Lost Judgment, in one word is phenomenal. Great story telling, great gameplay, great game. Lost Judgment is the follow up to the 2019 game of the year Judgment, and is made by the same company that makes the amazing Yakuza games as well. If you haven't played the first game (you should) you'll be okay, there is returning characters and they do reference the 1st game but overall its a brand new story. Plus the stuff they do reference in key part they will show a little flash back of the moment, weather it be a picture of the person or a clip of the event. I played with the Season Pass so I'll be reviewing this game as such, so something mention aren't in the standard version. This game is reviewed on the Xbox Series X and is my first experience of these Yakuza-type games on Xbox.
Where do I even start, there's just so much to do in this game, but lets start with the story, even this is complicated because of all the layers. You reprise the role as Takayuki Yagami, I called him Yagami in the last review so I'll be calling him Tak this time around
. Nearly two years later everyone still got the same clothes on! Tak is a private eye detective along side his partner Masaharu Kaito. The game take places in Japanese cities of Kamurochō and Isezaki Ijincho, The boys goes to Isezaki Ijincho after some old pals invited them over to help with a case, as they have started a Detective Agency of there own. What starts off as just a simple case of bullying at a High School quickly takes a series turn. The case gets bigger and tackles a lot of different elements, such as murders, sexually assault, and serial killing. Once the case starts, the start gets deep, and is very interesting, now you aren't solving a mystery, more so watching one play out, however you do have moments where you gotta pick the right evidence or find the right things to advance in the story. The pacing of the game is kind of rough in the beginning, a lot of talking and even though the major cut scenes are fully acted out in English (you can still play in Japanese's with English sub-titles) there is parts of the game where you just have to read, and some of those go way to long. The game really starts to pick up around chapter 6-7. Watching these stories play out is always amazing and this one is no different.
Okay, lets move on to gameplay, so much to do! Now the game as 3 fighting styles, you have the Crane style, which is recommended to be used in a crowd, he does moves that can attack many enemies at once. Next is the Tiger style, this is recommended to be used in one on one combat, with moves designed for attack one person head on, lastly we have the new fighting style, Snake style, which is a defensive centered style, that works on parrying and if timed right you can disarm enemy weapons. This was my favorite style by the end of the game, defense is sometimes the best offense. However if you get the season pass you get an additionally fighting style, Boxer Style, fun style for me because I'm into just throwing hands like a boxer but of course its limited, can't grab or throw kicks, this is also recommended in one on one fights. I'll be 100% I never remember what style is suppose to be used in what situation, I just flip threw them all and fight with whichever one I'm most comfortable at the time. Each style can be upgraded by using SP in a skill tree. You can also upgrade Stats, Abilities and Specials for Tak. At first I didn't like how the fighting felt, it just felt really slow but as the game went on and upgrades happened everything went back to normal and fighting was as fun as it always is.
Now lets talk about all the stuff you can do in this game its packed, so that High School if fully fleshed out accessibly and does play a big part of the free roaming aspect of this game. Now the game as a ton of side missions to be found within both cities but the game as this thing called School Stories, which is like another game mode for Tak, these missions gives you new gameplay, and as Tak joining different School Clubs as an advisor. You start off with two clubs main one being the Mystery Research Club (this is where all the clubs intertwine as your joining all these other clubs to find clues to solve a case.) School Stories are different from the main story so can be done whenever but to advance in some you have to get to certain part in the main story. Tak has a Leadership tree, Teamwork, Appeal, Focus and Guts, you have to level theses up to certain point to unlock more clubs, the game has 10 total. (CLUBS REVEAL SPOILER-Starting these clubs will open up more things, like the boxing club opens up the boxing gym, the skaters club opens up a skatepark and Biker Gang opens up bike racers. At the time of writing this I've only unlocked 7 clubs, others being Dance Club, Robotics Club, and the eSports Club. SPOILER ENDS) This is really cool feature and gives you some meaningful side things to do.
Now that skateboarding is limited to just the skatepark, you actually get one to roam around with, you can find more to buy and you get a Hoverboard with the season pass, you can skate around and collect coins as skate money, to buy stuff at the skate shop. The cities in theses games aren't usually to big, but riding is instead of just walking all the time is a nice addition, you can get around really fast, but you can't skate everywhere, only on the roads, skating in Isezaki Ijincho is much easier to skate in then Kamurochō, a lot more sidewalks and people just walking around and small spaces there. Using the skate bored will also prevent you from getting jumped, but as soon as you get off, you gonna get chased if they see, as the game puts "Gangsters ask no questions". Back to side things, you also have jobs, you are a detective after y'all so you can take a case and this a great way to get some Yen. You got some new gadget now, the drone returns, but now you have a Noise AMP and Detector as well as a Detective Dog.
Overall, its a great game, packed with so much to do, you can eat, shop, play darts, play baseball, go on dates doing these, do Chatter missions, your phone as all types of apps to add to the fun. The arcade as three fighting games like Sonic The Fighters , eSports Club even has you playing VF5. I know season passes are usually frowned upon but if you can I'd say get it, the extract you get, gives Tak super powers, plus you get a whole news story centered around Kaito-San. I do recommended this game, solely because of how packed it is with things to do, regardless if you played the first one or any of the Yakuza games. (Apart of the Lost Judgement DLC is the Kaito Files, gameplay centered around Kaito, which is a nice side story and Katio plays completely differently from Tak and its a great add-on).
Overall-9
Gameplay-9
Graphic-9.5
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