RGG Studio programmer Hitoshi Iizawa receives excellence award for Model 2/3 emulation in Like A Dragon games

Esteemed Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio programmer Hitoshi Iizawa is being given an excellence award at the latest CEDEC, or Computer Entertainment and Developers Conference, in Japan for his work on emulation of Model 2 and 3 arcade games in the Like A Dragon series. This news was shared yesterday on Twitter by Lost Judgement director Yutaka Ito and is also being shown on the CEDEC website’s top awards list. Yutaka Ito’s tweet was also transcribed by known Twitter translator Gosokyuu.

Here’s what the CEDEC had to say about this honor on their website, translated to English:

The committee commended the expertise and uniqueness of the efforts to reproduce games for dedicated arcade hardware at the dawn of 3DCG games, as well as the fact that through the commercialization of these games, past arcade games that were often buried in the past were brought to the attention of today’s players.

Ito also had more to say about what went into the development of the emulation for these games and the difficulties of it on Twitter. You can read more about that past the break.

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio launches countdown website for Judgment Day

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio has launched a countdown website for “Judgment Day” with a stream scheduled for May 7th, 2021. While there isn’t much to be seen on the site, there are brief cutscene clips from Judgment: Remastered below the website. This could possibly related to the recent trademark that was posted on the Chizai Watch website titled “Lost Judgment”.

What will Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio reveal on that day? Could it be a sequel to Judgment? Let us know in the comments below.

SEGA trademarks Lost Judgment

News has dropped that SEGA has recently trademarked a intellectual property name for “Lost Judgment” on the Chizai Watch website. So far, we are not sure if it’s a sequel to Judgment (aka Judge Eyes: Shinigami no Yuigon in Japan), a Yakuza spin-off action game developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio which involves a lawyer-turned-detective, Takayuki Yagami, as he and his allies explore a case involving corpses whose eyes have been removed, or possibly a brand new title?

We’ll keep everyone posted as we get more news on “Lost Judgment” from SEGA soon. What do you all think this new trademark IP could be?

[Sources: Chizai Watch, Yakuza Fan]

Judgment Remastered announced for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Stadia

Judgment is a great game, one that I think any fan of the Yakuza franchise should give a try. While I enjoyed most of the game, there were moments within the game that could have used polished (one of those scenes is actually shown a bit in this trailer), so I hope the newly announced “Judge Eyes Remastered” (Judge Eyes being the Japanese name) fixes those issues. The new remastered version will cost you $39.99. This will also mark the debut for the game outside a Sony platform, with it being on Xbox and Stadia (who cares about that one, right?).

This is also the first time a RGG Studio game has gotten a world wide release date on the same day in Japan with the rest of the world. The game is set to come out on April 21st, 2021! Judgment Remastered is said to run at 4K at 60fps, but also include all the DLC on the disc. Hit the jump for the press release from SEGA:

Toshihiro Nagoshi talks about why SEGA pulled Judgment sales, no sequel planned

SEGA’s Creative Officer Toshihiro Nagoshi talked more about why he voted to pull Judgment from Japanese store shelves after actor Pierre Taki was arrested on a cocaine charge.

During the latest Sega Nama stream, Nagoshi went more into why he voted to delay the game he worked as a director on:

“There is no correct way to deal with the situation. In the end, I also cast my vote for halting sales. Some thought and pointed out “This is going too far” and “It’s unrelated to the game itself,” and I don’t think those opinions are unreasonable either—I can see it from both sides. So when it comes to why I voted for halting sales, it’s because it was just after release. If it was an older game released a considerable amount of time ago, our priorities may have been different, but when it was something that had been released only several months prior, I think it’s a different conversation.”
He also talked about news outlets discussing that SEGA already had Judgment 2, 3 planned out which he said:

No Western delay for Judgment as SEGA opts to replace Pierre Taki

There was good news for those waiting for Ryu Ga Gotoku’s latest title Judgment today as SEGA confirmed on twitter that the PlayStation 4 detective adventure is still set to hit Western shores on June 25th 2019. There was some worries that Pierre Taki’s arrest on hard drugs charges was going to delay the game but the publisher came out today to assure fans the game will still be arriving on time. On twitter SEGA had this to say:

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the character model and Japanese voice for the character of Kyohei Hamura will be adjusted for the Western release of Judgment, launching on June 25, 2019. Screenshots and trailers featuring Hamura have been temporarily removed from all of SEGA’s official channels. Updated versions of these materials will be made available at a later date.

The bad news is obviously Taki will no longer be part of this game due to his run in with the law. If you’re familiar with Taki’s work how does this make you feel, or if you think of a suitable replacement, why not drop a message in our comment section?

Check out gameplay glimpse of Judgment with it’s Features Trailer

SEGA has uploaded another gameplay video of Judgment today. This time taking a look at what you can do in the game in the latest Features Trailer in english dubbing by showcasing Judgment’s unique detective gameplay that has the player solving mysteries around Kamurocho by searching for clues, catching targets in Quick Timed Events, evolved combat system, minigames involving drones and so much more. Here is a video description for Judgment

“We’re gonna chase the truth as far as we can.” Kamurocho isn’t exactly known for being the safest place in Japan, but even for this red-light district, a string of violent serial murderers has the entire city on edge. It’s up to private detective Takayuki Yagami and his partner Kaito to track down the truth using whatever tools they can. Get a look at just some of those tools (including a drone, lockpicks, and the muscles of a huge former yakuza member, to name just a few) in our new Features Trailer!

Get ready to uncover the truth when Judgment launches in the West on June 25, 2019! If you would like to hear the Japanese dub of the same trailer, you can check it out with this link provided here.

Judgment Localisation Trailer feat mulit-language subtitle options

SEGA has uploaded a new video showing off Judgment aka Judge Eyes: Shinigami no Yuigon in Japan, multi-language subtitle options. Judgment will not only have dual audio for players to choose English and Japanese languages, the game will also give players the option to choose fully localised subtitles such as English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. It’s amazing to see the localization team at SEGA working very hard to please the Yakuza fanbase around the world. SEGA has also stated that there will be more news on Judgment soon, hopefully a playable demo at E3. Judgment is set for release worldwide around Q2/Q3 2019 for the Playstation 4.

Excited to play Judgment? Please let us know in the comments below!

SEGA’s Judgment debuts third on the Japanese sale charts

SEGA’s Judge Eyes (Judgment in America) came out in Japan this month and now we have the games first weeks sales. The game came in third place on the chart behind Super Smash Bros Ultimate (still on top) and the newly released God Eater 3. While both these established franchise got the two top spots, Judgment did pretty well for a new IP selling 148,773 units in just three days. For example God Eater 3 sold 150,523, so SEGA was just 2,000 sales away from topping a well established Japanese brand. Judgment will hit English speaking countries, with a English dub, this summer.

Hit the jump to see the full media create sales charts starting on 12/10/18 through 12/16/18:

Project Judge being called “Judgment” in the West, coming Summer 2019 and will include an English dub!


Judge Eyes (in Japan) got its official name revealed in the West, the game will be called “Judgment” in America and Europe. We also found out that the game will release in English speaking countries this upcoming summer. Huge news if you are a Yakuza fanatic, like yours truly.

One of the bigger surprises? The new trailer features a English dub. Yup! Check it out. I kinda joked about this game getting a English dub after Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise got one. Nice to have options.

Project Judge’s prosecution team revealed

SEGA’s upcoming Project Judge is set to hit Japanese, Asian and South Korean retail shelves next month, so SEGA is pulling out all the reveals before then. Today SEGA have revealed the game’s prosecution team, which includes Yagami’s (the main game protagonist) former girlfriend Mafuyu Fujii and a couple more main characters that will be vital to the in-game story.

The following was translated for this 4Gamer article by Siliconera.

SEGA News Bits Extra: Q&A and House of the Dead Mini Game in Project Judge

It’s the first week of the month, which means a preview of SEGA News Bits Extra! Extra is a weekly series for our Patreon supporters where we discuss news not seen on the SEGA News Bits videos. New to the monthly preview is the return of SEGAbits Q&A! All Patreon supporters get question priority, and after that we may dip into the Twitter, YouTube and SEGAbits.com comments sections for random picks.

This week we discuss the House of the Dead style mini game in Project Judge as well as an easier way to get online with the SEGA Dreamcast. Thank you to our Patreon community for the support and consider joining the community yourself if you enjoy our content!

Judge Eyes extended trailer reveals playable House of the Dead inspired game

SEGA has unleashed the new extended trailers for Judge Eyes (Project JUDGE), one for the story mode and the other for the gameplay. In the gameplay one SEGA showed off a ton of different things you’ll be able to play through, one of the sections was the arcade games that will be included in Project Judge showing off Motor Raid (which we knew was coming already), but they also gave us a glimpse at The House of the Dead play spot (5m28s in). The question now is if that is actually House of the Dead or maybe a made up in-universe mini-game that is influenced by House of the Dead.

So am I going crazy or is this not one of the past House of the Dead games? One of the biggest giveaways is the art style and the UI. The lives used in Judge Eyes is hearts when in The House of the Dead series they use torches. Maybe this miini-game will play like House of the Dead but be its own thing? Maybe it’ll be based on Yakuza: Dead Souls?

 

SEGA News Bits: Fighting Vipers & Motor Raid SEGA Arcade Games In Project Judge

It was recently revealed that the upcoming Project Judge, developed by the studio behind the Yakuza series, will contain playable SEGA arcade games. These games include Fighting Vipers and the rare racer Motor Raid. On this SEGA News Bits we discuss this news and what we can expect from the ports.

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SEGA reveals Tokyo Game Show 2018 line-up


SEGA seems to be going all in at this year’s Tokyo Game Show 2018, what with the announcement of the new IP Project JUDGE (Judge Eyes in Japan), its starting to seem like SEGA finally has a impressive line-up for Japanese fans. But not only that, SEGA is publishing a bunch of Western titles for Japanese audience and some of the games that will have the SEGA logo over there are titles you least expect. It seems that we won’t be getting Sakura Wars information this year, which is a bummer. Check out SEGA’s full Tokyo Game Show 2018 line-up after the jump: