Lost Judgment

_gir

got Lost judgment on Xbox series s a few days ago and already up to Chapter 4. Loving it so far and think it’s definitely an improvement over judgment in terms of story and missions so far.

anyone else playing it atm?

quokula

Where I am (around chapter 6 I think) has been very annoying, there's a point where you've gathered all the evidence about the main initial case, and the characters get together and have a conversation along these lines (no spoilers)

"was it X? No it couldn't be because Y. Maybe it's Z? But that wouldn't be possible because W. We need more information, let's go speak to Witness A"

Then they speak to the witness, get zero new information, and go back and have the exact same conversation again, before speaking to another witness and repeating the same loop. I felt like I sat through 2 hours of the same conversation happening over and over, right down to a bit where you have to present some evidence, which is literally the same piece of evidence each time. It felt like they'd just copied and pasted a portion of the script multiple times.

When they finally reached a eureka moment it was basically what I'd already guessed it was going to be first time round, I really wish I could have skipped all that dialog and got to the point. It is actually an interesting and engaging plot twist, but they dragged it out way more than they should have.

On the whole I'm enjoying the game but maybe not as much as the previous one. I'm a big fan of Yakuza and its spin offs, but coming back to Judgment feels a bit stale now having played Yakuza 7. I find it strange that Yagami has carried the can for the action-brawling gameplay when it seems completely at odds with his character the rest of the time. You'd think the detective agency would be well suited to the party system from Yakuza 7 with Kaito as the damage dealer and Yagami as more of a support character.

Not that I don't enjoy the combat, but it just feels so out of character here that every situation ends up coming down to fist fighting when you're supposed to be a detective solving cases, unlike the Yakuza games where the combat makes perfect sense when playing as someone like Kiryu.

Retr0gamer

Welcome to the world of terrible and predictable japanese writing in TV shows and games.

_gir

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118008611#Comment_118008611

Yeah, main story feels very combat heavy. That’s a valid criticism of not just this one but also the last one too.

In both games, I find the side stories have a nicer blend of investigation mechanics vs combat over the main story.

quokula

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118009004#Comment_118009004

Yeah I have now completed the game and my biggest gripe with the main story is that in a narrative plot filled with detective work and intrigue, you so often get out of jail because Yagami will simply never lose a fistfight no matter how outmanned or outgunned. It works for a character like Kiryu because his inhuman fighting ability is weaved into who he his and how his stories play out. But here it just seems out of place. You go from all this clever sleuthing work following leads and untangling webs of deception, to just walking into a trap and being jumped by 50 guys with baseball bats, but it's fine because you can somehow just fight them all off and then you get some key piece of information out of them which kinda cheapens the hard work figuring out other threads in the narrative.

That's not to say I didn't enjoy the game, when you get over that it's still an engaging story with interesting characters that takes you through lots of twists and turns. The combat is as visceral and fun as it's always been to play, and of course the sidequests and minigames are turned up to 11. Revisiting Kamurocho or Ijincho is always a good time.