Serious investigations can totally wait Yagami needs time for this level of self-improvement and self-care. What has unfolded in my time since prioritizing the game’s side cases is to be expected as someone familiar with the series: ace detective Takayuki Yagami has led a high school dance team to national competition with his quietly confident choreography prowess, learned a lot about robotics, and seriously improved his skill in boxing, skateboarding and long-distance dog walking. In an effort to try and understand this divide a little better and appreciate what is clearly a large part of this particular entry’s appeal, I decided to do as much of the side content as the game would allow before it funnelled me back into the main story. There is a very thin line between the two spheres of Lost Judgment, and the game seems to make you aware of it at every possible opportunity.
#LOST JUDGMENT SUBSTORIES SERIES#
But given the darker nature of Lost Judgment’s primary story, I can already tell that it walks a tonal tightrope that is more difficult to balance in the way the series has so deftly managed before. I’ve always considered tonal balance to be one of the strengths of the Yakuza series (especially in last year’s Yakuza: Like A Dragon, which I would describe as a tragicomic video game). It’s something that I’ve definitely noticed, especially as the opening chapters bounce you around between a deeply disturbing story about high school bullying and incredibly goofy missions to introduce a new mechanic or minigame. Much of the critical discussion surrounding Lost Judgment mentions the potential for tonal whiplash or the disparity between the game’s more serious story and the rest of its world. It’s only when Lost Judgment’s main story started to bore me that I decided to ditch it entirely and start investing in some of the many lovingly crafted side activities, gaining a new appreciation for them in the process. But I’ve always been one to “golden path” these games to satisfy my intense love for their emotive crime-thriller theatrics. I know that the headline of this article isn’t a particularly mind-blowing sentiment, especially as the Yakuza series has always thrived on excellent side content. I say that like it’s a problem, but I’ve honestly had a fantastic time. So far, I’ve focused a significantly larger amount of my total playtime advancing through the school stories and side cases than the main narrative. Several years later, I’ve been playing through Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s recent Yakuza spin-off sequel Lost Judgment, and I’ve found myself with the exact opposite problem: I’ve been too engaged with the game’s amazing optional content, namely the excellent “School Stories,” to progress through the “probably good” main story until the game forces me to. Unfortunately, my attempt at completionism was cut short by my foolish desire to simply experience the story a second time. Although I dabbled with its side content throughout my first playthrough, I often found myself far too enamoured with the game’s dramatic twists and turns to focus on anything other than its main plot this meant that the scores of amazing sub stories and minigames would have to wait for a later revisit, which I did eventually get around to. I’ve never been one for 100% completion runs, but the closest I got to considering it for anything released somewhat recently was with one of my all-time favourites - the enduringly revered Yakuza 0.