-{Ziedrich's Blog}-

Here is my full preview of the upcoming Koei game, Hokuto Musou or Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage in the English version

The game’s style of play should be familiar to most Koei players, if you have played Dynasty Warriors or Samurai Warriors, and like it, you will like this. Although if your new to this sort of thing, you could be disappointed but we never know, you may love it after playing it for a couple of days.

The game is based on the 80s japanese anime series, Hokuto no Ken (Fist of the North Star).

In a post-apocalyptic world after the nuclear war, the human race is in a desperate struggle to survive, they will do anything to live, steal, attack, even kill to gain power, money, food and water, it’s survival of the fittest but one man will fight to save the poor and destroy the power hungry gangs of this barren world, that man is Kenshiro.

Kenshiro is a master of a secret fighting art called Houkto Shinken, commonly translated as Divine Fist of the North Star, a deadly art in which should only be used if the user thinks it’s right to do so. He in search of his love, Yuria, who has been kidnapped by Shin, Kenshiro’s former friend now rival. Kenshiro also has another goal in mind, to defeat his brother, Raoh, who is “Conqueror of Century’s End” so the saying goes and is Kenshiro’s main rival.

Now….. If you heard or watched the anime, you will know that it’s very gory and has lots of blood with the odd nudity and rape so the anime is not for the faint-hearted but the game is a toned down version of the anime although the blood is still there so its still good for the fans at least

The music to the game is made by MASA, the man behind the Dynasty Warriors soundtracks so expect a mixture of orchestral and heavy rock, which kinda suits the theme of it.

The graphics looks quite detailed and the gameplay seems to be surprisingly fast, if you look past the slow movement that is. The voices can be altered in the european version from English to Japanese in the sound options which is good for fans, like myself.

There are alterations in the european version from the japanese version:

• More guts and gore
• The AI has been improved
• Hopefully some bugs fixed
• Slightly polished graphics
• The obvious english translation

The game has around 8 playable characters, good and evil characters, each with their own storylines when played in the story mode:

• Kenshiro
• Raoh
• Toki
• Jagi
• Rei
• Shin
• Mamiya
• Thouzer
• Heart (DLC release only)

The game also contains the following modes in the Main Menu:

Legend Mode – A mode completely focused on the story on Kenshiro as he goes through the world until he fights his rival, Raoh

Dream Mode – This is basically a story mode for the other playable characters

Challenge Mode – Play against a continuous wave of enemies, it acts like a Survival Mode

Introduction Mode – Those new to the game can play this, it’s basically a Tutorial Mode

Gallery – This mode lets you view photos, renders, music and movies unlocked during playing the game’s modes

Options pretty much speaks for itself, alter sound, controls, enable health gauges, translations of voices from English to Japanese and alter the level of blood and gore

The game is released in Europe on November 5th 2010 for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, with an American release possibly around the same date

If your a fan of the anime series or a DW/SW fan, this game is one for you and even if you haven’t even heard of it before, it’s worth having a crack at when it is released.

In the wise words of Kenshiro….. “You’re Already Dead!”