Lost Judgment

[Froggy]

Anyone else excited for this? I've had a bit of a gap in games like this, loved Yakuza Like A Dragon but seems to have been a sparse run of anything that interests me in this area, too many remakes etc and I'm not interested in playing a lot of things twice. So I was at the point of almost buying Cyberpunk before my self imposed rule of waiting for the next gen patch so it's somewhat a good experience when I started getting hyped for Lost Judgment. I liked Judgment, took me a while to warm up to the characters and maybe a little Yakuza fatigued when I played it but I still enjoyed it and was looking forward to a sequel.

Well, the sequel is now nearly upon us and I for one am eager to jump into the world again. I'm unsure but I feel it might be because the lack of travel the idea of losing myself in a place I'd like to travel to for a holiday again has become really appealing, kind of like virtually being there somewhat. Anyway, sounds like they've put a lot of work into this one expanding it away from a clone and adding things to improve the world, Famitsu has lost it's shit over it with 10's:

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/new ... ect-score/

"Famitsu has awarded the Sega sequel a near-perfect score with its four reviewers issuing 9, 10, 9 and 10 for a combined 38/40. The previous game in the series received 37/40 from Famitsu (9/10/9/9).

In its review, Famitsu reportedly compliments the number of activities included throughout the game and says that the quality of its story is “even better than the last game”

Also interesting is there's already some decent sized DLC story add ons. Something that I think some past Yakuza titles never seemed to get was any love with besides costume packs and other item things. I am not a big fan of DLC but if it's decent like a minor story of length which is an actual decent add on then I'm more than happy to be in for that. Sounds like that is what they have done here with the extra cases looking like a decent extra outing although this all could be trying to figure out how to take the series forward if they can't resolve the main character dispute (https://kotaku.com/lost-judgments-new-d ... 1847611454).

A bit shitty that there is no option for the physical version including the DLC and I'm not going to buy the digital one so I'll have to buy that separately.

Looking forward to playing some of these in it too:

• Alex Kidd in Miracle World (1986/87)
  Enduro Racer (1986)
  Fantasy Zone (1986)
  Maze Hunter 3D (1987)
  Penguin Land (1987)
  Quartet (1986)
  Secret Command (1986)
  Woody Pop (1987)

Anyone else play the first one or interested in this?

[Froggy]

Ergh 3 day early access for buying digital versions. I don't want to reward that but waiting til Friday purely to get punished for my buying physical is bullshit.

[t0mby]

Digital preorder stuff is ok I guess, you usually get it at retail too. What day does it get released? If it's Tuesday for digital you'll be having slow days at work. If it's Thursday retail, buy game, throw sicky Friday.

I haven't played the original. Only played the demo, bit I enjoyed it. Feel like I need to finish Yakuza 6 first, haven't touched that in a long time due to getting burnt out from playing the last part of 4, then onto 5, Kiwami, Kiwami 2 and then 6.

I suppose you finished Like a Dragon, excluding the earlier Yakuza games out of Dragon and judgment, which did you think was the better overall experience?

[Froggy]

Hard to say. I enjoyed like a dragon and the change of scene at mechanics. The story was probably a bit weaker than other yakuza but now knowing him as a character I'm all in for a second one. Judgement I liked but hit it way too close to Yakuza so it felt the samey but I enjoyed it overall, I felt as it went it got more separated and into it's own. Starting this one is already better because we know who they are so they can go straight into a story

[t0mby]

Think I'll knuckle down with #6 these next few evenings then and get ready to bury myself in Judgement. Zero interest in Like a Dragon.

[Froggy]

Think I'll knuckle down with #6 these next few evenings then and get ready to bury myself in Judgement. Zero interest in Like a Dragon.

If you like Yakuza, you'll like Like a Dragon. The turn based was a good change up and implemented really well, probably felt they had heaps of variety in job types = fighting types/move list but there were so many job types that I ended up just getting good at one and a couple of others high enough to get a few moves and I was able to just switch between my main one and the others without having to mix it up too much.

[Twiztid Elf]

I'm 6 hours in on Like a Dragon, and it's really fucking awesome. I'm down on myself for not having played it sooner.
It is very narrative, story and character heavy, but man, it's all awesome.

[t0mby]

I'm surprised you're enjoying it, I thought you didn't like the Yakuza games?

[Twiztid Elf]

I've only ever played Yakuza 0.
I read back what I said about it when I finished it, and it does come off overly negative.
I did say I liked the characters and story, but didn't like the combat or some of the design choices.
I do have positive memories of it. Just that it was too drawn out, and therefore I wouldn't bother getting into the series. I gave it a 7 - which from me means its still a solid, good game and worth playing if you're into the subject matter/setting/topic.

Like a Dragon has an even more silly tone, even more likeable characters, and the combat has been switched to turn based, which helps a lot and one of the reasons I decided to jump in.

[Froggy]

The fan service to original Yakuza characters is also great in the 2nd half.