Judgment Review [SPOILERS]

Judgment’s gameplay is very similar to Yakuza, with a few key differences. The game uses the Dragon Engine, so it should feel familiar enough to those who have played Yakuza 6 and/or the Kiwami games. You play as Yagami, exploring and fighting in Kamurocho. There are some additional gameplay elements that serve as part of Yagami’s detective work, such as investigating areas for evidence, covertly tailing people, and getting information from people through questioning. These additional elements add a great deal of immersion, and make you feel more like a detective solving a mystery. There are also Side Cases to complete throughout Kamurocho, which are similar to Yakuza’s substories. 

Judgment’s plot is very intriguing, and has a lot of twists and turns. The first thing the game does is establish the backstory of Yagami. In 2015, Yagami was a prodigy of a lawyer working for the Genda Law Office. Against all odds, he was able to get an acquittal for Shinpei Okubo, a custodial worker at a medical institution called the ADDC accused of murdering an old dementia patient. However, soon after, Okubo murders his girlfriend, Emi Terasawa, and sets fire to their apartment. Okubo is sentenced to death row and Yagami quits being a lawyer, with the public perceiving him as the one who helped a murderer get acquitted. 

It is now 2018, and Yagami is now running a private investigator business called the Yagami Detective Agency alongside his friend Masaharu Kaito. Kaito is a former yakuza, being a part of the Tojo Clan’s Matsugane Family until he was banished for not being able to prevent a robbery of their office. Yagami is also close to the Matsugane Family, seeing their patriarch as a father figure. Yagami and Kaito are enlisted by Masamichi Shintani, an old colleague of Yagami’s at the Genda Law Office, to help investigate a series of murders in which the victims’ eyes are gouged out. Shintani was hired by Kyohei Hamura, the captain of the Matsugane Family, who is being accused of these murders, specifically the killing of a rival Kyorei Clan yakuza. Yagami and Kaito investigate the crime scene and dig up additional information with the help of Kazuya Ayabe, a dirty cop who sells police intel on the side. Although they cannot find the mysterious killer, who Yagami dubs “the Mole,” they are able to successfully prove Hamura’s innocence in court. 

Despite this, Yagami suspects that Hamura is in league with the Mole. And soon after the trial, the Mole kills Shintani and leaves the body in Yagami’s office. On Shintani’s phone, Yagami sees that his last call was to Yoji Shono, a researcher at the ADDC. Shono is familiar to Yagami, as he testified during the Okubo trial three years ago. After investigating the ADDC itself and getting minimal information out of their chairman, Ryusuke Kido, Yagami meets Fumiya Sugiura, a masked thief in Kamurocho. They then encounter Shigeru Kajihira, a real estate developer who wanted to acquire the ADDC’s land for himself. He would have achieved this goal with the ADDC’s shutdown, but the ADDC announced the development of AD-9, a miracle drug said to cure Alzheimer’s disease. With the announcement of AD-9, the ADDC would continue to receive funding and remain operational. Kajihira hires Yagami to investigate the death of Toru Hashiki, an ADDC executive who was in league with Hashiki and investigating the legitimacy of AD-9. 

Yagami is then interrogated by public prosecutors due to his proximity to Shintani’s murder. The prosecutors tell him that the Mole is actually Kazuya Ayabe. Yagami is unconvinced, and he investigates further with Kaito. They find Hamura, who is in hiding following a shooting outside the Matsugane office, and conclude that Yoji Shono is the one organizing everything, carrying out the Mole’s murders with the help of the Matsugane Family. Their hypothesis is that the Mole’s victims are actually test subjects who were illegally used to further the development of AD-9. Yagami also thinks that Shinpei Okubo may actually be innocent of both murders, and that Shono killed the ADDC patient and then killed Emi Terasawa to frame Okubo. After rescuing Kaito, who was taken hostage by Hamura, Yagami learns that Hamura was in charge of trafficking Kyorei Clan members to be AD-9 test subjects. The Mole then storms the building to kill Hamura for revealing too much, but Patriarch Matsugane takes a bullet for him. Hamura, feeling guilty over the boss’s death, reveals that the Mole is Mitsuru Kuroiwa, a top detective in the police department. 

During the trial of Ayabe, Hamura redeems himself by agreeing to testify and show concrete evidence of the ADDC’s involvement with the Mole. The Vice Minister of Health, Kaoru Ichinose, who is also testifying, sends out an order to have Kuroiwa killed. Yagami chases after Kuroiwa, as his death would mean the case going cold. Kuroiwa then fully goes rogue, storming the ADDC to kill Shono. The final boss fight has Yagami defeat Kuroiwa, who is then killed by police after refusing to surrender. Yoji Shono then reveals that AD-9 is complete and fully functional. However, after he injects it into himself, he starts convulsing and dying, with his eyes turning bright blue. Meanwhile at the trial, Ryusuke Kido reveals everything to the judges, resulting in prison sentences for those who covered up AD-9’s true nature and acquittals for Ayabe and Okubo. 

Overall, I really enjoyed playing through this story, uncovering all of the clues and finding my way to the truth about AD-9. The entire system is working to cover it up, and Yagami persists against all of it in the name of justice. Yagami’s arc of coming to terms with his past and redeeming himself is riveting. There are also compelling arcs for other characters, namely Masaharu Kaito. Kaito also has to confront his past of getting kicked out of the Matsugane Family, and he learns the truth about what happened. Kaito also reconciles with his former aniki, Toru Higashi. 

The overall vibe of Judgment is much more grounded and realistic, with not quite as many of the fantastical elements of Yakuza. However, there are still some silly substories with comedic situations for Yagami and the gang to get into. The game has more of a noir aesthetic with its lighting, fonts, and music to go along with the detective theme. In particular, I really like the vibes in the Yagami Detective Agency office. Kamurocho is mostly similar to how we last saw it in Yakuza 6, making it pretty familiar while also feeling different. 

To conclude, Judgment will go down as one of my favorite games I’ve ever played. I loved the characters, the story, the graphics, and the gameplay. It’s familiar enough to Yakuza for me to enjoy it for the same reasons I enjoy those games, while also being an entirely unique experience in its own right. I’d recommend Judgment to any Yakuza fan, although even if you aren’t, it’s fully playable without extensive background knowledge.