Lost Judgment Review (I finished the game)
"I'm Speechless" is the synopsis of when I finally finished the Lost Judgment game. The first few minutes I spent in a discord VC has left me quite literally speechless.
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS. I WILL SPOIL LOST JUDGMENT, INCLUDING THE ENDING. YOU ARE WARNED.
I'm horrible at words so my spoken argument was fragmented, shallow, and I kept talking about how this post is gonna be my best ability of expressing my full feelings about the whole game that I just played. So I'm gonna make 2 sections: my current impressions on this whole game fresh, and my refined reflected review later. So lets start.
Fresh out of Press
The biggest thing that stuck out to me is that this ending wasn't emotional to me. Admittedly I didn't care too much but I think alot on what the impression on the game was supposed to be in the end. Was I supposed to go with the orthodox path of Yagami saying that no matter what, the fairness of the truth is over vengeance. Or Is it Kuwana's "unwavering belief" that bullies and such horrible people continue to be slipping past the law?
In the end, I found myself more convinced by Yagami than Kuwana will ever try to. But I can't lie I did feel for that justice. What we often call "frontier justice" where people take the matter of what's right in their own hands. That's basically what Kuwana was advocating for. In that sense, I was unfairly pitched to wholly disagree. I've been bullied and unfortunately I was a bully. Though it went more like this: I used to be a mean bully during my early years of elementary. SO much so that I was being a dickhead to this silent girl. Long story short, she caused someone to make fun of me behind my back and I didn't know how to manage my anger at her for causing me pain. So I kept kicking her legs during lunch under the table for god knows how long.
On the other end, when my bullying was exposed. I felt nothing but immense guilt, and struggled to even justify why. It's obvious to me that bullying was never okay at that age but why would I have to suffer more over what she was gonna get away with? It's simple now for me to answer as an adult: using violence against another human being is wrong. Whether that's a victim who's innocent, or a victim who is evil. Once you lay your hands on another human being and hurt them, you cannot be trusted to not turn around and hurt innocent people too.
In the context of this game, why did Sawa-sensei have to die? Why did a soft-spoken teacher, a troubled, guilty woman who was ultimately innocent and had nothing to do with this mess get killed? In that regard, I just can't see why Kuwana and the Vice Minister lady could have justified their secret murder. Let alone Ehara and his son.
Bullies are human beings. That's the part I don't hear from people who would argue that Kuwana is morally just. He isn't in my eyes because he killed human beings who are just as flawed as he was. Kawai for all we know could've had such horrible conditions from his own parents, thus he enacting that bullying on Mitsuru. Or maybe He had no problems and he bullied just for fun. Either way, he was a flawed human being and to dehumanize bullies and justify "killing them" is nothing short of fascist thinking.
Call me crazy, but I could've sworn in history, Fascists used dehumanization to justify their killings of minority groups. Because the other was not human, how could they have "committed murder"? That way of thinking makes you think anyone who crosses your path in the wrong way is somehow allowed to just die because you "felt" like it's "just".
It's arbitrary, predatory, and wrong. In the end, Kuwana reveals the bodies at the end of the game so I'm convinced not only is Yagami is right, but Kuwana probably thinks so too. Why would he reveal the bodies? I'm not sure if he murders bullies later after the duology but I like to think he stopped.
Anyways this is getting late, that's my fresh mind so far on this game.
Refined Review
I'm gonna divide my review in these:
Gameplay
The gameplay here was fucking awesome. Going from 2 fighting styles to 4 was not only scary at first but over time became familiar with all 4 and loved using them. They each actually had purpose and made the combat feel smooth. I could go from Snake, disarm a bad guy, deflect him and scare him into submission, then go on boxer and beat the living hell out of the mini-boss, and then use crane to swipe all of the fuckers in a big range. And finally in a weird way, Tiger might seem useless until you realize it's the only mode other than boxer that can get you to tiger drop mfs and do this triple hit heat action. Honest to god I don't know what I'm talking about, the gameplay is basically fighting alot and I love it. But the mini-games made it so much less stale.
Mini-games
The mini-games are numerous in this game and it's nothing short of amazing. How would it feel being a detective that can gamble, ride motorcycles in death races, goes into a boxing match to save a kid, takes photos to make others feel guilty, create battle bots, play a fake street fighter/Tekken-like game, talk to bar girls, date, play darts, shogi and Mahjong and arcade games and claw machines and so much more I can't even remember all of them but you literally can't say there isn't content. Because there is alot, which is good because it's not TOO MUCH, it's enough that it's basically there, you don't have to do them, but they're available or sometimes tied to a specific side content that you'll enjoy regardless. If you don't like that, fine. But the quality of these games are atleast worth nodding because they're decent enough in my eyes that I don't see a reason people would necessarily hate them. Because they're not as dubious as the side content.
Side Content
Okay... I'm gonna be honest. alot of the side content, basically the side files, are good. They're good but god are they so fucking forgettable. They're not even worth in my mind unless they were obviously so outrageous like the UFO sub story that made me think constantly because it's funny. That's it. And a few more do warrant playing but in reality plenty of them are just "Oh that's cool" and you forget about them entirely unless you're an obsessive fan. Can't say the same about school stories
School Stories (my fucking favorite)
Because we're put in a high school as an outside counselor or advisor or whatever the fuck for the MRC, I loved the school stories so much. I mean some of them are so short so they're enjoyable being short. Some are so long but because they're based in a mini-game that you have to win at makes it also just as enjoyable, even though you can start to snooze and feel bored when they get a little TOO long but I honestly loved it all. Mostly because of the ending, the last school story. Seeing all the clubs I worked and helped out on come together to help save Itokura, and her struggling to ask for help and finally she does in tears nearly broke my own heart. I have seen and lived to struggle with asking help for anything so much it nearly made me cry WAY more than the actual story itself, funny enough! (I noticed the english dub here fucking SUCKS, do not watch that one, watch this Japanese version instead. I think the reason is because I felt like I was in Itokura's shoes at that moment. Being pissed, yelling at people for trying to help me, and eventually just sob because the truth is that I always want help, I always loved being seen and given a hand of help. But I just can't help it but refuse or get mad when people do help. Still, the story isn't bad at all, it's not like it's worth less, they're just as good.
Story
Hoo boy... this fucking story was a doozy. I'm not gonna write each plot point and twist but the gist, the general vibe? I loved how almost every person you meet, every character that's new seems just as suspicious as the last. The amount of intrigue around Kuwana especially was awesome. I still disagree the viewpoint the character holds but I'd be damned if I said it wasn't somewhat... justified. It's not like I love bullies at all, especially ones that get away with it and never feel guilty. Killing them is wrong but understandably you can't help but feel bad for the killers. They're people who are broken by the injustice the system has left them in. Honestly the story would be a great allegory for reforming our judicial systems to cover issues like this. We need a better legal system to address bullying in schools where it leads to suicides and work on those programs to prevent suicides in the first place. Again, being a victim and a bully, I see the two sides. Both human and one is simply nasty and the other is simply scared. It's unfair to leave victims but also to hurt bullies. So, what did I think overall?
Final Review
This game to me is basically a 10/10, really it is. I can't help but nitpick a few problems but they're not even worth mentioning and don't affect my subjective points. It's a Yakuza game that is quite literally nothing like the Yakuza series. The game is thoughtful, introspective, and mysterious enough to make you wonder what comes next in a good genuine way.