I have to agree with you about Lost Judgment— as much as I like how it handled the topic of school bullying, I don’t like how it kind of pushes the other characters to the background compared to the first game. Plus, at some point, there was a lot of things going on that made it hard to follow, compared to how well-paced the first game was
Plus, I’m not a fan of how they treated Hoshino as the butt of the jokes, even though he had amazing character development in the first game…
Sorry if this is too much! I just wanted to say that I totally agreed with you!
Yeah I'm totally on the same page! The first game just felt more noir, too? I really liked how the case was tied to Yagami giving it extra stakes, and I liked how the cast played into the story in their own ways, this time around its just been a bit too disjointed? The beginning of the game when Kaito, Sugiura and Tsukumo were all together was good but as soon as they mostly fell off as the plot progressed I definitely felt their absence- I like Yagami and I think he's a pretty well crafted protag but unlike Kiryu or Ichiban I think he really needs someone like Kaito or Sugiura or even Saori around to make him shine, otherwise he can be a little bit dry? Having Kaito bring some levity and companionship in the first game particularly was really nice and I miss it!
But yeah! Gameplay itself is really fun and I love skateboarding, it's probably my favourite minigame- the school bullying plot has been handled pretty good as well and I appreciate it but it's def not quite as linear and intruiging as the first game, I hope *if* there's a third entry in the series they include more things for the other characters to do and embrace the noir aspect a little more!