Review #838: Judgment

 I declare it guilty of being amazing.

 Judgment is Yakuza. It's a game that I'd hesitate to call a spin off, because, while it's an open-world beat'em up game, that is set in the very same town of Kamurocho, using the same engine and pretty much the same combat mechanics... it features none of the characters from Yakuza. Sure, the clan Tojo is here, and you might recognize a few very minor characters(ONO MICHIO-SAN!), this game is about an entirely different set of characters and a whole new set of problems.

 You play as Takayuki Yagami, a detective that used to be a lawyer... until the man he defended wound up murdering his girlfriend one month after Yagami managed to prove his innocence. Disillusioned with his own job and under a great amount of guilt, he left his profession to become a lawyer. This makes for an incredibly interesting main character. And it doesn't stop there, throughout this lengthy game Takayuki manages to surround himself with an endearing cast of characters that join him. There's Kaito, his partner in crime and an ex-Yakuza who is the muscles to Yagami's brains, there's Sugiwara, an ex-thief who has his own reasons for joining Yagami, Higashi, a Yakuza that respects Kaito, not to mention Hoshino, a rookie lawyer from Yagami's former firm, as well as Saori, another lawyer from the same firm. Every character gets his and her own time to shine, and since Yagami is not a Supreme God of Destruction, unlike Kazuma and most protagonists from the series, every character feels important. And it also made me wish I could play as the others! Look, I really liked Yagami, but his friends are just as great. On the other end of the spectrum, we have the villains, and they are a nice assortment of threatening bastards and dirty weasels.

 As for the game's plot, it begins with Yagami having to find evidence for a lawyer in order to defend a Yakuza in court from a murder he didn't commit. A murder that happens to be last in a series of brutal assassinations that leaves victims without their eyes. This game was made by the Yakuza team, so of course it ain't as simple as that, and the story pulls all sorts of twists and turns. To be honest, I think this is one of the best stories that have come out of the series, and the fact that we have an entire new set of characters and backgrounds means that they could explore narratives they couldn't with Kiryu and company, making for a very fresh story inside Kamurocho. I'll admit that anyone that has played Yakuza before will have an easy time figuring out which characters have are covered in plot armor and their "deadly wounds" are just for drama, but it's still a very intense and emotional story, I swear, it has a ton very powerful scenes that made the story so great. And it seems Sega of America had a lot of faith in the game's script, because they localized it twice! For the first time since Yakuza 1, you can play the game with a rather colorful dub... or you could go traditional, with the Japanese voice overs, and a more faithful set of subtitles. Necessary? Absolutely not. But it shows that even Sega of America put their A game with Judgment.

 As for the game... it's Yakuza. The entire game takes place in the city of Kamurocho, in which you have the ability to freely roam around, interacting with different minigames or stores, as well as battling thugs who don't know any better. There are a ton of sidequests you can partake in, as well as interact with specially designated NPCs that you can befriend by following their usually silly mini-story. Most of the mini-games from previous games return, however, it seems that the budget was either lower than usual or the famous actor that plays the main character was too expensive, because the hostess bars are gone as well as the Karaoke mini-game, the latter one actually stings a bit since Karaoke's been one of the best parts about Yakuza. I'll die on that hill. As for the Arcade machines, Virtual-On was replaced with Fighting Vipers.

 Takayuki is an interesting fighter because he has two styles he can switch between: Crane and Tiger. Crane is built around fight crowds while Tiger works great for single enemies. And, y'know, at first that's true, but for whatever reason Tiger has a lot of unlockable moves, while Crane has none, thus Tiger becomes way more powerful and way more useful, with Tiger you can even unlock a very powerful, timing based attack('Flux') in which you let go of the attack button at the right time for massive damage. There's a Heat gauge, now called EX, that builds as you land and receive damage, which can be used to pull off EX moves(Super moves) or enter EX Mode, in which you can dodge-cancel your attacks, as well as become faster and stronger. With a few upgrades in tow you can also get brutal Triangle-mashing attacks for both styles. One thing to keep in mind, although only for random fights that happen outside of the main story and side story missions, is that Takayuki follows the law, so if you take too long in a fight the police will come and arrest you! I played the entire game in normal and the police never came, but it is something to be wary of. Overall, I'd say the combat is a step forward within the Dragon Engine, Takayuki is very nimble and flashy, which can take a bit of time getting used to since Kiryu was more straightforward with his fighting style, but once you get used to Tak's animations it becomes as fun, and I'd say even more fun, as always. If there's something to complain about is that enemies have a knack for blocking your attacks mid-combo, making your attacks bounce off and leaving you open for their counterattack, which isn't very nice.

 Mortal Wounds is a gimmick that will probably annoy a few people, I didn't care too much about it to be honest. Y'see, Yagami is no Kiryu, thus getting hit by a boss' super move or by a gun(Even if shot by a common enemy) will reduce Yagami's maximum life points, and there are only two ways to heal this damage: Using a medikit, which is rare and/or expensive, or going to the underground doctor for a check-up, which is slightly less expensive. I felt like this mechanic added nothing to the game, although I'll admit it made me learn to respect a boss once it entered it's powered up phase, but I also didn't feel like it was too annoying. That said, I'm a bit of a completionist so I had money to spare most of the time and if I was unlucky I'd have to visit the doctor every time I started a new chapter, since I probably got a few mortal wounds on the previous chapter's boss.

 Side content is when the game falters a bit. As per usual, side stories is where most of the silly, ridiculous and sometimes slightly offensive humor resides and... they are fine. I laughed out lough a couple of times. But... Takayuki is a detective, and they had to build that into the game. Moments in which you have to examine crime scenes or whatever are fun. Moments in which you have to present evidence or find a person that matches a description? All of them are fun and make sense. You even get a nifty little drone you can fly around, fly in races or sometimes use it to take photo-evidence from places you can't reach. And all of this is fine. But, and it's a huge but, the game has an excruciating amount of poorly made tailing sections. They are SO slow. A few days ago I complained about Ghost of Tsushima's, but boy, I didn't know how good I had it. So, not only are they slow and boring, but it's also ridiculous how dumb they are, you can pretty much run up to your objective's face and as long as the gauge above the screen isn't full they won't recognize you. They are so silly too, because your objective will sometimes walk around in a circle around a block because why not waste your time, or sometimes you'll go through a huge chunk of Kamurocho, slowly walking behind them, only to end up close to were you started. Man, I HATED tailing missions. There's a new lockpicking minigame, which is actually fun, but there's also a mini-game of... sorts in which, sometimes, when approaching a door, it will be locked, and you have to pick the right key. There's no penalty for picking the wrong key besides wasting time, and there's no thought process behind picking the right key. It's just there because I don't know.

 As good as the combat in this game is... man, it's the story that really makes it stand out. It was so amazing that every time a new development happened I forgot all about the horrible tailing missions. If this game didn't have those segments this could've easily become my favorite game in the series. Still, what this game manages to prove, as if Binary Domain didn't already, that the Ryu Ga Gotoku Team are still capable of producing exciting and interesting stories outside their comfort zone. And yes, you could argue that this game still features Yakuza, and it does, but trust me, it's a very different tale.
 8.5 out of 10