Lost Judgement was an incredible sequel to Judgment. The gameplay and mechanics honestly act as a direct upgrade to Judgment, with rebalanced and reworked combat, more features, and quality-of-life additions. And oddly enough, classic RGG climax battles sort of make a return, known as “The Gauntlet” in this game, and while not inherently that useful, it’s still a great optional activity to have fun with.
The story and characters were phenomenal, was done incredibly well, and it really does hit hard at times. This game goes deep into serious topics, especially suicide. On top of that, adolescent suicide. One of the saddest, but real issues. The story also goes deep into the ethical dilemma of extreme vigilante justice that causes the suffering and death of innocents but delivers excessive punishment to the guilty versus a flawed and complacent rule of law that fails to hold the guilty accountable altogether, even in the face of foul play and conspiracy. An ethical dilemma that deserves its own discussion and debate of its own. One that I applaud this game’s story for is how well it was portrayed, because frankly, something like that doesn’t have a black and white answer and never will. As for the characters, it’s great to see the returning characters. [spoiler] Also you get to play and customize Saori again, which is gold. [/spoiler] But the new characters were incredible, especially my beloved Sawa-sensei. I fell in love with her, and her scenes broke my heart. [spoiler] Then my soul was absolutely destroyed when Sawa was killed. A lovable, adorable person like her did not deserve that at all, and it left a really deep scar in my heart going forward. I even was totally expecting to visit her during premium adventure to at least see her at her staff desk and say hi. I was wrong. Give me a person I absolutely adore, love, and want protected, only for her to be ripped away in the saddest way. From that point forward, Yagami puts Sawa’s closure and justice first, which I was really happy for, even though I know it became a meme in the community. Speaking on the story, the rest of the characters were incredible as well. You can obviously see the reason why Kuwana did what he did, even if it was the completely wrong way to go about everything, and him being that same teacher from that past incident starting it all. And as much as I hate Soma as a person, he was also written incredibly well as a villain. [/spoiler]
Side content and exploration was packed in this game, more than Judgement’s I'd say. Part of the story takes place in Kamurocho, after all it's an RGG game, but the actual main setting is Isezaki Ijincho, which I also love. But going even further, having a high school as one of the main locations centered on the story is actually something I really enjoyed and I honestly fell in love with Seiryo High. You get so much to do, one of my favorites being the school stories, those were actually really enjoyable, especially the Seiryo Rabbits story, which was one of my favorites. I also loved Amasawa and the MRC, great character and club. But wow, that ending case to the school stories had me heartbroken at first, but in the end was so heartwarming. Honestly, most of the side content involving Seiryo High School and its students were just so adorable and wholesome. Side cases were great all around as well, they were all fun and enjoyable to experience. Minigames are also fun to do, at least when you aren’t forced to do the ones you don’t like because of TownGo (the completionist pain never goes away for games like these). Paradise VR’s Dice & Cube game is both a fun digital board game but also the best source of money in this game. If you take the time to get the free pass, you pretty much have limitless Yen. The other VR game, Aircelios, could’ve pretty much been its own actual steam release, so the fact that they just threw it into Lost Judgement and called it a day is awesome.
In the end, I cannot state how much I love this game enough. I enjoyed almost every aspect of it. But the stories and people I experienced in this game were truly incredible. If you’re already a big fan of Judgment, or even any other Ryu Ga Gotoku game for that matter and you didn’t already give it a try, I truly do recommend it.
Lastly as a disclaimer I always forget to put on RGG games that offer English audio - I always play with Japanese audio + subtitles because I feel it portrays the authenticity, emotions, and seriousness better. I’m not saying that’s something everyone should do, and I’m not saying the dubs are terrible, but I do recommend Japanese audio and subtitles to anyone that’s willing to play without the dub.
