Lost Judgment, the follow-up to 2019's Judgment, received a good response from fans and critics alike. While the main Yakuza series has moved on to an RPG format, Lost Judgment sticks with developer Ryu Ga Gotoku's traditional beat-'em'-up style of gameplay.
Lost Judgment's playable character, Yagami, has his own style of fighting mechanics, expanding from the prior game's two playable styles to four. However, RGG isn't stopping there, as the upcoming Lost Judgment Kaito Files DLC will make Yagami's partner playable, and introduce his own fighting styles in the process.
Lost Judgment has now released a teaser showing off some of Kaito's fighting style under the Bruiser tree. Long-term fans of the series will likely see some similarities between the style and Kiryu's Beast and Brawler modes of Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami. Kaito can be seen deflecting an attack, delivering a few blows, and landing a suplex on the street of Kamurocho. Elsewhere, it becomes clear that while this fighting style works well against one or two enemies, it really shines in taking down a group. After activating EX Boost, Kaito performs a series of circular winding attacks that decimate the enemies he's up against.
Kaito will have two fighting styles in all, with Tank mode being the other fighting style. While Yagami's fighting styles tend to focus on finesse, style, and a fair amount of martial arts movie-style gravity defying moves, Kaito seems a bit more down to earth, focusing more on delivering a serious blow than using complex techniques. Of course, nearly every playable character over the course of the Yakuza and Judgment series have seen their moveset expand over the course of their games, so fans will have to wait and see if Kaito learns new and more complex moves as the story progresses.
The Kaito Files DLC branches off from Yagami's story, offering an estimated ten hours of a side campaign. Seeing side characters get some focus of their own is likely welcomed by the fan community, though the developer's choice to do so may be partially due to complications with the franchise's lead star. Yagami's likeness and voice actor, Takuya Kimura, has reportedly had a falling out with RGG, as his agency didn't want Lost Judgment ported to PC, which is something parent publisher Sega has been gradually warming up to over the years.
Though the Judgment series has always had an ensemble cast, if the issues between the agency and RGG aren't ironed out, this could be the path that the Judgment franchise takes in the future, assuming it continues forward. With that being said, there have been rumors regarding a live action Judgment spin-off TV series or film, featuring the original actor in the Yagami role.
Lost Judgment The Kaito Files DLC releases on March 28 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.