Lost Judgement is a game by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio that is a sequel to the original Judgement in story and gameplay. It’s not strictly necessary to have played the first Judgement in order to understand this one, but if you do plan on playing the first at some point, you should do so before playing this one because this game naturally spoils a lot of plot events in it’s prequel.
It is also important to note that this is set in the same universe as and takes place after Yakuza 7: Like a Dragon. It’s definitely not necessary to have played that before playing this, but central parts of the story of Lost Judgement spoil major twists in Yakuza 7. The story of Lost Judgement is more connected to Yakuza 7 than the original Judgement, wherein even if there’s almost no overlap in terms of characters between the two, Lost Judgement essentially serves as an epilogue to one of Yakuza 7’s core plot threads. Thus, I would highly recommend playing Yakuza 7 before playing this despite the two being in different subseries with completely different gameplay.
The story here follows detective and former lawyer Yagami as he pursues cases in Ijincho, Yokohama. The first case is relatively simple and involves searching for and dealing with bullying amongst students at Seiryo High School. However, this is only the prologue to a much larger case involving multiple murders and a a major man hunt by RK, one of the largest criminal organizations in Japan. In order to seek the truth behind the conspiracy, Yagami must call in the help of old allies, make new allies, and dive deep into the dark underbelly of Japan.
Overall, I felt the writing in Lost Judgement was very messy. It’s very typical Ryu ga Gotoku writing similar to the Yakuza games in terms of twists and turns. However, the Judgement games try to tackle much more complex subject matter. The first Judgement managed to do a decent enough job, but this one kind of felt like it was taking on more than it could handle. There was too much going on and as a result it just doesn’t come together all that well.
One of the strongest aspects of the first Judgement game was the incredibly cast of characters. They were all pretty well developed and got their moment to shine. Here, it felt like the cast was overtly bloated resulting in essentially no one getting enough time in the limelight. Part of that comes down to the heavy reliance on the characters from the previous game. Their stories are already finished and don’t directly have all that much to do with the plot of this game. Thus, the game doesn’t really do much with them, but at the same time them being core parts of the main cast prevents new characters more closely tied to the central narrative from filling those roles and from getting a larger focus. As such, neither the old nor the new characters get fleshed out properly.
Yagami is definitely the best returning character. As the protagonist, he’s still heavily focused on and that allows his strong sense of justice and quick wit to come across very well. However, it’s not like he really has any sort of character arc or development so he isn’t all that great of a protagonist this time around. The best new character was definitely Kuwana who was written pretty well with a great deal of complexity and he even served as somewhat of a foil to Yagami’s sense of values. However, he alone isn’t enough to hold up the cast. I was also really disappointed about how little of a role Mafuyu had in this game considering she was actually being set up Yagami’s romantic interest in the previous game, and I suppose that comes down to the script just simply not having enough room.
How Seiryo Highschool factors into things is also kind of strange. It’s a key location and is certainly important at the start, but then it just kind of fades out for the most part in regards to the main plot. There’s an extended side plot line called School Stories that is entirely centered around Yagami becoming the head of the Mystery Research Club and helping solve a case involving “The Professor” who’s secretly guiding various students into lives of crime. In dealing with that, he ends up making loads of allies which ultimately leads up to a grand finale type clash, similarly to the finale to the side cases in the first game. There’s a lot going on here and thus the writing is somewhat of a mixed bag, but on the whole it’s pretty good.
What’s strange is that this doesn’t cross over with the main plot at all. There are a few students that are important for the main plot but they have absolutely no role in the School Stories. And similarly, none of the many many characters involved in School Stories have any bearing on the main plot. The main plot related students are critical to the game from a thematic point of view, and the scene in the ending focused on them was actually the one that hit hardest for me. But they’re also woefully underdeveloped. The School Stories could have fleshed them out better, so everything being so disconnected was just bizarre.
The rest of the overarching plot is also lacking. The central theme throughout is bullying and the inability of society to deal with it. However, the game ultimately didn’t say anything much about the issue other than bringing it up and showing how hurtful it can be not just for the direct victim, but also for those around them. And it did most of that in the first third of the game. The rest just kind of repeats the same messages without really exploring it in any more detail, while also throwing around a lot of the standard generic concepts relating to vigilante justice and such.
The central mystery behind everything is decent enough, though not as good as the one in the previous game. But the biggest problem is the whole court set up just doesn’t make much sense. It just doesn’t make sense for Yagami to be on the side that he’s on as he’s essentially serving as a defense lawyer that’s trying to expose his own client. The writing has to tie itself into knots to try to make this work, and it still ends up feeling incredibly forced. The way things are ultimately resolved in the courtroom is especially abrupt, and the finale overall feels like the developers just trying to wrap things up somehow. Still, despite all the issues, all in all I would have to say I was satisfied with the ending. Mainly due to the parts involving the Seiryo cast.
The gameplay of Lost Judgement is pretty much the same as in the previous game. The combat is the typical Ryu ga Gotoku brawler fare. There are three styles this time around, with one additional as DLC, that give you a decent amount of variety and flexibility. It’s overall pretty basic, but flows well enough. It hasn’t really evolved at all over previous games, but it’s fun enough. I felt the bosses weren’t as well designed as previous games however, and the cinematic set pieces surrounding them were overall less epic. It does the job, but I don’t think it’s particularly memorable, especially if you’ve played a lot of the previous Ryu ga Gotoku games.
This game has the standard detective portions that involve Yagami inspecting areas in order to find clues and such. Beyond that there are also a bunch of new detective gimmicks, such as using a dog to sniff out clues or a bug detector. These aren’t particularly great but add some decent variety. They’re a lot better than the returning detective gimmicks (tailing, chasing, and sneaking) which are still just as boring and awful as in the previous game.
Exploration wise the game is set in Kamurocho and Ijincho. Neither have changed much compared to Yakuza 7. Ijincho is huge, which was a problem in Yakuza 7, but thankfully this game mitigates that by giving Yagami a skateboard that allows him to move pretty fast. The collectibles in this game are squirrel graffiti hints leading to various items, which are enjoyable enough to find. There are also various side quests that make use of Yagami’s detective skills that overall are decent enough. Only the School Stories really stood out though, with the only other extended side plot line, the Dastardly Detective, being pretty disappointing. Some of the side cases lead to girlfriends that Yagami can form a relationship with. This aspect felt pretty underdeveloped though with none of them having much to their stories or character arcs. They’re all pretty likable characters though for what its worth.
As usual for Ryu ga Gotoku, there are loads of mini-games. There is of course the standard small ones like batting cages, darts, and various arcade games. However, Lost Judgement in particular has a lot of mini-games with a lot of substance. Unfortunately, most of them aren’t good, and thus this is a case of quantity over quality. Most of them were just okay, such as the dancing, boxing, or skateboarding, with the biggest issue being that they didn’t have have enough content and substance to them. But some of them were also absolutely awful, such as the robotics or the motorbiking. The motorbiking mini-game is straight up one of the worst designed gaming experiences I have ever encountered. And thus on the whole, the mini-games and side content in general in this I would rate negatively.
The game is solid enough visually for a game also on PS4. It also runs really well on PS5. I did feel that there was an issue with a lot of characters having an uncanny valley to their faces when zoomed out. They look fine when they’re more zoomed in, so I suppose it’s a LoD issue. The music was also pretty good. The OP movie is solid in terms of the song and visuals. The ED just plays random music including the OP song and overall isn’t that significant, but is decent enough I suppose. The UI/UX is solid enough though definitely somewhat messy at times, and I liked how the game now has a conversation backlog.
A sequel that in terms of story is pretty good but not really evolved past it’s predecessor, and that in terms of story is somewhat weaker but still decent.
7/10
The Kaito Files is a DLC side story that takes place after Lost Judgement with Kaito now serving as the protagonist and taking a solo case without Yagami. The story is features Kaito discovering that an old flame who was thought to have committed suicide having had been seen walking around Kamurocho. He searches for her with her son, Jun, and finds that her past is significantly more complex than he expected.
This DLC has only the main story without any side cases or anything like that. As such, although it’s only about six hours long it still has a decent amount of story compared to what that length would get you in other Ryu ga Gotoku games. The length still felt too short for the story being told though, and in the end it definitely feels underdeveloped and rushed in a lot of ways. The mystery is also incredibly predictable. Still, overall it flows well, develops Kaito really well, and has a really good ending that breaks heavily from how Ryu ga Gotoku Studio usually ends such stories. The villain is also fantastic, in that he’s just straight up evil without anything complex about him which is actually pretty refreshing. Thus, all in all I was very satisfied with the game from a story point of view.
Gameplay wise, all there is is the main quest, so it’s mostly just combat without much exploration or any mini-games. Kaito’s combat is even more simplistic than Yagami’s, but it’s really weighty which makes it really satisfying. The bosses were pretty lacking though, with only the final (real) boss having any pizazz at all. Also, stealth, chase, and tailing missions also unfortunately return and are still terrible. In terms of production values it’s pretty much the same as the main game. The soundtrack is also pretty much the same. Though there’s no OP video, and the ED is just white text on black.
A decent enough short and to the point bonus story.
7/10
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