PROJECT JUDGE
Ex-lawyer turned detective stars in the studio’s new game
The latest project from Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, the developer behind the Yakuza series, takes a step onto the cleaner side of the law. Called Judge Eyes in Japan, with the working English title of Project Judge, the game follows a defence attorney turned private detective, Takayuki Yagami, as he investigates brutal crimes.
You might think it’d be hard for Yagami to top Kazuma Kiryu, Yakuza’s strongman with a heart of gold, as a lead character, but thanks to the casting of Takuya Kimura, AKA Kimutaku, it’s looking possible. Suffice to say, if that name means something to you, then this is definitely the game for you. If not (and you’d be forgiven), rest assured that Kimura is a very big deal in Japan, starring in many TV shows, as well as being a member of the boy band SMAP. He also lent his voice to the titular Howl in Howl’s Moving Castle. Kimura has spent a long time helping to shape his character, and with things like the opening sequence and theme music by rock band Alexandros, plus fantastic graphics, you could easily mistake Project Judge for an actual J-Drama.
GRUDGE AND JURY
Having gone hands-on with the demo, we can confirm that Yagami is
YOU COULD EASILY MISTAKE PROJECT JUDGE FOR AN ACTUAL J-DRAMA.
a character you can immediately get behind. Having been disgraced as a defence attorney when a successful defendant was immediately accused of a new murder, he now works as a private detective, forever haunted by the one case he couldn’t crack.
But what he will be cracking: skulls, with martial arts. After all, Project Judge is developed by the team behind Yakuza, so fights still play a big part. They control like a refined version of Yakuza 6’s combat, with added style switching making a welcome return from Yakuza 0/Kiwami. Yagami’s a brutal and quick fighter, with all sorts of ridiculous moves. While the story might seem much more serious in tone than some of the goofier bits in Yakuza, there are still going to be plenty of out-there moments in Project Judge, with one Japanese screenshot showing Yagami fighting
using a conspicuously shaped “massager” as a weapon, and things like pinball parlours and drone racing making appearances.
Unlike Yakuza, though, which is predominantly fighting, Project Judge includes some refined investigative elements to reflect Yagami’s role as a detective. The mission we take on in the demo has us tracking down a suspect. At first, we search for him outside a hostess club, where we must match his features from a checklist against a bunch of people who for some reason look quite similar. After that, we tail him, taking cover behind neon signs and checking our phone to look casual. As we watch him make a shady deal in an alley, we investigate key parts of the scene from a distance. Spotting us, he runs, and the chase that follows feels a lot smoother than similar sequences in Yakuza. While we control Yagami fully, he still has to complete QTEs in certain sections to leap over objects or avoid things being thrown at him. Naturally, the scene ends with us giving the man a vicious beating, and hitting him with a bin.
SAME-UROCHO
In some ways Project Judge feels like a step forward for the studio’s Yakuza-type projects, but there’s no getting around how close to Yakuza it feels. The game even takes place in that series’ main setting, the Kamurocho red-light district in Tokyo. The map is basically exactly the same. Though perhaps that leaves the door open to fun cameos from Yakuza characters?
Given how close what we’ve played feels to actual Japanese TV, it’ll have to make up the difference in tone, and in its characters. And we have yet to see just how deep or complex the investigation elements go. At the moment, Kimura’s performance as Yagami is enough to capture our hearts, and we’re already invested in seeing where the mystery leads, and what more the studio has in store. Project Judge releases in Japan this December, and in the UK in 2019.