Lost Judgment: Kaito Files review - Rekindling an old flame

Lost Judgment - Kaito Files is something I did not expect to come from RGG Studios, the guys responsible for making the Judgment series of detective thrillers and the long-running Ryu Ga Gotoku series (also known as Yakuza).

Historically, the studio has only made their yearly games, with occasionally multiple protagonists featuring in them and tons of side activity added to them at most.

Kaito Files, however, went the expansion DLC route, and RGG Studios' first attempt at making the story expansion was successful, except for some repeated concerns from their past titles.

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The bodyguard Kaito comes to the rescue!

If Lost Judgment's story went to dark places and showed loopholes in Japanese law and school bullying issues throughout its story, Kaito Files is the usual RGG Studio story that Yakuza fans have come to expect from the team.

Lost Judgment: Kaito Files (Image via Lost Judgment)

It follows the muscle of the Yagami Detective Agency and the partner of the Judgment series protagonist Takayuki Yagami, Masaharu Kaito, who has been taking care of the detective agency in the absence of Yagami.

The story quickly turns into a personal one, as a certain case that Kaito takes makes him revisit his old flame and search for answers while taking care of his supposed son.

As mentioned before, DLC follows a more straightforward storyline with the signature RGG Studio twist and turn sprinkled on top of it, and as per the context, it works. Kaito is not a detective, so giving him a storyline such as this works in his favor.

As for the returning cast, not many people come back, except maybe two characters from Judgment whom players will identify immediately. For new cast members, we get to see a handful of them and are naturally introduced to the storyline.

Unfortunately, this DLC has no side stories like its main-game sibling. So if you were expecting Kaito to do some random, weird errands for folks he meets on the streets, tough luck. The voice acting is as solid as ever, with dual audio available between English and Japanese.

Given my run-ins with the series over the last couple of years, the story warmed up to me, ultimately becoming a fun 8-hour journey that can be shorter if one rushes to finish it.

Underutilized Kamurocho

Booting up the game, my expectations of doing new side-quests and side activities quickly were shattered when the realization hit after the initial 2-hour mark that the team didn't do much in those areas.

Lost Judgment: Kaito Files (Image via SEGA)

Kaito Files is mainly set around the Kamurocho map, which series enjoyers are already accustomed to. It exists primarily to drive the plot of the story forward. Hence, no extra content apart from the side activities that players get to see in Lost Judgment is there in it.

The map still allows players to buy food from convenience stores, eat out at restaurants, and play arcade games at the SEGA arcade. Outside of that, there isn’t much, which is wasted potential on the dev team’s part.

The Ijincho map in its entirety is inaccessible in this game, so if players were expecting to walk down the pavement beside the Sakura River in Ijincho, well, you’d be in for a disappointment.

Primal Skills and disappointing stealth

Unlike Yagami, who uses his detective tools to solve various issues around the city, Kaito has none of that. Instead, the series introduces a new feature called Primal Sense.

Primal sense allows Kaito to sense and see stuff that is difficult to see or track down through naked eyes, and usage varies between three of them: Primal Eyes, Primal Nose, and Primal Ears, which does what it says.

Primal Eyes lets Kaito track down items around the vicinity that are difficult to track through the naked eye. Primal Nose allows him to sniff out items. Finally, Primal Ears allows Kaito to find items thanks to his superhuman hearing.

All three of these tools are used in the detective search mode phase of the game and on the game's actual map. Using them when prompted will reward Kaito with items that range from items to sell off in the pawnshop or gear.

Speaking of the stealth section, it is the same one introduced in Lost Judgment, and just like the original, it still feels like the on-rails section, with limited control given to players, and still ruins the flow of the game. Fortunately, there isn't much of it in DLC.

Overall, the new tools are a great addition specific to Kaito, but once again, they become very situational to use and, outside of particular times, are useless.

Tank and Bruise your enemies up

Kaito Files features two new fighting styles for our protagonists to rip and shred through the mean people walking the streets of Kamurocho and fare against the various boss fights the game has.

While most of Yagami’s fighting style revolved around being quick and agile, Kaito’s fighting style revolved around being an absolute unit of a heavy human being, punching their way out of the issue. As mentioned above, the game features two new styles: Bruiser and Tank.

Bruiser style is the typical punch and kick fighting style Yakuza fans are used to. Sluggish yet smooth, Bruiser is an excellent style for more one-on-one affairs. Bruiser style also allows Kaito to parry his opponent's attacks, and with the EX mode activated, this is one elegant yet rough fighting style to use.

For a group of hooligans, the Tank is the one to tame a group of enemies down. Tank is essentially a modified Beast fighting style of Kiryu from past Yakuza games. Tank fighting style allows Kaito to automatically pick any of the nearby items on the world and beat enemies around him.

Tank moveset also allows him to become a literal immovable rock, and after thorough unlocks, can let him perform wrestling moves when in EX mode.

Both the fighting styles feature new EX moves that look cool to perform. However, only a handful are available, and most of them are locked behind the upgrade screen.

The upgrade screen allows improvement to Kaito’s performance in fights, and each upgrade is unlocked using the XP earned from how well one performs in fisticuffs.

Overall, both the attacks and EX moves fit well with Kaito’s personality throughout the game, and the team certainly has taken the time to refine them.

In Conclusion

Lost Judgment: Kaito Files shows what the team can do with the series if ever Takuya Kimura does not return to reprise his role in the future Judgment, with two new fighting styles to dominate the enemies with, a gripping tale of conspiracy and past love, and Primal Sense taking the front seats.

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The underutilization of the map and the disappointing stealth sequence still leaves a lot to be desired. Overall, this small package of DLC is certainly a home run for RGG Studios' attempt at making their first story expansion and proves that the new team can do more of these in future titles.