Project Judge is Not Yakuza. But It’s Pretty Yakuza

It was only a little over two weeks ago when Yakuza series director and producer Toshihiro Nagoshi confirmed that Sega’s Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio was working on “something truly different,” due to be revealed sometime in September. (Note that “Ryu Ga Gotoku” is the Japanese name for the Yakuza series, which literally translates to “Like a Dragon.”) Thus far, the only non-Yakuza IP this studio has made is Binary Domain. But a project like that was unlikely to be made again thanks to how it sold, so it was tough to predict what this could be. So, everyone who saw the news lowered their expectations.

Turns out, people didn’t lower them enough.

Nagoshi revealed the project at the Sony LineUp Showcase, which is known as Judge Eyes: Shinigami no Yoikon in Japan and Asian territories, and tentatively as Project Judge in western territories. Though it retained the Yakuza series’ presentation format in using a realistic presentation style and a modern Japan setting, it seemed like a completely new IP from the first two trailers. Players will control a detective who solves mysteries, which will involve gathering clues and chasing suspects, two gameplay features that weren’t a focus in any of this studio’s prior projects. Combine those with the courtroom scenes shown, and this appeared to be the result of throwing the concepts from Yakuza and Ace Attorney franchises in a blender.

Guess what? That expectation also should have been lowered.

Upon closer inspection, the city depicted in several scenes of both the story trailer and gameplay trailer resembled Yakuza mainstay location Kamurocho, a semi-fictional version of Tokyo’s Kabukicho district. The combat also looked similar to the Yakuza games outside a few modifications, and it also inherited the series’ trademark sense of humor. Sega later confirmed the city shown actually was Kamurocho, and that it takes place in the same universe as the existing Yakuza games. Either the translation of Nagoshi’s statement from two weeks ago was inaccurate, or he seriously oversold this. But it’s hard to be upset when the game looks so good.

The protagonist of the game will be Takayuki Yagami, a private detective who was previously a successful lawyer, until the client he got acquitted allegedly murdered another person. Getting someone acquitted may not sound like that big a deal to anyone in a western country, but keep in mind Japan has an absurdly high conviction rate.

Working along with him is Ryuzo Genda, an older lawyer who still looks after Yagami despite his switch in professions. Yagami is also acquainted with Kazuya Ayabe, a corrupt cop who helps with crime solving for the right price. Mitsuru Kuroikawa is another acquaintance, a detective with the Tokyo Police Department’s Organized Crime Division who’s known for having one of the highest successful arrest rates in Kamurocho. The last currently-revealed character is Kyohei Hamura, captain of the Matsugane family, a subsidiary to the Tojo Clan — yes, that Tojo Clan.

The characters introduced thus far are all being played by well-known actors in Japan, with the character models being based on their likenesses. For instance, popular Japanese actor (and former boy band member) Takuya Kimura is playing the protagonist. The Yakuza games started featuring more characters played by actors over time, like the three lieutenants in Yakuza 0, and Yakuza 6’s Toru Hirose being portrayed by Beat Takeshi. This marks the first time it’s happening for the main characters in a game developed by this studio.

The combat system is very similar to Yakuza’s, including the addition of dramatic “Heat” attacks. Yagami, however, is a little more flexible in battle compared to Kazuma Kiryu and company. Project Judge will add detective elements like identifying suspects, tailing them, and chase sequences, all of which are used in the demo uploaded to Japanese PlayStation Network shortly after Sony’s conference concluded. These additions will be good for mixing up the Yakuza formula, assuming they’re well-implemented. The game will also have detective side missions that will use some features. Note that no courtroom segments are shown in the gameplay trailer Sega uploaded, meaning the scene shown in the story trailer might have been a flashback.

The gameplay video also showed how this title will inherit the Yakuza series’ sense of humor, which calmed down anyone concerned about this being too serious. Yagami will have to disguise himself in several outfits for certain missions, one of which is a goofy-looking Dracula-like one. It will also be stuffed with minigames and arcade games, enough to likely give you the feeling that you’ll never finish it.

A remarkable aspect about its announcement is how it was confirmed for a western release simultaneously with its reveal in Japan and Asia. It wasn’t that long ago when we had to nervously wait and see if newer Yakuza games would make their way outside Japan, so it’s a little mind-blowing to see games from this team being announced for a worldwide release simultaneously — Binary Domain notwithstanding, since that project was clearly targeted towards the worldwide audience from the start.

Project Judge is due for a Japanese release on December 13th, meaning Sega will provide regular updates on its features and other characters over the next three months. It was initially surprising to see how soon it’s coming after the reveal, but the reasons were understandable after they were shown to be using Kamurocho again. The western release will arrive sometime in 2019.