YOU wa SHOCK: Thoughts on the Fist of the North Star Demo.
By ImperiousRix 2 Comments
The demo for the new Tecmo/Koei game "Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage" is out right now (for XBLA anyway), and I assume if you're a fan of the manga and/or anime series at all you've probably already DL'd the demo yourself. I did so last night and actually played through each stage a couple of times and have come to a relatively brief conclusion. I like this. Yeah, it's Dynasty Warriors, a game series that I've flayed a few times in the past. However, I don't dislike Dynasty Warriors because I don't think it's fun to play. Dynasty Warriors has some great and well executed concepts that, when played with in moderation, are fun as all heck. The problem is that these base ideas haven't been fleshed out or improved upon despite a new version of the game coming out every year. So to be clear, I'll play and enjoy Dynasty Warriors, but I won't support the series year after year if they don't significantly improve on anything.
But now this is becoming about Dynasty Warriors, and I wanna talk about the demo. In it is included two levels of gameplay from the game's story-mode (called Legend Mode here) with two characters to try out. Naturally there's Kenshiro, who you'd assume would be the guy they want you to try out first, right? I mean he's even first on the select screen, but selecting him will drop you straight into a boss fight against Kenshiro's bastard brother Jagi with no explanation of the controls. Granted, the game's control scheme isn't too tough to figure out, but I would have appreciated not having to get my ass handed to me to finally figure out all the ins and outs. If you're smart, you'll instead choose Rei (the angst-y mullet-ed one) and you'll get a tutorial alongside a level where you'll actually fight off waves of enemies and fight a boss as well. It's actually an overall funner level than Ken's, but one the demo doesn't make obvious should be played first.
Speaking of playing, the game plays pretty much how you might expect. You can string together light and strong attacks to build up your spirit meter which can then be used to unleash a special move (which will come complete with awesome freeze framed titles much like in the anime). You can also enter a trance state which doubles your attack power and modifies your special moves at the cost of draining your entire spirit meter. There are other intricacies like defending and other small little gameplay caveats, but the main idea is you punch guys in the face and they fall down, occasionally blocking and occasionally pulling out a special move to lay some smack down.
This game, as stated above however, is still Dynasty Warriors. Although some things like making moves feel impactful, varied special maneuvers, and general feel of ebb and flow are greatly improved in this game. However, a lot of times you'll still feel like you're just button-mashing or flailing at falling enemies or crippled by an unresponsive camera. They're things that are easier to forgive given the game's reverence for the source material, but they don't make them any less inconvenient in this game as they were in Dynasty Warriors.
To wrap this thing up in a big paper bag, the demo is fun. Will the game be earth-shattering or change your feelings on Koei's never-ending "hit thousands of dudes" formula? Probably not. Still, if you're a fan of Hokuto no Ken or Dynasty Warriors (or both) it's sure to be a good time. For everyone else, the mechanics in here are different enough you may find yourself really liking the game. The only other thing for certain I can say is if you have any doubt about anything GO GET THE DEMO RIGHT NOW!