It was very easy to look at Judgment’s reveal, and lazily decide that this was Yakuza with Ace Attorney dropped in. I know I did. The thing is, having played the game’s opening 2 hours, that doesn’t feel like a lazy comparison – it’s just a correct one.
In its component parts, this is a Yakuza game. We’re back in that series’ ever-evolving Kamurocho setting (now updated to be an uncanny take on real-life Tokyo’s Kabukichō district as of 2018), filled as it always is with neon distractions and strangers with strange requests.
It’s as beautiful as Yakuza 6 but, crucially, Judgment’s Kamurocho felt more alive in my time in it. The open world map is once again densely seasoned with shops, mini-games and arcades, and I’m assured that the meatier side activities that made Yakuza 0 such an enormous prospect will make an appearance along the way. If you want a quintessentially Yakuza anecdote, I took a break from heading to speak to a powerful gang member to spend 10 minutes playing a Kamurocho-themed parody of House of the Dead.
Source: IGN.com Judgment Really Is Yakuza + Ace Attorney