Kaito DLC could hint at future of the Judgment series

Lost Judgment is the highly anticipated sequel to RGG Studios’ hit Yakuza spinoff, Judgment. The action brawler contains a story that will continue the tale of defense attorney turned private eye Takayuki Yagami, but it was recently announced by Sega that there will be a slate of DLC releasing for Lost Judgment, including a story expansion centered around Yagami’s partner in fighting crime, Kaito. The Kaito Files DLC is said to contain around 10 hours of new content, which is a sizable chunk of extra game time for an already historically lengthy franchise. 

With the announcement of this extra content coming so close to the release of the actual game, there’s been a lot of speculation about how and why this DLC came to be. After all, story-based DLC expansions aren’t quite the norm for RGG Studios. Combining that with the recently brought-to-light conflicts between Sega and the agency representing Takuya Kimura – the face and voice of Yagami. Ultimately, the talent agency doesn’t want the Judgment games releasing on PC. While no official reason has been given, it’s believed to be because of the risk to Takuya’s image it poses due to easy internet access and the potential of his images being manipulated. 

This poses quite the issue for Sega. The Yakuza series has proven quite popular among the PC userbase, and the Judgment titles not making their way to the platform would result in a loss of sales. If this matter isn’t resolved then it could potentially mean the end of the Judgment series. This would be quite the blow as the spinoff series hit over one million units sold – that’s huge for being the first release in a new series, even if it is connected to another popular series. The Yakuza franchise as a whole has only sold over 14 million units since 2005. That’s spread across eight mainline games, two remakes, and multiple other spinoffs. While one million may not seem like a lot in comparison to other franchises, in the context of the Yakuza series, it was a massive success.  

Having to build up another spinoff series to take over the brawler combat reigns that the mainline series has handed off wouldn’t be impossible, but what if there was another way? Sega would be smart to allow the recently announced Kaito DLC for Lost Judgment to fill that role. Kaito is arguably the second most important, and popular character from Judgment. He’s Yagami’s right-hand man and partner at Yagami Detective Agency. With Kaito’s ties to the detective side of the gameplay, it would be easy to transition that aspect of the series over to him. The only aspects that may be lost would be the attorney segments, which makes up only a small portion of the actual game. Trading a few short courtroom battles for the survival of the series is more than worth it in the long run. 

Kaito being an ex-Yakuza member would also add an interesting contrast to what the series already offers. The perspective he could offer would also connect the spinoff series to the original mainline Yakuza protagonist, Kiryu. They were also an ex-Yakuza member that made his mark on the streets of Kamurocho. It isn’t like the Yakuza series hasn’t seen numerous protagonists in the past, either. Many of the mainline titles feature other playable characters alongside Kiryu, with the most recent title Yakuza: Like a Dragon featuring not only an entirely new protagonist, but a new main city, cast, and different genre. 

The Kaito DLC is the perfect opportunity to set up the potential future of the series. Since RGG Studios seems to be bouncing back and forth between spinoffs and mainline games, they would have at least a year or so before full production on the next Judgment game would begin, allowing for the tensions between Sega and Takuya’s talent agency to begin to cool off. The worst case scenario would beif an agreement isn’t reached, and then perhaps they could write Yagami out of the story for an entry and focus on Kaito. Who, thanks to the DLC, has a greater attachment from some fans, and gives players an idea of how he plays differently from Yagami. It’d be a win-win situation for both Sega and RGG Studios, while also setting up the possibility of a Yakuza 0 like dual protagonist situation where you play as both Yagami and Kaito throughout the story of the game. 

It is worth mentioning again that this is all pure speculation. The possibilities set up by the DLC range from just trying to earn more money from Lost Judgment to completely redefining what the spinoff series even is. I believe it will likely fall somewhere more towards the middle of that spectrum, but we won’t know for sure until the future of the franchise is officially brought to light by RGG Studios.  

Fortunately, we don’t have much longer until that future becomes a smidge clearer. Lost Judgment releases on September, 21st for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5.