Compare Lost Judgment prices across trusted key stores and find the best deal. Developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio. Published by SEGA. Released on 9/14/2022. Available on PC, Xbox. Genres: Action, Adventure. Metacritic score: 80/100.
94% positive on Steam from over 9,000 reviews tells you most of what you need to know, but the real pitch is this: it's one of RGG Studio's tightest action packages, and it finally landed on PC.
I went in expecting more of the same Yakuza-adjacent action and came out surprised by how much Lost Judgment commits to being its own thing. Detective Takayuki Yagami and his partner Kaito are back running their agency, and the new case drops them into a web involving a former police officer accused of two crimes at once, one of them a murder, the other a groping charge that seems suspiciously convenient as an alibi. <cite index="2-9,2-10">The story pulls on themes of bullying, suicide, and assault, and it isn't afraid to go dark with them.</cite> That tonal swing is either going to hook you or put you off. Honest warning: <cite index="4-2,4-3">the way the game handles sexual assault has been criticised as gratuitous by multiple reviewers, and it is a genuine sour note in an otherwise empathetic story.</cite> Go in with eyes open on that.
Where the game absolutely earns its 94% Steam score is in the combat. <cite index="8-23,8-24,8-25">Yagami moves through three styles mid-fight: Crane for crowd control, Tiger for heavy single-target damage, and the new Snake style, which specialises in disarming armed opponents and finishing frightened enemies with the EX Surrender move.</cite> <cite index="11-4,11-5">Combos and EX actions come together in a system with real fluidity and cinematic flair that gets more rewarding the longer you invest in it.</cite> <cite index="14-1,14-2,14-3,14-4">Skill Points accumulate from practically everything you do, fighting, buying things, playing minigames, story progress, and feed into a skill tree that unlocks new moves and stat upgrades.</cite> The progression loop feels generous without being trivial.
Outside the main case, the content density borders on excessive. <cite index="6-21,6-22,6-23">A separate storyline called School Stories puts Yagami inside a school club and introduces unique mechanics that shake up the pace.</cite> <cite index="5-16,5-17">The side stories are consistently entertaining, and the range of activities stretches from batting cages to playing Master System games in the detective office.</cite> <cite index="15-5,15-6">Drone racing with customisable UAVs, shogi matches, and Club SEGA arcades running Virtual Fighter 5 and Space Harrier round out the playground.</cite> <cite index="6-27,6-28,6-29">The sheer volume can feel overwhelming, and between substories, the main plot, and side activities it is easy to lose the thread. The main story alone runs 20-30 hours; a completionist run stretches to at least double or triple that.</cite>
On the PC port itself: <cite index="9-1,9-2">gameplay and cutscenes run smoothly even on mid-range hardware, with the only visible issues being occasional NPC and texture pop-ins.</cite> <cite index="3-1,3-2">Some players report brief stutters in certain areas, though locking the frame rate to 60fps resolves most of it for the majority of configurations.</cite> Keyboard and mouse work fine, but this is one of those games where a controller genuinely changes how satisfying the combat feels, the style-switching is mapped to a d-pad tap and it just flows better with a thumb on a stick. If you have never played Judgment, you can start here; <cite index="7-22">you can more or less jump into Lost Judgment without having played the first game.</cite> The story does enough scene-setting that newcomers won't be lost. For returning fans, <cite index="1-19">the sequel has better mechanics, better visuals, and a story more people are likely to identify with, making it a stronger overall package than its predecessor.</cite>
Alex, Scout Team
