Project Judge is Sega and Yakuza Studio's new intellectual property coming out exclusively for the PlayStation 4 in 2019. This new project was announced a couple of weeks ago and has already become a highly anticipated title among fans of the Yakuza series.
Borrowing a lot of elements from the
Yakuza games,
Project Judge almost looks like a spiritual successor to the Yakuza series, but the game will actually be its own self-contained series—even when it is actually set in the same Kamurocho red-light district.
During a recent interview with IGN, Toshihiro Nagoshi—head of Yakuza studio—mentioned that other characters from the
Yakuza series will not be showing up in
Project Judge.
"
Project Judge’s location and assets might be the same, but the gameplay and story here are drastically different", explained Nagoshi when asked about similarities regarding both franchises.
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I wanted it to be a new game, so while the game is set in Kamurocho, no characters from Yakuza will appear in the game. It could draw people out of this new experience, so that’s why I didn’t want to include them".
Project Judge's producer, Kazuki Hozokawa, adds to this by saying that they couldn't do the Yakuza characters justice with a cameo either, especially given that the story in
Project Judge is very different to that seen in the
Yakuza games.
"
The story we want to tell with Project Judge is very different from the Yakuza series, so there isn’t anything we can do with Yakuza characters within Project Judge. Even if we would make cameo appearances for them, we didn’t feel we could do it in a way that would satisfy the fans, so that’s why we decided not to include any of the Yakuza characters this time".
In all fairness, characters from the
Yakuza series making appearances in
Project Judge, just for the sake of it, would end up being distracting, especially now that the series is over. There is only so much they could do before their new project begins losing its own identity by having characters from their other series show up. On top of this, they would need to make these appearances somewhat relevant to both series so it is for the best that they opted out of it, as
Project Judge already looks like a game worthy of attention in its own right.
SEGA of America is proud to announce that the new courtroom thriller from Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios, Project JUDGE (working title), will release in 2019 on the PlayStation®4. Project JUDGE will feature the voice acting talents of Japanese actor/artist Takuya Kimura as the game's main protagonist, Takayuki Yagami.
Project JUDGE will be available for the PlayStation 4 in 2019.