot more teamwork, but AI allies might get oneshotted, regen for a minute (very long in combat terms) and stare from sidelines. Sometimes, they can be OP and handle groups on their own, though. -More heat actions, but they might end up being unused because of the triggers. Skills also take a while to unlock. -The handling of some story elements can be shoehorned in, rather hit or miss, or only come clear in the last stages of the game. Story-wise, [spoiler] a central character becomes a pervert and the final antagonist's personality does a whole 180 for no sensible observable reason, [/spoiler] there are... clear mishaps. -Attempts at trying to paint a moral blur in the story, but it is hit or miss. [b]The Bad[/b] -For those with an old school background, Dragon Engine combat might just not feel right. -Combat itself is plagued by blocking, gun enemies, an arbitrary dichotomy of using a group-clear style or single-person style, stunlocking and enemy spam. -Mechanics, such as Mortal Wounds and Tailing. Taking away HP for being shot by a gun doesn't add to the tension - only annoyance. -Fetch quests, such as "choose one of us and do my thing, then return to the same spot and choose another." -Yakuza 5-levels of street enemy spawns and abundance. -You [i]can[/i] run from enemies, but combat won't end with an ally or it will take a long time to actually end. Being in combat restricts you from doing a lot of things that aren't combat based, like shopping or objectives. -Significant use of tropes common to anime and Japanese media, on top of plenty of clichés. [i]A pervert being played for laughs, yelling and zoom-ins before a fight, dialogue, character archetypes, protagonist faces look more ten times more fleshed out than the side characters', bullet sacrifices, bad writing forcing the villain to improperly use the gun and miss easy opportunities to kill the protagonist...[/i] -Alarmingly obvious plot missteps. Character development can feel undeserved. The protagonist only starts to feel "flawed" in any sense of the word in the mid-to-late game. -Moneymaking. It's difficult. You might get lucky and get awarded a couple of hundred thousand yen by just fighting some side story characters, but that's roughly where you stop getting money from playing the game and have to grind side content like VR. -Some gamemodes are not a friendly sight to the eyes, being full of bright, borderline neon colors and constant sound. -Incessant introductions of side content embedded into the main story as less-than-optional quests, which only end roughly after midgame. This has the potential to disrupt focus and make it annoying to play. -Tonal shifts. There can be a serious cutscene about chasing down a man responsible for the deaths of several people, accompanied by fittingly serious music - but that changes as the game starts and it starts playing the generic long battle music and the two opposing sides have a [i]serious[/i] staredown during the introduction. -Overbearing HUD, especially in boss intro cinematics. -Healing items significantly toned down, forcing you to stock up on lots of food. Arguably, lessening healing item limits just makes it worse, since players resort to purchasing convenience stores worth of food for their backpockets so they don't have to constantly hit retry. -Supernatural-leaning elements (yes, this is Yakuza, but it's also supposed to be more grounded) such as a central plot point and a masked maniac who has been in almost all Dragon Engine games. -Escort missions. -Denuvo. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] Very similar to the Yakuza franchise at large, but with detective play through tailing missions and investigations. There is an abundance of side content taking advantage of these mechanics, but also for purposes of general fun. [h1]Music[/h1] The game's music is unfortunately not as notable as that of the other games, such as [i]Yakuza 0[/i] and [i]Lost Judgment.[/i] The music takes a while to get started, as well: only in the endgame does the soundtrack start to sound notably good. It also doesn't sound quite as "adaptive" as the other games in that it just doesn't really "describe" the bosses. It sounds like the studio was trying to find it's footing with a new spin-off of the franchise and went for a style that was both safe and comfortable and is not particularly ambitious in its feel. [h1]Graphics[/h1] Although the game can feel a little washed or bleached at times, the Dragon Engine is undeniably pretty in terms of graphics. Nightly Kamurocho feels like a den of crime lit up by neon, buildings look excellent, the lighting is good and the general feel of it is pleasant. It is also mostly optimized, only really beginning to stutter or suffer from skipping frames in the endgame and with several enemies, though it also does happen on singular endgame bosses, most notably scamming a couple of opportunities to do heat actions on the game's [i]final boss.[/i] [h1]Conclusion[/h1] Judgment may best be described as a game that does no harm if skipped. It's largely self-contained, has both steps forward and steps back and tries new things, employing a more societal perspective to tell what it wants to tell. It uses the same familiar tropes and clichés that all Yakuza games use, but they begin to wear out. Judgment's mistakes, failures even, can make the game far easier to dislike than before. However, there is also [i]something[/i] unique to Judgment. It may not be as good as its successor, or maybe even some of the mainline games, but it probably will leave the player thinking to themselves [i]"Well, it's a shame that's over"[/i] as opposed to leaving a bitter and deeply unpleasant aftertaste that thoroughly discourages even thinking about the game. [b]7.5/10[/b]

Overall a fantastic experience. I really enjoyed going back to Kamurocho after LAD 8. And I also enjoyed the combat system (not the biggest fan of the turn-based system in LAD 7 & 8). I stuck to the main story line. The story itself was interesting and fun, but I kinda got tired of revising the same locations over and over. I think if you sprinkled in some of the sub cases between main story points you probably wouldn't feel like your jumping so much from same place to same place. Also, the ending was rewarding and I liked how things were resolved. I would recommend this to fans of LAD and to fans that don't want to get into years of Yakuza content but want a strong, fun story full of the classic RGG charm.