By this point the Ryū ga Gotoku franchise, formerly known internationally as Yakuza and from now on Like a Dragon, is extremely popular everywhere. We’ve come from having some spin-off titles having no international release and main titles in the franchise having the international release delayed by years, to getting almost day one releases worldwide and future announcements that get so many people excited it would’ve been hard to believe this just a few years ago.
Judgment is the first game that is set in the same shared world as the rest of the Like a Dragon titles that has absolutely no “Like a Dragon” in its title. It was originally released on PS4 in 2018, has gotten an enhanced Remaster on current gen systems juts last year and now is finally available on PC, released the same day as its sequel Lost Judgement. And I have to be honest, even though I like these series in general, I truly loved only 2 Like a Dragon games so far and unfortunately, being extremely long titles, I did get somewhat tired of them last year when I finally wrapped things up with the PC port of Yakuza 6. Even though I’ve heard great things about Judgment, I was still afraid that it will tire me out. Instead, it has become the third game in the franchise that I consider exceptional.
At its core, Judgment is a typical Like a Dragon game (apart from, you know, when it plays as a jRPG) – it’s a story-driven action adventure set in an open world that isn’t particularly large, but dense with details and stories. The combat is still somewhat jRPG-ish in how it happens, as during normal city roaming enemies just get randomly spawned to walk around and if they catch up with you, you enter combat that controls differently and the only ways to end this are to lose, win or try to escape. Combat itself remains, as it is in most titles, very beat ’em up/fighting game like, with combos, usage of weapons you find lying on the floor, visible health bars, special attacks and all of that stuff. Bosses that have more health and special abilities of their own are, of course, also still here and the big new addition for this whole system is that sometimes they can give you “permanent” damage, that cannot be healed normally.
But despite the lack of big changes in the basics, there’s a lot of new ideas and approaches in Judgment to the point, where it feels unlike a Like a Dragon title. Sure, one of the fighting styles private detective Yagami (the main character) uses is reminiscent of the feet-heavy style Shun “Best character in the series” Akiyama has, but playing is Yagami is anything but playing like Akiyama. Being a detective, a lot of tasks Yagami-san has to accomplish required a new set of mechanics and Judgment does most of them well. You occasionally get to tail people, hiding behind corners and blending with people. You get access to two lockpicking minigames, one of which is really fun and the other is a big miss. The chase sequences return, being really well done this time around and a far cry from when they first appeared in the franchise and were terrible. You get to investigate scenes in first person mode, sometimes while using a drone for more advantageous perspective, and a lot of these are fun. There’s a disguise system that is criminally underutilized despite being really cool. And during some scenes and dialogues you get to perform some simple clue compiling and getting to the conclusion in the most efficient way possible.
And the tone of the story and all of the side-stories is also expectedly fitting a detective tale, not a… whatever situation Kiryu, Majima or Ichiban often get into. What I especially loved was how a lot of these stories are now evolved to not just tell a nice story with memorable characters, but many of them often get a continuation or connection to other stories, creating the illusion of a real community in Kamurocho (the setting of the entire game, returning from previous titles). There’s even a really amazingly cool little epilogue story that happens when you’ve made all possible friends and helped people with lots of cases. And the “girlfriend” concept here too is finally feeling more like an interaction with a proper character, than just a mechanic for stats, with all available “girlfriends” getting genuinely interesting stories that you follow.
That said, it still feels very… “girl is a prize”-ish and essentially stops any and all character nuance once you’ve succeeded and you can’t “just be friends” either. I wouldn’t have noticed or even cared if it wasn’t so far into becoming a genuinely great element of the story, instead of just a slightly more advanced and well written mechanic. Sadly, the aforementioned Friends and the rewarding epilogue story require you to grind a lot of stuff you might not be interested in. I mean – why do you need to play lots of poker to get a really wholesome side-story? Why lock it behind so much stuff most people will not enjoy?
So yeah, Judgment isn’t entirely free of the usual faults of the Like a Dragon title. Fights do get more annoying than fun or challenging as the story goes on. Some systems and ideas become more convoluted for no reason, despite starting with a perfect balance of complexity. And the story isn’t free of occasional overtly dramatic moments that don’t really add anything to the storytelling.
Yet. And yet. I couldn’t help but feel that Judgment might be the most “new player friendly” title in the franchise and, overall, the most… well… FUN. There’s no prerequisite story or world knowledge required, even if knowing the world of Like a Dragon adds to it. The combat system is very easy to understand and the skill system is very streamlined without too much extra stuff. We only get Kamurocho, which remains perfect as far as the size goes, so by the end of the game you will most likely understand where the street you need is without looking at a map or a goal pointer. And it hits all of the best story points you expect from a Like a Dragon title and a collection of really good characters. Personally, I’ve enjoyed this cast far more than that of Yakuza: Like a Dragon (now probably to be known as Like a Dragon 7: Like a Dragon?..) and Yagami-san is easily one of the best protagonists in the franchise so far.
So, if you haven’t played a single Like a Dragon game before, I’d say – Judgment is the ideal starting point. I used to say Yakuza 0 or Yakuza 4 and I still consider those titles to be the other 2 best games in the series, but Judgment is just so much better as a jump off point for any series newcomer. And if you have played the series before… Well, if you like it, you’ve probably played Judgment already and know how great it is. And if you don’t – give Judgment a try as it might be the one that gets you hooked. PC port is fantastic, so now there’s no reason to not get this game anymore.