“Sailor Moon” & “Dragon Ball Z” were the first two anime franchises I, like many westerners on the other side of the Atlantic, experienced and became emotionally attached to in the mid 1990s. These series proved to be a gateway for yours truly to another genre of animation that influences my choices for entertainment to this day. As I got older and more anime was localized, I discovered a “Fist of the North Star” movie that became the jumping off point for my knowledge of the series. Though I enjoyed the various anime adaptations of the long-running manga, the few games I played with the “Fist of the North Star” name were average & simplistic side-scrolling brawlers. Thankfully in 2018, the developers behind the “Yakuza” franchise (though not the main core of developers from the studio who were working on “Yakuza Kiwami 2” and “Project Judge”) were given the chance to present a potentially new generation of anime admirers and franchise veterans the chance to enter the year 20XX after the bombs dropped to channel their inner martial artist. Popping this PS4 exclusive into my console I was ready to bust some heads and make some drinks.
Did I Complete “Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise”?
As expected considering this is made by the same people behind the “Yakuza” franchise, “Lost Paradise” features a lot of things to do in hopes of gaining 100% completion and a full trophy list that includes finishing the story on its hardest difficulty featuring a lack of an immediate restart if the player fails. From various mini-games to luck-based situations such as hunting down arcade machines in the desert to finish a particular substory/side quest, a player will take reportedly over 100 hours to fully complete this game. Most importantly, “Lost Paradise” is built on the premise of multiple playthroughs as the protagonist Kenshiro has a skill tree & special equipment that can’t be fully leveled up or restored respectively until after finishing the game at least twice. I ended my first playthrough in thirty-seven hours; completing about a third of the substories & mini-games along the way. This is the type of game that won’t be completed fully for a long time, if ever, but I will keep coming back for more on the strength of the combat system alone.
Did “Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise” Live Up to the Hype?
Having been a fan of both the “Yakuza” game franchise for over a decade and the simplicity of “Fist of the North Star’s” story, my expectations of what was to come from this adaptation were pretty high. Crafted with the same engine that powered “Yakuza 0” and “Yakuza Kiwami”, “Lost Paradise” puts the player in control of the series’ central protagonist Kenshiro – the last heir to the deadly martial art known as Hokuto Shinken. Kenshiro’s fighting style focuses on utilizing the pressure points of an opponent against them – hitting them in the right spot to cause painful, gory deaths via implosions. Thankfully “Lost Paradise” doesn’t shy away from the violence, showcasing exploding heads & limbs galore in correlation with the game’s fighting mechanics. Like his digitized spiritual predecessor Kiryu Kazuma from “Yakuza”, Kenshiro can punch & kick when the player taps the square & triangle buttons respectively to build up combos that will stun and even send opponents flying across the screen. Kenshiro can block when the L1 button is held down, evade/sidestep with the X/cross button as well as activate his version of “Rage” with “Burst” mode.
When the player fills up Kenshiro’s “Seven Star” gauge by successfully attacking and the player taps the R2 button, Kenshiro will turn into a fiery ball of fast fighting fury featuring special maneuvers and attacks for a limited time. There are also some modifications to accommodate this adaptation’s fighting style. When Kenshiro successfully attacks an enemy, a skull icon will fill beside their health bar until it transforms into the circle button from the DualShock 4. When tapping the circle button while in front, behind or even when jumping overhead & on a downed opponent will allow Kenshiro to unleash a deadly attack/quick time event; sending blood flying everyone in glorious fashion. Rather than simply stick with the “Heat Actions” from the “Yakuza” games, the developers innovated and created a finishing sequence that is more entertaining from a player perspective than what’s seen in every “Yakuza” experience. Kenshiro can swing throwable items, but only the physical manifestation of an enemy’s dying words.
When it comes to adversaries, “Lost Paradise” is a mixed bag. The enemy offering types are perfectly fine in line with those seen in “Yakuza” including local thugs, giant mallet-swinging barbarians and even little people cosplaying as Chucky mixed with Freddy Krueger that prove to be too short to hit with typical strikes. Fighting hordes of enemies at one time in “Lost Paradise” is nothing short of an exhilarating experience … when everything works or poor game design doesn’t come back to haunt players. Enemies in this game move woefully fast especially in regards to the larger enemies in size as they need to be struck from behind; sometimes making it incredibly difficult to actually perform the strategy the game explains you need to utilize. Bosses are infamous for being ridiculous with their movement speed and can hit incredibly hard especially with the game having a leveling system. A majority of the boss battles aren’t difficult or thrilling from a design perspective (the first few are fantastic with the rest using the same style topped by repeating bosses), just enemies who are faster, posses long-ranged weapons or have impeccable blocking abilities even when being stuck in a hit loop. There are also times that the targeting system sees Kenshiro attack the closest enemy instead of the person in front of him even if that prior is in a completely opposite direction; potentially messing up a player’s strategy. Also getting knocked down is a detriment to Kenshiro as well as the player as Ken won’t get up until the player taps the X button enough for him to rise. Later in the game, certain enemies will actually trip over Kenshiro to accidentally reset the button pressing while leaving Kenshiro open for a devastating stomp.
Equipment mostly works the same as what’s seen in the “Yakuza” games with items helping protecting Kenshiro from blades, projectiles and simple strikes. The most profound addition to combat strategy for Kenshiro is the “Destiny Talisman”. “Destiny Talisman” are introduced pretty early in the story and allow Kenshiro to have special abilities that can be activated in correlation with its assignment on the d-pad, but have a time limit attached to them when used before they can be activated again. Some talisman are activated automatically such as instant revival that can save a player a lot of time while adding another layer of strategy for the bigger battles.
“Fist of the North Star” never featured the most robust or profound storytelling, but did set a standard in 1980s for manga and, eventually, anime franchises that followed. “Lost Paradise” features an alternative story with Kenshiro still living in a post apocalyptic world similar to “Mad Max” right down to the vehicles made for moving across the desert for combat & searching out random objects that can provide crafting items to upgrade the buggy one of Ken’s old protégés fixes up for him to traverse the wasteland that also features a few very small towns (though the looseness of the buggy takes some getting used to). Kenshiro’s journey quickly takes the player to the game’s central hub known as “Eden” where Kenshiro will not only progress the story, but also take part in the eighty substories, copious mini-games taken & modified from the recent “Yakuza” games including cabaret club management, baseball & coliseum fights as well as new stuff that would be incredible to see going forward in the “Yakuza” franchise like “Bartender Ken”.
When Kenshiro isn’t knocking motorcycle-riding thugs into the outfield he’s defending “The City of Miracles” from an intrusion with the hope of finding his lost love Yuria. The story barely lasts twenty hours with something of a dip in quality midway through as it pads the gameplay time with moments like finding a certain amount of items to modify the buggy so Kenshiro can make it across a spike-covered surface or destroy boulder barriers. The last chapter, though, is incredibly epic and mostly makes the player forget about the meandering moments. From a graphical perspective, “Lost Paradise” takes a more cel-shaded approach a la “Borderlands” that mostly works though some textures look blurry & muddied. The audio presentation is very reminiscent of the source material as the Japanese voice actors do a marvelous job while the dub sounds similar to something you’d hear from an early 1990s western localized anime.
While “Lost Paradise” does have some obvious problems with the story’s pacing, some issues in regards to fighting certain enemies, and a necessity for the player to go through the game more than once if 100% completion is the goal (the latter being more of a personal time issue than an actual flaw), the overall experience is definitely worthy of the franchise and, hopefully, the beginning of a long relationship between the series and a developer that can’t make a bad game even if they tried.
Should You Play “Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise”?
Like its spiritual successors and predecessors alike, “Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise” proves to be a genre bending experience – part beat-em-up, part RPG, part party game that, while somewhat overwhelming thanks to the various amount of things the player can do without progressing the story, still feels tight and not bloated to the point of exhaustion (even more so than some of the “Yakuza” games). While the game is definitely a great representation of both the franchise it’s based off of as well as the engine made for the “Yakuza” series, there are certain problems that may hinder the overall fun factor for the player including frustrating enemies and a story that doesn’t reach the heights of even the weaker “Yakuza” games in regards to pacing & padding. As a licensed video game this is easily one of the best of the generation, if not one of the best in the last couple of decades. Fans of the “Yakuza” franchise will feel right at home with this and will enjoy certain aspects even more so especially with the fighting modifications. Those who are invested in “Yakuza” games for their stories won’t be very pleased with this offering, but will appreciate all the stuff a player can do. This is definitely one of those games that should be rented by the uninformed, but purchased by those who want more “Yakuza” style action in their gaming library.
