Lost Judgment is the latest game in the Yakuza series, more specifically a sequel to the Judgment spin-off. Starring a disgraced lawyer-turned-private investigator, Takayuki Yagami, the original game was about solving a series of murders. Standard mystery novel fare, and basically a less criminal form of the Yakuza games. However, the sequel is apparently going a little bit darker, according to new details published by Famitsu.
So far, we knew the game would start with a man confessing to having knowledge of a dead body at his conviction for a misdemeanor crime, the latter serving as his alibi for the man’s murder. This would lead Yagami into an investigation of the dead body and unravel the motive for the murder. According to the details from the new cache of info, the crime to which he confesses for his alibi is a sexual assault that was also filmed. That’s a bit nastier than anything this series has tried to show so far, in my memory.
In addition to sexual assault, there’s a suggestion that the game is going to tackle the topic of bullying as well. The main suspect’s motive, if he didn’t have an alibi, is that the dead man somehow caused his son to commit suicide. A detail that’s already been revealed is that Yagami will have to go undercover at a high school. Hopefully, more details about the game will be coming soon, as it is still slated for a close release date — September 21 — and we need to know more about it.
With the main series of Yakuza games, starring Kazuma Kiryu, apparently concluded, the series is apparently being carried forward by Yagami on the one hand and Like a Dragon’s Ichiban Kasuga on the other. The Judgment IP is the more grounded of the two, but it’s still got a certain Phoenix Wright-ish charm. It’s set to launch on PS4 and PS5.
