WerejulFinished Lost Judgement, the second Yakuza spin-off diving into the tough topic of bullying and violence at school. I liked it a lot, as with most things coming from the Yakuza universe, but it wasn't always an easy playthrough. A thread of highlights with some minor spoilers.
So Lost Judgement takes detective and former lawyer Yagami to investigate a bullying case at a high-school in Yokohama. While it has a lot to give, the school setting didn't hook me, to the point that I took a break in my playthrough, and came back to it months later.
Despite the setting (or likely because of it), Lost Judgement is much darker than... anything else in the Yakuza franchise. Some sequences are really hard to watch, including scenes of torture, and violence on children.
Yakuza/Like a Dragon has always lived at the border between the very serious and the very ridiculous, and while Lost Judgement is more serious than most RGG games, it has plenty of the latter as well. Special mention for the cabaret club mission for example which is a re-play from a mission in the first game, but ads some fun twists to it. Still we'll regret that it's the only mission which treats with a playable female character in the entire game. Yakuza, even in its spin-offs, remains macho.
The "EX Actions" or special combos are still very impressive. Some are taken from the previous game, some are new, all remained fun to me even after seeing them many times. Special mention for the random "death by scare" ones.
Or the combos with a friend.
Battles shine and are still absolutely epic. Even more because Judgement was originally left holding the "brawler" torch since the Yakuza franchise went turn-based RPG (until Like a Dragon: Gaiden was announced that is). The small cutscenes starting the most epic battles are a blast in themselves.
And as per usual, the game shines thanks to its cast of characters who assemble for a cause behind their leaders like a sort of Japanese Detective/Gangsters version of the Avengers.
TL;DR: Lost Judgement is an epic, very serious and equally ridiculous action game that's also a courtroom drama and a detective adventure. It remains unique like the rest of the Yakuza universe, and I hope to see more of Yagami's adventures in the future. Play it !