Not that I’m complaining, but the frequency of western releases from Sega’s Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio is fast becoming hard to keep on top of. Last year we got three – by my count, at least – fully-fledged games, from the anime-themed Fist of the North Star, the handsome remake Yakuza Kiwami 2 and, in Yakuza 6, we saw Kazuma Kiryu’s farewell.
Judgment reviewDeveloper: Ryu Ga Gotoku StudioPublisher: SegaPlatform played: PS4Availability: Out June 25th on PS4
You could, if you wanted, fill a whole year by playing through them all, and who could blame you if that’s what you elected to do? There’s an exuberance to these things, a swagger and polish that’s the result of the same studio tracing the same path for well over a decade. You’ve heard the comparisons between Yakuza and Shenmue before, I’m sure, but at this point in the series’ life they’ve become something else. What if Shenmue was a success, and that Sega spent 15 years investing heavily in near-annual instalments that keep on embellishing the formula more and more?
Well, you’d likely get curious spin-offs like this. Judgment is an all-new entry, with an all-new star heading up an all-new cast – the perfect starting point, perhaps, if you haven’t already succumbed to the Yakuza series’ charms. And in Judgment, those charms are entirely intact – because, if you’re returning to the series, there’s an awful lot that’s familiar.
Your playground is Kamurocho, and Kamurocho alone, and after the multiple locations of Yakuza 6 that can feel a little restrictive. Still, as ever with the series, it’s not about the size of the playground but more the density of it, and here Judgment delivers. If your barometer for the quality of an open world is how easy it is to get distracted as you move from point A to point B, then Judgment’s mini urban sprawl is up there with the very best.