Yakuza devs announce new IP “Project Judge”, Coming 2019

The developers behind SEGA’s long-running action-adventure Yakuza franchise announced their newest project. Project Judge is the working title of a new IP and will release next year for the Playstation 4. You can take a first look at the new game in the announcement trailer which sets up the story.

Toshihiro Nagoshi and his team teased the announcement of their new IP previously and today we receive extensive details about it. A lot more than we expected to be honest, as the first look at Project Judge comes in form of a long story trailer and an accompanying gameplay trailer which both set up the world, setting and characters while also showing off the gameplay.

Project Judge is once again set in the seedy underbelly of society where criminals from all walks of life are exploiting, thieving and the usual stuff. We take role of Takayuki Yagami, a former star lawyer turned detective whose goal is to clean the streets from bad guys. The story trailer teases a mysterious main story revolving around a string of vicious murders. One of these sent our protagonist on a path of becoming a tough detective on the streets, hanging up his lawyer coat. So, the story is personal.

Rest assured if this sounds a lot more gritty than what you are used from the Yakuza games however, as we see a similarly goofy gameplay elements in the gameplay trailer. Besides regular detective work one would assume like tailing suspects, collecting evidence, photographing suspicious activities etc., we also get to witness over the top brawling, disguising ourselves at times with hilarious costumes, mini-games like pinball machines, drone racing and VR games.

The DNA of an enthralling and serious story, coupled with seemingly inappropriate side activities and melee combat and more, leave no doubt of Nagoshi and his team’s fingerprint.

Stay tuned to learn more about Project Judge.