I never stay up this late. This game is pretty awesome. Endlessly exploding dudes in a bloody mess never gets old, really, and I keep unlocking shit and powering Kenshiro up, so nothing ever really feels truly repetitious. 
 
I only have a few complaints with the game so far: 
 

• I wish it didn't constantly pop up the message, "save the villagers!". One, because I know what to do without them telling me, and two, it actually disrupts the flow of the game when you have one popping up every five minutes. It doesn't pop up for literally a second, it stays there to flash the next star on the small chart, so it's there for a good three seconds or so.
• I wish the combat was a little faster, as in, they just sped up all attacks and animations for all characters by like, ten percent. Not a lot, but enough to keep a quicker pace to the combat. I'm not expecting Godhand level of speed, but something just a bit snappier would feel good. I only bring this up because the combat is a lot slower and deliberate by nature, (and less mashy), but the amount of enemies they throw at you and only giving you a small handful of quick and fierce attacks sort of encourages you to mash a little bit.
• The story is disjointed. The monologue between chapters is neat, but beside that, they [the developer] don't seem interested in actually fleshing out the characters, their relationships, and setting up the world. Yeah, yeah, beat'em ups aren't really the type of thing to have rich stories, but the Hokuto No Ken universe is so rich in fiction, it feels weird not having the interpersonal relationships like you see in most of the media surrounding this universe.
• There should be a way for you to learn new quick and fierce attacks, and swap them out for different combinations. Maybe this is just me being entirely spoiled by Godhand, but I really miss being able to set up different combinations of basic attacks for different purposes, even if only one or two combinations were catch-all combos.

I watched the quick look and I could only see ironic appeal in the game. How does it play? It looked pretty imprecise

Well, as a I described in the above post it's generally slower and more deliberate which discourages mashing, but with all of the enemies they throw at you and only giving you a small handful of attacks, they sort of encourage mashing. 
 
Either you play beat'em ups and like them, or you don't play beat'em ups and don't get the appeal. The appeal for me is simply the universe.

Thanks for the post. I've been kinda wanting a good version of a dynasty warriors game for a while now. Your post made me check up more on the game and now I am going to at least rent it.

Sounds pretty awesome.  I won't be picking the game up for a while yet, this sounds very much like the game I was expecting.  True, it would be nice if it delved deeper in the universe and fiction, but if this is on par with Dynasty Warriors:  Gundam, I shouldn't be disappointed.

Does it ever get challenging? I know they were at the very beginning of the game in the QL but they'd be taking hits and losing less than 5% of the lifebar. Between that and the whole Dynasty Warriors 'huge groups of dudes just standing around waiting for you to walk up and kill them all at once' thing I was not impressed.

I'm not ready to...

I love Fist of the North Star, but my worries from watching the quicklook are that this game is too much Dynasty Warriors, and all the people explode in the same generic ways. 
Considering the legacy of people blowing up in the anime, it just looks disappointing. Glad you're enjoying it though.

" Does it ever get challenging? I know they were at the very beginning of the game in the QL but they'd be taking hits and losing less than 5% of the lifebar. Between that and the whole Dynasty Warriors 'huge groups of dudes just standing around waiting for you to walk up and kill them all at once' thing I was not impressed. "

" Sounds pretty awesome.  I won't be picking the game up for a while yet, this sounds very much like the game I was expecting.  True, it would be nice if it delved deeper in the universe and fiction, but if this is on par with Dynasty Warriors:  Gundam, I shouldn't be disappointed. "

" I love Fist of the North Star, but my worries from watching the quicklook are that this game is too much Dynasty Warriors, and all the people explode in the same generic ways. Considering the legacy of people blowing up in the anime, it just looks disappointing. Glad you're enjoying it though. "

I wish someone other than Koei had made this. It'd be 200 times better. Fuck Japan.

" Fuck Koei. "

I was interested until I played the demo. The story integration seems really poor, and that's what I was most interested in since I enjoyed watching the series so much. I wish the environments weren't so damn ugly as well. I probably wouldn't pay more than $15 for it.

" @keyhunter:  So Platinum Games wouldn't be able to make a good brawler?  :\
 
@keyhunter said:

" I love Koei. "

Fixed. "

" @owl_of_minerva said:

" @keyhunter:  So Platinum Games wouldn't be able to make a good brawler?  :\
 
@keyhunter said:

" I love Koei. "

Fixed. "

Fixed. "

" @Hailinel: I don't know. If they made another FoTNS title and it literally played exactly like this, I'd be disappointed. "

" @Hailinel:  Japan keeps buying Dynasty warriors games, which leads to bad gundams mashup, which leads to bad FoTNS mashup. Hokuto no Ken deserves better. Also where'd you get the idea that I hate japan and anime? I've probably watched more anime than the average loser japanophile and bothered to learn to read and write the language after all! Hell I'm going there next summer. "

" @keyhunter said:

" @Hailinel:  Japan keeps buying Dynasty warriors games, which leads to bad gundams mashup, which leads to bad FoTNS mashup. Hokuto no Ken deserves better. Also where'd you get the idea that I hate japan and anime? I've probably watched more anime than the average loser japanophile and bothered to learn to read and write the language after all! Hell I'm going there next summer. "

Given that stereotype, I find that hard to believe.  Also, if you watch anime, study the language, and are traveling there next year, why do you say fuck them?  Wouldn't your interest in the country, it's language and culture make you a Japanophile? "

" Wouldn't your interest in the country, it's language and culture make you a Japanophile? "

" @Hailinel said:

" @keyhunter said:

" @Hailinel:  Japan keeps buying Dynasty warriors games, which leads to bad gundams mashup, which leads to bad FoTNS mashup. Hokuto no Ken deserves better. Also where'd you get the idea that I hate japan and anime? I've probably watched more anime than the average loser japanophile and bothered to learn to read and write the language after all! Hell I'm going there next summer. "

Given that stereotype, I find that hard to believe.  Also, if you watch anime, study the language, and are traveling there next year, why do you say fuck them?  Wouldn't your interest in the country, it's language and culture make you a Japanophile? "

He might have meant that more like, "fuck Japanese game development." "

ugh 59.99 at ebgames, while I ahve a perfectly good copy of godhand sitting next to my ps3 this is going to be a renter or a price drop purchase.

" I watched the quick look and I could only see ironic appeal in the game. How does it play? It looked pretty imprecise "