Judgment: detective game spinoff from Yakuza series

[BadgerFarmer]

17 minutes ago, Harsin said:

Ive put in about 12 hours so far and I’m on *checks notes*  chapter 2. Mind you I’m methodically clearing out any side content before I do any story stuff. Bit worried how many side cases there are actually, if all that’s available are the ones at your office and the law firm, then I’ve nearly filled in both those menus.

Check the Kamurochogo app on your phone to see how much there is to do in total.

Spoiler

There are 50 side cases and 50 friend events. New ones keep opening up as you advance through the game.

 

[Harsin]

I did this EX move randomly and was still chuckling about 5 mins later. No story spoilers, but if you plan on playing maybe don’t watch so preserve the surprise if it happens to you.

 

 

 

[MW_Jimmy]

Tim Rogers loves Judgement / Judge Eyes so this video feels so wholesome and great:

 

 

[Kevvy Metal]

On 20/06/2019 at 15:24, Kayin Amoh said:

Same as binary domain and saints row 2. Goty, baby.

 

i’ve also finished this for review - embargo should have broken, but just to be safe i’ll Just say that the English voiceovers are fantastic and one of the villains is a pretty sinister dude.

 

Edge gave them both 6 / 10 ?

Fucking hell likes!

[deerokus]

So far this is up there with 0 as Yakuza games go (I haven't played 3,4 or 5).

[gossi the dog]

Just now, deerokus said:

So far this is up there with 0 as Yakuza games go (I haven't played 3,4 or 5).

 

Really? I'm at the start of the second chapter and am a little unsure of it all. I'm hoping/expecting things to open up soon.

[Wiper]

I'm liking this a lot - more, dare I say it, than the Yakuzas. It has a bit of a different feel to it - the different protagonist and framing go a long way to feeling like a fresh experience rather than "just another Yakuza game", even as it shares most of the series' traditional mechanics. It turns out the Ace Attorney x Ryu ga Gotoku is the game I've secretly always wanted to play!

 

(plus, of course, it as ever benefits from the timeless pleasure of Sega's arcade games, allowing the whole thing to feel like a superior retro collection with a free adventure game on top, should you so desire)

[Kayin Amoh]

On 20/06/2019 at 15:32, BadgerFarmer said:

Post a link when it's up (assuming it's online), I'd be interested to read it.

 

Took a little longer than anticipated to go live, but it's up now: https://gamecritics.com/darren-forman/judgment-review/

 

And yeah, the collection of arcade games in this is superb. You have the best fighter in VF5 FS and a stack of classics and all round fun games like that Motor Raid and Fighting Vipers - though I gotta say, Jane in stage 8 is a complete asshole. Puyo's also pretty bloody hard in the arcades, I gotta say.

 

Did all the side gubbins a few days ago, so short of trophy cleanup I've done most of what there is to see. So good.

[Wiper]

2 minutes ago, Kayin Amoh said:

Jane in stage 8 is a complete asshole.

 

Ah, Jane is fine (particularly when you're playing as, er, Jane); BM, on the other hand, can do one! Also all of my Fighters Megamix muscle memory is lost, I've discovered

 

I'm mostly hoping that they continue to plumb the Model 2 fighting catalogue; I'd very much enjoy playing that most middle-of-the-road of fighting games - Last Bronx - once again. And I imagine I'd get some entertainment from completely ignoring Sonic the Fighters.

[Kayin Amoh]

3 minutes ago, Wiper said:

 

Ah, Jane is fine (particularly when you're playing as, er, Jane); BM, on the other hand, can do one! Also all of my Fighters Megamix muscle memory is lost, I've discovered

 

I'm mostly hoping that they continue to plumb the Model 2 fighting catalogue; I'd very much enjoy playing that most middle-of-the-road of fighting games - Last Bronx - once again. And I imagine I'd get some entertainment from completely ignoring Sonic the Fighters.

 

Lisa Kusanami twin stick batterings are always fun! I have a Saturn version I bought in Akihabara for 30 yen in mint condition. That was a steal.

 

Motor Raid was surprisingly fun still, even though I'd never played it before and wasn't just coasting on nostalgia. Venus Wars meets Road Rash, no complaints there.

 

I actually looked up a youtube vid to see if there was a way to cheese the AI in Fighting Vipers (don't remember it being so tough on Saturn) and found it amusing that in the last few rounds the timer went from 15-ish mins to an hour before the winning round. And yeah, they can totally put Vipers 2 into a new Judgment or Yakuza - I don't think it's an amazing series, critically speaking, but it's still one I've a lot of fondness for. Even the Saturn intro is both technically quite average and still utterly amazing to me. 

 

 

[gossi the dog]

Kamurocho Hills has finally been built. That took years.

[SqueakyG]

Funnily enough, Kamurocho Hills made me have a good think about the timeline, and how I've been skipping around the decades with the 4 previous Yakuza games I played. It's great to see how Kamurocho changes.

 

Yakuza 0 (set in 1988) = it's an old park that homeless people live in.

Yakuza Kiwami, (set in 2005) = still an old park, and also how you get to Purgatory/the Florist.

Yakuza 6, (set in 2016) = Kamurocho Hills has been built for years... but they blocked off a lot of streets (teething troubles for the new Dragon engine maybe) so you couldn't get close to see.

Yakuza Kiwami 2 (set in 2006) = Majima's construction company has started building Kamurocho Hills.

Yakuza 3, 4 and 5 = Haven't played them yet, come onnnn PS4 ports.

Judgment (set in 2018) = You can see what Kamurocho Hills looks like for the first time in the Dragon engine.

[gossi the dog]

Actually I think I’m just confusing myself having played 0, Kiwami, Kiwami 2 (where it hadn’t been built) and 6 (where the area is off limits) most recently. I’m pretty sure that you had to go there in some of the PS3 games.

[deerokus]

In retrospect 6 feels a bit unfinished with flimsy combat and areas like that just crudely blocked off. 

 

I was surprised that the version of Puyo Puyo in this is effectively the home version of Puyo Puyo Tetris with the Tetris bit hived off. I expected an old arcade game, so that's pretty decent! 

[BadgerFarmer]

4 hours ago, Wiper said:

I'm liking this a lot - more, dare I say it, than the Yakuzas. It has a bit of a different feel to it - the different protagonist and framing go a long way to feeling like a fresh experience rather than "just another Yakuza game", even as it shares most of the series' traditional mechanics. It turns out the Ace Attorney x Ryu ga Gotoku is the game I've secretly always wanted to play!

I liked the change in perspective as well, and the variety in all the detective modes, but it's a shame they're so basic and don't develop throughout the game. Trailing a suspect towards the end of the game is almost identical to that first time in the introduction, and by then you've done it 20 odd times.

[Mafro]

God bless them for adding the ability to auto-run around the city.

[HappiestRogue]

3 hours ago, Mafro said:

God bless them for adding the ability to auto-run around the city.

That is a great improvement, shame they removed mini map rotation though. 

 

Only on chapter 2 and also enjoying the change of perspective after all these years with the Dragon of Dojima. 

[Let us measure]

So good to be back in Kamuracho again. Started last night, but will go back and do it properly again tonight. I had a night out in Kabukicho last summer, and I know it's a small area but it's amazing how spot on they've got it. The griminess of it all.

 

 

[deerokus]

I am a fan of the total Phoenix Wright rip off that is the way the music blares and shifts during intense courtroom scenes.  it even sounds a bit like it could be from those games. Which is amusingly incongruous when said scenes are a few people in suits at desks looking at computers. 

[SteveH]

Biggest plus point for me so far, is being able to run around and not get into fights every 100 yards - though when I do get into fights, I wish they were more difficult. I must admit that I do really like the lead character, and I'm quite enjoying the English voices as well.

 

 And thankfully it still has the totally hat stand side quests I'm missing not finding locker keys though.

[Harsin]

9 hours ago, deerokus said:

I am a fan of the total Phoenix Wright rip off that is the way the music blares and shifts during intense courtroom scenes.  it even sounds a bit like it could be from those games. Which is amusingly incongruous when said scenes are a few people in suits at desks looking at computers. 

 

Nonsense, just as Swery says he never saw Twin Peaks, it’s obvious that this is a completely original work and any similarities are purely coincidental...

 

[Harsin]

Man this thread is dead while multitudes are jumping for joy at every awful looking screenshot that gets posted in the Shenmue 3 thread.

[deerokus]

I noticed that, I don't know why Shenmue is still so beloved when even the worst entry in the Yakuza series is basically 'what if Shenmue, but good?'.

 

Anyway it's one of the best games I've played this year. 

[Calashnikov]

I won’t be getting round to this until I finish Yakuza 6. And I won’t be starting that until I’ve played Yakuzas 3-5. And I won’t be playing those until I start Yakuza Kiwami 2, which won’t be until that game goes on a substantial sale. As much as I loved 0 and Kiwami 1(and I did fucking love them), I think I’d resent paying full price for essentially more of the same. Whereas the fact Shenmue 3 even exists and is coming soon is actually miraculous as gaming culture goes. I’m sure everyone understands this.

[Calashnikov]

And I say that as someone who recognises Shenmue is kinda shit by definition, and Yakuza improves on it in almost every way. Still love it, though.

[deerokus]

It's miraculous that a sequel to Birdemic exists, doesn't make it worth watching. 

[Harsin]

Fair enough people are excited for it, it was a major game for a lot of peeps (including me) growing up and I hope it turns out well.

 

But this seemingly getting pretty ignored everywhere while people are clamouring for Shenmue 3 does feel a bit like people complaining they can’t get a decent burger anymore, despite having an amazing burger joint in their town, and then getting hyped because someone announces they’re going to reopen an old Wimpys next door to it.

[smac]

I finally installed it and quickly ran through the first mission.

 

I knew exactly which way I had to go to get to Pink Street - duck down the alley by the Sega arcade, and straight on...

 

I'm hoping to get some more gaming time this weekend for a longer look!

[NickyDrinks]

Is the demo of this still available? I've logged in with my JP PSN account and it's there (I think, I'm relying on dodgy google translation) but just seems to redirect me to the page to buy the full game.

[BadgerFarmer]

2 hours ago, Harsin said:

Fair enough people are excited for it, it was a major game for a lot of peeps (including me) growing up and I hope it turns out well.

 

But this seemingly getting pretty ignored everywhere while people are clamouring for Shenmue 3 does feel a bit like people complaining they can’t get a decent burger anymore, despite having an amazing burger joint in their town, and then getting hyped because someone announces they’re going to reopen an old Wimpys next door to it.

Is there a sense of exhaustion with the Yakuza games and now this, having had so many in such a short period? They're long games and not exactly wildly different, and that's now, what, 5 in the last couple of years?

 

Anyway, I went back and finished this off earlier in the week. I'd done most of it before and just had the last couple of chapters. Personally, I would've liked to have seen them do more with the detective stuff. It's pretty tedious towards the end and never really asks you to do anything interesting. The game still has to rely a lot on the combat to create any kind of challenge, and that just makes it more similar to Yakuza again. I still enjoy the silliness of these games, and the main characters are again very good, but there's only so much running around the same area I can take.

 

I would be interested if they did something a little different with Yagami and Kaito in the future though. I don't know what exactly, but it would be good to see them again.