Yagami himself is not a larger-than-life character like longtime series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu, who is basically Tojo Clan royalty by the events of his 2nd or 3rd outing. Our initial reviews of both Judgment and Lost Judgment go into more detail about the strengths of these individual titles, but after playing all of the former and much of the later's new PC rendition, the key attribute I find in Yagami's stories is that they are much more grounded and less reliant on convenient contrivances that the mainline series can sometimes fall prey to. In Lost Judgment, the story opens up a bit more slowly, but still places Yagami in a position to piece together the true story behind the events of murder and attempted suicides. As a detective, Yagami utilizes a set of investigative tools ranging from taking photos, to tailing suspects on foot, to piloting a drone in order to scout an area for evidence. Judgment stars Takayuki Yagami, a lawyer-turned-detective who ends up embroiled in a serial murder case occurring in Kamurocho, the same fictional district of Tokyo in which the majority of Yakuza games are set. While I don't regret skipping Judgment during the middle of the swarm of Yakuza titles that released in the later part of last decade, now seemed like an opportune time to finally see what I've missed with RGG Studio's spinoff series. Now caught up with the main Yakuza series here in late 2022, a surprise PC release of both Judgment games (and the announcement of several upcoming projects) have reenergized my enthusiasm for the franchise. I had played plenty of Yakuza games over the last several years to keep up with the PC releases, and a spinoff in the same universe with a new cast wasn't enough to get me over the hurdle of trying something purportedly similar, but still fairly foreign. Rumors swirled that the Judgment games might never come to PC, and while nothing was ever known for sure regarding the silence on this front, I told myself I'd get around to playing the console versions of these titles eventually. Last year's follow-up Lost Judgment ended up contending for RPG Site's 2021 RPG of the Year Award, but also skipped a PC (and Stadia, for what it's worth) release. The spinoff title skipped a PC release back when it launched in 2018, only to oddly show up on Google Stadia (of all places) with its 2021 remaster. To be clear, Judgment is not strictly a Yakuza game, obviously, but it shares the same soul. When it comes to PC releases specifically, the one major blip to this hectic cadence was that of RGG Studio's Judgment spinoff series.
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