SEGA's just published a behind the scenes video for Lost Judgment, starring director Toshihiro Nagoshi and lead actor Takuya Kimura. It makes for a good watch, and not just because we get to hear Kimura talk about his thoughts on the project. Indeed, there's a surprising amount of gameplay footage stuffed into this, as some of the sequel's new features are showcased.
And yes, Yagami's office now has a fully functional SEGA Master System. Beautiful.
Regular readers will already know that we're all-in on the Lost Judgment hype train — mostly because its predecessor, Judgment, is a fantastic game to begin with. We can't wait to hop on a skateboard and take a tour of Yokohama.
Are you hyped for Lost Judgment? Begin your investigation in the comments section below.
Comments 24
Halfway through Judgement and am loving every second of it. Can't wait for this game. Keep up the great reporting Robert!
This is going to be the extremely rare time I buy a digital deluxe edition to get early access. I can't wait a day longer for this goodness.
You guys have those games you missed out on growing up? The Yakuza series is one of those for me.
I'm thinking of getting into Judgement and the Yakuza series, but not sure where to start on the Yakuza front. I don't have time to play the whole series, but I wanna dive in. What's 3 must play Yakuza games?
@thehappyaerithch Is Yakuza 7 Like a Dragon?
@mrtennis1990 Was my GOTY in 2018. I can't wait for Lost Judgment. Judgment was just a joy to play.
Wonder if the profits will go towards even more plastic surgery for Nagoshi. My word, his face.
@thehappyaerithch Thanks for your advice friend
@nessisonett Working his way up to Mickey Rourke.
@TheIdleCritic these are the type of titles Sony needs to keep pushing when it comes to marketing. Really high quality story and gameplay so far.
@mrtennis1990 Absolutely. The balance of silliness and self awareness is perfect. There are so many "small" moments within the game that made me smile - when Tak takes a kid's skateboard to chase down someone is so ridiculous but great.
Wait until the end credits. There's a little scene that plays during the credit roll; it won't mean anything to most people but it encapsulated the vibe of the whole game so well. So great.
(Unfortunately Sony don't seem to be making the right choices right now in terms of marketing).
I've seen enough for this game at this point so I won't watch it but I'm 100% all in come September! I'll just reiterate my hope for something to get worked out with Kimura's agency for the series to continue after Lost Judgment. Low sales is one reason to end a series but a dispute like that one would be incredibly sad as a reason to kill the series off.
@TraCuz- I wrote a big article about where to start with the series and which games are best: https://www.pushsquare.com/guides/all-yakuza-games-ranked-which-yakuza-games-to-play-and-where-to-start
Maybe it can help!
@ShogunRok Awesome article, very insightful. Even though it says each entry is a different story, it must be very cool to follow that character's journey through so many entries.
@TraCuz- For sure. Even though that article ranks the games from best to worst (in my opinion at least), I don't think there is a "bad" Yakuza game. They're all fantastic fun, even if some are weaker than others.
The issue really is finding the time to play them all. If you're totally new, I would honestly recommend trying Judgment first. It's one of the best games and it's completely separate from everything else. And if you end up liking Judgment, you could branch off into the main Yakuza series. Win-win!
Judgment was worse than all the Yakuzas, largely due to the story (which seems better here, I love the school setting) but also the combat with bad response and long drawn out animations taking all the immediacy and impact from fights. Unfortunately this seems much the same. I’ll keep playing them, as Judgment was still really good by most standards. Just not by Yakuza standards.
@thefourfoldroot That's quite the unpopular opinion there. Judgement has a fantastic story and characters that lives up to the Yakuza games. Far better compared Kiwami 2 for me.
I’m on chapter 4 now, and I’ve clocked about 26 hours! I love it, glued to it every night. My partner said it feels like I have played 50+ hours, but she’s just jealous 😉
@Nepp67
I know it is, but differing opinions are important. I played (twice to get the plats, whilst completing everything) Yakuza 0-6 back to back, and then played Judgment. Obviously I had grow more attached to the Yakuza gang, maybe I will with the judgment characters also. The combat is simply poor though. And the questioning and stealth segments tedious to me 🤷♂️ Still played 200+ hours to get this plat too though. Even the worst Yakuza game is still great.
@thefourfoldroot I'm sorry but to say the combat is simply poor in comparison to Kiwami 2 and 6 is blatantly untrue. If Judgement's combat is "poor" then Kiwami 2 and 6 are far poorer. You have far more options to combat than Kiwami 2 can offer. That's not to say I don't enjoy Kiwami 2 and 6's combat but they definitely needed improvement and Judgement fixes that. Just making me think you really didn't play the entire series back to back.
@Nepp67
Lol, check my profile under the same name on PSN profiles or something. Or send me a friend request. Not something I’d lie to strangers about, lol.
The reason I say it’s worse is not related to number of options, it’s the feel. You press a few buttons and it takes seconds to run through a combo animation. In the previous Yakuza games you’d press a button and just snap into the action. Not sure how to explain it better. Plus to run around wall jumping just felt so imprecise compared to the combat movement in other Yakuza games.
Talking about all the research that goes into modelling the city, when it's relatively the same Isezaki Ijincho setting as Yakuza Lad
@thefourfoldroot Cause he attacks twice. Kiryu only ever punches once per tap. I don't mind how slow it is cause the combat is incredibly fun in Judgement and can even have moments where you can actually juggle your enemies if you time it right switching between styles(DanteDevil12 showed me that quite well). For wall jumping you don't need to use it and it would still be like Kiwami 2 and 6 cause none of the Yakuza titles never really had that type of combat movement where you're jumping on stuff to attack.
As long as the story doesnt drag and become unnecessarily long like the first Judgment then I will be all over this.
Looks great, my copy of Judgment PS5 should be delivered today. I can't wait to take my first baby step into the Yakuzaverse.
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