Por ser a primeira DLC de história da RGG, eles tinham total liberdade pra fazer muito bem oq eles quisessem, sem qualquer comparação com alguma possível expansão passada, logo, Kaito Files acabou se tornando uma curta, porém muito doce aventura.

Como esperado pelo nome, nós jogamos com Masaharu Kaito, o sidekick do Yagami nos dois jogos principais da franquia. Ele possui dois estilos de luta, Bruiser e Tank que são basicamente os estilos Brawler e Beast do Kiryu de Yakuza 0. Porém, eu estava esperando um ctrl c + ctrl v, sendo que é mais uma base pra criação do que qualquer coisa, pois os grabs, heat actions e alguns golpes são diferentes dos utilizados pela RGG no Yakuza.

A DLC tem uma duração de, em média, 7 a 8 horas, já que ela não tem um conteúdo secundário expressivo (apenas alguns coletáveis) e não possui nem um New Game + ou uma Premium Adventure, o que é uma pena, eu aposto que muitos adorariam esses modos pra poderem aproveitar mais do combate do Kaito, que é completamente diferente do combate do Yagami. A narrativa dela é dividida em 4 capítulos, que não são nenhum primor narrativo, mas que são bem agradáveis, principalmente quando se lembra que não é um jogo independente, mas uma DLC. Os personagens novos são bem escritos, a grande maioria dos players acaba amando os personagens feitos para serem gostados e odiando os personagens feitos para serem odiados, o que é ótimo, ter um antagonista que não foi feito para ter sua compaixão, mas que mesmo assim você não sente algo negativo por ele é algo muito preocupante, vilões principais tem que tirar emoções fortes do player, não importa quais, e o desse jogo definitivamente vai te fazer sentir coisas.

O capítulo final é sem sombra de dúvidas o ponto alto da DLC, com ele sendo consideravelmente tenso, mas tendo também uma resolução atraente, com ações tomadas pela equipe de direção que até estranham os fãs de longa data da franquia, de forma positiva claro. As duas boss fights finais são muito boas por motivos completamente opostos, que eu não posso entrar em detalhes sem spoilar, mas garanto que ambas são sensacionais.

No geral, uma expansão bem sólida, que deixa a esperança que a RGG poderá fazer isso com mais personagens no futuro. Eu, pessoalmente, imagino que ninguém reclamaria de uma expansão de um Watase da vida, ou até mesmo ficando no Judgment, jogar com o Higashi ou o Suguira são coisas que imagino que boa parte dos fãs adoraria. Um acerto tremendo da RGG.

I don't have much to say about this, to be honest. It's short, it's pretty fun, Kaito was fun character in the base game and he is here as well, showing that he can definitely carry his own story. Still, this does have quite a few flaws despite being a good time. Kaito's battle styles, that are basically Kiryu's Brawler and Beast, are decent, but don't really come close to the fun I had with Yagami's styles, and the mystery is basically explained through two extremely long exposition dumps (think that entire, awful chapter with the senator in Yakuza 3, but slightly better handled and more than once), and the main villain turns out to be not only "Soma, but much less hot", but he's also so 11/10 evil that it's impossible to take him seriously in any way (though he does get some cool villain moments), which is strange since his main lackey, Kenmochi, is a layered and really interesting character whose archetype has never been seen in any RGG game as far as I can remember. Also really unfortunate that the final boss ends up being so dumb, and basically an incel power fantasy, but it is what it is.

So yeah, it's certainly not fantastic, but also don't think that it's really bad just because I spent an entire paragraph complaining about. It's got a nice, short length with a story that suits the runtime, and has some very good moments and a couple of fun new characters (that may stick around for future games even!). I also do want to stress that Kaito not being as fun to play as Yagami does not mean his combat is bad or even boring. It's just a bit more basic and to the point.

Oh, Kaito da !

Kaito files e uma histórinha muito gostosinha de se ver e dando um desenvolvimento muito bom para o kaito que eu nem imaginava que estava querendo para o meu personagem favoria da serie de games judgment, e não parece que foi feito de qualquer jeito so para fã service como "alguns extras" em jogos anteriores, cof cof majima saga cof cof.
A gameplay tbm achei estranhamente gostosinha de se jogar com o moveset do kaito sendo 2 estilos , e um copiado do yakuza 0, mas que ate combina bastante para o kaito.
O jogo e bem curto zerei ele em menos de 10 horas e pelo fato de ser uma dlc "rapida" de se zerar praticamente se não todas as falas da dlc são dubladas e o saudades de ter todos os diálogos com voice como o yakuza 6, da um certo charme para a DLC
E sobre trilha sonora ela e otima, não tão boa como do jogo base mas compreensível, mas com alguns banger exclusivos incríveis.
A dlc kaito files e um otima sobremesa que temos depois de zerar, no meu caso, a main history do LJ, com uma gameplay gostosinha, história bem bonita falando sobre amor essa dlc da um otimo fechamento para esse jogo incrível que e lost judgment.

Como sempre RGG Studios lancando mais uma pedrada !!!!

An interesting experiment, as the Yakuza series hasn't had a DLC expansion like this before. It also feels like the setup for a contingency plan, in case they would have to abandon Yagami due to Talent Agency shenanigans and focus on Kaito instead. The counter-argument to that would be that this side-story (a Gaiden, if you will) wraps up Kaito's story. The counter-counter-argument to that is that Kiryu has had at least 3 endings to his story so far, and he's still around.

I found this a little underwhelming, partly because Judgment has its own identity, while The Kaito Files feels like a standard Yakuza game. Kaito's fighting styles are just Kiryu's Brawler and Beast modes from Y0 with a few new moves, and the plot contains almost all of the Yakuza stalwarts: shady CEOs involved in real estate fraud, running around Kamurocho with the child of a woman from your past, and climactic duels where both men cast off their shirts dramatically. The writer of this also definitely watched Breaking Bad.

It's still good, and the shorter length isn't really a detriment, though it does feel a bit less immersive as a result. It should have had its own business minigame about running Higashi's arcades.

8/10

I don't like the return of massive stun after attacking a blocking enemy and Kaito's styles just being two from Yakuza 0 disappoints. These are my only issues with what's otherwise basically a perfect RGG Studio game. This final boss goes so fucking hard it's unbelievable. Really hope that they have more short, focused expansions like this that share a similarly sharp grasp on character writing and fill out side characters. I'd pay $30 or $40 for a standalone with this little bullshit very easily. I love that this DLC is an echo of Yakuza 1, except Kaito is willing to live for other people instead of dying for them and thus has a very, very different approach to things. He's such a great character.

Now, how do you turn Yagami's already really cool sidekick into one of my favorite video game protags?
Give him an absolutely amazing storyline that gives Kaito some much-needed additional depth and backstory and a splendid cast of supportive characters and antagonists that all have great chemistry with Kaito; with Jun, Mikiko, Kenmochi, and Kyoya being the highlights, and the first two particularly being some of my RGGverse favorites, as Jun is one of the very few well-written kid characters and Mikiko is one of the very very few well-written women in the RGG series who actually has some agency, actually does something, has a personality, can kick ass, and is relevant and active in the story at hand instead of barely doing anything (Saeko and Seonhee in Yakuza 7 lmao) and is an absolute baddie to boot, and you got yourself a real winner amongst the RGG Studios pantheon.

The only caveats here are the DLC's lack of side-content like sidecases, the fact that Kaito gets a recycled Brawler and Beast, which is pretty much just a pretty basic and janky moveset port with very minimal additions to make it stand out (hopefully that gets fixed in the sequels by giving him a new moveset which by god he deserves) but again the fantastic story more than makes up for it, Higashi getting shafted AGAIN, and Mikiko and Kyoya not getting enough screentime, with a lot of it being show-don't-tell, but I'm willing to give RGG the benefit of the doubt, as this was their first character DLC (no, Majima saga does NOT count) which was pretty short, running at 6 hours, but hey, the lack of Mikiko screentime will most definitely 100% be fixed in future sequels, which I am very hyped to see. And let's not forget its pretty overexaggerated 30$ pricetag, which is still pretty fair when compared to Gaiden's absolutely ridiculous 50$ pricetag lol

Overall, please do check this one out when you're done with the base game if you haven't already; it is so worth it.

The Kaito Files is currently the latest entry in the Yakuza franchise though it isn't its own game necessarily. It's an extra campaign that can be purchased as DLC for Lost Judgment, releasing a little over half a year after that game's launch.

The Kaito Files is set shortly after the events of the main campaign, though it's a more self-contained story with minimal references to Lost Judgment's main events. With Yagami handling a case elsewhere, we instead see everything through his partner's eyes - Kaito. We learn a great deal about Kaito's past, particularly a girl he was dating back during his days in the Matsugane Family and the effects that his Yakuza life had on his relationship. Compared to most Yakuza plotlines, Kaito Files is refreshingly simple and straightforward but that's far from a bad thing. The main mystery revolves around the whereabouts of Kaito's former lover Mikiko and the reasons behind her disappearance.

One of the biggest standouts of the campaign is the main villain who much like the Mole from the first game, is inhumanely devious for the sake of no one but himself, serving a nice contrast to the main story's antagonist, who killed to serve justice for bullying victims and their families. Seeing Kaito take on a fatherly role to Mikiko's son Jun was also nice to see, we'd seen briefly prior that he has a soft spot for kids, like when he played ball with a kid who believed he was a superhero called Captain Cop or showing some how to play a game at the arcade, it's nice to see them delve deeper into that and it gives Kaito's character some nice closure, not that we won't see him ever again.

This DLC campaign is quite light on content with really the only thing to do being the main campaign which in it of itself is around 6-7 hours in length but considering how massive the main campaign was, this hardly matters though it would have been nice to handle some side cases as Kaito or to perhaps have the ability to play as him in the main game. Speaking of, Kaito has a moveset unique from Yagami's. I highlight it being unique from Yagami specifically because his moveset is reused from Kazuma Kiryu of all people, with Kaito utilising what is essentially his Brawler and Beast fighting styles from Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami with a sparkle of Lost Judgment polish. Kaito also some extra abilities pertaining to his detective skills, being able to his primal instincts to not only detect things by sight but also via his smelling and hearing. In the mode's short duration, they do enough to distinguish Kaito from Yagami and I hope that if we ever get a third entry in the series, Kaito returns as a playable character, much like how Miles co-stars in Insomniac's Spider Man 2 after taking the reigns of his own mini-adventure.

I suppose that's the best comparison I could draw really, Kaito Files is Lost Judgment's Miles Morales, a smaller little adventure that expands upon the main protagonist's partner character, both being more personal tales that explore the relationships of their respective characters. Kaito Files is easily RGG's best DLC and I hope we get more additional content of a similar vein in future entries.

After 2 years of playing this series, i'm finally caught up.

Not really much to say man, i always loved Kaito's character and even more his dynamic with Yagami made me smile but this DLC just speaks Kaito just really deserve to be happy after all the stuff he has been going through his life, not running from the mistakes that he made from the past, if it was the right thing, even the rash decisions can really make someone and himself happy in a way.

Hidenori Shoji once again cooked one of my favorite final bosses in Yakuza, so much to respect in a man who has been working with RGG since Yakuza 1, it really feels fit for him to make which could've been Yakuza 1 final boss. Both characters has a deep love about Mikoko and the last thing both of them agree on is a duel.

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.