Yakuza Creators Announce Lost Judgment

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, the creators of the Yakuza series, announced a sequel to the acclaimed spin-off Judgment this week by confirming that Lost Judgment is real and is releasing this year. Lost Judgment will once again star Takayuki Yagami as the protagonist, a new character introduced in Judgment who serves the Kamurocho community as a private investigator. The game is currently planned to release on September 24th for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S with no plans for the Xbox One announced at this time.

The Yakuza developers took the stage this week during a special “Judgment Day” event after teasing an announcement all week with a countdown. People naturally expected that we’d get a sequel to Judgment based on the teasers presented, but the reveal itself was a bit spoiled after the Lost Judgment game was leaked through a PlayStation Store listing.

During the presentation, Ryu Ga Gotaku Studio’s executive director Toshihiro Nagoshi, Yagami actor Takuya Kimura, and Ryu Ga Gotaku Studio producer Kazuki Hosokawa took the stage to speak about the game and discuss how it’s evolved from the original Judgment. It’ll still star Yagami and will take place in Kamurocho again, but the new location of Yokohama has been added for players to explore as well. Yagami will once again become embroiled in court cases and crime in the new game, though details about the story itself are slim at this point.

What we do know are details about the combat and other gameplay systems that have been expanded on. The Crane and Tiger fighting styles from Judgment that focus either on AOE attacks or powerful, one-target assaults will return to allow players to switch up their combat tactics based on the situation they’re in. Yagami will still be a detective in this game which means trailing leads and sleuthing around Kamurocho, but he’s got some new tricks this time. The creators of the game said they wanted to highlight his athleticism and detective abilities while showing him scramble up the sides of buildings, swing from pipes, run along walls, and distract enemies to sneak around them.

The game will involve a high school in some capacity which will give way to more comedic elements, the creators said. Yagami will at one point have to go undercover at the school and befriend those who are enrolled there to accomplish his missions.

There’s a site set up now for the new game, but it appears to be struggling at the moment due to the load from new visitors, so hopefully that’ll clear up soon so you can see more screenshots and details from the game.

Lost Judgment releases for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S on September 24th.