Judge Eyes

The exciting new project from the makers of Yakuza.

Pretty sure I'm the only one playing this currently, but oh well.

It plays exactly like Yakuza 6/Kiwami 2, but has a bunch of shallow detective mini-games like tailing and lock-picking added on. Seems most people agree that the detective stuff isn't all that fun.

The biggest difference is in the combat, imo. Yagami feels very different to Kiryu. Less brute force, more combos and flips. He's got two styles (one better for 1v1 encounters, the other better for group encounters), can vault over enemies and jump off walls, so you can get creative while you fight. A lot of big finishers have been copied from Yakuza, though.

There's a side-story where you have to catch a molester called Ass Catchem. Most of the side stuff is very typical Yakuza.

The English dub is really good, even if it is weird to hear American voices coming out of Japanese characters in Japan.

Wait, is there an option for having Japanese voice?

Jay29 wrote:Pretty sure I'm the only one playing this currently, but oh well.

It plays exactly like Yakuza 6/Kiwami 2, but has a bunch of shallow detective mini-games like tailing and lock-picking added on. Seems most people agree that the detective stuff isn't all that fun.

The biggest difference is in the combat, imo. Yagami feels very different to Kiryu. Less brute force, more combos and flips. He's got two styles (one better for 1v1 encounters, the other better for group encounters), can vault over enemies and jump off walls, so you can get creative while you fight. A lot of big finishers have been copied from Yakuza, though.

There's a side-story where you have to catch a molester called Ass Catchem. Most of the side stuff is very typical Yakuza.

The English dub is really good, even if it is weird to hear American voices coming out of Japanese characters in Japan.

This pretty much sums up what I've read about the game. How's the story and optional content (other than repetitive detective stuff), though?

M99 wrote:Wait, is there an option for having Japanese voice?

Yes. You can change it whenever.

This pretty much sums up what I've read about the game. How's the story and optional content (other than repetitive detective stuff), though?

I'm only three chapters deep, but the story seems like it'll be good. It's still very Yakuza focused despite playing as a detective this time, but I'm appreciating the different perspective. It's a lot less "go somewhere and beat someone up" and more "go somewhere and investigate". There's more focus on the lawful side of crime than on the crime itself.

An interesting addition is that you can now make friends with a lot of the NPCs. On top of the normal sub-quests, you can do extra tasks to boost your reputation in town and get access to more quests. So far, they're about what you'd expect. Mini-game wise, you can still go to the batting cages, play shogi and play mahjong, but there's no karaoke. There's a VR dice game that's kinda interesting, and there's a whole thing involving kick-starters that I haven't gotten to yet.

Finished it just now.

I was kinda lukewarm on the story, until the final couple of chapters, where things come together in a brilliant way.

They can absolutely make a new franchise out of this, though it has to be said that it's strengths are its Yakuza influences, and not the new Judgment-exclusive things. Hopefully they can improve on those if they decided to make another one.

Finished it after playing a couple of weeks. Fully agree with Jay here. Its strengths are the amazing story, great side stories, characters, combat, soundtrack etc. In short all the things that made the Yakuza games so great. The new minigames were ass. Tailing is the absolute worst with foot chase being second.

Overall its a damn good game. Same engine, map and gameplay as Kiwami 2 but they somehow keep managing to keep the experience fresh with each game. If Ubisoft games were as good as these game maybe people would not keep complaining about the minimal changes and frequent repetitive game releases.

Have to say the main villain and final boss fight might be my favorite out of all the Yakuza games. Was beyond epic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMJMgGI9bLs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWBIGVew6Yo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wZZmmITJsk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9rPNDRV_5E