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Judgment (sic) [PS4]

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    Judgment (sic) [PS4]

    Or, Judge Eyes. I've not played much (am only up to chapter 3), but so far?

    I like the story and the characters. They've got the exact same kind of charm and ludicrous larger-than-life personas that you'd expect. Unsurprisingly, with it being a game about organised crime, and your main character being an ex-lawyer who treads areas of patchy morality, there's still plenty of tough-guy yakuza for you to both befriend and beat down on. The story's smart enough to surprise you on the regular, and there's plenty of bigger plot points they're setting up already that I'm wanting to see pan out. Kamurocho, as ever, is also great fun just to be and hang around in. Particularly so if you're familiar with it - I find it's quite a satisfying feeling when someone tells you to go somewhere, and you immediately know not only the place, but what street it's on, and how best to get there.

    Where I'm struggling a bit are with the changes and additions to help differentiate the game from Yakuza. This should be the bit I'm most excited about, and I've seen some people say the encounter rate is lower, but it still feels fairly high to me, and much less fitting. I'm finding the range of other tasks (essentially: mini-games) that are dropped in to add credence to the 'private detective' label to be a little jankier and more cumbersome than I'd hoped. Investigation scenes are clunky and a little more frustrating than is welcome, tailing people is about as fun as you'd expect, chase scenes have some amazing cut-scene action but little else going for them, lock-picking is... you get the idea. I'm really hoping that things improve on this front.

    In short: if you're wanting a totally clean break from Yakuza, this is probably not it. It's still following a lot of the same beats, and some of few things they've made integral to the game to build some distance aren't the clean breaks you'd want. If you did want more Yakuza with a slightly new lick of paint, then hey! You're in luck. I'm still enjoying it a lot, but it's also not quite filling out the big boots it came in wearing.

    #2
    Haven't really played any Yakuza except the first one on PS2. Really enjoying Judgement (I'm also at chapter 3) but I think they should have just skipped the side quests and friends errands and spent the resources on something else instead. I know that they're optional but the only side cases that have made any sense are the ones connected to the main case.

    There's a sense of urgency throughout which make the side cases even more out of place. The Yakuza games seem more slife-of-life/simulation-ish so it makes more sense, but why would I stop to

    • Take a selfie in a burger joint
    • Take pics of cats
    • Chase down a panty thief
    • Find a jacket for a random guy

    ..when I'm trying to chase down a serial killer where every second of every main case feel like they matter?
    Last edited by Nico87; 15-07-2019, 17:09.

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      #3
      To be fair Yakuza has the exact same issue. The Clan is frequently on the brink of collapse but that doesn’t stop Kiryu hitting up the UFO machine for a few hours.

      Enjoying the impressions.

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        #4
        Originally posted by wakka View Post
        To be fair Yakuza has the exact same issue. The Clan is frequently on the brink of collapse but that doesn’t stop Kiryu hitting up the UFO machine for a few hours.

        Enjoying the impressions.
        I kinda get why they're doing it, it gets pretty boring just running around from main quest to main quest after a while.

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          #5
          Here's some advice for anyone struggling with the tailing missions: before you start one, find yourselves some random thugs to fight, and take a good few hits so that your health is plenty below full. Then, standing right by where the mission starts, down as much booze as you can - lagers, whisky, sake, anything - just get your alcohol gauge up to 9 before then starting the mission.

          It won't make it any easier - quite the opposite - but it's about ten times more fun trying to follow someone discreetly when you can't walk in a straight line, and are clattering about into other people, bike racks, neon signs and so on.

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            #6
            Played this a lot more last week, finishing up the main story. I did enjoy it, but at the same time it's an utter pantomine by the end, and not always in a way that I was laughing along with.

            I didn't enjoy the frequency of combat, and wished that it would actually let up quite regularly. The tailing missions remain irredeemably bad too: annoying, charmless, pace-limiting exercises in frustration. Ugh.

            Gunning for some degree of completion, some of the other mini-games are pretty irritating too - the VR/dice game in particular is one I could've really done without. That said, once I actually gave it a shot, I was actually surprised to find that I enjoyed the drone racing mini-game a lot - particularly given it's skill-based and yet still pretty challenging. Naturally, Fighting Vipers and VF5:FS are excellent bonuses.

            I've just got one friend to max out, then the inevitable Amon encounter (though if he's anywhere near as annoying as I'm anticipating, I might give him a miss this time), and then I'm putting this back on the shelf. I've enjoyed it, but honestly, it's simultaneously too much and not enough of a departure from Yakuza. I know there's news due soon of what's next for the series, and I hope that there's a bit of a clearer vision.

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              #7
              I'm so early in this, I sense late in Chapter 1 because I got distracted playing Fighting Vipers and that lightgun game that cheekily nods to Yakuza: Dead Souls. I think the mini-games in Yakuza haven't helped at all in softening the formula changes in this to the point it just feels like another entry. These games are so frequent and similar I never feel the pull to do the side stuff as oddity mini-storylines aside it's often more of the same and that's the same here but for what it is I am starting to get into it, it's kind of nice not having the narrative baggage the other games carry.

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                #8
                I was super hyped for this but it sounds a little disappointing

                Ages since I've done a Yakuza. Maybe 0 should be next rather than this.

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                  #9
                  If you've not done 0 then I'd probably head for that one first as it's one of the better entries throughout the series, this seems fun but more a side dish

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                    #10
                    Yeah, you definitely want to play 0 rather than this.

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                      #11
                      I started this last night and it did make me laugh having something pressing to attend to and then stopping off to play some arcade games first.

                      Only very early stages but I love it so far. The detective/crime/mystery vibe works brilliantly, characters are great so far, and just being in Kamurocho is super fun. I like the distance from Yakuza too.

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                        #12
                        Quick heads up, but anyone else on the fence about buying this like me, it's £20 today on Amazon.

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                          #13
                          Picked this up from Argos for £20.99.

                          Counting down to the kid's bedtime so I can fire it up and enjoy me some Kimutaku

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                            #14
                            Nearly a full year on I've been continuing with my save file on this and over the course of the last week I've now inched my way up to the start of Chapter 12. It's a Yakuza game pretty much through and through and has reminded me that I've got next to no time for the side quests, I know fans adore them but they're largely just more of the same with your reward being text screens of characters talking. When the main quest takes so many hours to do it feels like padding I don't need so I'm happy to skip it given the number of games there are as well. But as I'm nearing the end I think this is actually one of my favourites (replaying the series may change this), I like the cast and it plays better than most Yakuza entries too. Really hope we get a sequel especially now the main series is *sigh* an RPG

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                              #15
                              I think most games add side quests to add texture and depth to the world and characters, and hook you in more. Some games are significantly poorer to play if you just bomb through the main quest, in the same way that a tv series can have its impact lessened if you just concentrate on the primary thread.

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