A new chapter in the Yakuza spin-off series was released in 2021 and with their new DLC, The Kaito Files, coming out, I wanted to give the game a chance. While I never did get into the Yakuza series before, the Judgment series from Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and SEGA had its own appeal to it as it you don’t take on the role of a gang member, but rather a detective. That said, I figured it was worth giving Lost Judgment a playthrough and it has been a bit of a mixed bag.

Story

Yagami, a respected lawyer and detective, is hired to take on a case to find out if bullying is happening at Seiryo High School. Meanwhile, a case his lawyer colleague Saori is on has her defending a man named Ehara who is on trial for sexual battery on a woman in the subway. Through a series of surprising twists, these two cases end up being connected by a revelation that Ehara reveals in his trial; a man would be found murdered in a specific abandoned building. The main problem with his statement - the cops haven’t released this information yet.

After Saori contacts Yagami to request help discussing this case, an investigation sets out to get to the bottom of what is going on. How did Ehara know of the victim? What, if any, connection does the murder case have with the bullying and sexual battery cases? Is there a bigger plot at hand, hidden behind a curtain full of clues and information?

Honestly, the story of this game is by far the best part of the game. If anything had me turning it back on every chance I could, it was the compelling story that was told through a series of big twists and intriguing revelations. Just how deep the story goes and how high up the chain a simple bullying case ends up taking you is a hard factor to ignore.

Gameplay

Other than solving the main case, this game does offer a lot of different gameplay. If you were to just do the main story plot, it can feel like you are mainly jumping from cutscene to cutscene with only a few gameplay moments in the middle of it. Given how detailed the story is, it is understandable and honestly worth watching through. That said, there are plenty of opportunities given to do side tasks or just explore the cities.

This game offers a plethora of side quests too. You can pull side quests from a bulletin board in your detective agency, check a specially made application on your phone to search for what specific keywords are buzzing in town to pinpoint possible problems to solve, a detective dog that you can work with and will take you to different tasks, and you are the Seiryu High’s mystery clubs advisor which has its own tasks and quests. So, in terms of things to do aside from the main quest, there is A LOT!

If you decide to just explore the town, you will sometimes find yourself getting into fights with random groups of thugs, going into different restaurants and shops to stock up on food or buy new clothing and gear, or possibly selling some of your excess material that you have been collecting. If you have enough material, you can also mix together some items in your inventory to make different extracts.

Extracts, food, and drinks are all part of your health and fighting system. While food is mainly used to regain some health, drinks can do the same thing but if they are liquor then you will get drunk so don’t overdo it. Extracts are different items that will increase your fighting in one way or another. Each extract is different, so make sure you figure out which one you like best so you can be on the lookout for the materials that will let you make more of them.

The combat in this game is pretty flashy, but nothing too impressive. I really like it from the player’s point because you can quickly change between different fighting styles, all of which have their own skill trees that can be improved upon to make the fighting style better to use. However, the enemy AI really is kind of a bummer because even when you are surrounded by a bunch of guys, it still ends up feeling like a one-on-one fight with each one. Sometimes more than one guy will attack at the same time, but it isn’t often. I am playing the game on the ‘Normal’ difficulty, which is what I do for most games, so I expected a bit more of a challenge. The best, and only actually challenging, fights are against bosses, so enjoy those when they happen.

Other than all of that, you do have a few aspects that mainly show up during missions. You have the investigation view which pulls you into first-person and has you look around for clues on whatever you are investigating. This same view will have some gadgets for different uses, like a camera or a detector of kind. Then there is a bit of parkour to the game when it comes to getting to certain places, again for missions. Lastly, you will have stealth moments which you will use to get by enemies or take some out once they are distracted.

Audio and Gameplay

Overall, both of these aspects were well designed and fitting to the experience the game aimed to provide. While the graphical quality of the game isn’t top tier, it is a good style that is an improved version of what the Yakuza series is known for having. As for the music and sound effects, all of these were pretty good, if not slightly laughably entertaining. When awkward moments or generally playful moments would take place, the music shift to a bouncer style was notably the most entertaining switch.

Replayability

This game is LOADED with side quests, free roam, and more for the player to do. While the main quest line wouldn’t really be replayable, I can see players enjoying themselves at the arcade (which is chock-full of actually playable games) or roaming the streets for more ass to kick.

What It Could Have Done Better

The enemy AI system is downright stupid, to put it bluntly. I think the fighting parts of the game would be more entertaining if the enemies fought smarter and worked together as a group. The easy answer to keep the gradual increase in difficulty while having a smarter enemy AI would be to simply have fewer enemy group sizes in the early parts of the game and gradually increase the group sizes as the game progresses.

Also, a lot of the side gameplay bits like parkour and stealth feel way too guided. Rather than allowing the player to simply enjoy the ability to stealth around enemies and take them down or parkour around buildings in a more creative style, this game leads the player to do specific actions and paths to proceed. The worst offense of this is when I successfully snuck behind an enemy, but it wouldn’t let me take them down until I distracted them even though I was right there, crouched behind the enemy, within range and with no other enemy in sight.

Verdict

Lost Judgment has one of the best mystery narratives I have followed in quite some time! I was dying to know how the story was going to progress and was intrigued every step of the way. The game is pretty fun to play through, but the story is easily the highlight of the game. If they do continue the series, I hope they work on the combat system some more to make the game more fun than it currently is. Still, the story makes this game worth playing through and the fighting itself is pretty fun to utilize, even if the enemies are simple to take down most of the time.

Lost Judgment is currently available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.