By Daire Behan
Fans looking to give Sega's Yakuza franchise Judgment a shot can experience Lost Judgment for free this weekend on Xbox Live Gold.
One of the recent franchises to blow up in popularity is Sega's Yakuza. Over 15 years after its initial launch, Sega's Yakuza series has finally found mainstream success outside of Japan and become one of the publisher's biggest franchises, including its spin-off series Judgment, and it's sequel, Lost Judgment. Xbox fans looking to give Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's latest game a shot are in luck, as Lost Judgment is going to be free for a limited time to Xbox Live Gold subscribers.
Lost Judgment was released in September 2021 and once again follows private detective Takayuki Yagami and his ex-yakuza sidekick Masaharu Kaito as they attempt to solve a sexual assault case linked to high school bullying in Kamurocho and Yokohama. The game returns fans to the world introduced in the original game while also incorporating the open-world location of Yokohama introduced in Yakuza: Like a Dragon, along with a plethora of new mini-games.
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Lost Judgment features a revamped action-based combat system from the original game along with new battle stances for Yagami to utilize. Like its predecessor, the game also features a full English dub on top of the Japanese audio with English subtitles.
It has now been revealed that Lost Judgment will be free for Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate users from today until Sunday night, when players will be forced to purchase the game in order to continue. Thankfully, the full game is being made available for free, meaning save progress will continue once players purchase the game. Risk-takers looking to finish Lost Judgment during its free trial might be in for more than they can bargain however, as Lost Judgment's storyline takes a minimum of 20 hours to complete, and to rush through the game would be to skip all of its side-content and mini-games, which are a staple of Sega's Yakuza series.
The future of the Judgment series has seemed dire since Lost Judgment's release. Despite a DLC storyline starring Kaito preparing for release next week, it appears that Takayuki Yagami's adventures may have come to an end with the second game in the series, as issues regarding the character's actor (Takuya Kimura) arose shortly before the game's release. It appears a disagreement between Sega and Kimura's talent agency that prohibited PC releases of the games might be the reason Ryu Ga Gotoku studio recently revealed that it is creating a new IP with no plans for a Judgment 3.
Lost Judgment is available now for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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