Lost Judgment (2021, SEGA) was not the best game in the long-running Yakuza series. Everyone has their favourites, but I firmly believe that nobody will be saying Lost Judgment is theirs. That’s not because it’s a bad game, exactly, but its poorly-handled, overly-serious story weighs down an enjoyable, action-heavy game that has plenty of other fun, light-hearted diversions. That’s a whole other story, however.
The Kaito Files (2022, SEGA) is a different kettle of fish entirely. Set completely aside from the main Lost Judgment timeline, The Kaito Files gives you control of the titular Masaharu Kaito as he has his own fun little story, finally fleshing out a character that has been a large part of the Judgement games without ever really having any substantial amount of screen time.
Kaito is a quintessential Yakuza character. He’s incredibly strong, built like a brick outhouse, has a strong moral compass, but also possess charisma and charm. He’s basically the perfect man, if you like your men big and burly. In The Kaito Files he now finally gets a chance to add some depth to all that, full of flashbacks and heartstring-tugging stories that Yakuza does so well.
But the key thing about The Kaito Files is that the story is so completely seperated from Lost Judgment that you barely even need to know what came before to understand it. The DLC does presume a certain amount of knowledge - its combat tutorials are pretty light, and it brings back a wide number of side characters from the main game without much of an introduction - but ultimately, you could give the controller to a friend and let them get on with the game without having to provide too much context for the events unfolding on the screen.
Heck, with a few minor changes, The Kaito Files could exist as its own standalone game. And, honestly, it should be its own game. It’s a pretty substantial piece of DLC, giving you freedom to roam around Yakuza’s standard hub city of Kamurocho and engage in a few of the minigames (the arcade, baseball cages, and darts), though there are no substories to play, which is a shame since these are often the true heart of any Yakuza game. And there’s plenty of random fights to get into, with a slimmed down combat system that reduces the number of “styles” to two, so you can get a feel for the fluid, fast-paced fights without the need to learn three seperate fighting styles.
Skills are unlocked at a faster pace, so you can level up incredibly quickly and feel like a powerhouse in a matter of a few hours, rather than after about 40. And while you never have much money, largely because of a deficit of side stories to earn cash from, there’s not really much you need to buy, as you’ll find plenty of gear just through (literally) sniffing it out or chatting with cats with Kaito’s investigation tools (his nose and his ears).
It’s a perfect introduction to the Yakuza series, which otherwise essentially requires that you buy Yakuza 0, a game that’s about 100 hours long. You can’t encourage a friend to buy into a hundred-hour game from the off, no matter how cheap it gets. But a ten-hour game, on the latest Yakuza engine, with a story that only briefly mentions the events from the last seven mainline games? That’s a much easier sell. I could sell that right now. Look:
“Oh you haven’t played a Yakuza game? You should check out The Kaito Files. It’s basically like an extended demo for the rest of the series, so if you hate it, you can bail on the rest of the series. And if you love it, you won’t have had any of the main story spoiled for you, and then you can start from Yakuza 0, and then you’ve got yourself a new hobby, buddy!”
I love the Yakuza series so much, and I want to share it with more people. Let’s lower the barrier to entry dramatically, thanks.