Back to Kamurocho.

Having said goodbye to the legendary Dragon of Dojima only a year ago, going back to the mean streets of Kamurocho again seemed a bit too soon. However, when I heard of the premise of Judgment, it checked all the right boxes for me.

From the creator of the Yakuza series, playing as a private detective in the modern version of Kamurocho with heavy emphasis on investigation?

Sign me up!

After all, despite having played nearly every Yakuza game to completion, I have always been on the other side of the law as a member of the Yakuza, and despite brief encounters with the law, the focus was clearly on the honor and brotherhood of the Yakuza.

Being able to see the story from the other perspective sounded intriguing, and doubly so due to my inherent love of detective stories and other games with investigative mechanics.

In this line of business, being wrong can mean life and death for you or someone else.

MSRP: $59.99
Platforms: PS4
Played on: PS4 Pro
Voice over options: JPN and ENG
Played: 25 hours~

As a promising defense attorney, Yakayuki Yagami wins a high profile murder case and becomes known as a prodigy in the courts. All is looking well for Yagami for a time until the defendant he helped to be declared innocent is arrested for killing his girlfriend in a brutal open and shut case. Overnight, he becomes known as the defense attorney who let a murderer walk free to claim another life as his previous success fades away like a distant memory.

Disillusioned with his choices in life, he puts away his attorney badge and becomes a private detective for hire in an obsessive bid for truth above all things.

As premises for detectives stories go, I found myself immediately invested in Yagami as a character, as well as his plight. The moral ambiguity and the feelings of doubt and guilt that was ingrained in Yagami after the incident hangs heavy over him and to see him make sense of his own truth and what matters most to him made for a compelling journey.

His stalwart partner in crime Kaito, an ex-yakuza man trying to go straight, who has a habit of trying to solve all of his problems by earnestly diving into them with everything he had made him easy to like. As was Yagami’s sage mentor in the law offices, Genda, who treats Yagami like a wayward son, looking out for him even though he no longer works for him.

The vast majority of the cast in Judgment felt fully realized as ever, as the updated Dragon Engine looks just as great as ever, with highly detailed faces and realistic animations. I also switched between both the English and the Japanese dubs; I enjoyed both but ended up settling on the Japanese dub as even though the main cast of VAs did a tremendous job bringing the characters to life, there were some side characters whose performance bordered on the “it’s so bad that it’s good” area.

Supported by the sharp visuals and audio performances of many talented individuals, the overarching story remained compelling from beginning to end.

I’ve only got eyes for you.

What wasn’t as compelling were the various forced mini-games sprinkled a bit too often throughout the main story. One of the first introduced and easily the worst was the tailing mission, where I had to keep my target in my sights without alerting them. These missions were the very definition of tedious, as I would simply walk at the slowest pace possible and hide behind cover every now and then when they became suspicious and turned around.

There were other activities like trying to take pictures as evidence trying to get the best angle or flying a drone trying to get some surveillance footage from out of place areas and even first person investigation areas where I was looking for the various clues left, but all of these glorified mini-games became unwelcome distractions almost immediately without any real depth to them.

Also, I found more than any other Yakuza game, I felt the pacing in Judgment to be atypically slow, as many objectives had me going to talk to someone, go back to the office, go talk to someone and repeat time and time again which had me sprinting around the city constantly. Even though I was stopped by random thugs, eager to donate their money to me and their teeth to the pavement, the combat encounters were quickly, mostly lasting less than ten seconds.

It’s a shame as the combat itself is pretty fun as the Dragon Engine still kicks all kinds of ass. Switching seamlessly from two distinct combat styles suited for 1 v 1 or 1 v Full Biker Gang, I was able to chain sweeping acrobatic kicks into devastating full body assaults that had my enemies reeling. As I gained experience through combat or by completing objectives, I was able to unlock new moves as well as passively increase my stats.

One disappointing thing about the combat is that despite Yagami being a completely different fighter to Kazuma, many of his heat moves were identical, and that simply came off as lazy given that his unique attacks had great dramatic flair to them. It would have been nice to have him as a wholly unique fighter instead of someone ripping off the legendary Dragon’s iconic moves.

Why kick one face when you can kick two at once?

Lastly, despite putting a huge emphasis on the investigation and detective side of things, I found that the story progressed perfectly fine by itself without me actually really coming to my own conclusions with the evidence that I collected. Despite the freedom to choose between a variety of dialogue options, I was usually not having to choose what to say, rather I was only given a choice of what to say first, which would reward me if I stuck to the important line of questioning.

The mechanics gave me the impression that it was too afraid to let the players think for themselves as it had a very specific story to tell, and player choice would ultimately get in the way of that. It’s a missed opportunity in my book as I think the failure state of coming to the wrong conclusion or not putting the evidence together correctly is an essential part of any detective game.

Choices or the illusion of choice?

Judgment tells a compelling story of a disgraced defense attorney turned detective and his obsessive search for the truth. Unfortunately, the half baked nature of the investigative mechanics as well as a slew of pacing issues holds it back from escaping from the Dragon’s shadow.

Fun Tidbit – Seriously, if I never play another tailing mission in any game for the rest of time, it would be fantastic.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.

Good
  • Great visuals and character animation
  • Enjoyable and fast paced combat engine
  • Compelling story arc filled with mystery and intrigue
Bad
  • Trivial detective elements
  • Bland mini-games
  • Reused assets
  • Pacing issues
7.5
Good
Written by
Jae has been a gamer ever since he got a Nintendo when he was just a child. He has a passion for games and enjoys writing. While he worries about the direction gaming as a medium might be headed, he's too busy playing games to do anything about it.