Judgment (video game)

Judgment
Developer	Ryū ga Gotoku Studio
Publisher	Sega
Platforms	Luna, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Stadia, Windows, Xbox Series X/S
Released	Judgment PS4 JP: December 13, 2018 PS4 WW: June 25, 2019 Judgment Remastered PS5, Stadia, Xbox Series X/S WW: April 23, 2021 Windows WW: September 14, 2022 Luna WW: December 16, 2021
Added to Museum	PS4: May 4, 2019 PS4 DLC: February 12, 2022

Judgment, known in Japan as Judge Eyes: Shinigami no Yuigon (Judge Eyes：死神の遺言, "Judge Eyes: The Reaper's Will"), is a-spinoff game in the Like a Dragon series. It was released on PlayStation 4 in Japan on December 13, 2018, and in North America, Europe and Australia on June 25, 2019.

Plot

In 1998, fifteen-year-old Takayuki Yagami's father, a defense attorney, got an acquittal for a client accused of murder. The victim's father sought revenge and murdered both of Yagami's parents. Yagami was not home at the time, and he blamed himself as he thought that he might have been able to save his parents if he had been there. As a result of his depression over the murder of his parents, Yagami became reckless and got into fights with thugs around Kamurocho.

He got in many fights with Masaharu Kaito, a member of the Matsugane branch of the Tojo clan, and lost them all. Patriarch Matsugane was impressed that Yagami never stopped fighting, even when he knew that he would most likely lose. He saw himself in Yagami and wanted him to make better choices in life than he had. Matsugane took Yagami under his wing and paid for him to go to law school to become a lawyer. Ryuzo Genda, a friend of Matsugane, hired Yagami to work at the Genda Law Office, even before he finished law school. As a result of this, Yagami viewed Matsugane and Genda as father figures.

Yagami did manage to get his law degree, however, at first, he didn't get many clients and lost at trial for most of them. However, in 2015, he successfully got a man, Shinpei Okubo, acquitted of murder charges. In a country with a 99% conviction rate, this was considered impressive and people began calling up the Genda law office requesting Yagami specifically. However, after Shinpei Okubo was accused and convicted of stabbing his girlfriend to death and burning down her apartment, Yagami quit his job at the Genda Law Office and quit his life as a lawyer as well.

Yagami became a private detective, opening up the Yagami Detective Agency in Komurocho. In 2017, the Matsugane office was robbed at gunpoint. Kaito was the only person there, and he opened the safe and gave the money to the robber. Because of this, Kaito had to be punished, and he was going to cut off his finger to repent. However, Patriarch Matsugane intervened, keeping Kaito from losing a finger. Nevertheless, Kaito was banished from life as a Yakuza and was forced to become a civilian. After this, Kaito became an employee of the Yagami Detective Agency.

Later that year, Two Kyorei clan members had been murdered and had their eyes gouged out. On December 3, 2017, at around 10 PM, Kyohei Hamura, the captain of the Matsugane branch of the Tojo Clan, roughed up a Kyorei clan member. The next day, at some time after midnight, he ended up becoming the third Kyorei clan member to be murdered in the same way. In 2018, the Tokyo police had amassed video evidence of the 10 PM assault. As a result, even though he had alibis for the other two murders, the police arrested Hamura. Because the Genda Law Office handled all legal issues for Patriarch Matsugane, they agreed to represent Hamura, and Yagami was hired to find evidence that proved that Hamura was innocent.

Yagami managed to find video evidence and witness testimony that proved that Hamura was at the Goten Sauna from midnight until the trains began running again in the morning, and the judges ruled that Hamura was innocent. However, Yagami was convinced that, despite the fact that he had not killed the man himself, Hamura was involved somehow. So, he concluded that the real killer had gone into hiding, and nicknamed him the mole.

Kaito had connections with a dirty cop named Kazuya Ayabe who sold information obtained using police resources and ran an illegal underground casino. Kaito introduced Yagami to Ayabe, and Ayabe pointed Yagami in the direction of a hostess who might have information about the mole. However, when Yagami arrived at her work to question her, he was confronted by Hamura. Hamura told Yagami that the hostess had left Tokyo, and he threatened him in an attempt to get him to stop his investigation.

Versions

Following the arrest of the Japanese actor Pierre Taki, who played Kyohei Hamura in the original release of Judge Eyes, over accusations of cocaine use, Sega pulled the original release from Japanese store shelves on March 13, 2019.

The actor's voice was replaced with the voice of actor Miou Tanaka and the actor's likeness was replaced with one not based on a real individual.

The altered version of Kyohei Hamura was in all western releases. The version of Judge Eyes with the altered version of Kyohei Hamura was released in Japan on July 18, 2019.

Playable games

At Club Sega, there are playable Sega arcade games available.

• Fantasy Zone
• Fighting Vipers
• Kamurocho of the Dead (House of the Dead in Kamurocho)
• Motor Raid
• OutRun (In Yagami's office only in the remastered version)
• Puyo Puyo (Only in the PlayStation 4 version)
• Space Harrier
• UFO Catcher 8
• Virtua Fighter 2 (Only in the remastered version)
• Virtua Fighter 2.1 (Only in the remastered version)
• Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown

In addition, there are offices, gambling parlors, casinos, cabaret clubs, arenas, and bars that allow you to play various parlor games and gamble.

• Baccarat
• Batting center
• Blackjack
• Billiards (4-ball, 8-ball, 9-ball, rotation, and puzzle pool)
• Bowling
• Cee-Lo
• Chō-Han
• Darts (301, 501, 701, 901, cricket, and count-up)
• Koi-Koi
• Mahjong
• Oicho-Kabu
• Pinball (Only in the PlayStation 4 version)
• Poker
• Roulette
• Shogi