Is Judgment the BEST Yakuza Game?

By the way the photo in the thumbnail is of Yagami's English voice actor shoving his face full of... bread or something bread related I don't know

"Don't worry, Kaito Files, this mole guy is gonna get his JUDGMENT"

I think on their own Judgement and Lost Judgement are the most sophisticated, polished and complete RGG titles. Especially if you leave out your nostalgia for the Yakuza characters

Lockpicking with a controller that drifts was definitely an awful experience in Judgment...

"When someone thinks they're in the right, that's when the real cruetly in people starts to come out. So what do you say? Are you really right?" - John Judgment (2018)

Judgements english VA for yagami is honestly iconic I can’t play without it

Strangely, as much as I love 0, this was the first Yakuza game I 100% completed and fought Amon. It was brutal, I loved it, and I will never do it again.

I like the combat better in Lost Judgement but the story is way better in Judgement.

Having a grandmother who’s suffering from dementia right now, makes the story hit even harder then before

I remember not really feeling the combat during the beginning of the game since I found the attack speed without upgrades coupled with the attacks bouncing off being really annoying to deal with in comparison to the other Yakuza games. It got a little better as I kept playing and upgrading, but I'm glad Lost Judgment improved that aspect by a whole lot.

I'm one of those rare idiots who enjoyed tailing, but I can see why it can get old real fast. Judgment somehow perfected the feedback loop that got started in 0. By that I mean that you take a moment to push the plot ahead. Then you check out some side cases that all make sense for a detective to do. Then because your job is to talk to people and get information, you make friends. Which as you get to know them, unlocks more people and more sub stories so you're balancing out moving the amazing plot forward and getting sucked into a black hole of side goodness.

Koga's theme goes so hard, one of the best tracks in the entire series.

Takayuki Yagami is my favourite protagonist in gaming, he's just that guy 🐐

i genuinely forgot this was a judgement retrospective halfway through lmao

Glad to see the Judgment love. Man, I remember playing it for the first time and being the same as you, I just thought “there is no way they can make this franchise any better”. The music, the story, the characters, the gameplay, and did I mention the STORY?!?! It had me on the edge of my seat the entire time and does foreshadowing and reveals in such incredible and masterful ways. The final boss is so memorable for me despite the hundreds and hundreds of games I’ve played in my lifetime because the stakes were SO insanely high, and the composition of everything leading up that moment is just… CHEF’S KISS. While I don’t think any other game in the entire franchise can even remotely touch this game from a plot perspective, Lost Judgment did certainly crank the gameplay dial up to 11 though. If someone could backport LJ’s combat into Judgment, I would think that is the definitive Yakuza experience, and it wouldn’t even be a proper “Yakuza” game. Crazy.

I really enjoyed the Like a Dragon and Judgement dubs. Ichiban's VA was especially excellent.

Yep. I was one that had Judgment as my first Yakuza game, and yes it was thanks to the fact that it's dubbed. And man oh man, was I blown away by the quality of the dub. Didn't think Persona 5 could be topped. Love the game, but I would probably not replay it, now that you reminded me of the tailing missions that kept putting me to sleep. Forever thankful that Lost Judgment not only decreased the frequency and bore of those missions, but also put more energy into the music to keep me awake.

Judgment has by far my favourite atmosphere in the whole series. Despite having the best story for me the most memorable moments were in-between story elements when you're supposed to just quickly restock on healing and continue. I always took extra time to think about what might happen, appreciate the overworld music (inharmonic is definitely the most memorable track) and just walk around like I'm sightseeing (despite knowing Kamurocho like the back of my hand at that point), not even looking for a substory or some other side activity just appreciating the vibes.

Something else cool about Keith Arem is that he had his own industrial band in the late 80s/early 90s called Biohazard PCB (where the PCB Productions name comes from) which was then renamed to Contagion in the later 90s. His band, Contagion, did the sound and music for the cancelled Thrill Kill, which then became the Wu-Tang fighting game.

I just finished it not even an hour ago. Except the tailing missions it was great all the way to the end.