Playing 'Judgment' made me finally jump into 'Yakuza' games

Playing Judgment made me regret never playing any of the Yakuza games for the past decade.

Judgment centers around Takayuki Yagami, a private detective and former lawyer who winds up investigating a series of murders with possible ties to the Yakuza. It’s a great setup that’s rife with intrigue and drama, and the first two hours I got to play at a preview event got me hooked.

I was so hooked on everything in Judgment that I bought a copy of Yakuza 0, which is made by the same developer (Sega) and a pretty similar style of game. I haven’t been this excited to play a game in a while.

Along with the story and the interesting characters, one of the things that grabbed me most about Judgment was its style. It has so much style, style to spare.

First of all, Yagami is unbelievably cool. His mannerisms. His leather jacket. His swagger. His hair. It's all so good. He walks into situations with confidence, ready to throw down at a moment’s notice.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Yagami takes himself incredibly seriously and so does everyone else he runs into. That's what makes the light and funny moments so great, and there are a lot of them.

In one moment, Yagami is grilling a bar owner about a murder that took place the night before. The next moment, Yagami is beating a hooligan into the ground with a bicycle. And then to top off the evening, he’ll casually hit up a batting cage to win some prizes.

There's something so satisfying about watching the coolest people imaginable doing ridiculous things.

Between the compelling main storyline, the variety in gameplay and scenarios, a fantastic soundtrack, and a great voice cast (which is done fully in Japanese and English), Judgment felt like it was never going to get boring, which is important for a game where the main story alone takes 30 or more hours to complete.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

For fans of the Yakuza series, Judgment has a very similar DNA, although instead of taking the reins of characters who are Yakuza and ex-Yakuza, you are more on the outside of the criminal world looking in. It makes for a very different vibe, but it’ll feel familiar to anyone who has spent at least a couple hours prowling the streets of Kamurocho, Japan in Yakuza.

I want to jump right into the full game, but that’s likely not coming to the West until this summer 2019.

So in the meantime I’m making up for lost time with the Yakuza games and realizing I should’ve been playing this series all along.