Dengeki Online published a lengthy interview withJudgment’s Game Director Kouji Yoshida and Planning Supervisor Masao Kinosaki. The interview covers nearly every aspect of Yakuza Studio’s detective game, with multiple major spoilers. As such I’ve only given it a speed read for now, and should definitely read it more extensively after actually playing the game.
Yoshida and Kinosaki spoke about how they wrote the main story, the side missions, and characters. They also mentioned the game’s graphics and its usage of the Dragon Engine, and multiple anecdotes regardingJudgment’sdevelopment. They explained why and howJudgmentis quite different fromYakuzagames, and how they’d like newcomers who playedJudgmenttry out theYakuzaseries as well.
Lastly, they momentarily spoke about the upcoming western version ofJudgment, with the reporter from Dengeki asking Yoshida if it’ll be any different from the Japanese version. This is Yoshida’s answer:
There are no changes to the game’s content in the western version. The only differences are how we’re recording an English dub, and all of the lip synchronization is being remade to fit it.
For those wondering, this pretty much means the game won’t be changed or censored is the west. I don’t own a PlayStation 4 so sadly I haven’t played the game’s Japanese version myself yet, butJudgmentfeatures things like butt naked men or women in sexy maid or bunny girls outfits. In short, despite being a PlayStation 4 exclusive released long after the “Sony censors Japanese games” incident started, it has the usual kind of sexual fanservice you’d expect in most Japanese games. Same for other Japanese games which released at the end of 2018 exclusively on PlayStation 4, such asThe Legend of HeroesTrails of Cold Steel IVorGod Eater 3, who have their share of sexy costumes and female characters with big fat anime breasts bouncing at every movement. While there have beenmultiple casesof gameschanged or censoredseemingly because of Sony these past months, including gamesonly releasing in Japan, every single Japanese game is far from being affected. Claiming Sony became trigger happy with censorship when it comes to sexual fanservice in Japanese games couldn’t be more wrong. Same with claiming that some Japanese games on PlayStation 4 have recently been delayed because of this. Games get delayed all the time.
As such, I don’t find this piece of news surprising and I wasn’t expectingJudgmentto be changed in the west. When I have the time in the following weeks, I’ll probably expand my point of view on this controversy in an editorial.
As already reported when the game’s firstEnglish trailer was released, the western version ofJudgmentwill add an English dub along with the original Japanese dub. Nice to know Sega’s putting real effort in it, and those choosing to play with the English dub won’t be stuck with bad lip synchronization.
We’ve coveredJudgmentextensively until the game released in Japan on December 13. You can read about themultiple charactersinthe game, read our translation of thecast video interviews and making-of videosfor the game’s motion and facial capture, and read about some of the game’s systems like thefriends and girlfriend system.
Judgment, known in Japan officially asJudge Eyes Shinigami no Yuigonand unofficially as KimuTaku ga Gotoku, releases in the west sometime in Summer 2019, exclusively on Sony’s PlayStation 4.
