Anyone who played the PlayStation 2-era Yakuza games knows Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s games were always much more than street brawling. In August 2021, a month before launch, Japanese magazine Famitsu published over an hour of Lost Judgment gameplay, the sequel to Judgment, and the videos showed this mix of investigation, brawling and side activities well.
In the first video, detective Takayuki Yagami faces groups of masked enemies and shows the new Snake style, based on aikido, made to counter and disarm opponents. There is also a parkour segment, in which Yagami sneaks along the side of a building to investigate a crime scene:
The second video shows the dance minigame, set at school and centered on the Seiryo Rabbits club. Besides pressing the buttons to the rhythm, the player chooses different Freestyles to improve the performance:
The third part completes the sequence. Among the activities shown in the videos was also the boxing club, with fights that follow their own rules:
These activities are part of the School Stories system: the president of Seiryo school’s mystery research club, Kyoko Amasawa, asks Yagami to help other clubs and students in order to solve a bigger case. The main story deals with bullying and a series of murders tied to a suspect accused of harassment and homicide, and takes place in Kamurocho, in Tokyo, and in Isezaki Ijincho, in Yokohama, versions of the real neighborhoods of Kabukicho and Isezakicho. Takuya Kimura returns to voice Yagami in Japanese.
What came next
Lost Judgment was released on September 24, 2021 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S, and reached PC on September 14, 2022. Critics praised the story and the fighting styles, but noted that stealth and parkour were poorly developed. The game also got a story expansion focused on Masaharu Kaito, Yagami’s partner.
Where to buy
Source: Famitsu / GamingBolt.
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