Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise is a Action-Adventure game only for PS4, which was developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku and published by SEGA. It is based on the manga franchise Fist of the North Star (A.K.A Hokuto No Ken in Japan), and features the gameplay and mechanics of SEGA's Yakuza series.
Fist of the North Star started out as a Japanese manga franchise in 1983 which was written by Buronson and illustrated by Tetsuo Hara. The series set on a post-apocalyptic Earth after a nuclear war which the story focuses on a warrior named Kenshiro sets out his adventure to fighting against the various gangs, bandits, and warlords who threaten the lives of the defenseless and innocent citizens, while he also travels through the apocalyptic world to find his beloved his fiancee Yuria who was kidnapped by the leader Shin.
The manga franchise had became one of Weekly Shōnen Jump's most popular titles during the 1980s as it is one of the best-selling manga series in history, having sold approximately 100 million copies which the franchise was adopted into 2 anime TV series produced by Toei Animation in 1984, several anime films, a live-action film, OVAs, video games, and a series of spin-offs centering on other characters from the original story.
In my early days of 2010s when internet became a main thing like social media, flash animation, web-games, and of course watching videos, I've discovered and began watching the 1984's anime TV series on YouTube when I was 19 at the time, so I was really impressed how amazing the show looks for its early 80's era.
It sort of like Mad Max in anime form where you had Bruce Lee alike dude beating shit out of these biker gangs with his multiple rapid fists till their whole f***ed up body started to explode in brutal way is what made the Fist of the North Star so recognisable over the years thanks to storylines, characters, several fight scenes, graphical gore, and of course the memorable catchphrase by main protagonist "Omae Wa Mou Shindeiru" ("You Are Already Dead") which also became one of the most popular anime-based Internet memes in 2010s.
First of all, I haven't played any of the games based on manga franchise besides Black Belt on SEGA Master System which is a localization of the Japanese Mark III game Hokuto no Ken without the franchise license which is a decent side-scrolling beat-em-ups for SEGA's 8-bit system, but except the atrocious Genesis/MD title Last Battle: Legend of the Final Hero which also did not retain the franchise license are no where near good as the predecessor on Master System.
I was originally looking forward with the Koei Tecmo's F.O.T.N.S: Ken's Rage on PS3 till I realised it's just another Dynasty Warrior's spin-offs which is not the Fist of the North Star game that I wanted, until I heard the exciting news from E3 2018 where SEGA confirms their new title based on the manga franchise coming to PS4 and I was so glad to hear that the game will be developed by a same team behind Yakuza series that I grew up playing these by starting from my early days of PS3 to nowadays PS4.
I haven't had a chance to bought it till around 2 an half year after the game release, so I have finally played the game for a week of brawling, exploration, levelling up, and tons to do in game.
My thoughts on the game is remarkably positive for its own original story events, memorable characters, solid gameplay and visuals, and numerous of both mains and sides-story, while I will discuss about some parts in the game like the open-world design choices and limited combat moves in this review.
So without go further do, let's start the review.
Presentation
While the game has its own original story without continuation of events in the manga, the story takes place in a post-apocalyptic Earth due to worldwide nuclear war has caused the whole world turns completely wrecked with the shortages of supply food and water, broken homes and buildings, and lack of energy source power left all mankind homeless and starved for life.
The story follows martial artist named Kenshiro went on his quest in wastelands to find his fiancee Yuria which is rumoured that she could be found in the city of Eden, a dome-shaped palace known as Sphere City filled with energy sources and water supply where all citizens of Eden live in a comfortable life.
It is really interesting that the game does not continue the events in the manga or you could say 1984's Anime TV series which I don't really mind having its own original plot seems to be working just fine as a video game title.
You have a kung fu warrior helping out defendless citizens in needs who are being encountered by these biker gangs under the organisation Army of Ruin was led by the leader Kyo-Oh, a heartless crime lords are responsible for thefts and murdering innocent human lives.
It's pretty much similar to most Mad Max films that involves protagonist helping out settlers to defend themselves against hordes of marauders to save the humanity is just much as Kenshiro helping out those who protects the city of Eden to keep the humanity safe as possible is what made the story in the game quite good.
I got to say Kenshiro is one badass fighter that resembles early kung fu actor Bruce Lee which is the reason why he kicks a lot of thugs ass with his fighting style known as Hokuto Shinken which allows him to weaken the enemy's pressure points causing their body to explode amount of blood.
I also liked his recognisable moves such as rapid-punching Hokuto Hyakuretsu Ken (A.K.A ATATATATATA HO WATA!!!!) followed by his cool catchphrases "Omae Wa Mou Shindeiru" ("You Are Already Dead") before enemies instantly dies in 1 sec which is reason why I F****ing liked this guy.
Then you had some great side-characters like Jagre the mohawk dude, who worked as captain of Eden's Watch, originally as being an jerk to Kenshiro at first till he became unlikely partners when he finally begins opening up his mind as he is one crazy guy mostly had an hilarious anger issues that made me laugh a lot in entre scenes.
Xsana is one of the respectful ruler of Eden has given support to her people as she promises to make the whole city a better place to live up to her father's legacy as a great leader. She accepted Kenshiro's help while he searches for Yuria's whereabouts in City of Eden.
Lastly you had purple hot chick Lyra, who runs her nightlife job as nightclub manager and colosseum battles announcer, had a sassy personality and her intelligence as Xsana trusts her to handle all the city's financial matters.
What makes the game more interesting is that it also included most of the characters from the manga such as Raoh (A.K.A Ken-Oh), who is a eldest of 4 brothers including Kenshiro, takes his power to conquer this land of chaos and take total control, while the second called Toki, a pacifist uses his healing power, offer to help Kenshiro with the training.
Then you have Rei who blamed Kenshiro for his kidnapped sister Airi, as he mistaken him with the unknown man had the same seven scars on his chest.
I also liked the 2 of the cameo appearances from the manga such as Bat and Lin who used to be Kenshiro's little sidekick are featured in this game.
I got to say the villain in the game is pretty awesome like Jagi who seeks revenge on Kenshiro due to his jealousy as his younger brother had become a successor of Hokuto Shinken.
Then you had Holy Emperor Thouzer who is a successor of Nanto Ho-Oh Ken and lastly master marksman Targa who is responsible for their crime behind their attack on City of Eden which I got to say these assholes are quite the baddest bad guys of all villains.
The presentation in the game is quite amazing for its cinematic design and concepts. I really liked the post-apocalypses settings which I believed the manga series took inspiration from Mad Max movies that made the locations and scenery looked appealing.
It has junk yard shop, the old fashioned bazaar, the bars, the diners, arcade store, playground parking, the nightclubs, colosseums, gas stations, the garage, and large area of canyon which I really liked how the game really looks in terms of design choices.
It did really had awesome sequences of all secret techniques during the in-game battles such as throwing them in the air, placing two guys together, smashing their brains outs with single hand, placing two thumbs on head, knee kicks their faces in mid-air, two-finger strikes on their head, and so on.
Overall, it has great original story, memorable characters, amazing presentation design, and cool sequences.
Gameplay
You take control of Kenshiro in open-world area of City of Eden as well as Wasteland, so your goal is to beat all story missions which can be located on map screen.
You move the player with the left stick and rotating camera with right stick, while pressing the options button lets you access at the menus such as inventory screen, upgrade abilities, and tailsman abilities.
Pressing the touchpad button lets you access at the map screen where you can able to navigate the locations filled with many icons.
You're began to explore around the area where you can talk to NPCs for info or they might offer you with the side-missions, and then you can visit any places like bazaar, junk yard shop, clubs, bar and diner during your free-time.
At the outside of Eden where it gets very interesting, you are riding on the heavy vehicle to drive around the wasteland where you spent time collecting an randomised materials and visiting the new locations, but there might be the enemies encountering you with their vehicles nearby so be prepared to battle against guys with 12 thugs.
On the driving section, you use these triggers to accelerate and brake, while the left stick controls the vehicles as well as auto-drifting, but you can also perform the boost by holding the square button to make your vehicle drive faster which can get depleted quickly but your boost turbo can also regenerate slowly.
You might also keep an eye on the fuel level where you can able to refill it at the gas station somewhere at save locations in wasteland.
On the battle segment when you're being encountered by groups of thugs, you have the weak attack by tapping the square button which is quicker but uses less damage, while pressing the triangle button for strong attack are slow but uses powerful damage.
You can also use charged attack by holding the triangle button longer which results not just higher damage but stuns enemies too and you can evade and block the enemy projectiles by using the X button for sidestep and L1 to block.
Holding the R1 button locks on into enemies makes it easier to strafe and facing at the opponent without losing the target.
You will have seven stars gauge meter at the top-left screen where it gets fully maximised which let you activate the shining star of death resulting with increased attack power as well as performing deadly secret techniques.
What makes the combat system interesting is that you can able to use channelling points by pressing the circle button to stun them but pressing the same button again lets you perform a cool techniques filled with simple QTE resulting a severe damage at the enemies dies quickly.
Killing most of the enemies during the battles increases your EXP points, so the more you gained enough EXP points the more it reaches to higher level which rewards you with abilities orbs where you can add these star orbs to upgrade your fighting abilities such as skills, mind, body, and fate.
For example: skill tree applies to techniques in combat requires both star and skill orbs, mind tree focuses mostly on burst system and accumulation of seven star gauge meter requires both star and mind orbs, body tree uses the passive upgrades for health and attack requires both star and body orbs, and lastly fate tree designed for destiny talisman does not requires any much of orbs.
The golden ring spots on 4 ability trees will unlock when you earn the shining orbs by completing upon the chapter.
These abilities benefits your health points, fighting techniques, burst defense, attack enhancement, and tailsman that makes your character becoming stronger, the easier you can beat any of the tough bosses and enemies with their higher level.
At outside of the main missions, you can also take part in side-missions such as helping the kid and old man cooking the hamburger, doing a craftman favour with shoulder pads, challenging kanna for race, searching for 4 missing arcades, becoming bounty hunter, and many weird side-stories which also gains your EXP levels.
The game does have a mini-games such as bartender ken where your job is to serve the customers drinks, Kenshiro's Clinic involves healing people with his hidden channelling points, death batting is sort of baseball mini-game, manager Kenshiro working in nightclubs dealing with drunk customers, colosseum is a free for all battle against martial artist, and even racing mini-game.
The game also involves treasure hunt segments after you're defeating any of the nearby enemy's encounters as you start drive around the wasteland where item can be located on map screen till you found the destination, so it rewards you with the rare collectables such as cassette tapes, arcade machines, and home consoles.
You can also enjoy playing SEGA's arcade classics like Space Harrier, Outrun, and Super Hang-On, as well as bonus home console titles for SEGA Mark III such as Hokuto No Ken which I got to say this is pretty cool to have a Japanese version of the original game rather than the western version despite the localisation issues with the US/EU release are officially known as Black Belt for SEGA Master System aren't featured in this game.
So far, I did manage to enjoy most of the story missions including fighting more than 10 thugs, some mid-bosses, and fighting with the main bosses which I got to say it's pretty entertaining for its overall difficulty and learning curve, as well as intense fighting sequences while performing the secret techniques is gruesomely epic to see many of guys getting their body exploded.
While the fighting controls worked absolutely fine for its combo system and fighting style, the combat itself can get little bit tiresome when repeating the same techniques over again felt a bit repetitive which is not quite as engaging as any SEGA's Yakuza games (such as Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami) which has many fighting moves and has 3 variations of fighting styles as opposed to this game which is more of the simple beat-em-ups brawling which is okay for the game at least the upgrade system is pretty neat.
The design of the open-world is quite smaller in City of Eden which could have been looked better by making it bit larger for the size-wise, but as you are in the wasteland the whole map is ridiculously big to drive around, but you can also use the save area as the fast travel which you have the option to select any of the locations marked with save points icon is the quickest way to travel faster at destination which helps you save times from traveling too far.
I really liked the idea of customising the buggy car such as changing appearances as well with upgrading parts that requires your buggy car being able to use their abilities such as breaking through blocked heavy rocks, increases turbo boost, and stability strength which is kinda cool.
I also liked the free time which keeps you more busy with the game with many strange side-quests as well as several of mini-games to play, and having to drive around the wasteland during the exploration and discover new things which I can appreciate the whole game enough.
Overall, it has entertaining story missions, solid gameplay, great learning curves, gruesome techniques, and epic boss battles.
Graphics
The graphics is pretty decent for its manga-style presentation. The characters in the game is looking fantastic feels well animated for its facial reactions and personality giving the game a new style of character's development. The open-world settings is quite appealing for its bold looking environments and posh textures which brings the new art of game's designs itself, and lastly I also liked the use of the graphical gore effects where most of the bad guys dies in explosion causing their particles of bodies splatted around like hell followed by their blood spurts out scatted on the floor is pretty f***ed up, but rather looking quite awesome.
Overall, it has well animated characters, bold environments, posh textures, and graphical gore effects.
Music and Sounds
The soundtrack in the game is just as good as you expected from this game especially with kick-ass rockin tune during the in-game battles as well as driving in wasteland that makes you feel pumped up for kung-fu action.
It's kinda shame that it didn't include the original theme song from the Anime TV series such as Ai Wo Torimodose (You Wa Shock) by Crystal King which could have added an nostalgia throwback to this kickass game, so why the hell not SEGA!? HOW CAN YOU NOT INCLUDE ONE OF THE GREATEST THEME SONG FROM ONE OF THE BADASS ANIME TV SERIES FROM THE 80'S!? WTF SEGA!!!!?, uhhh excuse my rage quit everyone let's move on with the sounds.
The sound effects does have a good use of impact effects during the fight and motor sounds for vehicles.
It's one of the first game featuring an English voice dub since the first Yakuza game for PS2 2005's release, so I got to say it's rather sounds bland compared with original Japanese voice which sounded feel more professional in the cutscenes than having an cringy English voices. The reason why I've chose Japanese voice over the English dub because it was voiced by same actors who previously voice their role from SEGA's Yakuza series which is the reason it sounds lot better in my opinion.
Overall, kick-ass soundtrack, impactful sound design, and preferred more on Japanese voice casting than English dubbing.
Special Features
The game comes with extra content such as Kazuma Kiryu skin as paid DLC, the launch edition DLC includes 6 destiny tailsmans, and 8 free DLC packs. The physical copy of launch edition did come with an amazing reversible cover art based on Japanese release which unfortunately it did not include on Playstation Hits release sadly because it looked f***ing awesome with black and white details, but at least I had a free sticker of Ryu Ga Gotoku logo which is nice.
Overall, a solid package.
Advantages
Great original story and characters
Amazing presentation design
Solid gameplay with entertaining missions and boss battles
Great learning curves with upgradable fighting moves
Bold visuals with gruesome death sequences
Kick-ass soundtrack
Disadvantages
Repetitive combat techniques
Limited open-world size on City of Eden
Poorly voiced English dubbing
Missing original theme song (NANI!?)
Final Verdict
Presentation 8/10 - great original story, memorable characters, amazing presentation design, and cool sequences.
Gameplay 8/10 - entertaining story missions, solid gameplay, great learning curves, gruesome techniques, and epic boss battles.
Graphics 8.5/10 - well animated characters, bold environments, posh textures, and graphical gore effects.
Music and Sounds 8/10 - kick-ass soundtrack, impactful sound design, and preferred more on Japanese voice casting than English dubbing.
Special Features 8/10 - decent DLCs, amazing reversible cover art on launch edition, and free sticker logo.
Overall 8/10 - Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise is a solid video game adaption of manga franchise that I can fully appreciate it enough, but it may not be the same masterpiece as the wonderful SEGA's Yakuza series which has more originally and creative when it comes with clever story-writing, cinematic design, and full of crime drama action which I am much more preferred on as my opinion, so don't get me wrong because I am glad that I love this game for many good reason.
This game still has a charm for its own original story, badass protagonist, impactful fighting segments with many foes and bosses, adventurous single-player missions including mains and side-stories, driving on buggy car, and has shares with cool mini-games which makes the game quite fun.
You could say it's much more better than any of Fist of the North Star titles such as Koei Tecmo's Ken Rage for example, so it maybe harder to recommend everyone unless if you're the fan of this particular manga franchise or anyone who have previously played SEGA's Yakuza series should able to pick up and play.
Who knows when this game ever gonna get a re-release for PC and Xbox? maybe just maybe someday it will make happen in the future just like SEGA did a same with whole Yakuza games being on the other console platforms.
That being said, I really love this game and I am hoping for the developer to make another future sequel someday.
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