Open World Action-Adventure RPG DLC Review: Lost Judgment - School Stories Expansion Pack

The School Stories Expansion Pack was the second bit of downloadable content released for Lost Judgment, with the exception of the Windows version which includes this content built-in. Ironically, even though it expands the options available in the school stories side content, it doesn't actually include any new stories.

The biggest draws of this DLC are the boxing expansions. The most useful of these is Yagami's boxing style which can be used at any point in the game.  The other part of the expansion comes within the gym, as  three additional people can spar against for Yagami.

 
The characters that Yagami can spar with include the partner in the Yagami Detective Agency, Masaharu Kaito, the co-founder of the Yokohama 99 detective agency, Fumiya Sugiura, and the former yakuza and mentee of Kaito, Toru Higashi.

The other additions are items and cosmetic options that can be used in the various school clubs. These include additions to the biker gang with the Maxinator motorcycle and the urban course, the MB5000/Supremacy robot for the robotics club, and a new outfit and special moves for the dancing club

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The School Stories Expansion Pack for Lost Judgment is the type of downloadable content that doesn't add a new story but does add a lot of useful stuff. This is usually not the type of DLC I prefer, but the addition of the boxing fighting style and the three new brawling partners puts this particular piece of downloadable content above others of the same type. That said, this is one to pick up with the season pass, as it doesn't stand on its own otherwise.

Final Verdict:

2½ out of 5

Open World Action-Adventure RPG DLC Review: Lost Judgment - Detective Essentials Pack

The Detective Essentials Pack was the first expansion released for Lost Judgment. It was downloadable content for every supported platform except Windows, as it was included in the base game on that port. It included additional items to help with the game, new aesthetic options, new storylines, and additional Sega Master System Games.

The new storylines come in the form of three new dates for Yagami. The women include Tsukino Satome, a graphic designer, a woman inside of the Kamulop mascot, and Kyoko Hakase, the school nurse.  This is the draw of this pack, in my opinion, as the new dating stories are all a lot of fun.

 

The last two, in particular are extremely memorable. The mascot storyline has a funnier story than any of the substories in the main game. 

The other aspect of this pack that validates its price is the additional Sega Master System games to play at the Yagami Detective Agency.  The games are the cute 'em up Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa, the shoot 'em ups Global Defense and Darius II, and the run and gun Alien Syndrome.

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Most of the remaining pieces of the DLC are helpful items that can be used in the game. These include the six extract recipes for lightning blade, telekinesis, insta-flux, unyielding wave, guardian spirit, and temporal zen. There is also an open air skatepark, a hover drive skateboard, a new drone frame known as the sky spider, a super boss version of Shin Amon to fight in the gauntlet. 

There are also three new colors for the detective dog that sits outside of the Yagami Detective Agency.  These include white, black, and rust coloring.  The fur color is purely cosmetic, but somehow welcome as the Shiba Inu is adorable in any color.

 

The Detective Essentials Pack isn't downloadable content worth paying for on its own, but as part of the season pass, it's a nice addition to Lost Judgment. The new hostess stories and Sega Master System games are the draw of this game, but the rest are helpful additions to the game. Well, the new Shiba Inu colors are an exception. However, because they are an inclusion in a pack with more helpful additions, they are not worth sniffing at.

Final Verdict:

3 out of 5

Open World Action-Adventure RPG DLC Review: Lost Judgment - The Kaito Files

The Kaito Files downloadable content for Lost Judgment follows Takayashi Yagami's partner in the Yagami Detective Agency, Masaharu Kaito. It was the first piece of downloadable content by Ryu Ga Gotaku Studio that told a new story rather than adding content to an existing one. It also led to the creation of the side story Like a Dragon games, which tell contained stories focusing on characters other than the current protagonist of the series.

In The Kaito Files, Kaito is left as the head of the detective agency when Tak leaves town on a case. Kaito takes a case on his own and has to explore Kamurocho and Sotenbori to find evidence and interrogate supsects. Kaito has his own style distinct to Yagami. While Tak is more refined both in fighting and in his detective style, Kaito is all about brute force. He plows his way through adversaries, and is blunt about his suspicions. Although, Kaito does have his own charms in the friendly jock sort of way. He is also less intelligent than Yagami, but he makes up for it with his amazing charm. This difference in the personalities makes the story feel like a fresh take on the series, even though it takes place in the same cities as the main game.

Kaito has another interesting difference. Rather than using surveillance tools like Yagami would, Kaito uses his senses, which the game describes as primal like an animal. Kaito can look, hear, and smell for clues using his eyes, ears, and nose although the hearing portion still has the fuzz signifying slight interference with the signal that Yagami had with his devices. Although this doesn't make sense narratively, it is easy to overlook when playing the game.

Like Yagami, Kaito is not alone in his detective work, as he gets help from Yokahama 99 in Ijincho. Like the Yagami Detective Agency, the Yokahama 99 detective agency is a partnership. One partner is the shy computer genius. The other is a former criminal. He is Kaito's distorted mirror image, as Moriarty is to Sherlock Holmes. Whereas Kaito is large and bullish, the other is of average build and is quick in his movements. He shines here as he did in both Judgment games. 

The voice actors return, of course, from the main game. They are just as good here, in Japanese and English, as they are in the main game. The new voice actors are great as well, in both languages. Kaito's case involves his ex-girlfriend, who is one of the best new voices in English and Japanese. He is asked, both by her husband and her son, who thinks Kaito is his dad, to search for her. The former is aloof, with the voice actors providing the right performance for his personality. On the other hand, the son is impetuous. The voice actors here do the most heavy lifting, as he follows Kaito on his investigation. This could easily become grating, but it never does because the voice actors don't provide him with an over the top performance as many impetuous teenagers have in many forms of media.

The Kaito Files is a fantastic downloadable addition to Lost Judgment. The story shines, as is usual with Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio. The returning characters are just as engaging as in the main game, and the new characters fit right in. The voice actors do an excellent job bringing the personalities of the characters to life. This is what DLC should be. If Judgment ever gets a new entry, it would be great for Kaito to be a protagonist, even if only in a side story downloadable content.

Final Verdict:
4½ out of 5

Judgment series

Lost Judgment Review

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's Like a Dragon oeuvre

Lost Judgment Review

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Review

Open World Action-Adventure RPG Review: Lost Judgment

Update April 7, 2025: I neglected to update this with information about a Remastered version for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S. This version runs at sixty frames-per-second, has quicker loading times, and includes all of the downloadable content from the PlayStation 4 version.

Takayuki Yagami returns as a private detective in Lost Judgment, Ryu Ga Gotaku Studio's sequel to its action-adventure RPG, Judgment.

The Yagami detective agency goes to Seiryo High School on a small case that opens up much wider when a former student accused of bullying is murdered. Takayuki Yagami becomes an advisor for the Mystery Research Club so that he can investigate while having a legitimate reason to be on school grounds. He is once again aided by his partner, ex-yakuza Masaharu Kaito, as well as tech master Makoto Tsukumo and former theif Fumiya Sugiura, who have set up their own agency in Isezaki Ijincho named Yokohama 99.

The game takes place immediately following Yakuza: Like a Dragon, so Lost Judgment includes the usual Kamurocho as well as the area created for the former, Isezaki Ijincho. Since Yakuza: Like a Dragon had such a huge impact on the future of the series, it is really interesting to see what the yakuza characters are up to now without their clans.

As the story progresses, Tak comes face to face with a formidable villain that is just as skilled at both fighting and investigating as him, if not more so. This aspect was the best part of the game, as the villain was one of the best that Ryo Ga Gotaku Studio has ever produced. It also gave Takayuki Yagami, the Sherlock Holmes of the Judgment series, his own Moriarty.

As opposed to the turn-based combat in Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Lost Judgment features the direct-controlled brawler combat for which the Like a Dragon series became famous. Like in Judgment, Tak also uses his private investigator skills such as lock-picking, investigating scenes, and tailing suspects, to accomplish his tasks.

The school setting allows for a lot of minigames that Tak can participate in due to his role as a school advisor, including photography, dancing, competing in Virtua Fighter 5, robot fighting, and boxing. School missions will also unlock decidedly not school-friendly areas where Tak can date, race motorbikes, challenge gangs in skateboarding contests, and gamble.

As this is a Ryu Ga Gotaku Studio game, there are also a bunch of substories. Many include the wackiness for which the studio has become known. There are also more serious substories, especially regarding the Mystery Detective Club. It is well worth playing through that storyline, as the mystery of the identity of the Professor is one that is intriguing, has many unexpected twists and turns, and the payoff is well worth the effort put in to get to the finish line.

The Judgment series continues to be a worthy spin-off of the Like a Dragon series. Lost Judgment is better than the original game, with a more compelling villain, a memorable storyline, fun minigames, and fantastic substories. The morality of the ending is definitely up for debate, but the path to get there is well worth it. Lost Judgment is not just one of the best Ryu Ga Gotaku Studios games, but it is also one of the best games ever produced.

Final verdict:

5 out of 5

Judgment series

Judgment (Remastered) Review

Lost Judgment: The Kaito Files Review

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's Like a Dragon oeuvre

Yakuza: Like a Dragon Review

Lost Judgment: The Kaito Files Review

Judgment and Lost Judgment are now on Steam

The excellent Like a Dragon (formerly Yakuza) detective series spin-off, Judgment has finally come to Windows.

Steam now has both Judgment and Lost Judgment available as well as the excellent Lost Judgment DLC, The Kaito Files.

Open World Action Adventure RPG Review: Judgment

Judgment is an action-adventure game that is a spin-off of developer Ryū ga Gotoku Studio's Yakuza series. It has the fighting and open-world exploring of Yakuza as well as investigation and detective mechanics similar to Ace Attorney Investigations. Although it leans in very close to its Yakuza heritage, the investigation mechanics give it a feeling of freshness that's been lacking in the franchise since the first Yakuza game came out almost fifteen years ago. 

The game follows Takayuki Yagami, a former attorney who lives in Kamurocho, Ryo ga Gotaku Studio's fictionalized version of Tokyo's Kabukichō district. He was formerly his firm's golden boy, getting to handle almost all of the firm's clients after he got a man acquitted of murder charges in a country that has a conviction rate of over 99 percent. However, when the man kills his girlfriend and sets fire to her apartment, Yagami leaves his firm and becomes a private investigator. 

One of the investigation techniques he uses as a private investigator is called active search mode, which is used for investigating crime scenes, searching for evidence, or verifying information such as eyewitness sketches with the facial features and clothing of a suspect. Yagami also employs the tried and true method of tailing a suspect. While doing so, he sometimes has to hide behind items or blend in with a crowd to avoid being seen. It has to be said that this isn't realistic in the least, as the suspects turn straight around and begin craning their head and turning sharply left and right looking for someone who is trailing them. With these exaggerated head movements, there would not be ample time to hide in reality. However, in a franchise that is known for, and thrives on, exaggeration this actually fits right into the atmosphere of the game once you get used to it.

The most novel, and topical, of these investigation techniques is a flying drone named the pigeon. It is used to spy on targets below and those that are inside of buildings by looking in through the window. There is also a drone race mini-game that can be played, and the drone can be upgraded to better compete in these races.

This being the Yakuza universe, drone racing isn't the only way to pass the time. There are many other mini-games that can be played around Kamurocho. These include Sega arcade classics like Virtua Fighter 5, Fighting Vipers, and Puyo Puyo. There is also a unique Kamurocho-themed House of the Dead-style shooting game titled Kamurocho of the Dead. Throughout the city, there are also areas where you can play darts, western gambling games like poker and blackjack, and Japanese gambling games like koi-koi and oichu-kabu. Those who have played Yakuza 6 will find the layout of Kamurocho familiar, as it uses the same map, with some changes. The most obvious of these is that the bowling alley area now has a mini-game inside that is said to be a virtual reality board game of Kamurocho. Here, you roll dice and traverse around a game board. The spaces you land on could lead to several mini-games, from lockpicking or thumb turn bypass (using a thin wire to open a lock), fighting several enemies, or shooting using a drone. There are also spaces that add dice rolls or take them away, and spaces that simply give you a gift. Winning any of the minigames in these spaces will give you a prize, and they will be converted to cash upon successful completion of the board. Any extra dice at the end will also give you a cash prize. Because of this, it's one of the easiest ways to earn a lot of money, as long as you have enough game passes to play. These game passes can be found in gambling centers, or won from simply winning street fights when thugs around Kamurocho jump you.

The voice acting and motion capture in this game is excellent. The highlight is definitely Takuya Kimura as Takayuki Yagami. I enjoyed Yakuza's protagonist Kazama Kiryu as much as everyone else, but Kimura gave Yagami a much more emotional performance that was a nice change from the stoic performance of Takaya Kuroda as Kiryu. Another highlight was one of the game's main antagonists, Kyohei Hamura. There was a lot of press given to the fact that Pierre Taki was replaced in the role by Miou Tanaka after Taki was caught by police in possession of cocaine. Hamura's face was altered to no longer resemble Taki, but the motion performance is still there, and it is excellent. Throughout the story, Hamura almost becomes a sympathetic character, and a lot of that is down to the emotion given when the entire plot is revealed. That is a testament both to Tanaka's voice performance and Taki's motion-capture performance. In this game, unlike most games in the Yakuza universe, there is both a Japanese voice option and an English one. The excellent thing about this is that the English dub has an entirely new translation from the Japanese one. This makes it flow more naturally when spoken in English, preventing the game from having stilted dialogue as was the case with the Shenmue series or the original Yakuza on PlayStation 2. The English voice actors are equally as impressive, with the highlights once again being Yagami's voice actor Greg Chun and Fred Tatasciore as Hamura. Another standout in both English and Japanese versions is Yagami's best friend, former Yakuza Masaharu Kaito, performed by Shinshu Fuji in Japanese, and voiced by Crispin Freeman in English. I would love to see a game with Kaito as a playable character.

The game's art style is excellent, as is the case with all Yakuza titles. Kamurocho, the Yakuza universe's fictionalized version of the Kabukichō district of Tokyo, is almost a character all of its own. It is brimming with life, with recreations of famous Kabukichō landmarks and buildings as well as buildings unique to Kamurocho. The game pays tribute to Shenmue in many ways, more so than most Yakuza titles, with capsule toys that can be sold or displayed in Yagami's office, and quick-time event chase scenes. The quick-time events are never as punishing as Shenmue however, as you are given ample time to press the button, and failing to do so won't result in failure, just a reduction of the amount of time that Yagami has to catch the suspect. The latter is not a problem either, as Yagami is given ample time to catch up. Many of these scenes make the quick-time events worth it, as there are a lot of references to famous film action scenes, including everything from Jackie Chan films to Back to the Future.

The musical score is also top-notch, and while many themes should be familiar to fans of the Yakuza series, there are some standouts that are new to this game. There are also five vinyl records that can be collected throughout Kamurocho containing music that can be played in Yagami's office. These include everything from the traditional Irish tune "Londonderry Air" (commonly known with lyrics as "Danny Boy", although this game includes the song with no lyrics), to a song performed by one of Yagami's love interests in the game.

Judgment is an exceptional game. It has both Yakuza and Ace Attorney Investigations gameplay styles that work exceptionally well together, and the game's cast of characters are well voiced in both Japanese and English. The separate translation for the English dub is also a welcome change from previous efforts to translate games in the Yakuza franchise, resulting in dialogue that sounds natural when spoken in English. The game's fictionalized Tokyo district, Kamurocho, is bustling with life and energy, and there is much to do around the district as well. This game is one that I heartily recommend to anyone, whether you are a fan of the Yakuza series or not.

Final verdict:

5 out of 5

Judgment series

Lost Judgment Review

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's Like a Dragon oeuvre

Yakuza 6: The Song of Life Review

Like a Dragon: The Man Who Erased His Name Review