Judgment

Judgment (also known in Japan as: Judge Eyes: 死神の遺言, Shinigami no Yuigon, tl. Judge Eyes: Wills of Death) is an action-adventure video game developed by Ryu ga Gotoku Studio and published by Sega. A spin-off to the Yakuza series, it was released for the PlayStation 4 in December 2018 in Japan and June 2019, worldwide. A remastered version of the game, with the subtitle Remastered in Japan and Asia, was released for the PlayStation 5, Stadia, and Xbox Series X and Series S in April 2021. A PC port is released on September 14, 2022.

Synopsis
The main story of Judgment begins in December 2018, Taking place in the same universe of Yakuza and focuses primarily on the series' staple returning location Kamurocho. It follows a new protagonist named Takayuki Yagami (played by Takuya Kimura), and his investigation about yakuza members who were murdered and have their eyes gouged out. He goes into an investigative journey with his friends to find and unmask the perpetrator who he dubs as The Mole. As he investigates further, the case starts to link up with Yagami's disgraced past as a lawyer that involves him proving a defendant who's accused for murder, innocent. Only for them to commit another crime, prompting Yagami to give up being a lawyer and become a private detective.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) The game has a great and fresh balance between being newcomer-friendly and playable for veteran fans of Yakuza as it takes place in the same universe of the Yakuza series, taking place two years after Yakuza 6: The Song of Life. It manages to feel standalone as if it's not connected while using a bit of lore from the series.
 * 2) *It also serves as a continuation to it's beat em'up genre as an alternative for the series since the mainline games (starting from Yakuza: Like A Dragon and future succeeding ones.) shifted into being a turn-based JRPG.
 * 3) It stars another new protagonist: Takayuki Yagami (Tak for short), A lawyer-turned-detective. His character can be easily distinguished from Kazuma Kiryu as he is easier to relate with.
 * 4) *He also differs greatly from other Yakuza characters in combat, taking inspiration from kung-fu films, he is a much more nimble and aerial than Kiryu's brute-like force since his fighting style consists more use in rapid strikes and kicks, his ability to leap over enemies and follow up attacks from performing a wall jump.
 * 5) The Dragon Engine used in this game has been improved from Yakuza 6 and Yakuza Kiwami 2. Bugs and glitches from both aformentioned games are no longer present and the graphics and lighting being improved in the in-game cutscenes. It's fighting system has been slightly updated too.
 * 6) Style-switching from Yakuza 0 returns, being the first Dragon Engine game to have the feature. It features two styles: Crane (円舞, "Enbu", lit. Waltz) which prioritizes in evasion and focuses on taking down multiple enemies at once and Tiger (一閃, "Issen", lit. Flash) which focuses greatly on offense in taking down one enemy.
 * 7) * It has a lot of new and original Heat Actions (now termed as EX Action) that fit the style of Yagami.
 * 8) * Similar to Yakuza 6, Yagami gains the ability called EX Boost which doubles his overall speed, allows more exclusive EX Actions that can be used while in that mode and has an optional alternative set of rush combos.
 * 9) It also has new minigames to fit the story, such as tailing missions, investigating a crime scene, analyzing people to determine the culprit and doing recons with a drone.
 * 10) * It also has segments where you present your evidences to someone, similar to Ace Attorney.
 * 11) * There are also certain segments where you enter into a disguise in order to enter a certain place or when tailing someone.
 * 12) New to the series itself is the ability to socialize with the people in Kamurocho, which in turn gives you benefits such as health restoration and upgrades to your combat.
 * 13) The side quests in this game are as big as ever, some happen around the city as usual while others are depicted as side cases from clients for Yagami to investigate at.
 * 14) The plot is very good, a compelling modern-day noir that has a darker take than previous Yakuza stories. The pacing is good and the cutscenes are akin to a TV series while the action sequences are well done.
 * 15) * As every Yakuza game in the series, this does a very great job balancing between being serious and comedic too.
 * 16) Likeable and memorable characters in the game, such as Masaharu Kaito, Fumiya Suiguira and Toru Higashi, who are Yagami's friends and allies. Others include a Detective named Mitsuru Kuroiwa, a yakuza clan captain Kyohei Hamura, a dirty cop and informant Kazuya Ayabe, etc.
 * 17) * Most of the characters in this game are modeled after their voice actors in which they are also Japanese stars who appeared in a series of films, TV shows and more. That being with Yagami, Kuroiwa (Shosuke Tanihara), Hamura (Pierre Taki), and more.
 * 18) ** This can also make the game feel like you're playing an interactive Japanese TV drama.
 * 19) English dubbing also returns in this game, with Greg Chun as Yagami.
 * 20) * He also happens to do the voice of Yu Nanba in Yakuza: Like A Dragon.
 * 21) The soundtrack in this game differs from other Yakuza games, it having more noir-ish themes to fit the tone while also using techno and a scent of rock.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The Tiger fighting style itself is pretty much stronger than Crane. Most of the available skill upgrades are Tiger upgrades that can affect Crane in terms of speed, and power. But Crane barely has any exclusive moves as opposed to the other.
 * 2) * It's to the point that you can even use Tiger when fighting hordes of enemies despite the style being tailored for one-on-one fights.
 * 3) The investigating mechanics can be a little too simple for detective-genre fans.
 * 4) Some minigames from one of the Yakuza games don't return here, such as Karaoke. This is because Takuya Kimura's singing cost them too expensive to spend, which is why the sequel placed him into Dancing Club instead.
 * 5) The PlayStation 4 version of this game suffers framedrops at times, it can go as low between 20 to 17 FPS.
 * 6) *No wonder why fighting Shin Amon is nicknamed as Mr. Framerate which struggled both base and Pro hardware performance. This is fixed in the Remastered version where the framerate is mostly constant with minor (but not noticeable) framedrops.
 * 7) The street thugs aren't dubbed, so you'd hear them taunt, grunt and yell in Japanese while Yagami speaks English.
 * 8) Mortal Wounds ended up annoying with enemies and bosses with bladed weapons and guns cause permanent damage to your health gauge (not able to heal via healing items nor eating in restaurants). The only way to remove them is by the expensive Medical Kits or to the doctor.
 * 9) The tailing missions can be a pain at times.
 * 10) * There are moments where if the person you're tailing becomes obstructed because of the position of the game camera. The game will count it as losing sight of them in which a timer appears and will fail the mission if run out.
 * 11) ** Add salt to the injury when their movements tend to be unpredictive at times, sometimes it'll cause you to get caught, resulting into failing the mission.

Reception
Judgment received "generally favourable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic with a score of 80/100.

It was nominated for "PlayStation Game of the Year" from the 2019 Golden Joystick Awards.

Trivia

 * Kyohei Hamura's voice actor and likeness Pierre Taki was arrested for possessions of cocaine 3 months after Judgment got released in Japan. In response, RGG Studio replaced Hamura's voice actor and redesigned him from having Taki's likeness to being entirely original before releasing the game worldwide.
 * Unlike all Yakuza games, the licensed music can be heard worldwide instead of being a Japanese exclusive, that being the and the credits of this game (along with Your Song as an insert song by ALEXANDROS). The same with
 * Prior of the announcement, neither this nor Lost Judgment was going to get a light of day in being released on PC. This is due to Takuya Kimura's talent agency Johnny & Associates having very strict control in rights on having Kimura's likeness used in media.
 * Fortunately with the PC port release of both games, the dispute is resolved as it is likely to get a third installment of Judgment series.

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