Lost Judgment - Review

Man...

 Genre: Action/Adventure
Developer/publisher: Sega
Platform: PS4/5/PC.
Official Site: N/A

Release date: 24-9-2021.

 

I wasn't really sure what to play but then I just wanted to see Yagami,Kaito and Sugiura again

instead of Kiryu-chan so we're doing another generation gap to try & do some more

detective work in Kamurocho! Since the judgment games are best played blind

i'll try my best to not talk too much about the general plot... except for some things

I felt like I had to mention however I won't be discussing the general plot as a whole.

Pro's

- Decent enough plot.

- Substories were generaly better than in judgment, finding squirrels was fun.

- A whole new district to explore besides ye olde kamurocho.

Grey area:

- Game deals with some pretty heavy themes involving suicide/harassment and bullying.

Con's

- Awful pacing, goes on too much about the same thing for too long.

- The keyword thingy and/or using a variety of tools can feel like busywork.

- Most investigation parts were not interesting and were pretty forced, the biggest offender

being at the end of the final chapter, like come on that killed the flow.

The story this time... is like some random season of some detective drama and

honestly after finishing it really felt like it could have been a tv show too.

Right of the bat we're on the case of a guy that tried scamming a girl out of her money.

It was all a ruse from the get go like the guy was one of those typical con artist setting a girl up

with a debt to they have to pay it off in some establishment by selling themselves.

Luckily for the girl she found the right detective agency for the job to get to the bottom of it.

Then we go to an all new district the (ga)ijin-cho which leads us to a case about highschool bullies

and it did not get much better from there since there is a gang active in the ijincho district too.

Ah yes because afterall the judgment games are a yakuza game in disguise! with political twists.

Honestly this was one of the few moments I laughed the other one was Sawa scolding

Yagami for picking fights in the gym and him reverting to a highschool boy.

This game had rather hefty material right in the opening hours from the above to a case

about bullies, I had to keep taking breaks during that cuz it was almost too much.

I'll admit it was fairly interesting but it had some pacing problems

like one moment you're doing a substory to further the mainstory.

I think they should have branched it better but I guess it couldn't be helped

and oh well for the sake of the case I go pass your test I guess.

Atleast in this game they actually used the markers properly so I wasn't getting lost.

    I got a little de-motivated at that part and just closed the game for the day... in the middle of it.

They like also loved to switch chapters in the middle of a cutscene the worst offender

was from ch2 to ch3 I was like really? you really gonna switch chapters like that...

Love how this game tells me to go do something but 5 steps later this happens & I cause a traffic jam.

 

This game really isn't much longer than the average RGG game though its somewhere

between 20-25 hours depending if you get distracted by side content.

Most chapters are fairly short but chapter 10 was quite long compared to most other chapters

I wouldn't be surprised if that is where people drop this game cuz that is also the point

where the game throws in its mental gymnastics and wtf is even real justice?

Honestly I start to wonder why I didn't just drop it but yea if I am in like ch10

which is almost at the end then i'm gonna see it through cuz I got hooked by the story.

Maybe I need to change... but I am the type to see things through if I am far enough anyways.

 

Gang's all here!

That aside I was happy to see Yagami, Kaito and Sugiura again as well as Tsukumo

which I sorta forgot about but he had a real glow up or so to speak.

The character interactions were pretty great and the first subquest was actually funny.

I still remember how the subquests in the original judgment didn't really grab me

but it seems they learned and made them more fun! Yagami's inner dialogue

was also pretty funny this time but it seems like he was complaining a lot actually.

Unfortunately I didn't really enjoy having to find most subquest in this installment

cuz it was all such a busywork so I only focused on a handful that caught my eye.

 

Graphics wise it looked great but I think thhe lightning at times may have needed work

when like the sun was setting it tended to look significantly worse.

The above screenshot isn't really good at describing it I just thought it was funny.

They may also need to work on the water textures... I was not impressed.

Music was generally pretty good, OP was not my style but I will say

it fit the theme of the game and Kuwana's character very well.

 

Nottu dissu shittu againu...

You know I think the story may be fine though but yea it just didn't really grab me

as much as the first game? so that's that maybe it was because of the material being heavy

but if I had to be honest it wasn't that but the overall pacing just felt off and in the end

it felt like it was all over the place with the forced substory introducing a new mechanic

and substories being a pain this time to find too. By ch4 I got a general picture

but they kept revealing more layers of the onion and I was like uh sure now what.

I failed to understand why we frequently needed to kill time or do literally anything else...

their is a major bug in ch6 where it could softlock your game if you triggered

a specific school substory with the robotics club, it is fine anywhere else.

TFW: Get told to do literally anything else but also can permanently glitch yourself.

Accidentally roasted Hoshino-kun...😂

In terms of substories I remember really enjoying running into them in Y0 or Yk1 but they were

hard to find here in lost judgment, since they are locked behind some keyword BS which

ultimately turned me off from them which is such a shame cuz the handful I found were funny.

I did like how we had a whole new district ijin-cho which I jokingly keep calling gaijin-cho

because I was kind of getting tired of just kamuro-cho, it was also bigger than the osaka? district

Majima was placed at in Y0 so there was plenty of new sights to see.

Too bad the substories were a pain to unlock this time... there can be so much fuzz

unlocking keywords or special tools to find stuff it all can be a hassle.

Battle wise it was a lot better and the health bar no longer can get broken Yagami's moves

felt cooler this time around as well but other than that it was more or less the same.

Final Thoughts?!

No better image to describe how I feel about this game in general.

 

TBH I think the story was pretty good but at the same time can be a complete

mental torture due to the story elements about bullying and harassment.

There were times I wanted to give up, the only reason I tried to finish the story was to get

to the bottom of it but it wasn't really a fun ride. Like at all. The story also tried to pull some

mental gymnastics near the end and I was like I'm so tired during the court scene in the final chapter.

Also I knew Kuwana was full of *** the moment he started vaping like a hippie.

Its okay though I still love him and he is single handedly my favorite character in this game

or more like Kuwana carried this game really hard, I mean it when I say this.

Of course I liked seeing the characters again and some substories were fun but I just

wasn't enjoying myself. I disliked the constant need to interrupt the mainplot

to introduce a new mechanic and actual substories being buried behind keywords

and you can't even randomly trigger them anymore (only some).

The characters kind of did feel one note and never really did anything surprising

its like they had a role and that was it, which is why the only one I really liked was Kuwana.

Yagami could have a bunch of things to say but the only word that comes out is Sawa.

Due to some of the above it felt like the mainplot was dragging on

plus it in general feeling like a can of worms and then you eat it too (ew).

I had to force myself to finish this game, I did not really have this problem with the original.

I believe there were some serious pacing issues as well as most of the investigation scenes

not being really interesting, they didn't make me feel like I learned much most of the time.

The worst offender was the one in the final chapter which was action packed

but then it had you... have to figure out a route and select random objects which

completely killed the flow of it all. That actually made me frustrated. 

I also missed finding random cats during investigation segments and this time

they made them harder for some reason or like they want you to look really hard

for some reason or examine something twice over. Meanwhile this dragged it on for no reason

since there isn't even a proper checklist of what to look for, you just click random things

or examine something twice over or else you can't proceed. I didn't feel smart looking

around cuz there was barely anything to find either. >_>;

I will add to this that I did really enjoy finding some of the squirrells when I got into that

and I feel like it filled the hole of not being able to find cats like in the previous game.

Just a kiss and make up already moment except not really.

 It makes me wonder how many people actually dropped this game around

ch9/10 and never finished. Like I remember I enjoyed pulling of the layers of the mystery

onion in the first game but with lost judgment I had to force myself to do it.  The character

interactions also weren't that fun & there were only a handful of moments I laughed including

Yagami getting scolded by Sawa or not being able to look Kuwana in the eye that one time.

As is with most RGG games the story was too heavy for there to be any fun which was reserved

for substories. I mostly ended up playing this game when I would watch a tv-show before bed

so I only played it when I had nothing better to do or watch which is why it took me a while to finish.

7.5/10

I guess that is one whole point less than what I gave the original huh?

Who are you, you are not Yagami. Yagami wouldn't let this happen /s.

 

So all in all this game was a drag for me despite the battle system being an improvement

and no more mortal wounds (yay). The story was as interesting but it

had some pacing issues and I nearly lost my patience at times.

Basically for me Judgment has a better story and Lost judgment has better gameplay.

This game made me want to curl up in bed instead of actually playing it... does this say enough?

The story at its core wasn't even half bad... but idk the way it was presented made it such a drag

and wasn't enjoying it that much. I also stopped doing substories during the main story

since I felt I would lose the excitement and the flow of it if I lingered too long to do random stuff.

I will say that the ending of this game was much better than the last game I played and it was

actually satisfying in rounding everything up. Also while I could be wrong about this

but I am pretty sure the theme song of this game was about a certain character

being fed up and taking matters into his own hands. My takeaway is that this game

wasn't about Yagami it was about Kuwana. That's why its called ''Lost Judgment''.

I kinda do wanna play the Kaito files someday cuz he's a bro but i'm not sure when...

Would probably only recommend Lost Judgment if you don't have anything else to do

and want to see Yagami and the gang again. Or perhaps want to play every RGG game out there

but be advised this game carries some heavy themes and may be a tough pill to swallow

especially if you have dealt with similar things. What's next? not much but I am kinda

in the mood for an otome game so its either waiting for Matsurika no Kei or Granblue Fantasy relink.

Fate/Samurai Remnant - Review

 Genre: RPG.
Developer/publisher: Koei Tecmo/Type Moon.
Platform: PS4/5/PC.
Official Site: https://www.koeitecmoeurope.com/fate-sr/

Release date: 28-9-2023.

 

I wanted to play this sooner but since it released the same day as Ys X it ended up

being backlogged for the fact that it seemed like it was a pretty long game.

In december this game also got an update with easier/harder difficulties as well as more

servants being playable in a rematch mode which was enough incentive for me to prioritize

it over other games that I still wanted to play, something like now or never I guess? 

Sadly I can not talk about this game without spoilers so uh you're warned right here I guess.

 

Pro's

- Good story & well written charactters(Most of them).

- Takes a while to get going but it does explain everything making it accessible to newcomers.

- Decent graphics and fitting bgm.

 

Con's

- Basically need to play the game like twice(or thrice without proper saves) to get the full picture.

- Hyper armor is a thing in this game.

- Half assed endings, lacking a proper epilogue.

- MC's personality (not that he had much) takes a 180 on NG+.

Oh hey I remember that Fate/stay night anime also starting like this!

Incase you were wondering, no you do not need to watch any anime or read any VN

as Fate/Samurai Remnant is a stand alone entry with its own story in a different time period.

Which makes this game very accessible if you've never watched or read anything fate related!

I should probably put a warning here or something but this game while fiction is quite

realistic about what old timey japan was like as well as... what it means to be a samurai.

---

I consider myself fairly acquainted with the series as I have watched a few of the anime over

the years, this game did an outstanding job at making sense of the lore of the series.

Due to that the prologue took me 2-3 hours to complete... by 30 hours I was

in chapter 5, its quite obvious to me that this game has VN roots since the scenes could be

on the long side and if you add digressions aka side stories its even longer.

It even has a story branch and multiple endings so be prepared to play it atleast twice

and then reload for the final ending. (There's also a joke end but we don't talk about that one.)

You'll be able to find a guide through google for sure but it is generally recommended to do todoroki/yashiro aka rat route first and then snake route on 2nd play along with the NG+ ending.

 

Just doing one route especially rat will probably leave you unsatisfied and it is definitely worth

to do another playthrough as IMO snek route was generally better than rat.

There are plenty of new scenes available giving further context to either characters

or lore while going for the other ending so despite it being a trainwreck it wasn't all bad.

---

If I had to rate the endings it would be Snek > Greg > Rat > 3rd end.

At first I didn't really understand why Snek end just cut Iori out of the picture

but the 3rd end explains it very well and the dude is just dead inside at that point.

Idk this game is missing some sort of true end but I guess Iori's a deadbeat samurai 4lyf

that is if you make the morally correct choice and not pursue something for personal gain.

---

 

While playing the game I generally did like the MC Iori but that kinda changed after the 3rd ending

and now I just can only see him as a deadbeat samurai. Also Iori and his servant Saber weren't off

to the best of starts they would often buttheads early on and while they could work together

to some degree another Master and a rogue servant had to explain all of the basics of

the ritual to Iori. As you can see the story is very slow due to that.

Iori was mostly indifferent and just really wants what's best for the town

so he actually got mad at his servant for destroying a bunch of shacks.

As some NG+ exclusive scenes turns out... Iori is actually a bit of a maniac too

and not much better than your typical ronin he's just more nice about it??? idk how to explain.

If Welkin was one of my favorite protaginists, Iori was one of my least fav's.

Well... Iori and Saber just didn't trust each other very well in the beginning but it did get better.

Because trust doesn't always come so easily and besides I did enjoy their interactions

as well as some of the other characters and the rivalry between masters.

Saber is kind of like a brat, cocky and also a glutton... but does have his heart in the right place.

Also Saber is often described as a woman but I thought she was a guy or like femboy.

Doesn't help that they refer to themselves as boku. >_>; Oh well enough about that

Saber didn't really act like a woman and the game actively shipped him

with someone because of actual history so I am like anything goes amiright.

That explains a lot, no wonder things turned out like they did.

Other masters that I liked was Zheng Chenggong and his servant Archer but honestly

depending on the route Chenggong was like the least developed character in the game. Archer

was great but also underdeveloped which is sad cuz Chenggong and Archer had good chemistry

and were voiced by Maeno Tomoaki and Ono Kensho! too bad plot was rude to them.

I didn't really like Chiemon but Okamoto Nobuhiko did a good job voicing him

and making him really intimidating. His servant was eh... fitting to say the least and despite

not liking him I understand why he did what he did, he's had it up to here like fuck dis shit

meanwhile Lancer is like please accept my affection you are worthy of love and Chiemon

is like no but she will follow him to the depths of hell anyways. How bittersweet.

Takao Dayu was okay but I generally am generally mixed about Yui Shousetsu

who even after the snek route I still feel indiffirent about, mostly cuz they were lowkey

giving shipping fuel at the end but also did nothing with it.

Also this game went too far back with history so some things were lost on me like

Iori's servant saber real identity and everything related to him. I had to google some names

and god I nearly cried like oh no, no no since they sticked to the facts.

A servant even joked about it that it is okay if you don't know who he was... lmao.

 

Literally half of this game in a nutshell.

The story and pacing was pretty slow but had it been any faster I would be overwhelmed?

so I am actually somewhat glad they took their time and I could re-familiarize myself

with the fate universe but I will admit that it felt like it was dragging itself out

and the characters had no idea wtf they were doing or someone got in the way

and oh damn gotta go back to base cuz tired and hungry.

Saber is a glutton...

Fate Samurai Remnant was like a game of cat and mouse and while at times fun

and interesting it ultimately overstayed its welcome and I didn't even enjoy the

final chapter, at this point I was about done with the last minute shenanigans.

Moving on the first playthrough ending only brought a sense of relief that it was over

it didn't really wrap itself up properly only setting the player up for round 2.

Well honestly by this point I was like uh what in the fresh hell? it took me 30+ hours

and I don't even get a decent epilogue and yet you want me to play it again?

Ok sure but give me five to recharge. I realized that at this point the only thing I really

liked was the general turn of events and of course the characters. Except

Chiemon&lightning horse. These two got on my nerves so much I kid you not!

Anyway there were plenty of fun character interactions and the story was unpredictable

that you wouldn't know what was really going on which I really liked kept things interesting.

Also because I know fate already I knew who Boss was but in this game he was a rather annoying

side charactter and mostly used as comic relief, I remember he was a bit stuck up

in the anime series by ufotable but not as bad as in this game.😂

Woah hey there greg, no spoilers please!

TL;DR

Its a good game if you like to be challenged by the gameplay and if not there's always the newly

added easy difficulty so you can just enjoy the story and the like without worrying of performing well.

Iori did not have much of a personality and most of the other cast just stood out to me

more than the protagonist itself including Iori's servant Saber.

I did like the story,characters and the unpredictability of it all while exploring old-timey japan

and the game had a good sense of humor but yea I just have a few gripes with it all.

Iori definitely grew stronger but everytime I faced enemies with shields it seems like that wasn't

the case. By the end of the game I was kinda done with the recycled enemies, there's NG+ exclusive

mobs but they are just supersized versions. I think occasionally enemies with shields are fine

but not every boss-like enemy. I wanted to like Fate/Samurai remnant more but yea...

I think I liked more than enough and it just kinda overstayed it welcome.

Dodging or countering was the only thing I felt like I was good at, breaking shields was a chore.

Still had shields not been there battles wouldn't last as long either maybe it is ok after all.

While I played on normal I briefly lowered the difficulty for NG+ but realized

it became too easy and actually switched back since I kinda missed the thrill of the fights.

((What am I doing to myself?!))

Me after every single battle.

I guess this post is kinda long but this game was long which just leads me to ramble

about the characters a bit and this was only the opening section, whoops.

It may seem like I am kinda mixed and perhaps I am... but it was still

an okay game with a good story and cast, over and out.

 7/10

 

More rambles after the jump i'll just be talking a bit more about the gameplay experience

and characters but the above should be good enough of a TL;DR.

You can skip to my final thoughts to get another gist I guess?