Lost Judgment

Lost Judgment is the sequel to the detective spin-off of the Yakuza series from Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, once again casting the player as former lawyer and now private detective Takayuki Yagami. The player roams the streets of the Tokyo district of Kamurocho as well as the newly added Isezaki Ijincho area in Yokohama, solving cases through tailing suspects, disguises, hacking devices, and classic hand-to-hand combat, and between the main storyline completes dozens of side quests, minigames, and detours that together form a substantial amount of side content. This time the story centers on bullying at a high school and the darker themes connected to it, such as manipulation, peer pressure, and systemic failure, which the game handles with surprising seriousness and sensitivity.

On PlayStation 5, the game runs smoothly at high resolution, which particularly shows in combat that combines two distinct fighting styles selectable depending on the situation and type of opponent. The sound design and musical score continue the series' proven quality, and together with a wealth of side content — from board games through a dance minigame, a school robotics club, to your own detective agency with assistants — they create a world in which you could spend dozens of hours outside the main story alone. The atmosphere skillfully alternates between serious, dramatic passages and the series' typically over-the-top, situational humor.

Lost Judgment was critically well received as one of the studio's most polished works, even though it was later pulled from digital sale on all platforms due to licensing disputes. The investigation segments also offer logical evidence assembly and reconstruction of events, so the game combines elements of a classic detective story with hard-hitting action and an open city. For fans of the series and of the action-adventure genre alike, it remains an example of how a detective story can be woven together with an open city full of side activities, side stories, and unexpectedly powerful emotional moments.

Why play it: For fans of detective plots and open-world action alike, it's one of the studio's most polished works, though due to licensing disputes you can no longer buy the title in digital distribution today.