After several teases and even a PlayStation Network leak, Sega officially announcedLost Judgment, asequel to the popularYakuzaspin-offJudgment. Players will again step into the shoes of Takayuki Yagami, with a few new twists. He will get a third combat style known as “Snake” for counterattacks against armed enemies, a “School Stories” system, and more, among other returning features.
This time around, theLost Judgmentdetective will be investigating Akihiro Ehara. After being accused of sexual harassment, a seeming murder takes place, and thus the story begins. Notably, though, the game won’t just be set in Kamurocho, Tokyo, as the original was, and as such, it becomes plausible that Takayuki Yagami andYakuza: Like a Dragon’s Ichiban Kasuga interact in some way.
RELATED:Lost Judgment Isn’t Planning a PC Release Yet
Yakuza and Judgment Timeline
First, it’s worth looking at the settings and timelines of the games.Judgmentis set in Kamurocho, Tokyo, in December 2018, whileYakuza: Like a Dragontakes place in the Yokohama district of Isezaki Ijincho in 2019. As many know, he is absent for 18 years after taking a fall in 2001, and thus his story kicks off. It seems that, just as Kiryu was the face of the franchise for a long time, Ichiban Kasuga is the new leading man over thenext decade ofYakuzacontent.Judgment, overall, seems just as important as this subfranchise will retain the action elements of the franchise, while the main one explores the RPG set-up ofLike a Dragon.
Lost Judgmentis set some time after the first game, in December 2021 to be exact. Furthermore,Lost Judgmentdoesn’t restrict the player to Kamurocho, but instead expands to the Yokohama district of Isezaki Ijincho too. As such, with the game now crossing into a new, yet familiar, city of the franchise, it only makes sense to have the two leading men ofYakuzameet up somehow. The last players see ofIchiban Kasuga inYakuza: Like a Dragon, after all, he is choosing to stay in Ijincho and watch over the city. It’s unlikely then that he’ll just be explained away when the game is just two years after his game.
Furthermore, the franchise has already established precedent for such cameos. InYakuza: Like a Dragon, Kiryuhas a significant cameo in the game in which he passes the torch to Ichiban Kasuga. It won’t likely be as dramatic, but with all of this in mind, a cameo inLost Judgmentmakes a ton of sense.
Lost Judgmentreleases September 24 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
