So! An hour and a half ago I finished my playthrough of Judgment, and I couldn't be happier with my €25 purchase of this game. Coming off Yakuza: Like A Dragon, I wasn't too keen to snag a game that reuses Kamurocho YET. AGAIN. But with no PS5 in sight any time this frickin' decade, I decided to buy the game after realizing I'm bored as shit.
And boy, am I glad I did. It managed to grab hold of me very quickly with its characters, compared to the almost-whimsical tone of Like A Dragon and its paper-thin cast of ridiculous party members (seriously, am I supposed to believe Zhao and Joon-Gi are snuggly BFFs with hearts of gold? lol). I love that the game successfully, and surprisingly quickly, manages to establish Yagami, his background, his beliefs and his closest allies, with Kaito being the best bud in any Yakuza game thus far. I love, love, LOVE how well the new cast of characters play off each other and how the story unfolds. While the game successfully continues the tradition with the batshit crazy, stupid (and slightly misogynistic) side-stories which are probably some of the best in the entire series, the straightforwardness and consistency of the main story told here is excellent. Sure, it occasionally devolves into sheer stupidity with the studio's love for plot twists and crazy spectacles, but it generally sticks to a solid narrative much better than most, if not all, games in the series. Yagami is not as faultless as Kiryu or as dumb-charming as Ichiban, and thus I feel he's an actual character with clear motivations and responses to things.
I really dig the focus on building relationships with various characters and the entire friend rating system, and how the various small characters are introduced and intertwined either with each other or the main story. Also, it might be recency bias but I believe Judgment is the best-looking game out of them all.
It's not all perfect though. The tailing missions are too basic and tend to drag on too long and too often, the Keihin Gang system can be absurdly annoying when the game keeps throwing groups of enemies at you that are pretty much unavoidable, and Kamurocho is seriously long in the tooth (fuck this map for any future game). But all flaws disintegrate when you get further into the story; the main antagonists are awesome and very well-executed, and the last three chapters are HYPE. AS. FUUUU-
Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that you need to play this game if you haven't.
What do others think of it?
And boy, am I glad I did. It managed to grab hold of me very quickly with its characters, compared to the almost-whimsical tone of Like A Dragon and its paper-thin cast of ridiculous party members (seriously, am I supposed to believe Zhao and Joon-Gi are snuggly BFFs with hearts of gold? lol). I love that the game successfully, and surprisingly quickly, manages to establish Yagami, his background, his beliefs and his closest allies, with Kaito being the best bud in any Yakuza game thus far. I love, love, LOVE how well the new cast of characters play off each other and how the story unfolds. While the game successfully continues the tradition with the batshit crazy, stupid (and slightly misogynistic) side-stories which are probably some of the best in the entire series, the straightforwardness and consistency of the main story told here is excellent. Sure, it occasionally devolves into sheer stupidity with the studio's love for plot twists and crazy spectacles, but it generally sticks to a solid narrative much better than most, if not all, games in the series. Yagami is not as faultless as Kiryu or as dumb-charming as Ichiban, and thus I feel he's an actual character with clear motivations and responses to things.
I really dig the focus on building relationships with various characters and the entire friend rating system, and how the various small characters are introduced and intertwined either with each other or the main story. Also, it might be recency bias but I believe Judgment is the best-looking game out of them all.
It's not all perfect though. The tailing missions are too basic and tend to drag on too long and too often, the Keihin Gang system can be absurdly annoying when the game keeps throwing groups of enemies at you that are pretty much unavoidable, and Kamurocho is seriously long in the tooth (fuck this map for any future game). But all flaws disintegrate when you get further into the story; the main antagonists are awesome and very well-executed, and the last three chapters are HYPE. AS. FUUUU-
Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that you need to play this game if you haven't.
What do others think of it?
