Yakuza in whatever time frame did not enter, but basically the hero was Kazuma Kiryu and his alter-ego in one era or another before the release of the sixth part. Project Judgment – an unofficial spin-off of the series – broke the tradition in 2018 and told a twisted story about detective Takayuki Yagami. Today we are evaluating the release of an improved version of the adventure for Playstation 5…
Refreshing a stagnant formula with new mechanics, Judgment stayed true to tradition Ryu Ga Gotoku… Here, a cinematic plot with charismatic characters, dizzying battles, colorful humor and mini-games are in place.
The basis of the course change is the storytelling setting. If the Yakuza numbered games are crime dramas, then here we are witnessing a detective thriller. Takayuki Yagami or simply “Tak” is a former lawyer and now a private investigator who, as he calls himself, is a “mediator” between crime and the police.
Naturally, everything is not as dichotomous as it seems from afar, because law enforcement officers break the law under certain circumstances, and the yakuza can be reasonably good with their honor and principles.
We find ourselves in the very epicenter of the intricacies of all city forces – in the most, that neither is, the “big game” with high stakes, where human destinies become bargaining chips, when huge sums of money and opportunities for power are at stake. The game allows you to look at familiar relationships from a different angle, which only more enthralls you to follow the storyline.
The authors raise interesting real-world issues, talking about the fact that in Japan 99.9% of sentences in court are guilty. We will see in the game not only the work of a detective, but also policemen and prosecutors, because we have to visit the crime scenes, talk with witnesses, prevent crimes and even speak in court. Ironically, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio does not forget the sources of inspiration and even made a reference to the cult series Ace Attorney (yes, I’m talking about Objection! I’m talking about).
Kamurocho this time seems to be more compactly arranged – this is significantly offset by a slightly different approach to game design in Judgment. The fact is that the developers have flirted with the introduction of sidequests that correlate with the main plot and protagonists before, but here they went even further. We can say that the game has an end-to-end narrative, you meet a number of characters from secondary quests during the course of the story, and they, in turn, also penetrate into other optional quests. This makes Judgment even more cohesive and fun. Of course, there were also some humorous stories here, like chasing a wig of a show business star, playing the role of Count Dracula, or cute moments with finding and feeding cats. Of the mini-games, I was struck by the dating simulator with the need to select the appropriate answer options, where the background and character of the girls are thoroughly worked out. If you wish, you can get the hearts of all the ladies.
