- Developer: Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios
- Publisher: SEGA
- Release Date: March 8, 2018 Japan/October 2nd 2018 US, EU
- Platform: PS4
- Price: $59.99
- ESRB Rating: M for Manly
The year is 1986, SEGA had just launched the SEGA Mark III in Japan a few months prior, and were now pushing out titles for it at a consistent pace, and a young programmer, a certain guy named "Yuji Naka". Managed to convince his bosses to let him make a game based off a then 3 year old Shouen Jump Manga.
That game, just called "Hokuto no Ken" like the manga. Is effectively a pretty standard beat em up, but still a rather solid one. Kenshiro walks his way through a 2D plane, punching people so hard they explode (An accurate representation of the manga.) and occasionally fighting a boss or two based off villains from the series.
Meanwhile in North America and Europe, Master System owners got this.
Don't let the generic title screen fool you, this is the western release of the Mark III game. Just rather poorly disguised as a generic game. the Enemies still explode when you punch them, for one.
Barring the different character designs, it's pretty much identical in terms of gameplay.
Eventually, SEGA moved on to the Mega Drive in 1988. Which would also get a Fist of the North Star game of it's own a year later.
"Shin Seikimatsu Kyūseishu Densetsu: Hokuto no Ken" (Which roughly translates to "Fist of the North Star: The New Legend of the Post-Apocalyptic Messiah") is more of the same gameplay wise, and is not really considered to be all that great. But that didn't stop the SEGA Genesis owners from getting this....
Once again, this is just a genericized version of the Mega Drive game, except now it's even more blatant that it was initially a FOTN game.
(Yes, they really did just do a palette swap on Kenshiro.)
The entire localization saga is rather confusing, as Fist of the North Star games were released unmodified on the NES and Game Boy. So it's not like the franchise was impossible to get the rights for outside of Japan.
Anyways, SEGA took a break from making Fist of the North Star games after this, and it wouldn't be until a few years after they went 3rd party that would make another one.
With the "SEGA Ages 2500" lineup of budget remakes co-developed with D3 publisher, they made the surprising decision to remake the Master System FOTNS game as part of the series in 2004. How is it? Well, the 2500 part of the title refers to the lineup's low price of 2500 yen and....
(Gif source)
...Yeah, it's pretty bad.
Fortunately, someone at SEGA clearly realized that people certainly wanted something way better than that, so one year later, this happened.
Now this is more like it!
Developed by the fighting game gods at Arc System Works (Known for the Guilty Gear series at the time) and running on the Atomiswave arcade hardware. this is a straight up fighting game starring Fist of the North Star characters. Needless to say, this took the bad taste caused by the 2500 remake out of peoples mouth easily.
There's one small catch, it wasn't released outside of Japan, not even in a modified form with the FOTNS IP removed.
Well, technically it was, the Arcade version received a limited North American release. But the home version (Released on PS2 on 2007.) never got localized. Which is rather unfortunate.
Surprisingly, SEGA took another break from the series after this (Unless if you want to count the numerous virtual Pachinko games released by subsidiary Sammy, which you definitely don't)
UNTIL NOW....
Gameplay
Where do i even start? In case that "Developer:" section wasn't clear. This is from the same team that made the Yakuza series, so there's a lot to unpack.
Combat is pretty similar to past Yakuza games, with one major twist....
(gif source)
Unlike Kiryu, Kenshiro gives no fucks about if his opponents live or not, and with his Hokuto Shinken moves. It's safe to say that most of his opponents are going to meet a very gruesome (The western release is uncensored too, so you aren't going to be seeing that black & white effect over here.) end indeed.
Of course, Yakuza isn't just about fighting, so this game has plenty of other fun side activites to do as well, such as....
Baseball! With a hapless mook on a motorcycle playing the role of the ball.
Bartending!
Driving through the wasteland!
You can even run a Hostess club again!
You may even be able to play the original game that started it all, if you know where to look.....
Misc stuff.
If you like to explore the game as Kazuma Kiryu, i've got some good news for you.
For the first week of release, you will be able to get a FREE DLC pack allowing you use him as an alternate skin for Kenshiro. Here are the US/EU store links!
- US Playstation Store: https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP0177-CUSA12776_00-EX00000000000000
- EU Playstation Store: https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/product/EP0177-CUSA12781_00-EX00000000000000
If you like physical merch, i've got good news here as well.
All launch retail copies will include free decals featuring classic death quotes like "Hidebu!" and "It Balls!". Alongside a reversible cover (It's the one the Japanese release of the game had, they had to move it inside because the ESRB didn't like Yuria's cleavage.) and some extra DLC.
If you're lucky enough to live in France or Italy, SEGA has made a special "Kenshiro Edition" just for you.
Adding some cards and a lenticular cover.
If you wanted a play a Yakuza game with an English dub, i've got some good news for you too, as this is the first game since the original Yakuza to include one! Don't worry, you can switch to the Japanese dub (Featuring the standard Yakuza cast playing FOTNS characters!) at any time. No DLC needed.
Finally, this thread would not be complete with the amazing Japanese ad for this game.
(Unfortunately, it appears SEGA removed the commercial, so i had to use a reupload.)
It's a pretty accurate demonstration of what will happen to you after you play this game.
Edit: Here's the import thread BTW, i completely forgot to add it when making this.
You wa shock!
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