While the mileage may vary on some of the more obtuse activities – VR board game, anyone? – it cannot be argued that Judgment doesn’t give players value for money. It shouldn’t be discounted that the game even has 50 Side Cases to get stuck into as well. The likes of the batting cages and Club SEGA arcades return, plus the extremely entertaining Drone Races are a welcome addition. There’s dozens of hours of content here, which is extremely generous on Ryu Ga Gotoku’s part. ![]() If sleuthing and slapping fools silly gets old, then you will be pleased to see Judgment go massively OTT with the side content. At least it’s different and, crucially, interesting enough to be worth its inclusion. It’s a double-edged sword: this makes longer combat sections (of which there are surprisingly many for a supposed detective game at heart) a real slog, and could even find you reloading old saves more often than you’d like, though it ups the challenge considerably and has you thinking on your feet when the going gets tough. Being shot or hit with a charged boss attack means your health bar is permanently reduced until you find a doctor. There is one new combat feature to be aware of: Mortal Wounds. It sure is fun, though, and you will be just as entertained ever by taking a bicycle and giving the person on the receiving end of a handlebar a one-way trip to the dentist. The two combat styles – Tiger and Crane – differ enough for you to get use out of both, but you’ll probably be resorting to the same well-worn combos over and over. Judgment’s combat also lacks the brutal balletic finesse that was found in previous entries. ![]() Punching people really, really hard gave Kiryu all the answers so it must work for Yagami. It’s indicative of Judgment’s slavish need to rely on the framework presented by past Yakuza games. Namely, he’s not a burly bruiser in the shape of a Kiryu or even a Goro Majima his need to pound on some poor soul to get information presents a massive narrative disconnect that can’t quite be shaken off. It doesn’t help, either, that there’s a serious disconnect between what Yagami is and what he does. The second half features Yagami relying heavily on rearranging facial features of yakuza members and various criminals instead of predominantly sorting through clues across several enticing whodunnits – which says it all. You’ll soon find that the game itself doesn’t even have faith in its core gameplay mechanics, with the tried-and-tested combat of previous Yakuza comes increasingly coming to the fore instead. He’s simply a character along for the ride, watching as others get to make all the important moves. Just doing all the case legwork without bringing it home in a grandstanding finale at the end of a chapter feels massively unfulfilling and removes all agency from Yagami. It’s particularly galling, too, that there’s rarely any courtroom action. So, while the story itself is fantastic, it’s an impeccable narrative that works in spite of the gameplay. This, when coupled with the interminable tailing mechanic which feels like it’s ripped straight out of a PS2 game, may disappoint those looking for another Danganronpa or LA Noire-style experience. It’s hardly a cerebral, chin-scratching experience. The illusion of choice is fleeting and, instead, the only peril or penalty found in the game is not getting a tiny amount of extra XP for asking things in a more logical order, or Yagami screwing up and making light of the situation before giving the player another stab at choosing the correct response. Interrogations, and actually getting sweaty, palm-itching witnesses to fold under pressure, could have been interesting, though doesn’t really go anywhere thanks to its lack of depth. Instead, you’re left blandly hovering around bodies, replaying the same minigames over and over, or hammering buttons in QTE events – something we probably should have left behind by now in 2019. ![]() The game absolutely refuses to go all-in on the detective side of things. Unfortunately, the core gameplay on offer, which includes lockpicking, chasing targets, wearing disguises to infiltrate areas, and general crime scene examination, is severely lacking in its execution. In Judgment, Yagami must help move the story along and crack the case by collecting evidence and presenting it to witnesses. ![]() The game is afoot - and not particularly interesting
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