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Judgment, which is considered the spin-off of the iconic Yakuza series, will take you to the streets of Japan! You will be controlling a detective, a former defense attorney, and find yourself in the crime world.
The game was developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, known as RGG Studio, and published by SEGA on September 14, 2022. Only two weeks after it came out, the game sold more than 1,000 copies on Steam and got mostly positive reviews.
The game is something more than a game; instead, it can be considered a great detective simulation with its amazing mechanics.
In addition to this, the repetition of these mechanics is fairly low and offers a mostly superficial experience to gamers. On the other hand, Judgment is highly entertaining with its free-flowing combat mechanics.
If you have played the other games in the sequel, we can easily say that Judgment takes the bar to the next level. We assure you that it is not like any of the previous games, especially Yakuza 6, which was released in 2018.
Completely New Cast
Although we know some characters from the series, most of the characters in Judgment are totally new. The main character is a private eye who works in Tokyo’s red-light district. You are going to enjoy a completely new cast of heroes and meet new villains. This makes the game ideal for those who have never played any of the games in the sequel.
Finally An English Dubbing Available on A Yakuza Game
Another great news is that you do not have to follow the subtitles anymore! In previous game series, they only used Japanese audio to protect the games’ originality and make sure that players had a good time.
This was criticized by many gamers since the games are often dialogue-heavy. However, you no longer need to be concerned about this issue. We should also say that the English voice dubbing is perfect.
Enjoy Plenty of Side Quests in Judgment
The name of the main character is Takayuki Yagami, who has a set of detective tools and skills so that you can focus on solving the main mission. However, besides the main mission, Judgment offers plenty of side quests that you can enjoy while progressing in the main story.
Your main mission is about a serial killer who is stalking high-ranking people from the underworld. Moreover, you will be taking advantage of technology in your investigations. You can, for example, use a camera drone of your character to stalk people from the windows in order to find suspects. You will also take advantage of your smartphone to take photos of the incidents you will be following.
For example, in one of the side cases, you will be following your client’s husband, who will be heading to a love hotel with his mistress. However, not all side cases will be as fun as these. Plenty of side cases mainly revolve around the quick time events, chasing, and tailing missions. In another sense, Judgment is also a stealth game, where you must avoid your suspects noticing you. For this reason, you will be vaulting over obstacles, hiding in different zones, and blending into the crowd. It should be mentioned that you will have a visibility meter, and you should keep an eye on it to successfully continue their investigation.
The good part of these side cases is that they are not repetitive. Of course, there are some repetitions, especially in tailing and chasing missions, but in general, we can easily say that this doesn’t disturb the overall gaming experience of the players.
Negative Points of Judgment
One of the setbacks of Judgment is that it doesn’t provide great freedom for players to affect the course of the story. Although the game’s name is Judgment, you will have little room to make your own decisions and affect the course of your progression. Even in these decisions, the story will be directed in the same direction.
Unfortunately, the interrogations are pretty straightforward as well. Although they are fun, you do not have a chance to fail in your interrogations. It may take some time to figure this out, but after a few interrogations, you will definitely get it.
This makes your delicate search a bit unnecessary. Although you will be searching for clues and evidence with utmost attention, you will notice that their impact on the course of the story is very little. This does not mean that you do not have to collect them, but there is no need to pay utmost attention to them.
Your conversations with the suspects are a bit unnecessary too. Although they are fun, no matter which dialogue tree you prefer, the results will be the same. Basically, Judgment gives players a linear path to follow and doesn’t give them much room to change things. This may be a disadvantage in terms of role-playing. On the other hand, we should keep in mind that RGG Studio does not promise us role-playing but a realistic action-crime adventure.
There Are Two Fighting Styles
Although your main character may be a former lawyer, this doesn’t mean that he cannot throw hands with his foes. The good thing is that your character is a master of two fighting styles. These are Tiger and Crane.
Tiger fighting style allows you to perform powerful attacks, which are ideal for one-on-one fights. On the other hand, the Crane fighting style allows you to perform sweep kicks and spinning roundhouses, which are ideal for group fights.
One of the best parts of the combat mechanics of Judgment is that you can easily switch between these fighting styles during your fights. The transition is smooth and enhances the gaming experience of players.
But even with all of these great fighting styles, we have to praise your character’s acrobatic skills. You have the chance to constantly change your angle of attack. This is pretty new compared to the previous games in the series.
Thus, it offers a more dynamic combat and gameplay experience to gamers. Your encounters will be much better as you keep practicing the acrobatic abilities of your character and get used to them. Basically, you can perform anything that comes to your mind. Thus, we encourage you to experiment with your abilities.
Judgment also allows players to customize their combat style by unlocking new finishers and combo moves. You will be able to choose between six different features to spend your experience points to customize your overall fighting experience.
Judgment is now available with its remastered version for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. The game is also available for PCs on Steam with a price tag of $39,99.
