Here I am again with another game by Ryu ga Gotoku studios, and I'm afraid to say... this might be the best game they've made so far.
I was holding up Yakuza Kiwami 2 on a pedestal, but after playing this I'm pretty sure I've got a new Yakuza favorite. Let me get into the reasons why!
Setting
This game is set on two locations, the Kamurocho from Judgment (and most Yakuza games) and Isezaki Ijincho from Yakuza 7 (Like a Dragon).
Kamurocho looks as nice as ever and with all the improvements and evolutions from the previous Judgment game, it looks really sweet and is familiar.
Ijincho is also familiar if you're putting Yakuza 7 into comparison, but some buildings have been moved around and most importantly for the plot: A school was added.
Story
The story follows Akihiro Ehara after he upskirts a woman in the subway and gets prosecuted for that. Ehara is a police officer so the case is really big and quite a scandal. However, during the court proceedings, Ehara reveals that a murder has occured in Ijincho.
Meanwhile, Yagami-san (the protagonist and detective) is in Ijincho investigating Seiryo High School for bullying cases and catching bullies and helping people. He hears from Saori, his lawyer friend who was present as the defendant for Ehara about what happened and thus the story begins. With an impossible murder at the center of it all.
Graphics and Performance
I played this game on the PS4 and I have to say: Aside from Sony exclusives, this is likely the best looking PS4 game I've seen so far.
And graphics-to-performance it's also quite a feat! Specially when compared to the original Judgment.
It was insane the amount of enemies they manage to fit without a single noticeable drop in framerate, or how crisp everything looks whilst still running at a steady 30FPS.
It's a game that caught me entirely by surprise in this front. It's quite incredible the level of optimization that Ryu ga Gotoku studios was able to do here.
The Combat
This is the true highlight of Lost Judgment. Judgment already had taken a formula that was insanely good and made it better, Lost Judgment makes it even better!
This game feels like butter to play, delicious high quality butter from the most expensive supermarket around.
There are 3 combat styles: Dragon, Snake and Crane, each one focused on different scenarios.
The one I used the most was Snake, as it's really good for clearing out large groups of enemies and it also looks really cool, after Snake it was Dragon - which is really good for 1 on 1 fights.
Side Content
I don't think I've seen a RGG game with this much side content before. There are so many side cases to do, and so many of the new School Stories to follow.
In School Stories you're helping out Amasawa from the MRC (Mistery Research Club of the Seiryo High School) solve cases from around the campus and helping out other people.
This makes you enter various clubs around the school, such as the robotics club, dance club, the skaters and even a eSports club where you get to play Virtua Fighter V!
It's so well developed and fun that I spent around 7-8 hours playing through the school stories and I'm nowhere near finishing them just yet.
This game deserves a 10/10 from me
And I'm the guy who's played almost every single Yakuza/RGG/LaD game so far. It's simply an incredible experience, with a great story, great graphics, great performance (even better on PS5!), and a gameplay that is so fun that it makes it hard to stop playing.
The good part about Judgment and lost Judgment too is that you need no previous knowledge of the Yakuza titles to play them, although you'll miss out on some references here and there.
But do play Judgment first!
That is it from me, now I'll be going through those school stories in Premium Adventure! Thanks for reading!
Dudeeee I am getting close to finish it soon. The game def is a 10/10 for me too so far. Glad you enjoyed it. Scared to read through the post in case of spoilers haha.
I always avoid spoilers when talking about games hahaha so no need to worry