As I said in my Lost Judgment review, I feel like Kaito was pretty much wasted in that game, and so when I saw that he had his own DLC story I rushed to buy it, and thankfully it didn't disappoint. The Kaito Files, while short and a tad predictable, has a really interesting story that delves into our favorite gorilla's past and private life, which is really welcomed. Characters like Mikiko and specially Jun are incredibly fun and charming, and I hope we see more of them in the next entries. As for the gameplay, this DLC offers us two different fighting styles: bruiser, which is basically a brawler style but with the ability to repel attacks if you time yours correctly, and tank, which is pretty much beast from Yakuza 0 and is incredibly broken. There's not much else to say about The Kaito Files, it's a solid DLC that's necessary to play if you're a fan of Kaito.

A fun little DLC side story for Lost Judgment, where Kaito takes on a case that has a bit of a personal stake on it.

Honestly, with how depressing and heartwrenching stories that RGG have been producing lately (which isn't a bad thing), it was a nice breath of fresh air to see where The Kaito Files was going in the story.

Short and sweet, but really builds upon who Kaito is as a person, and how much he's changed since he's been with the Yagami Detective Agency. Technically/gameplay-wise, it isn't so different from the Lost Judgment base game, however, some parts of the game felt a little too long when you're using your detective/stealth modes. As far as the story goes, there were also some odd pacing story beats, but didn't seem to overly take away with what the game was trying to present.

Overall, I loved it even if it had those really small non-issues. Just felt like it was worth bringing up.

THE YEAR OF THE DRAGON

I love Kaito and think this makes, conceptually, a good case for how he should step-up as being a proper main protagonist in a hypothetical Judgment 3, but woof man this was mid incarnate. I was disappointed by how the supporting cast in Lost Judgment got shelved but this didn't bother to make up for that either. A very perplexing choice to make a story expansion around Kaito's past but Higashi is hardly involved at all and the Matsugane stuff isn't really deepened whatsoever. Outside of Jun and the final boss, the story was a total lull with occasionally fun gameplay sprinkled in, intentionally reminding you of early mainline Yakuza/Like A Dragon, but nothing memorable to write home about than just boredom. I don't know how RGG or Sega can look at this with the small content provided and think this was definitely worth charging 30 bucks.

Judgment always felt like Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios trying to bring a similar experience like they did in the classic era (1 until the first Kurohyou) to the Dragon Engine era and they succeeded while giving the series their own feels. And Kaito Files is they going 100% with this idea but in a small DLC and man they did this perfectly.

In a short DLC you have more of a very cool character in a very cool conflict that ends beautifully with one of the coolest reuse of assets. Is pure RGGS shit in a short way and man I hope the next Gaiden is more like this.

They took a character I really liked from the base game and made him into one of my favorite MCs. I'm not sure what my expectations were for this DLC but I can tell you that I definitely loved it. Kaito handles different from Yagami in almost every way and getting to play as him was awesome. The final two fights in this are up there with some of my favorite RGG fights along with having great OSTs.

All-in-all,
The Kaito Files is an excellent expansion that gives some needed spotlight and it's more than worth your time.

I always wanted to see more introspection into Kaito's character, so I was actually really excited to try this DLC out.

In same ways, you can really tell it's the first time RGG has done an actually meaningful DLC. The structure is kind of sloppy in the first act (it pays-off a lot later) and the general direction of the content seems kind-of experimentational. Yes, we've got Majima saga before in Kiwami 2, but this is something consistently more ambitious.

As I said, I find some issues in the presentation of things, but ultimately I've had a blast going through Kaito Files. Once you're hooked up with these Judgment games and the characters, you really can't get enough of them. I really liked what this adds to Kaito's character, and is a great addition to Lost Judgment's experience. Props to Jun, I ended liking him a lot, hope we see him again in Judgment 3.

Brief but satisfying, it makes up for one of my disappointments with the base game of LJ, with a more enjoyable cast of characters which feel much more engaging.

It still has the wonderful mechanics of LJ and the new remixed styles from Yakuza 0 feel unique, tho a bit lacking in some of the basics you'd expect from just upgrading your combat style. It doesn't affect the actual campaign that much but Yagami feels much more complete to play with.

The side-content being locked to just collectibles is dissapointing but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't the funniest crap in the world to have Kaito be turned into some Tarzan man who sniffs out stuff.

This is a genuine example of what RGG is truly capable of when it comes to contained story DLC and I hope more than anything it slowly becomes the norm (although after seeing much of LaD8's DLC we still have a ways to go) for Yakuza and Yakuza-centric games moving forward.

This is a good 6-8 hour integrated story for Kaito, lovingly written and beautifully executed; clearly RGG have mastered diluting the 60-80 form into 6-20 hours between this and Gaiden from how the skill and revised experience systems work, to how they manage to fill the environment with life and, most importantly, how they managed to contain what would ordinarily be a 13 chapter epic down to its base components in 4.

I loved every second of this DLC. I know RGG can do better past the (redeemable in some ways) controversy of recent cosmetic and "easy mode" item hauls and truly expand the worlds of Kamurocho, Yokohama, Ijincho and now Hawaii. Please let The Kaito Files be the constant going forward in 2024 and not the exception.

That being said, goddamn welcome to the longest tail quest in Judgement history, holy shit.