Game #1338: Lost Judgment

  School's back in session.

 The original Judgment was kind of a big surprise because of just how good it was for 'just' a spin off, but damn it if the Ryu Ga Gotoku Team didn't pull it off. Yagami is back with Lost Judgment, and much like they do with the Yakuza games, it builds up on top of what came before it.

 This new entry has Yagami infiltrating a school to find out if there's bullying going on... but it quickly gets tangled up with a case about a guy that molested a woman... but, at the exact same time, murdered a man. I wasn't too thrilled about the plot at first, since the whole highschool angle sounded lame when compared to how personal to Yagami and how original the plot in the first game was but I won't lie, by the end I was hooked. I wouldn't say the plot is AS good as the original, but it's still darn good, and seeing the four amigos that forged their bond by fire in the original game teaming up again was glorious. And it also irks me how the other guys aren't playable yet!

 As per usual, this is a sand-box action/beat'em up game with a very serious main story and a plethora of silly side-quests to tackle. There are only 43 sidequests, which is kinda pathetic for modern Like a Dragon games, but it makes up for those with School Stories. These are 8 sub-plots in which Yagami infiltrates different school clubs that might be tangling with the mysterious Professor. These are pretty hit or miss. Some of them are very brief, like the Casino, which is made up of a single event, or pretty involved, like Boxing, Bike Racing and Robotics so your mileage may vary with this one. Thing is... most of them are grindy, for instance, you must perform each song for the Dance Club FOUR times, and there are four songs in all, and Bike Racing is made up of about 16 duels.... needless to say, hopefully the ones you dislike are not the grindy ones. In my case, I loved the gaming story, since I got to play Virtua Fighter 5, but it felt very brief when compared with Robotics. Robotics is not bad persay, but you have to grind for loot, which may or may not drop, in order to enhance your robots and stand a chance. The final quest unlocked upon finishing every club IS worth it, but man if it isn't a grind. And all in all, a mostly complete playthrough of the game took me 55 hours.

 Combat is similar to the original but more refined. Now Yagami gets a third combat style, Snake, which is good for disarming opponents. Swapping between styles is immediate so you can pull off new types of combos, and in general, you get new tricks with both Tiger and Crane, so there's a lot to play with. I know I'm not the only person that despised the tailing missions in the original, but they decided to double down on them and they are back. There aren't many of them, but they are still boring and clunky. They also introduced some very scripted parkour which doesn't add much to the game, and some boring stealth segments, which.... why? Yakuza is a beat'em up, and I get it, Yagami is a detective.... but why? Yakuza is at its best when you are fighting enemies not avoiding them.

 Lastly, Like a Dragon has been pretty good about DLC, but with this entry.... well, I fear their acquisition of Atlus made Sega learn about being scummy. For instance, you can get a fourth style, boxing, with DLC, which was available on day 1 if I'm not mistaken.... and you can play as Kaito, who gets his own story, for about 25 USD. Guess getting a side campaign as a neat extra, like Majima's in Kiwami 2, is a thing of the past.

 Lost Judgment is really good. I think Judgment felt a bit more special, but Lost Judgment is up there among the best Like a Dragon games too.... now, if only we could get them to ax tailing and stealth sections entirely....

 8.5