Review: Judgment ( PS4 )

Review / Thoughts:

“ Judgment ” ( PS4 )

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Developer: Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio

Publisher: Sega

Released: June 25, 2019

Time Played: 51 hours

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Judgment is an action-adventure video game developed and published by Sega for the PlayStation 4. Initially developed under the codename Project Judge, the game is a spiritual successor of the Yakuza series ever since 2015. The game was released on December 13, 2018 in Japan, and on June 25, 2019 worldwide. It stars former lawyer turned into detective named Takayuki Yagami as he and his allies explore a case involving the dead bodies whose eyes were removed. The player controls Yagami in the fictional city of Kamurocho where he can fight against thugs, yakuzas while also doing multiple side-missions involving chasing, stealth and searching for clues in cases.

The game was written and directed by Toshihiro Nagoshi who wanted to write a new type of story that contrasted the team's work in Yakuza by elaborating a detective case. As a result, the game was created to be accessible to newcomers of detective games. In order to promote the game, famous singer Takuya Kimura was contracted to play the role of Yagami both in facial features and English voice acting. Due to popular demand, the game was given an English voice acting option while multiple languages were placed in order to get more gamers. The band Alexandros performed two musical themes for the game.

Since I started playing Yakuza 0 and gave a try to that game I fell in LOVE with the way Ryu Ga Gotoju studio told a story of a Yakuza named Kiryu and how he went through lot of problems and fix them throughout the franchise and when I heard that they are making another game called “ Judgment “ which will be located in the same place but a new character will be introduced AND he be a detective, I was really interserted to check it out when it came out and WELL! GUESS WHAT………. I freaking loved it. Here is my Review on “ Judgment “ played on PS4.

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Pros:

Story:

OMG! The story in “ Judgment “ IS SO GOOD, it’s like the Yakuza level of a good story but more of an Intriguing mystery drama. I will not spoil the story and big reveal BUT here it a short version of the story. You play as Takayuki Yagami where a murder happened in the Kamurocho Street and the victim is missing whos eyes are missing as it is your duty as a detective to solve this case and find the true killer and the story goes from there as you investigate this case, talk to many people, investigate more murders and a lot of twists and turns in the story…… Its a must to experience it yourself than google it OR youtube it cause THE STORY IS FREAKING AWESOME.

Main Characters ( Takayuki Yagami ):

The main character in “ Judgment “ is not Kiryu this time BUT a new hero named Takayuki Yagami. He is a private investigator and was a Lawyer until an event happen where he resigns from it, he is voiced by Greg Chun who did a fantastic job on it and throughout this game, you start to love Yagami. At the start, I thought he was annoying but as I played throughout the game I started to love him and now he could easily be in my best characters of 2019 list.

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Killer performances from cast:

With an outstanding performance by Takayuki Yagami, other casts in the game also did an outstanding job of performing their characters like people you might know as Mattew Mercer, Brian McNamara, Mattew Yang King and much much more who also deserve a round of applause to them 👏👏👏. Great work on making those characters come to life.

Good converted to English Localisation:

I am really happy to Ryu Ga Gotoju for converting this game to English localization after high demand from the west cause they did an outstanding job on it and it’s not like a bad translation from Japanese to English like other many games/anime does but a really well done one. A lot of people would be thinking of playing it in Japanese language cause of Yakuza games BUT I recommend switching it to English cause of how well done it is 👏👏👏.

NEW Gameplay mechanics:

While the combat and the world is been seen in other Yakuza Games there are new gameplay elements added in “ Judgment”. Like the game features an investigation mode where the player must find traces of the criminal. When asked about similarities regarding both franchises, Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi stated that "location and assets might be the same, but the gameplay and story here are drastically different". In addition, players will have to infiltrate areas through lock picking and use of disguises to gather information or find objects of interest. The game also features sections where the player must follow or chase after a possible suspect. Players follow suspects by hiding behind cars and walls while keeping a lookout of the suspect's movements. Chase sequences involve players dashing over obstacles in order to get close and tackle the suspect.

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Side missions:

The Side missions in “ Judgment “ makes a return and this time its better than ever, You again experience some of the good side-missions there is in this whole Yakuza universe. Some of them have a meaningful ending as we had in Yakuza 0 while others are just plain funny and really well done like in Yakuza Kiwami 2 and there is one side investigation mission where you have to defuse a bomb….. Ryu Ga Gotoju did a fantastic job on making a really good story BUT also side-quests 👏

Combat:

Combat in “ Judgment “ almost feels like combat from Yakuza Kiwami 2 but a little bit different this time and let me explain them to you. There are two styles, based around Tiger Kung Fu and Crane Kung Fu, even being named after them. Tiger is an offensive style for fighting one-on-one, whereas the Crane is a reactive style designed for dealing with groups. Yagami is proficient in both hand-to-hand and blunt-weapon-based melee combat, though he refuses to use bladed weapons. He also does not use firearms.

Crane

The crane style, represented by a blue crane icon and a light blue aura, enables Yagami to tackle multiple enemies with ease, with attacks that are acrobatic and have a better reach for more than two enemies. The crane style is called "waltz" in the Japanese version of the game.

Tiger

The tiger style, represented by a red tiger head icon and a bright red aura, is best used for one-on-one situations. Yagami can deliver more powerful, precise strikes and break enemy guard. The tiger style is called "flash" in the Japanese version of the game.

Besides the aforementioned styles, Yagami is also able to perform wall attacks, where he launches himself off of a wall and onto an enemy. This wall attack ability can be used for crowd control or to stun enemies and enable Yagami to perform several unique EX Actions.

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SOUNDTRACK IS AWESOME:

OMG THE SOUNDTRACK IN THIS GAME IS FREAKING AWESOME and by awesome I mean really really good and probably one of my favorite soundtrack of this year. The music played during combat is good, the music played when in a mission is also great and the soundtrack when drone racing is just mindblowing. Its a must to buy soundtrack as a standalone cause it’s that good.

Drone and VR mini game:

Speaking of mini games and side-quest, there were particularly two mini games out of plenty which I just loved and felt like a game inside a game and they were the Drone and VR mini games. In Drone, well you race drone against others in a competition and the handling of drone and building of drones were just a fantastic addition to this game, you race drones with an outstanding soundtrack playing behind. Other one was a vr game where you roll a dish and move by which number you get, there could be good awards if you are lucky, lock picking as well as fight challenges where for example you have to kill a certain amount of enemies in a time limit using the only weapon the game provides you. Both of them were a great addition to this game and probably the best mini game in this Yakuza franchise.

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Side games:

With VR and Drone Racing mini games, there were other many mini games as well which you can try out. Here are some of them i will name: ( Pinball, Mahjong, Batting centre, Shogi, Darts, Poker, Blackjack, Koi Koi, Oicho Kabu and UFO catcher ).

Graphics:

A1 for the graphics in “ Judgment “ cause this game looks awesome on PS4. Kamurocho feels and look beautiful, characters design was also pretty good and lip-syncing was alright.

Cons:

Performance issue:

This game does have technically problems when i played it, some fight scene had huge FPS drop and had some hiccups while roaming around. Also i did find some glitches of characters disappearing and the main characters getting stuck but it was rarely. And also i had a big issue in a main mission where i had to restart the whole mission over again but it only happen 1 time for me.

Kamurocho feel stale:

I never thought I would say this because I really did enjoy this world for whole 3 games ( 0, Kiwami and Kiwami 2 ) but in “ Judgment “ seeing it for the 4 time got stale and felt like i now know every single place on this same old map and even tho i know this map already and i still will have to play here in Yakuza 3 to 6. I am just happy top see a new location to be featured in Yakuza 7.

Less yakuza style mini-games:

Sadly while VR and Drone were my favorite mini games here and there were plenty other mini games as well, There were too few mini games like we had in Kiwami 2 and that sucks. There is no pocket-racing here, No Karaoke and NO CABARET CLUBS. I just wish we see all of this and mini games from “ Judgment “ be all together in Yakuza 7.

Slow pace:

While the story flow was sometimes good and you get from one trilled moment to the other, there were indeed parts of the game that just TOOK A LONG WHILE to get to and it was a slow burn. I remember there were moments where I knew that where it is going but it took so long to get there that I was like “ Alright, Alright! I know this so let's just get to the main point. ``

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Final score

9 / 10 ( Excellent )

( Definitely must to buy )

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Judgment is an excellent Japanese adventure that feels incredibly familiar, yet engrossing all the same. With Judgment, RGG Studio has managed to create an excellent entry point for the Yakuza series, and a fantastic standalone adventure. While it's familiar to myself and Yakuza fans, if you're new to the series this might just be the very best place to start. A wonderful, though sometimes slow, adventure from beginning to end.