“But the bigger problem here is that despite the fact this game is called Judgment, there’s surprisingly little room given to make our your own decisions. Each of these are employed by Judgment far too often, without ever varying the formula to any significant degree. The former are effectively extended quicktime events in which you run through the Kamarucho streets flicking the thumbsticks to sidestep crowds and tapping the triangle button to vault over obstacles while the latter are tediously stop-and-start affairs as you tail a suspect whose head is on a permanent swivel, forcing you to frequently scramble into one of the designated hiding zones lest your cover be blown by a rapidly filled visibility meter.

Others are less inspired, such as the chase sequences and tailing missions. Some of these methods are quite enjoyable, like piloting Yagami’s camera drone to peer through the windows of multi-story office block in search of a suspect, or using his smartphone to snap photos of a cheating husband heading into a love hotel with his mistress.

You Can’t Handle the SleuthMain character Takayuki Yagami has a number of detective-oriented tools and skills at his disposal in order to solve both the main mission – which revolves around a serial killer stalking high-ranking underworld figures – and side cases. Although it seems odd that the lip syncing has been altered to suit the English voices in some cutscenes, but not all. Further, if you’re a non-Japanese speaker who’s been previously turned off at the idea of playing through dozens of hours of a dialogue-heavy Yakuza game with subtitles only, you’ll be pleased to hear (literally) that Judgment’s English voice dubbing is excellent.

Play With the exception of a few side character cameos from the Yakuza series, Judgment features an entirely new cast of heroes and villains, and its plot is completely self-contained, making it a no-strings-attached entry point into the Yakuza-verse for newcomers.

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