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AndyKurosaki
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Finally getting round to playing this. Far as I’m concerned, Ryu ga Gotoku can do no wrong. From the outstanding Yakuza series, to the insane but glorious Fist Of The North Star. So I had high hopes for this. 

 

Reached Chapter 2, and I’m really enjoying it. Kamurocho is as familiar as ever, and looks just as amazing as it did in Yakuza 6. They’ve added some new mini games, though to be honest they’re pretty weak. Following people in forced stealth trailing missions is never my idea of fun. Here, you can quite often have several one after the other. Which is a ball-ache.

They’ve ditched Kareoke, which is a real shame. As blasting out “BREAKING THE WORLD” was always fun. 

 

The English dub is actually really well done, they’ve clearly put effort into it. I usually prefer the original Japanese audio, but they’ve done a decent job with the dub.

 

The combat doesn’t feel quite as satisfying as Zero’s, a lot of moves are locked in the skill tree. 

 

Still, it’s off to a good start.

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I reckon we're up to about the same bit. I'm playing it in Japanese though because I did not think they did a good job with the dub, certainly not good enough to carry those really serious dramatic moments the series throws at you. Fine for all the silly shit I'm sure. 

 

There seems to be a lot of locking you in one location and asking you to find a thing which I'm not a fan of. Like a really shit hidden object game but I'm not a mum, so I don't want to play hidden object games. 

 

I like the rest. Yagami is a cool customer to be sure and his mate whose name currently escapes me is a top tier bro. Absolutely sick shirt. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I’ve made it to Chapter 6 so far. For the most part, it’s been enjoyable. But the mandatory stealth/tailing missions are a serious chore. They last far too long for their own good. Quite regularly, another one follows immediately afterwards. And recently, one had me lose the target, having to chose which road they went down. Make the wrong choice: game over. 
I’m at a point now where when a stealth section comes up, I go “Oh fuck off”. With at least 6 more chapters to go, that’s a pain.

I seriously hope they don’t include them in the next Yakuza game.

 

They’ve added a few new optional activities. But they’re not as fun as Kareoke.

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Well, the tailing missions are massively outstaying their welcome now. They can quite often last a good 6 minutes, and provide absolutely no fun whatsoever. To the point where after having 2/3 of them in a row, you think “fuck this”, and want to play something else. Anything else.

 

Whoever thought they were a good idea, needs their head examining. 

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Just finished this. It’s definitely my least favourite of the Team’s output. The stealth-trailing sessions are really, really annoying. There’s one near the end that lasts 10 minutes, and it’s one of the most boring experiences I’ve ever had in gaming. 
 

There feels like there’s less to do, especially in comparison to the far superior Yakuza Zero. I miss the Kareoke and Cabaret Club missions. What they’ve been replaced with (drone racing, and a Virtual Reality board game) are just boring. I played them once because I had to. After that, I never bothered again.

 

And I really don’t like the Mortal Wound system. If you’re attacked by bosses using a certain weapon (sword, gun etc), they can deal damage that permanently decreases your health bar. Which when you’re in an intense fight, is a right ball-ache. You can only cure this status in 2 ways: a Med Kit, or treatment by doctor. Both of which cost an obscene amount of money. And as playing the campaign missions give you almost no money whatsoever, you have to do loads of side missions to keep your money going.

 

Theres also a ton of repetition. One character’s side mission was repeated 3 times. Another annoying enemy encounter happened frequently, to the point where I went “oh fuck that” every time it reoccurred.

 

It also seems to be lacking the crazy sense of humour that made Yakuza so enjoyable.

 

It took me 30 hours to finish it, and I had some fun doing so. But it’s certainly not in the same league as any of the Yakuza games.

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  • 2 months later...

I'm not going to say Judgement starts slowly because it doesn't. You're thrown in to the action pretty quickly, and the core story is set up immediately, compare that to something like Yakuza 6, with it's hour of cut scenes at the start, and Judgement gets going immediately. What it does do though is focus almost exclusively on the main story for the first chapter or so, it moves relatively briskly and packs a decent amount in, but it feels like all the quirk and nonsense of the Yakuza series has been sidelined, making Judgement a more serious feeling game. Which is fair enough, it depends what you're in it for. Fortunately for me the side missions and over the top-ness do come along once you're done with the start of the story.

 

Up until that point it feels quite linear, I think because the story missions aren't just 'go from A to B, then beat the shit out of everyone', here you'll have to tail people, pick some locks, fly a drone, ask the right questions, it's more structured than the Yakuza games. Yagami is different enough to Kiryu that it does feel like a different game despite being set in the same city. He's more liable to take a beating than Kiryu even if he can also take out 8 yakuza on his own. He feels a little quicker, although that might just because he looks quicker rather than actually plays it.

 

So far it's decent, not bad by any means, but I've not hit a point with it where it's elevated to a great game yet. That's not to say it won't, I'm maybe 10 hours in (if that) out of more than 60, so it's got plenty of time to kick on and become more interesting

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To be honest, it never reached greatness status with me. The multiple mandatory stealth sections really pissed me off by the end, as they drag on for wayyyyyy too long. And some even happen one after the other, leading to almost ten minutes of following some dickhead around, constantly hiding behind stuff.

 

It’s certainly more serious than Yakuza. Not that the wacky stuff is completely removed. But I didn’t enjoy it anywhere near as much as the Yakuza games. I’ve binge-played through both Yakuza 3 and 4 via the Remastered Collection, and had more fun with both of them than the entirety of Judgement.

 

It wasn’t a bad game, as there’s still fun to be had. But for me, it’s definitely the weakest game they’ve made to date.

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  • 1 year later...
  • retroed changed the title to Judgment
  • 10 months later...

Started this last weekend and have put about 10-12 hours into it so far at a guess.

 

Have to say it really hasn't grabbed me so far, I haven't been this nonplussed on a RGG Studio game since Kiwami 1 I think. After the masterful Like a Dragon earlier this year where pretty much everything was new (city, character, combat system, mini games etc.) this just feels like a return to the familiar template really, which is no bad thing in some ways but it just has this feeling of overfamiliarity to it right now that I can't shake. Coupled with the overfamiliarity is the fact that Yagami is not a compelling character in the slightest to me so far, he's meant to be cool and slightly aloof, I get that, but he's just coming across as too aloof and a bit of a cunt so far to be brutally honest, I haven't warmed to him at all. 

 

All the staples of previous games are in here, you have the KamuroGo app which gives you SP points from seemingly doing anything including the usual jazz like eating all the dishes at restaurants and cafes around the city. The collecting of pieces, which in past games was for Slot cars for Pocket Racer, and in LaD upgrading your Kart for the Kart Racer, here it's for upgrading your drone for drone racing. Karaoke and Cabaret Clubs are noticeably missing (as others have mentioned in previous posts) but Baseball is in here along with all the usual assortment of arcade games, Shogi and Mahjong (which I never usually bother with). The VR area hasn't unlocked yet so I've yet to try that but the drone races are quite fun so far, although I've only had a good enough drone to do the amateur cup thus far.

 

It's interesting how they've seemingly differentiated the two franchises too. I was thinking to myself that they've taken out the chase missions (that were a staple of previous games) in LaD and 6 and then they turn up in this, new additions like the drone and tailing missions are a welcome change of pace along with the point-and-click like investigation segments. They help the game feel a bit more different than a Yakuza game with a different duller character, so far at least, they're the only things here that have made me feel that way. 

 

As others have said, the game has a seriousness to it that hasn't really been present in RGG Studio titles for some time now, ever since Yakuza 5 AFAIK. I get it, it goes along with Yagami's personality of being this hard boiled detective who's a little down on his luck but it just feels like the fun of the series and some of the silliness has been sucked out of it, it has not got the joie de vivre the Yakuza games have had since Yakuza 0, it feels like a pre-Y0 title in that regard, a bit too serious. 

 

The best thing about the game so far has been the side stories (or side cases here), at first I thought they'd all involve tailing missions followed by some investigation screen action which would've gotten repetitive quickly (especially as from what I gather I'll have to do that a lot in the main story) but they've added that silliness and zaniness I want from the RGG Studio games. One of the best cases so far has involved a panty thief, you have to bait him out with a fresh pair of knickers, stick a tracker on his knicker-stealing drone, then, when you find him on the roof he's bent down sniffing some knickers and you have to beat the shit out of him. It's just the funny weird shit I like and want from these games. 

 

It's also nice to go back to the traditional Yakuza real-time combat system. Yagami feels much quicker than Kiryu and something more akin to Majima in 0 or one of the side characters in 4 or 5 (from my hazy memory) but it has felt quite restrictive compared to some of the recent Yakuza games in terms of move sets and stuff, I have found myself already repeating the same combos a lot. 

 

So yeah, it's safe to say I'm quite disappointed with it so far, it is early days though and I hope to play a lot more this weekend so hopefully things will pick up.

 

Some pics:

 

Spoiler

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184C0E9B-F031-4EE2-9A17-D2017D6CFB16.jpeg

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Yagami never really became likeable to me, he was no Kiryu that’s for sure. And I hated the constant stealth trailing sections in this, boring as fuck.

 

But i at least finished this. I’ll never go back to Like A Dragon, as the massive difficulty spikes, and fiddly combat got right on my tits.

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  • 2 years later...

Went back to this recently as I didn’t want to start anything fresh in between Spidey 2 and TLOUP2 remastered.

 

It’s still pretty alright really, Yagami has grown on me a little bit, I have enjoyed some of the very detective focused quests, particularly one flashback quest which was bloody amazing. They’re the only thing in the game really that has a completely different vibe to LaD.

 

I am up to Chapter 5 I think now and a lot of it has been filler (as is usually the case early days in RGG studio games to be fair) but there have been some great quests like the one mentioned above and a few others. I’m still enjoying the friend stories and side cases more though, that is what gets me really lost in the game.

 

I don’t like the gang system though, it’s already grating on me. Every few quests the city will go on high alert and you’ll have to deal with more goons than usual until you take down their two leaders. This would be a fun distraction if it happened once or twice but I’ve done it about 5 times already so far and it’s already got old so fast.

 

But yeah, enjoying it but not as much as pretty much all the LaD games probably. It’s bigger than I thought it would be too, counter is saying 21 hours into it now and it seems like I’m maybe not even halfway? So yeah; I doubt I’ll finish it before TLOUP2 on Friday but I’ve enjoyed it as a little interlude.

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