Towards the end of 2021, players were invited back into the world of Takayuki Yagami with Lost Judgment, the sequel to the Yakuza spinoff made by Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio. Building on the success of the first game, it was another wild and crazy adventure for the private eye, with even more to do when it came to subplots and quests. However, there was more to come, and following the March release of The Kaito Files DLC for Lost Judgment, fans finally had the chance to step into the shoes of colourful sidekick Masaharu Kaito.
Between learning more about his past and even more gameplay twists, the goodness seemingly never stops. To find out more about what prompted the development team to go down this path, we spoke to producer Makoto Suzuki to get the team’s side of the story, and what made Kaito such an intriguing prospect to explore in The Kaito Files.
Needless to say, if you have spent time as Yagami, then you know that Kaito is always dependably around, and for the studio, that made perfect sense as additional content to reward fans for their support.
“When it comes to the Judgment Series, we believe Yagami’s partner Kaito is a must-know character,” Suzuki said, adding that through the DLC, people will get to know this wonderful person and like him even more. It also definitely helps that the DLC, just like the main game, touches upon some important topics worth having a conversation about.
The Kaito Files details the titular character’s work on a current case involving a missing person, who just so happens to be Kaito’s ex-lover. Left to put back together the pieces of his past and discover the fate of a woman presumed dead, Kaito won’t stop until he’s cracked the case for good.
“Knowing how each character thinks about the relationships between parents, children and family” will help players enjoy the content even more, and perhaps give them more food for thought while unleashing the brutal strength of Kaito on the enemies that stand in his way.
The stylistic difference between Kaito and Yagami is clear, which meant that the team had to achieve a contrast when it came to gameplay, be it in combat or during the investigative sequences in The Kaito Files.
For the former, that meant the fighting styles of Bruiser and Tank. Suzuki’s advice is to go with Bruiser and the Repel ability to “attack annoying enemies” with aggressive punches and hooks together with rapid evasion skills. If you much prefer to be defensive, the Tank style works perfectly.
“Using Iron Guard of the fighting style Tank, Kaito can withstand any attack from any direction and immediately pick up any useful weapons in his surroundings, even if he is surrounded by many opponents,” added Suzuki.
With a unique skill tree of over 70 abilities, Kaito definitely stands tall on his own with a fighting style that is suited for his fervent temperament in The Kaito Files. As for using his brains rather than brawn, our hero is not exactly a fan of electronics like the astute Yagami.
“Kaito is an outstanding and reliable detective who is trusted by Yagami. Although Kaito is known to have practised flying the drone in Judgment, he is actually weak in machines in general. So, we came up with these investigation talents by imagining what kinds of skills Kaito may use while doing detective work,” explained Suzuki.
Those come in the form of Primal Eye, Primal Ear, and Primal Nose. As the names suggest, Kaito depends on his instincts more than most to help him suss out clues and missable trails, and not even a bustling cityscape is able to overwhelm him in The Kaito Files.
Perhaps what makes Kaito so endearing and important enough to have his own DLC content is how different he is, and the willingness of the studio to embrace that. Instead of the smooth and more subtle approach, Kaito adopts a straightforward and no-nonsense attitude, and for fans, that is a breath of the freshest air since Judgment became a thing.
The Kaito Files DLC is available on the PSN Store for $38.90.
Jake is a full-time trophy hunter and achievement gatherer on consoles, and part-time Steam Sale victim. He has a thing for Batman and awesome statues, and running out of space for both. Send help.
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