Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Let’s Talk About the Kaito Files

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Mar 232022
 

Back ahead of Lost Judgment’s launch, we talked a bit about its DLC.

I wasn’t thrilled about the idea of side content being locked behind DLC, especially when that includes side cases as part of the day-one DLC.

But the one piece of DLC I had no problem with was final piece, a story expansion DLC set for spring 2022 called the Kaito Files.

Spring is here, and the Kaito Files has had its release date announced: March 28.

The Kaito Files begins with Kaito watching over the agency alone while Yagami is on a business trip, when he accepts a missing persons case that ends up tying into his own past. Several tweets have shown off new characters, Kaito’s combat, and more. Apparently he can also look, listen, and… sniff for clues.

All of this sounds great, and plenty of screenshots have been shown off as well.

Now, it seems that the Kaito Files will cost $29.99 on its own, in addition to being included in the Season Pass. The Season Pass costs $34.99, though, so it almost seems like it’s not worth getting on its own when you could get all that other extra content for $5 more.

Since I’ve had mixed feelings about the other DLC content from the start, that makes me wonder if it’s a ploy to get more people to buy the Season Pass.

More importantly, at that price, it costs half what the full game did when it first came out. So will the Kaito Files provide half a Lost Judgment’s worth of content? Back when it was first announced, it was said to be 10 hours long. That’s a hefty amount of playtime for DLC, but perhaps not for DLC that costs half as much as the whole game. On the other hand, maybe it’ll have its own side content that expands it further.

By the time I’m ready to even consider playing the Kaito Files, I’m sure I’ll have answers to all these questions. There’s a reason we haven’t talked about Lost Judgment yet despite how hyped I was for it when it was announced, and for once it’s not just that I didn’t get to it yet.

No, it’s because I decided to finish the main Yakuza series first, to avoid spoilers. So I have 3 whole games to go before starting Lost Judgment, let alone its DLC.

Anyway, what are your thoughts on the Kaito Files?

Ryu ga Gotoku Ishin Appears in the PlayStation Wrap-Up as Yakuza Ishin

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Jan 212022
 

PlayStation 2021 Wrap-Up started yesterday, which means you can see stats on the PlayStation games you played in 2021.

(Or you can get an error message, like me.)

For the people who have been able to successfully do their wrap-up, something curious has happened as far as the Yakuza series is concerned.

Ishin, one of the untranslated spin-offs, gets reported as Yakuza Ishin for the PS5.

This Reddit post is the first place I saw it, and then a little searching on Twitter turned up more people questioning and/or sharing it.

We might all call it Yakuza Ishin, but since it’s never been localized, its only actual title is Ryu ga Gotoku Ishin. It’s also only available for the PS3 and PS4.

So why are fans who played the Japanese Ryu ga Gotoku Ishin on their PS4 seeing it reported as Yakuza Ishin for the PS5?

Now, someone told me that the same happens with Yakuza 7 – PlayStation Wrap-Up recognizes the Japanese version of Ryu ga Gotoku 7 for the PS4 as Yakuza: Like a Dragon for the PS5. It’s definitely some sort of bug. But while there it matches Yakuza 7 to its correct English title, where would it pull “Yakuza Ishin” from unless that title has been officially used?

This might mean absolutely nothing. Maybe the system is just able to recognize the series name and uses its English counterpart. Still, I want to believe it means the title Yakuza Ishin is in the database somewhere because localization is on the way.

What do you think? Does the curious case of Yakuza Ishin showing up under that title in people’s wrap-up reports mean something?

Yakuza Series 16th Anniversary Kenzan Live Stream Announced

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Dec 032021
 

December 8, 2021 is the 16th anniversary of the Yakuza series, and to celebrate, RGG Studio will be live streaming Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan.

Kenzan is one of two historical spin-offs, neither of which has ever been localized.

According to the announcement tweet, translated by Gematsu, RGG Studio will spend 24 hours and 16 minutes (I assume because it’s the 16th anniversary) playing Kenzan, after which they will reveal new information on topics such as merchandise.

Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean they will announce any games. However, the choice of game seems strange.

It would make sense to live stream one of the more recent games, to promote it and encourage more sales. It would make sense to go all the way back and stream one of the original games, to celebrate the series’ history. But why choose a PS3-exclusive spin-off title?

My hope is that the choice of Kenzan is because they’ll announce a remake or remaster, which would give us a good chance of finally getting Kenzan in the west!

Of course, it could just be that they thought it would be a fun game to look back at for the anniversary. It’s still a good opportunity to remind RGG Studio and Sega that we’d love to play Kenzan!

Update: Sadly, the live stream involved no announcements.

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