Lost Judgement tells a story that dives into the dangers of vigilantism, the consequences of bullying, the price of the truth, and the inherent incompetence of the law; something thought to be so perfect and clear-cut yet still is manipulated and exploited by those that don't trust the higher-ups that vowed to keep society at peace.
I always see fans of RGG talk about Lost Judgement and how it is easily the best RGG game, and after playing through its main story (sorry Kaito, you're on hold for now I promise I will get to you soon!) I can easily understand why that is the case. Lost Judgement is a Yakuza game if the plot wasn't over the top and tackled much darker topics and commentaries on society as a whole, something most mainline series in the Kiryu Saga didn't dare to touch. There are so many good things I can say about the story of this game, but that would dive into spoilers too much and this review would be too long, just know that it is an amazing ride.
The gameplay in this game is astonishing, it's really sad to see that Nagoshi left literal months after this game released, because since LJ the games have been increasingly losing the passion and love you could feel with each release (kiwami 3....).
Lost Judgement builds off the 2 styles (Crane and Tiger) present in Judgement as well as an additional Snake Style and a super fun Boxer style, the latter being a DLC style (but the PC version gives you all the DLC anyways, only the PS releases have dedicated deluxe editions with the DLC included). The combat in this game is very satisfying. Combos/Juggles are very reliable, and although you may have 300000 heat bars, heat actions are balanced in such a way that they don't overtake the more fun and skillful ways (counters, parries and juggles) to play the game unlike previous Dragon Engine entries. Although most players will probably have fun sticking to one style and abusing it, the real fun comes in being able to weave in all the 3-4 styles into some pretty nasty combos, and that kind of combat complexity that players have the option of mastering makes this game super fun, pretty much on par with Kiwami 1 for me.
The stealth/detective aspects of the gameplay are also a massive improvement from Judgement. The tailing sequences in this game were reduced to like 2-3 and we all know everybody HATED the tailing sequences. On top of that, the new detective elements they added like the Drone and the way they implemented them into the main story were made to feel intentional rather than RGG trying to force us to play with their new toys, and I really enjoyed that. They were able to include a lot of these new additions without making them feel too overbearing.
This feels like the perfect real-time beat 'em up Dragon Engine game, it's a real shame that it went downhill from here. There are so many skills in this game, yet all of them have their own nuance to them and neither one really overshadows the other.
On the other hand, there is TOO much content in this game, but that isn't a bad thing, because pretty much *ALL* side content in this game is optional. You can beat the entire game without even having to sniff the side content, and that is such a godsend for people that just want to play the game at their own pace. Yokoyama decided to lobotomize himself and decide that every game after LJ should require the player to do side content (irrelevant to the plot btw) before progressing the main story. Whether that be forcing the player to do an hour of Animal Crossing (Infinite Wealth Dondoko Island) or making them do ♥♥♥♥♥♥ 20v20 clan battles on pirate ships (Pirate Yakuza Coliseum), none of this side content should be required to progress the main story. Yokoyama is artificially inflating the lengths of these games to make them seem more engaging when in reality it's just turning into slop.
The side content in Lost Judgement could all easily be entire subcontent for a game, they are fully fleshed out side stories that explore different, typically much lighter-hearted topics with my favorite being the Boxing Club. As someone that played sports and once lost passion for sports that I loved, I found myself really relating to the commentary the writers had planned for that specific side story.
All in all, this is easily the best RGG game in terms of story, gameplay, and content. And the best part is that I was able to get the game at like a ~70%-ish discount, if that's not worth something I don't know what is. This game is easily perfect in every way, it's really a shame that Yokoyama decided to throw this studio's legacy in the dumps.
10/10
