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[Update: Judgment and Lost Judgment on PC are available right now. We've updated the article to reflect the adjusted date.]

It's always good news when a major Japanese console game release makes it to PC. However, older gamers know to view such announcements with a bit of wariness, as it wasn't that long ago that the PC editions of Japanese games were, at best, a bit of a hit-or-miss prospect with regards to functionality and performance. Sega and RGG Studio appear to have put another nail in that era's coffin, though, if the Judgment games on PC are anything to go by.

I received early access to the PC ports of Judgment and Lost Judgment, and they've made a good impression so far. Keep reading for some answers to your potential questions about Judgment and Lost Judgment on PC.

How do I get the Judgment games on PC, and how much do they cost? 3g14z

Both Judgment and its sequel Lost Judgment launch on PC on September 15, 2022. They'll be available via Steam, and other RGG Studio titles such as Yakuza: Like A Dragon, Yakuza Kiwami and Kiwami 2, Yakuza 0, Yakuza 6, and the Yakuza Remastered Collection.

• Judgment Digital Standard Edition is available for $39.99 USD
• Lost Judgment Digital Standard Edition costs $59.99 USD, and includes the School Stories Expansion Pack.
  • The Kaito Files DLC is sold separately for $29.99 USD
• There's also a Digital Deluxe Bundle that includes both games and all the DLC for $98.87 USD
  • Includes Judgment, Lost Judgment, School Stories, and The Kaito Files

For my testing Sega granted me access to a for-media build that was identical to the Digital Deluxe Bundle. That bundle at least, may include the optional "Pack" DLC released for the games on consoles. For example, after checking my mailbox at the start of Judgment, I received the items from the Detective Life Fun Pack, Play Spot Fun Pack, Ultimate Battle Pack, and Girlfriend Present Pack.

Similarly, I noticed that my test of Lost Judgment included access to the optional "Detective Essentials Pack" DLC, which adds additional girlfriend characters, extract recipes, fur colors for the detective dog, and other benefits.

So what's the Judgment series even about? Are they Yakuza spin-offs? 3e1p14

Technically, the Judgment games are a new series, and stand apart from the Yakuza franchise. However, they're set in the same world and often the same locations, so there's plenty of intersection and common elements to be found. The Judgment games are also where the brawling and action-adventure style of gameplay that characterized the seven main Yakuza titles was preserved, since Yakuza: Like A Dragon took up the turn-based strategy style.

The series star is Takayuki Yagami (Takuya Kimura), a former defense attorney, now a private investigator. Yagami once worked at the Genda Law Office, and gained notoriety for successfully defending a client in a murder case. This is unusual because, as the game states in its intro, outcomes in Japan's criminal justice system overwhelmingly favor prosecution. 99.9% of cases end with a guilty verdict. Unfortunately, Yagami's successful case led to an unjust outcome, leading him to leave the lawyering life and bring justice in his own way - while struggling to keep up with the bills.

In Judgment, Yagami gets caught up in a mysterious string of serial killings of Yakuza in Kamurocho. The sequel, Lost Judgment, ropes Yagami into a high-profile murder where the defense lawyer, Saori Shirosaki, is convinced that crucial details have been overlooked. Lost Judgment also has Yagami infiltrating a high school to investigate bullying allegations. The game received The Kaito Files, an expansion starring Yagami's partner, ex-Yakuza Masaharu Kaito. In The Kaito Files, Kaito takes on a case in Yagami's absence, one that turns both uncomfortably personal and unexpectedly high-stakes.

On a personal note, I enjoyed Judgment and Lost Judgment quite a bit, and on their own merits. They're different from Yakuza, for sure. Yagami and Kaito aren't as overtly silly as Kiryu and Ichiban, who are big galoots with hearts of gold. But all the games were made with RGG Studio's keen grasp of cinema, and deliver in spades on both drama and storytelling. I understand if you do end up preferring your Yakuza faves, but they're well worth playing anyway. For Siliconera's official word, check out our review of Lost Judgment.

How do the Judgment games on PC actually play? What are the minimum and recommended system requirements? 6a406c

They play quite well so far! I haven't finished them, since they're pretty large titles that I owned on PS4, but I did spend a few hours with each to get a feel for performance on my main PC rig.

You can check the minimum system requirements for Judgment on its Steam page. The Steam page for Lost Judgment is here.

For reference, this is the system I used to play both games.

OS: Windows 11
GPU: Nvidia GTX 3070
RAM: 16GB RAM
U: Intel Core i7 3.0Ghz
Install Size: Judgment (33.3 GB), Lost Judgment (56.8 GB)

In testing, Judgment appears to be based on the PS5 version of the game, rather than the PS4 version. It includes some of the graphical tweaks present for the remaster.

As I don't have a 4K monitor, I ran both games at 1080p (1920 x 1080 resolution). On my machine it ran at a locked 60 fps according to the GeForce Experience's built-in framerate counter. Lost Judgment did the same. I didn't encounter any performance dips while running in Borderless mode, either.

Both games graphical settings tweaks, including for resolution, anti-aliasing, shadow, texture, and geometry quality, reflections, motion blur, screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO), volumetric fog,  and even render scale (where you can customize the actual rendering resolution of the game to improve performance or quality). The games AMD FidelityFX features, like Super Resolution and Sharpness, but I couldn't test those as I have an Nvidia GPU. Monitor options also higher framerates on 120hz monitors.

Do I need a gamepad to play Judgment on PC? 603h34

Though the opening screen has a cheeky "Real Detectives Use A Gamepad" message on it, both Judgment and Lost Judgment on PC mouse-and-keyboard controls, and allow you to rebind keys. They also various gamepads, including a wired PS5 DualSense, an Xbox One Gamepad, and a wired Dualshock4. In a nice touch that I don't see often enough, the prompts changed seamlessly from keyboard, to PlayStation buttons, to Xbox buttons in real time as I switched controllers and inputs. Useful if you like to multitask.

That said, I still don't recommend going full keyboard-mouse if you're able to use a gamepad. The game and animations are tuned for gamepad use, so while moving on keyboard with the mouse controlling the camera, movement felt sluggish and delayed, while the camera jittered every time my hand moved even slightly. It was enough to trigger some mild motion sickness during a fight.

"Real Detectives", indeed.

Judgment and Lost Judgment are available on PC via Steam. They're also available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

The post The Judgment Games Are Coming to PC, and They Work Solidly appeared first on Siliconera.

Describing The Kaito Files as a bite-sized Yakuza story may feel redundant, given that Lost Judgment draws heavy inspiration from its predecessor. But it includes content some Yakuza fans may missed in the Judgment series. While the same procedural crime drama elements are still present in this spin-off, Kaito's connection to the underground and the yakuza take centerstage. This DLC feels more personal as a result, as it fleshes out Kaito's background. However, this may come as a detriment to those who may be burned out on the series.

The Kaito Files begins with a bang. Players are immediately introduced to what will be the crux of the story, which is locating a woman who was presumed dead. Cases like this are par for the course for the Judgment series, and the more unbelievable elements of the story are easier to swallow for it. Kaito accepts the case and investigates the disappearance and suicide of Mikiko Natsume. The DLC immediately clues the player into their past relationship and Kaito's closeness to her. At moments during the DLC story, players are given a glimpse into his fraught past and how his ties to the yakuza ultimately strained his relationship with Mikiko. It makes for a predictable, but sad, story.

It's what fans will potentially expect. That doesn't make it bad. The narrative is gripping when it needs to be, and Kaito's relationship with Mikiko's son is endearing. He serves as a mentor figure to Jun. Jun is young and inexperienced in comparison, as he literally faints after having a knife drawn on him during one of their first interactions. But it serves the overall tone of the narrative well and keeps the story light when it needs to be. Naturally, the DLC has several twists and turns that will keep players at the edge of their seats as they unravel the true mystery surrounding Mikiko's disappearance and just how tangled the threads around it really are.

The only real issue is that The Kaito Files is more of the same. Yes, the gameplay offers some deviation. Kaito uses a different method of sleuthing out clues with his "primal instincts." I mean this very literally, as players use his "Primal Ears" and "Primal Eyes" during the investigative elements of gameplay. But players will be going through the same motions of solving the mystery for the most part. The twists and turns may be shocking at first, but predictable if you think about them too long. Several different organizations are at play, with each trying to cover up some connection to Mikiko's disappearance. One plot twist I could almost smell a mile away, and its execution wasn't as effective as I'd hoped it would be. It left me feeling a bit lukewarm towards the experience. I can't elaborate on much, since one thing leads to another in of spoilers.

But in of combat, it's exactly what I'd expect when playing as a character like Kaito. Unlike Yagami, Kaito throws brutal punches with the same kind of power as former Yakuza series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu. He has two different fighting styles, with one allowing for players to deal out massive amounts of damage. The other relies on countering enemy attacks to make it effective, but does a good enough job of softening the blows of bosses. This was probably the most enjoyable aspect to me of the DLC. While I enjoyed my time with Yagami in Lost Judgment's main scenario, I like it when a man can throw a mean punch.

Overall, The Kaito Files is more of the same. Those who were looking for something different from the main scenario may be pleased, as Kaito has enough variation in his gameplay to set him apart from Yagami. But if you're looking for something more compelling or different from other Ryu Ga Gotoku narratives, then you may be a bit disappointed. That isn't to say The Kaito Files isn't worth your time. It's a nice, bite-sized experience and will no doubt fill the gap stories like Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Yakuza Kiwami 2 have left behind in the hearts of series fans.

Lost Judgment and its The Kaito Files DLC are available for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X.

The post Lost Judgment’s The Kaito Files is a Bite-Sized Yakuza Story appeared first on Siliconera.

Lost Judgment The Kaito Files DLC is about to appear, and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio decided to share a video game drink recipe for a cocktail inspired by Masaharu Kaito. The beverage is called The Kaito Sunrise. It is an alcoholic drink, and there is a step-by-step video showing how to make it.

Here is the full video going over the Lost Judgment Kaito Sunrise video game drink recipe. Note that you will need Japanese whisky, orange juice, plum wine, some mint, and ice.

While there is no non-alcoholic recipe offered for this video game drink recipe, it might be possible to alter this Lost Judgment drink. Perhaps omitting the Japanese whisky and replacing the plum wine with plum juice could result in something with a similar sort of feel.

This isn't the only The Kaito Files DLC video released recently. Other ones focused on actual gameplay. They showed how he fights, looks for clues, and sneaks around enemies.

Lost Judgment is available on the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X, and The Kaito Files DLC will arrive on March 28, 2022. You can get it alone or as part of a $34.99 season that includes other DLC.

The post RGG Studio Shares Video Game Drink Recipe Inspired by Lost Judgment appeared first on Siliconera.

Sega's been gradually showing how Masaharu Kaito is different as a detective and investigator than Takayuki Yagami in Lost Judgment DLC trailers. The latest one focuses on another one of his ways of handling cases. In it, we see how stealthy he can be.

As shown in the Lost Judgment video, Kaito tends to rely on tactics that temporarily distract someone so he can beat them up. In the first situation, he hides behind some conveniently placed cardboard boxes. He tosses a coin to distract an opponent. Once they are focused on it, he comes up behind them and strikes. In the second situation, he knocks on the door. When it opens, he briefly hides behind it before then using it to beat another person up.

The last few videos all focused on his unique capabilities. In one, his Bruiser and Tank styles appeared. These are the two options you have when fighting foes. Another looked at how Kaito uses his senses to find clues.

Lost Judgment is available on the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X, and The Kaito Files DLC will arrive on March 28, 2022. You can get it alone or as part of a $34.99 season that includes other DLC.

The post Masaharu Kaito Gets Sneaky in a New Lost Judgment DLC Trailer appeared first on Siliconera.

The Kaito Files DLC for Lost Judgment will put players in the shoes of the eponymous Kaito, and Sega has released a short trailer showing off his Primal Focus. Unlike Yagami, who relies on observation and logic to put together deductions, Kaito relies on his five senses. The trailer shows off three of his investigative skills.

With Kaito Eye, Kaito can find oddities in his surroundings. Kaito Nose lets him find strange smells, and Kaito Ear means that no peculiar sound can escape his notice. For example, Kaito uses Kaito Nose and realizes how strange it was that there would be a smell emanating from the empty Yagami Detective Agency.

You can see the new Kaito Files DLC gameplay trailer here:

Like how he has a different investigative method than Yagami, Kaito also fights with different styles. In early March 2022, Sega released a trailer showing off Kaito’s Bruiser Style and his Tank Style. Bruiser Style is faster-paced and focuses more on his fists, while Tank Style is more powerful and relies on objects in the environment.

Lost Judgment is available on the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X, and the Kaito Files DLC will go live on March 28, 2022. It will be 10 hours long.

The post See How Kaito Uses His Primal Focus in Lost Judgment DLC appeared first on Siliconera.

When the Lost Judgment The Kaito Files DLC arrives, people will have a new protagonist to use. That means he won't fight exactly like Takayuki Yagami does. Rather, Masaharu Kaito uses the Bruiser and Tank Styles. To help people get a better idea of how he'll work in-game, there are two new trailers showing off his attacks.

First, here’s Kaito’s Bruiser Style. This is the fast-paced option. It’s about quickly attacking and reacting. All of his energy is concentrated in his fists. However, he can grab and kick people when needed. The segment shows how this works against single opponents and groups.

The next Lost Judgment The Kaito Files DLC video focuses on the Tank Style. As the name suggests, this is a more formidable approach to a fight. The video shows off a number of grabs. There are also some reactionary moves to opponent’s assaults. It shows him using environmental objects, like a scooter, to attack opponents too.

Lost Judgment is available on the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X, and The Kaito Files DLC will arrive on March 28, 2022. You can get it alone or as part of a $34.99 season that includes other DLC.

The post Lost Judgment The Kaito Files DLC Styles Showcased appeared first on Siliconera.

Takayuki Yagami’s sidekick Masaharu Kaito will soon get to be the star. Sega offered a release date for the Lost Judgment The Kaito Files DLC. It will show up on March 28, 2022. This will be a full four-chapter storyline in which Kaito is the main character.

Kaito will play differently than Yagami both when fighting and investigating. His two combat styles will be Bruiser and Tank. He’ll also use Primal Focus to rely on his gut and observation techniques to discover clues. As for his mystery, he’ll be solving a case connected to his lover with a young man who is supposedly his son with her. It is expected to be about ten hours long.

Sega also confirmed a price for the add-on. Should someone already have the Ultimate Edition or Season , they’ll automatically get The Kaito Files when it is released. If someone didn’t, this DLC will be $29.99. As a reminder, the Season costs $34.99 and includes this and the immediately available Detective Essentials Pack and School Stories Expansion Pack.

Lost Judgment is available on the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X, and The Kaito Files DLC will arrive on March 28, 2022.

The post Lost Judgment The Kaito Files DLC Arrives in March appeared first on Siliconera.

Famitsu has revealed the list of nominees for the Famitsu Dengeki Game Awards 2021. This award presentation will give honors to specific game titles based on Japanese votes.

Tales of Arise, Resident Evil Village, and Uma Musume: Pretty Derby have noticeably occupied many award nominations in this list. These titles are highly popular in Japan, and all of them made their way into the top five most-searched video game titles in the country in 2021.

Here is the full list of nominees for the Famitsu Dengeki Game Awards 2021:

Game of the Year

• Uma Musume: Pretty Derby
• Tales of Arise
• Resident Evil Village
• Monster Hunter Rise
• Lost Judgment

MVC - Most Valuable Creator

• Capcom's Resident Evil Village development team
• Cygames' Uma Musume: Pretty Derby development team
• Masahiro Sakurai (creator of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate)
• Sega's Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio
• Naoki Yoshida (producer of Final Fantasy XIV)

Best Scenario

• Tales of Arise
• Buddy Mission BOND
• Lost Judgment

Best Graphics

• Uma Musume: Pretty Derby
• Tales of Arise
• Resident Evil Village

Best Music

• Uma Musume: Pretty Derby
• NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139...
• Monster Hunter Rise

Best Actor

• Takuya Kimura as Takayuki Yagami in Lost Judgment
• Daisuke Tsuji as Jin Sakai in Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut
• Maggie Robertson as Alcina Dimitrescu in Resident Evil Village

Best Voice Actor

• Hitomi Ueda as Gold Ship in Uma Musume: Pretty Derby
• Shino Shimoji as Shionne in Tales of Arise
• Daisuke Namikawa as Chesley Nichols in Buddy Mission BOND

Best Character

• Alphen from Tales of Arise
• Ethan Winters from Resident Evil Village
• Gold Ship from Uma Musume: Pretty Derby

Best Online Game

• Apex Legends
• Genshin Impact
• Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker

Best Action

• Hades
• Monster Hunter Rise
• Returnal

Best Action Adventure

• Resident Evil Village
• Metroid Dread
• Lost Judgment

Best Adventure

• Jack Jeanne
• Tsukihime -A piece of blue glass moon-
• Buddy Mission BOND

Best RPG

• The Legend of Heroes: Kuro no Kiseki
• Shin Megami Tensei V
• Tales of Arise

Best Indie Game

• Eastward
• Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights
• Hades

Best Rookie

• Uma Musume: Pretty Derby
• Scarlet Nexus
• Buddy Mission BOND

Best Esports Game

• Apex Legends
• Street Fighter V: Champion Edition
• Valorant

Famitsu will announce the winners of the Famitsu Dengeki Game Awards 2021 on Saturday, March 12, 2022 at 20:30 JST (6:30 AM ET). The Japanese media outlets have been holding their own annual award ceremonies for several years. They gave the Game of the Year award in the 2020 edition to Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Pokemon Sword and Shield won the same award in the 2019 edition.

The post Famitsu Dengeki Game Awards 2021 Nominees Revealed appeared first on Siliconera.

The 2021 Xbox Series X lineup is full of familiar games that look and run better than ever. Optimizing what already works appears to be the console’s ethos. But just because these honorees feel familiar doesn’t mean they’re not stellar in their own right!

These awards represent the consensus of the Siliconera staff. For more of the year’s award selections, check out our Game of the Year 2021 archive.

Winner: Lost Judgment 345n4s

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's latest brings back some of the action that skipped Yakuza: Like a Dragon. It focuses on a bullying narrative and has a lot of fun with its school setting. And yeah, it's also full of fun substories and diversions along the way. It's a complete, polished game in a long line of 'em, but it does enough with its characters and combat to feel distinct. In doing so, it earned out 2021 Xbox Series X Game of the Year honor.

Scarlet Nexus 2c1l6l

Scarlet Nexus is full of things we don't want to spoil. After all, in true anime tradition, so much cool stuff happens along the way. And hey, for a third-person action game with a bunch of visible damage numbers? These games can be derivative and monotonous, but Nexus implements some interesting ideas and creative enemy designs to keep that from happening.

Forza Horizon 5 1d706l

Car games have always been a technical showpiece for new hardware, but Forza Horizon 5 backs it up with compelling, immersive gameplay. It's a game that lets you just hang around, cruising through ridiculously detailed environments on the way to new races and discoveries. The flagship Forza games may be on the cutting edge of tech, but the Horizon entries really deliver on the fun to go along with the impressive visuals.

What are your Xbox Series X Game of the Year 2021 selections? Let us know in the comments! And stay tuned for more of Siliconera’s GotY 2021 awards.

The post Siliconera’s Xbox Series X Game of the Year 2021 appeared first on Siliconera.

A new Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio game is here, and for the first time, we’re getting the game in the West at the same time as its Japanese release. Lost Judgment, a follow-up to 2018’s Judgment, returns to detective Takayuki Yagami and his investigations in the shadier sides of Japanese society. And as Judgment becomes something of a franchise of its own separate from Yakuza, it’s increasingly finding its footing and learning its specialties.

While the Yakuza and Judgment series continue to build on the same worlds, characters and gameplay conventions, the framing of the two is increasingly distinct. Yakuza wants to offer a world of adventure to explore. There’s a main story, but it’s surrounded by other sights and sounds. You’re meant to distract yourself as much as you’re meant to push forward in the narrative. Judgment, on the other hand, builds around that central narrative. The minigames! The gadgets! Certainly the side stories! They’re all meant to complement and feed into your core quest to uncover the mystery. It’s a simple shift in structure, but it makes it feel a lot less like you’re slacking off.

There’s also a difference in tone. While Yakuza hasn’t shied away from serious topics, Judgment makes a point to address societal issues. Lost Judgment doubles down on this. We’d go deep into this sort of stuff if it wouldn’t spoil a lot of the narrative! It’s fair to say that it spends a lot of its time and energy on high school bullying. This sort of thing might resonate vividly with a lot of players, for better and worse, and it’s important to know that going in. Things go badly sometimes. Situations don’t turn out the way you want. It makes for an engaging narrative, but one packed with emotional burden for the player.

As we’ve seen in previous Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio games, Lost Judgment recycles the environments of the most recent game for new adventures. This time, that means the Yokohama neighborhood of Isezaki Ijincho from Like a Dragon. By this point, the team’s become adept at making the same area feel familiar but distinct. Major locations from Ichiban’s adventure like Hello Work? The game blocks them off. But you can still head by Survive Bar and Ichiban Confections for a dose of nostalgia. The new school location is large in itself! It also makes you spend more time in a corner of the map that was largely ignored in Yakuza.

Now that Like a Dragon has taken Yakuza into turn-based battles, Lost Judgment is left to carry the action mantle. It does so through mixing three combat styles. And we do mean mixing! Because of the game’s bonus-based skill point system, you’ll want to dispatch an enemy with each style in every battle, if you can manage it. Conveniently, roving packs of punks usually include at least three foes! That makes the task a lot more doable. While Yagami has a “Tiger” style with some stronger punches, he’s generally a swift fighter. Most of the unlockable skills let him essentially parkour from enemy to enemy, and the smooth gameplay engine meshes well with that.

Technically speaking, Lost Judgment handles itself well. It’s not a flashy next-gen showpiece, but the PlayStation 5 build we reviewed is smooth and relatively seamless. Of course, not a lot of that technical power matters when you’re spending time with its selection of Master System games. While it’s not a huge library and you’ll have to track most of them down in the world to play, it’s a nice bonus to be able to drop by Yagami’s office and play some Penguin Land. Obviously, modern systems are going to handle these games fairly well! But it’s still nice to see them here. Gathering them reminded us of collecting all the NES games in the GameCube release of Animal Crossing.

The minigame selection is about what you’d expect! Drone racing returns. The arcade House of the Dead tribute has a new level. A lot of the stuff you’ve seen before is here with a few bells and whistles. It’s a comforting selection, if not a particularly impressive one. None of the minigames here live up to Yakuza’s addicting cabaret management. We’ll keep comparing new entries to it until one does!

And generally, we found that the further away they were from the main story, the better they fared. We’re still less than enamored with the “chase” scenes, which amount to simple quick-time events and don’t allow you to be clever or hug corners to make up ground. The observation sequences don’t let you fail or really reward you for speed or precision, but at least they’re forgiving and harmless.

What holds this huge collection of activities together is the compelling central narrative. While what’s on offer here is not dissimilar to RGG Studio’s other recent games, the mystery at the core of it is both well-executed and deftly integrated. Much like the flashy combat, the story also builds itself with significant momentum. It makes Lost Judgment a game that, in addition to being fun to play, really entices you to see it to its end.

Lost Judgment is developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and published by Sega. It launches September 24, 2021 on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and Xbox One. Players who pre-order deluxe digital editions receive early access to the game on September 21, 2021.

The post Review: Lost Judgment Teaches You a Thing or Two About Mystery appeared first on Siliconera.

Sega announced that a Lost Judgment demo will appear through the PlayStation Store soon. Starting on September 10, 2021 PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 s will be able to the Lost Judgment demo. However, Sega did not say if Xbox Series X and Xbox One s would receive this demo as well. [Thanks, Famitsu!]

As of now, the contents of the demo have not been revealed. However, previous demos for the Yakuza series included option to walk around a small section of a specific locale and try out more than a handful of mini-games. Additionally, these demos also contained some story elements. It is unclear if the demo will feature these elements, or allow for progress made within it to carry over into the full release of the game. As it stands, the demo has also only been announced for the Japanese PlayStation Store.

Lost Judgment will receive a plethora of post-release content in the form of DLC. This includes a unique scenario staring Kaito that will appear sometime in 2022. It was revealed that this scenario will be roughly ten hours long. Additionally, other DLC content includes the distribution of in-game items and additional content in the form of more Sega Master System games and girlfriends.

Lost Judgment will come to the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X on September 24, 2021. People who get the Digital Deluxe or Ultimate Edition can begin playing on September 21, 2021.

The post Lost Judgment Demo Will be Available Through PlayStation Store Soon appeared first on Siliconera.

Sega offered details on when people will be able to get all of the Lost Judgment add-ons. Many of the extras will be available not long after launch. However, one piece will take a bit longer to get. The Kaito Files Lost Judgment DLC won’t appear until Spring 2022.

The first round of Lost Judgment DLC will involve the Detective Essentials Pack. That will show up when the game launches. So if someone has early access, they will have it on September 21, 2021. If they don’t, it will appear on September 24, 2021. That gives people extra Sega Master System games to play in Takayuki Yagami’s office, extra Detective Dogs to take on missions, a new Skate Park to visit, a new skateboard, a Sky Spider Drone, some extract recipes, a Super Shin Amon fight, and three more girlfriends.

The second round will involve the School Stories Expansion Pack in October 26, 2021. That primarily features some activities in the school. There will be a new robot to use. You’ll be able to get extra Dance Club moves and clothing. You will get a new Race Course to visit, as well as a new motorcycle and parts to use there. You’ll also be able to box when you fight, with Kaito, Higashi, and Sugiura ready to spar.

Finally, the Spring 2022 The Kaito Files DLC will let people be Masaharu Kaito in Lost Judgment. This will be a ten hour addition story starring him as he deals with an adventure.

Lost Judgment will come to the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X on September 24, 2021. People who get the Digital Deluxe or Ultimate Edition can begin playing on September 21, 2021. In case you missed it, Siliconera recently interviewed Localization Producer Scott Strichart and talked about the sequel.

The post Lost Judgment Kaito DLC Arrives in 2022 appeared first on Siliconera.

Lost Judgment, developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and published by Sega, is releasing worldwide on September 21, 2021. In our Lost Judgment interview, we asked localization producer Scott Strichart about how making this game has been different, why you should always select the wrong answer and... gadget dogs?

Graham Russell, Siliconera: How has the simultaneous release for Lost Judgment changed the team’s work? What’s the biggest difference that players might notice?

Scott Strichart, localization producer: Well, the hope is that players won’t notice it! But on our side, it changed everything. We’d never started localizing a Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio game so early, and as a result, we were kind of in the dark about a lot of things we used to be able to just open the game and find out. We had to rely heavily on the dev side to answer our questions instead. From simple things like, “How far apart are they standing in this scene?” to complex essays in response to questions like, “What is this character getting at here?”

The sim ship aspect of this title has been a massive victory, but also a massive learning experience. We turned this whole project around in almost exactly a year, and that’s kind of insane. But now we can have the really valuable conversations about how to do it better, like how to make sure things get the right amount of time. We can even turn to the rest of the Japanese product side of our company to say, look what we did with a game of this scope. Here’s where it went right and wrong. Can you do it too?

 
The last time we talked, you told us that Like a Dragon voice recording wrapped right before things started locking down due to the pandemic. We’d guess, then, that Lost Judgment’s sessions were very much affected by current conditions! How did that process change? Was there something you wish you could have done differently?

Strichart: Indeed they were. I’m eternally grateful to Keith Arem, the voice director/owner of PCB, our recording studio for the project, who had worked out this incredibly intricate system of recording remotely without compromising on quality or consistency. The video game industry did not stop because a pandemic broke out, it adapted. And that reverberated all the way through to the VO recording aspect as well, for us, and many other publishers.

Our process started with entire rigs consisting of a computer, mic, and a pre-amp being hand-delivered to actors’ living spaces. The recordings happened over video conferences. We’d stop for planes, noisy neighbors, and gardeners, we’d adjust to the latency of an individual actor’s internet and the sound of their walls. Despite these challenges, we’d get it done, and then the rigs would be picked up, sanitized, and delivered to the next actor. It was madness, yet somehow we came out the other side with a recorded video game.

As far as wishing I could have done things differently, ha! The fact that we have it at all is a miracle.

Who comprised your team for this title? Any big changes? Anyone you’d like to shout out for stepping up?

Strichart: Funny story, this wasn’t even supposed to be my project. Another producer was going to handle it and I was just going to backseat drive. Then that producer left to follow a dream. It fell back into my lap, while I also had to handle Yakuza: Like a Dragon’s 9 patches across 5 platforms, oversee its translation into two more languages, and the PS5 version. If it sounds impossible, it was! So Lost Judgment could not have happened without the stellar efforts of my team that I essentially had to trust fall onto, and I thank you for indulging me with this question because it’s a lot of shouting out to do.

Vicky Lee, one of our newer associate producers, literally saved the project during those complex first few months by guiding the localization team and liaising with the dev team. Our lead translator was Jyun Takagi, shored up with from Shun Fukuda and Mino Iwasaki. On the editing side, Josh Malone, who worked on Like a Dragon and Shinada in the Yakuza remasters, stepped up in a big way to help handle VO. He was ed by Shervin Zadeh, Shaun Gannon, and Stephanie Spoleti, who was also a Like a Dragon vet.

Yagami grew as a person and detective over the course of the first game. How do you feel that's reflected in the sequel? Do his speech patterns and mannerisms change any as a result?

Strichart: It’s interesting, because the game opens with Yagami having fallen right back into his comfort zone, engaged in another one of Genda’s handout jobs that leads to all kinds of buffoonery. And you get a sense that he’s really in a good place. Then of course the game happens, the darkness creeps in, and once again, Yagami’s sense of justice is challenged from every possible direction. As ever, Yagami adapts to his situation to fight for the truth, because that’s his thing. I wouldn’t say that changes his speech patterns/mannerisms much. Needless to say, please enjoy the first couple of chapters while they last, haha.

Yagami has a lot of gadgets in this one. Which is your favorite and why? And which is your second-favorite, since of course the first is the dog?

Strichart: Ha! We actually struggled with that a bit, because we were like, “Can you really call the dog a gadget?” But there he is in the gadget wheel, so the answer is yes. Most adorable gadget ever. But anyway, I wouldn’t say I have a favorite. Each gadget — the signal detector, the noise amp, and Tsukumo’s buzz researcher — has a unique functionality. It’s fun to see all the ways you get asked to use them.

Next question! We know your role is localization, but it feels like you’d have some insider insight into the game’s development. So! As Judgment continues its franchise path, how do you think it distinguishes itself from Yakuza? What are its particular strengths? Does its existence allow Yakuza to morph and change by taking on and preserving some of its original qualities?

Strichart: One of the original Judgment’s criticisms was, and I paraphrase, “isn’t this just Yakuza with a thinking man’s protagonist and some lockpicking?” I mean, that kind of ignores a major tonal difference, but it’s a fair point on the surface. Of course, that was before Yakuza, having completed the Kiryu arc, went through a complete transformation of gameplay style, protagonist, and even some major narrative bombs — did you beat the chapter 12 bosses? — that reverberate all the way through Lost Judgment. hich does of course, share a world with it.

So I think it’s safe to say that with each series being at least one game deep and treading water now with their own gameplay style, tone, and dramatis personae vibes, we probably won’t hear that again. Both franchises are developing in ways that are absolutely different and heavily focused on their particular strengths: Yakuza, an over-the-top RPG about the criminal underworld that often culminates in a shirtless battle on top of a tower, and Judgment, a cerebral detective experience exploring and poking holes in modern values with high-octane action.

What was the hardest part of Lost Judgment to localize? What took the most care to make it easy for Western players to understand?

Strichart: From a technical standpoint, probably the minigame that returns from Yakuza Kiwami 2 where you have to string a bunch of words together in the correct order to make a functional sentence. And worse, there’s a “hard mode” if you attempt it while drunk. Multiple words have to work in multiple situations, and it’s just... such a localization challenge. There’s also the “chatter posts” in the buzz researcher that use variables for the keywords you’re searching. I could write an essay on why variables make localization teams rip their hair out, so I’ll stop there.

Lost Judgment gives a little love to the Sega Master System, letting you play some games from one of the company’s less-appreciated consoles. What’s your favorite Master System game? Did any localization work go into those?

Strichart: I’m actually quite proud to say no, zero localization went into those. They are presented exactly as they were released in the original states, for better or for worse. You can swap between the North American and Japanese releases of each game and see the differences, the calls that the original localization teams made. Who are we to step in and make changes to that? These aren’t “redux” versions, they’re the originals. If you can’t tell, I’m big on games preservation.

As far as my favorite, I grew up a Nintendo boy; lured in by that sweet ding of Mario’s coins. Working at Sega, I’m discovering so much of what I never got to as a kid, and it’s been an amazing journey. I’m gonna experience those Master System games right along with you.

Any particularly silly wordplay in this one that you’d be able to share?

Strichart: Well, Lost Judgment isn’t really the place for a lot of silly wordplay... Courts of law, high school bullies, and dens of thugs just aren’t conducive to it, you know? But it gets pretty fun in its own ways. Always select the wrong answer. You’ll see a completely different side of Yagami when you do, and there’s no real penalty for doing that!

Thanks to Scott for taking the time to talk to us! This Lost Judgment interview has been lightly edited for clarity. Lost Judgment releases September 21, 2021 on Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. For more on the game, check out the rest of our Lost Judgment coverage.

The post Lost Judgment Interview: Scott Strichart on Simultaneous Launches and Wrong Answers appeared first on Siliconera.

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio announced the eight SEGA Master System games that players will get to enjoy in Lost Judgment. When you’re not solving crime or hanging out with various high school clubs, Yagami will be able to sit back and relax in his office with classic 8-bit video games, such as Fantasy Zone.

The eight SEGA Master System games that you can play in Lost Judgment are:

• Alex Kidd in Miracle World
• Fantasy Zone
• Penguin Land
• Quartet
• Enduro Racer
• Woody Pop
• Maze Hunter 3-D
• Secret Command

In the first game, Yagami had a pinball machine, but in Lost Judgment, he upgraded to a SEGA Master System. Earlier this summer, an interview between Takuya Kimura and Toshihiro Nagoshi revealed Yagami’s new gaming console. During that interview, they mentioned that you could unlock more games as the story progressed.

Other ways to the time when you’re playing Lost Judgment include mini-games such as sugoroku, golf, and drone races. The drone race is a feature that they brought back from the first game. Since several of these activities are linked to the “Youth Drama” storyline, unlocking more levels will require playing through storylines and subplots.

Lost Judgment will come out on the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X on September 24, 2021. If you purchased the Digital Deluxe or Digital Ultimate version, you will be able to play from September 21.

The post Lost Judgment Will Let You Play Eight SEGA Master System Games appeared first on Siliconera.

Lost Judgment will feature a handful of mini-games for players to enjoy. This includes drone races and a VR version of the Japanese board game sugoroku. Additionally, new tailing missions will be available. Other new mini-games include golf, which was a staple for the Yakuza series, and spending time at a Girl's Bar. A boxing mini-game of some sort will also appear. [Thanks, ryokutya2089!]

Additionally, other available activities in Lost Judgment include a sound based mini-game where Yagami will need to find the source of strange radio waves. Another mini-game involves hacked SNS messages. These features haven't received full details yet, but more information will appear in the future. However, Sega did previously share information regarding a few other activities players can participate in. This has included the release of official trailers that showcase some of these activities.

Some of these activities can be accessed through the "Youth Drama" storyline. Players can engage in dance battles with students, or head to robotics club to engage in robot focused battles against other students. These activities will also feature unique storylines.

Lost Judgment will release on the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X on September 24, 2021. Consumers who have purchased the Digital Deluxe or Digital Ultimate version will be able to access the game on September 21, 2021.

The post Lost Judgment Mini-Games to Include Drone Races and Tailing Missions appeared first on Siliconera.