Review for Judgment. Game for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR, the video game was released on 25/06/2019
Imagine you are passionate about Japan, good food, video games and martial arts. Imagine living all this directly in a video game, one of those that transports you and immerses you until you feel a living part of it, able to transport you into those passages submerged by very strong lights and ball music. Now imagine standing in line for a chocolate Taiyaki and witnessing a brutal fistfight between a man and several thugs: well, this can happen at any time in Tokyo's craziest, liveliest and most dangerous neighborhood: Kamurocho.
After having lived in different neighborhoods and faced timeless fights with the homonymous and undisputed Kiryu Kazuma, the Yakuza Team churns out a new title worthy of being part of the Yakuza family of video games: Judgment.
The title, developed by the Japanese studio Ryū ga Gotoku, is preparing to hit European shelves with an official translation which, for the first time in history, will offer us the opportunity to better understand this intriguing and bloody plot. Inside Judgment, already released on 13 December 2018 in Japan, we will play the role of a brilliant lawyer who, due to an unforgivable accident, will officially leave his role to become a well-known private detective.
Probably many of you have already heard of the well-known Japanese actor Takuya Kimura: also known by the name of "Kimutaku", he is a star in the land of the Rising Sun for having created well-known television and cinema hits. Thanks to the development team, who strongly wanted to see him as the protagonist of the new spin-off, we will be able to impersonate him and become attached (trust me it will happen) to the greatest detective of all time: Takayuki Yagami.
A prestigious lawyer and an excellent Detective ...
Imagine that you are one of the best lawyers in the country and that luck is totally in your favor, so in your favor that you are flooded with phone calls from clients looking for no one but you. Imagine having a defendant acquitted of a murder case, giving you a reputation that no one else has succeeded until then. since 95% of homicide cases end with an indictment, but you are the only one who has managed to acquit the accused of all charges. Now imagine that you are at the peak of success and that, surprisingly, a phone call arrives telling you that the one you have previously acquitted he is again accused of murder, but this time there is overwhelming evidence.
This is where our adventure starts, going to upset both the career and the personal life of our Takayuki Yagami. Our protagonist will leave his brilliant career at the Genda law firm due to the despair and disappointment of not having been able to recognize good from evil and will therefore take a completely new path: after three years from the last events, the protagonist decides to open a private investigative studio flanked by Kaito, a rather unlikely friend in the eyes of the people (he's a former Yakuza!).
Trust me, after watching the opening scene of Judgment you will have a mature man, sure of himself and above all professional: these peculiarities contained in a single person form a solid, strong and confident character; these will be the basis to face the long adventure that awaits us in this title.
The story of Judgment starts directly, putting the reality of the facts in our face: the good Yagami will have to face day after day some cases that the good old Genda-San will entrust to us who, rightly, tries to convince the protagonist to return to the desks of his office to do the job of lawyer. Our first mission will be useful for learning the various game mechanics and visiting what will be the epicenter of most of our daily missions: Kamurocho, for those who have already visited it at least once in their life, will seem more familiar than never; but do not trust, behind those tunnels are hidden truths more atrocious than normal.
We will have a close encounter with one of the most dangerous elements of the Tojo clan, Kyohei Hamura: the latter will be a fundamental part of the game and will find himself involved in a bad story against the Kyorei clan. Humara-san is Mitsugu Matsugane's right hand man, as well as patriarch of the family and "godfather" of Takayuki Yagami: the well-known Kamurocho family welcomed and raised our Yagami and Kaito as two sons, despite the latter having taken two completely different professional paths.
Thanks to the patriarch's supervision, Yagami was able to attend an important law course that led him to work on extremely important cases, while Kaito enlisted as Yakuza in the same Matsugane family.
Moving forward in the story, Mr. Genda will entrust us with a murder case and from this moment on things will get serious, mysterious but above all dangerous: we are on the trail of a ruthless serial killer whose specialty is to gouge out the eyes of his victims.
After a long investigation and an infinity of evidence collected (always in the company of our Kaito), we will arrive on the trail of the Yakuza and a rather mysterious drug ... What will a pharmaceutical company, the Yakuza, a serial killer and a new type of drug have in common? This you will have to find out by playing Judgment!
The neighborhood is more alive than ever:
One of the elements that most struck us is certainly the Kamurocho district and the details that surround it: we will often stop and look enchanted by the characteristics of this area and how the developer studio has tried to take care of all the smallest details. The neighborhood offers us a wide choice of restaurants, arcades, super markets and secondary activities, all of which can be explored both day and night.
Eating is essential for the health of our Takayuki Yagami: after a fist fight against the neighborhood criminals, we will inevitably have to stop and eat a hot dish or fresh sushi so that our health can fully recover.
Making friends with the restaurant owner or barman of the restaurant, we will have the possibility to access the secret menu which, once unlocked, will give us special meals not present in the normal menu. Next to our private studio we will have the Sega Club available and, believe me, you will spend more hours there than working on the case entrusted to us. But that's not all: on the map you will see several "game" points marked, but not all of them will be available immediately and we will have to meet the requirements to access them and be part of that game (Poker, Chess and much more).
In Judgment we will have the possibility to use our smartphone and it will be essential not only for the main missions, but also to use it in different ways: within our mobile phone there will be apps that will help us face and complete the different missions of the game, even commanding a remote drone to find all the clues for the mission.
Every detail should not be left to chance and we will have to use our focus to identify the details left out in order to complete our investigation.: we will have to pay close attention before finding all the clues in the surrounding air! We will also have to pay close attention to the fights: the city is hostile and it will often happen to have to deal with criminals and Yakuza ready to beat and kick us, but don't worry, with the right amount of adrenaline and technique you will always have the best of these elements.
By completing the secondary, main missions and the various fights against all kinds of rogues, we will receive experience points to unlock the countless techniques available: the latter will be available through the app inside our smartphone and there are really a lot of them.
Once you have unlocked the technique of our choice, you can use it during the fights making them spectacular and, at times, even exaggerated. Exploring the city and interacting with the locals, we will unlock all the available techniques and we will also have the possibility to find collectibles to insert in Yagami-san's studio: go out and enjoy the city, it is full of secrets.
Drinking or getting drunk during our adventure will have both positive and negative consequences: when our protagonist raises his elbow, there will be negative repercussions on the fights, while the EX bar will recharge faster when drunk. These and other peculiarities you will have to discover while living in this crazy and dangerous district of Tokyo.
Blood and fists:
One of the main features of Judgment concerns the hand-to-hand combat which, compared to other titles of the genre, are more accurate and full of details: we will happen to notice how a kick thrown with violence can knock out the opponent's teeth or even break through his stomach with brutal violence. In Judgment we will have two types of fighting styles, the Crane and the Tiger: the former is mainly meant for group discounts, while the latter will be more effective during a single fight.
The latter will be available for use only once the EX bar has been fully loaded that we will find at the top of the screen, after which it will be usable and will leave you completely speechless with breathtaking scenes. As already mentioned earlier, the learning techniques within Judgment will be very many and will all be fundamental to complete and improve our fighting styles.
Looking around during a fight will ensure that we are clearly ahead against our warnings: chairs, bicycles, clubs and countless other objects will always be there waiting for us to be thrown at the enemies. During a boss fight we were able to appreciate both the techniques used by the boss and the difficulty of the clashes: we played the title in normal mode and the difficulty of the clash was quite challenging, while the cut-scenes we found interesting and with shots of unexpected scene.
Thanks to the wide knowledge of Kung Fu and Parkour, our protagonist will give a show with extraordinarily spectacular sequences.
Do eyes and ears have their part?
Let's face it, Ryū ga Gotoku developers have done a truly exceptional job with the new Dragon Engine managing to push to the maximum of their limits: compared to the titles developed by the Yakuza team, in Judgment we will notice a far superior visual improvement and with details not yet present in previous works. We will notice how the streets, objects, shops and scripts of the characters have been greatly improved and this time they are well cared for. The city is colorful and beautiful both day and night and we will be able to appreciate every single neon in every red light district.
We tested the title on PlayStation 4 Pro and, believe us, the title does its duty by pushing the Sony home console in the best possible way. Unfortunately we cannot say the same about the facial animations of the characters which, at times, turned out to be too similar to each other and cumbersome. The music within Judgment, unfortunately, did not fully convince us: excluding the initial video of the game, the melodies within this multimedia work are not fully satisfactory and, often, we will hear more of the crowd than of the actual music. Excluding some particular cut-scenes, the sound sector did not convince us and we believe that background music would not have spoiled the gaming experience.
Well but not great:
One of the things that didn't convince us about this title is the way the game's AIs respond: during a stalking we happened to be unnoticed when we were really very close to our goal while this only identified us when we were less than a meter away and completely uncovered.
One of the feelings that you will feel after completing a good slice of the game plot, is surely that of wanting to visit another neighborhood outside Kamurocho but alas, this will not be possible: the neighborhood is large and beautiful, but it would have been ideal to enter the possibility of visiting another neighborhood other than this one. The veterans of the Yakuza series will notice that the Karaoke and other mini games present in the chapters of the well-known saga will no longer be present: but why did they remove them?
We also noticed that the textures are not the best in sharpness and we will often easily observe the imperfections at the quality level. The frame rate seemed solid and always stable to us, rarely noticing any drop in fire scenes. If it weren't for some dialogue that, in the long run, will lead us to want to skip the very long cut-scenes, it will be rare to get bored in this great title.
Before reaching the conclusion of the game plot we will need at least 35/40 hours, excluding secondary missions and activities around the world: in Judgment boredom will be the last in the standings and the translation assures us that this never happens!
Flying over some technical and graphic flaws, Judgment gives a breath of fresh air and innovation to the previously branded Ryū ga Gotoku series, making fights and plot coincide perfectly. The translation will give us the opportunity to understand the story that involves our Takayuki Yagami in all its facets: in a title so full of intrigue and dialogue it is essential to understand what is happening around us. Jugdment is an action-packed title with a thousand activities and a story that you won't forget very easily.
We remind you that the title will be available starting from 25 June 2019 exclusively on PlayStation 4, do not let it escape. Arigatou Gozaimasu Ryū ga Gotoku!
► Judgment is an Adventure-Action game developed by Ryu ga Gotoku Studio and published by Sony for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR, the video game was released on 25/06/2019
