Judgment, known in Japan as Judge Eyes, is the new game developed by Ryu ga Gotoku Studio, or the authors of the Yakuza series, led as always by director Toshihiro Nagoshi. Judgment stands as a sort of spin-off of the Yakuza universe, as it shares the setting and some elements of the narrative, but is completely unrelated to the previous adventures of the series.
We got to try the first two hours of the game through a build already localized for the western market and the first thing that jumped out was undoubtedly the possibility to play the game with Spanish subtitles. Apart from the first historical chapter of Yakuza on PlayStation 2, all subsequent chapters of the series have always approached only the choice of Japanese dubbing subtitled in English. Could it be Sega's first step to approach our market? We hope so.
In fact, the protagonist of the story is Takayuki Yagami, played by the Japanese actor Takuya Kimura, a successful young lawyer who finds his career cut short due to a murder by a former client, already acquitted in the past for the same crime. . This event will later lead him to open his own detective agency in Kamurocho, the Shinjuku district inspired by the real Kabukicho, the key setting of the entire Yakuza series. The points of connection with the series, however, are not limited to this, in fact the past of Yagami is strongly linked to that of the Japanese mafia and the events of the game will lead him to cross different exponents of the renowned Tojo Clan.
Even the game is strongly based on the structure that we have come to know over the years with Yakuza: Kamurocho is not so different from how we left it, the premises are these as well as the activities that can be carried out between one mission and another. Even casual encounters with thugs or thugs on duty will not fail, since our protagonist was raised by a Yakuza family and is a man who knows his stuff as a martial arts. In fact, Yagami will have two fighting styles, one fast and designed for 1 vs 1 fights, while the other slower and dedicated to numerous groups of enemies. In addition to the styles, we will then have the Ex Moves, or the special moves that can be used after filling a special bar that represent the analogous version of the Heat moves seen in Yakuza.
The point where Judgment breaks away from the main series, however, lies mainly in the fact that Yagami is and remains an investigator and investigations are part of his life. Where Yakuza focused almost exclusively on fighting, Judgment primarily aims to keep the player busy in the role of a detective. In fact, many of the missions that will be faced involve stalking, analysis of places in search of clues, identikits, interrogations and even patrols with a drone. The variety of missions seemed to us, at least at first, very varied, giving a good rhythm to the narrative and the progress of the story.
Each of our actions performed in the game will then be rewarded with points that will then serve us to acquire new skills through a special item available in the game menu. The new skills can trivially concern the combat component, then passing through those inherent to the investigative phases or even to the more social ones. In fact, Yagami can become friends with a lot of people within the game, undertaking secondary missions that will then allow him to link the various NPCs scattered around Kamurocho and then start dating them. And if these are women, they can even start a sentimental story, complete with activities dedicated to them, such as dinners, bowling and arcades.
Waiting to know what the future of Yakuza will hold, the two hours spent in the company of Judgment have however shown us how the title can be an interesting filler to try to propose something "new" within the universe created by Nagoshi and the his team. Perhaps it was legitimate to expect something more on the front of the setting and, above all, on some gameplay choices, such as wanting to introduce fighting at all costs and not trying to create something more focused exclusively on investigations and detective activities. The result, however, proved to be satisfactory for the moment and it is not certain that by continuing in the adventure there will be no surprises that we cannot yet suspect. We hope so. In the meantime, the appointment is for this summer exclusively for PlayStation 4.
► 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
Judgment is a beautiful game that cannot be missing from your collection: we have decided to evaluate it with a 88%, if you are interested in learning more you can read the Judgment Review
