Players are tasked with following the clues and discovering the secrets hidden throughout the school’s halls while participating in the spirit of the high school through experiencing the curriculum and clubs the school has to offer. Ryu Ga Gotoku seamlessly integrates grounded and energetic combat with deep undercover sleuthing, hitting-the-beat investigations, and classic deductive reasoning.
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In the same vein as the later parts of the Yakuza series, such as Like A Dragon, Lost Judgment integrates an RPG system when it comes to leveling up Yagami’s stats. From fighting in Kamurocho’s streets to investigating crimes, the skill tree covers a wide variety of bases that players may find overwhelming at first. However, players may find that some skill trees are more useful to allocate points to than others.
10 Boosting The Basics
When perusing Yagami’s skills, players should first level up the basics of the character. This includes investing in increasing the health and attack of the protagonist to make fights a bit easier to get through. Under the ability tab, players can allocate points to Boost Health and Boost Attack, respectively. Increasing the amount of damage the player can deal and how much they can take are basics for any RPG adventure.
There are a few levels to each ability, so the player might want to invest their points at the beginning to get the basic stats to level 3 to make Yagami heartier and more combatively effective to start with.
9 Boost EX Gauge
After allocating points to basic stats, the player should immediately scoop up the Boost Ex Gauge in the stats section. This skill will make it easier to build up the EX Gauge.
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This gauge builds as Yagami attacks enemies but with this skill, the gauge will fill faster, and sometimes can prove to be what the player needs in a pinch to deliver special attacks when handling trickier combat scenarios in the game.
8 Battle Bonus
Players that want to unlock as many skills as possible and boost them as high as they can should focus on obtaining Battle Bonus as soon as possible. Skill Points, or SP, can be hard to come by at the start of the game, and Battle Bonus earns 50% more SP after every battle.
Kamurocho’s corners are littered with street thugs that are just begging to be messed up with Yagami’s martial arts. The Battle Bonus skill will give Yagami, and the player, more bang for their buck with every encounter, enabling them to spend more points in the skill tree.
7 Boost Grip
More of a quality of life improvement, Boost Grip allows Yagami to have a tighter handle on the situation…physically. Akin to Link from Breath of the Wild there is a certain amount of time (or stamina) that the player can grip onto things.
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This skill generally makes traversal easier and far less annoying as Yagami has more time to grip and climb, opening up further areas to explore with newly gained access to scale buildings.
6 Lucky Gourmand
Healing consumables can be expensive in Lost Judgment, therefore there are many skills open to Yagami to take advantage of the food within the game; Lucky Gourmand is one such skill. On top of saving the player money, eating from the Lucky menu may come with many hidden upsides once the kill is employed.
Lucky Gourmand increases the chances of discovering a special meal that will subsequently enhance Yagami’s abilities, albeit temporarily. Indulging in one of these lucky meals can have certain boons for the player earning more SP for a short time or even increasing the chance of finding rare materials when patrolling the streets.
5 Conscious Eater
Eating is a more cost-efficient way to replenish Yagami’s health rather than spending money on healing consumables in the game. Eating food is also a readily accessible option with that ability for players to consume before, during, and after combat has taken place, so having snacks on hand is always a good option.
The Conscious Eater skill boosts how much health is recovered with every meal, starting at 10% and increasing per level the player has points. Therefore, the higher the level the more reliable snacks will be as a source of rejuvenation.
4 Master Of Deception
Apart from Lost Judgment’s combat, the player is also called upon to tail subjects, act stealthily, and make sure that Yagami avoids being noticed while on the case. Failing to remain undercover can force a restart of a tailing mission and may grow to become tedious.
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The Master Of Deception skill can remedy such frustrating segments. This skill allows some breathing room, providing more time for Yagami to meld in with the crowd and evade being spotted.
3 Mental Momentum
On top of players having to keep an eye on blending in when trailing a target, they must ensure that the suspect does not wander too far off and is lost in the chaos of street life.
Mental Momentum is a handy skill during this time as it extends the timer which counts down when the player is too far away from the suspect. The extra five seconds Mental Momentum allows can be the difference between catching up or losing out altogether.
2 Photo Op Sense
A detective is nothing without his camera, and Yagami is no exception. In addition to tailing suspects, part of a detective’s duty is to chronicle evidence by taking pictures of the criminal in the act. The photography missions can be difficult, but with Photo Op Sense taking a snapshot of the scandal will be a lot easier.
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Photo opportunities are about the player looking for the perfect moment to catch the perpetrator red-handed. These skills will provide feedback by vibrating the controller moments before the perfect shot is lined up.
1 Photo Master
Even when the Photo Op Sense skill is activated that does not mean Yagami will suddenly land Pulitzer-winning photos. The Photo Master skill can be that extra edge to complete the mission.
The Photo Master increases the time windows for capturing the evidence, making the photography missions that much easier to complete.
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