Today is Judgment Day. That is, it’s the day Ryu ga Gotoku Studios announced Lost Judgment, the new sequel that was revealed in a livestream presentation just an hour ago. Executive director Toshihiro Nagoshi revealed the game’s name, its returning lead voice actors and characters, and how the game will improve over the original.
But before the livestream, Nagoshi shared a few words with IGN about where the Yakuza series will fit in with Judgment going forward. As it turns out, the two games will no longer share the same genre heading into the future as Yakuza will now be a turn-based RPG going forward.
“The Yakuza series has been transformed into a turn-based RPG," Nagoshi said. “On the other hand, over the year, Ryu ga Gotoku Studio has accumulated resources and know-how of making flashy and exhilarating action games that are effortless to enjoy. We decided that we should let our signature action gameplay live on through Lost Judgement.”
Yakuza: Like A Dragon marked a surprise departure for the series. Previous Yakuza games were all about real-time action, but Ryu ga Gotoku Studios decided to switch things up midway through development to turn Yakuza 7 into a turn-based RPG. Surprisingly, the move worked, and Like A Dragon was a smash hit on every platform it sold on.
The first Judgment game shared Yakuza’s brawler roots, but now it looks like it’ll take over for Yakuza to provide fans with that hard-hitting, button-mashing action.
As for Lost Judgment, the game will use Yakuza: Like A Dragon’s setting of Yokohama to tell a brand new detective story. Takayuki Yagami will have to travel between Tokyo and Yokohama to investigate a new mystery, which for some reason will also involve a high school dance competition.
Lost Judgment will hit PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on September 24.
