Quick Look: Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise

You're already Quick Looked

This is game is so amazing, unless you're not a hardcore Yakuza or FoTNS fan. I loved all 30 hours I put into it.

Hearing what Jason had said in other stuff, I feel like he's not gonna be kind in this quick look.

However, I'm gonna say I'm ADORING this game. I've barely played Yakuza (only a little 0), but do love Fist of the North Star, and this game is basically everything I wanted it to be. There's so quality of life stuff that could be better, but besides that, the fighting is great, the characters are fun, and the side quests are amazing.

I'll also say if you've never seen FotNS to maybe not play this game. Not because you won't enjoy it, but it just doesn't hit a lot of the story beats quite as well and reveals some stuff way faster than it should. I can't recommend watching the original anime enough.

Ben saying the yakuza games have “decent” main storylines, gonna just politely say that I disagree greatly, because I think they have amazing storylines

But thank you for doing this quick look

Decent? Shut it Ben. xD

the secret techniques aren't random square circle will always get you the phantom channeling point and square twice then circle will always be bone crusher strike. circle at different points of the combo will put enemies in different types of stuns. if you don't want to see hordebreaker anymore holding r1 (lockon) when you do it will get you a different move. also that c rank treasure map could have been magical sound shower

I am under the impression, that with project judge being in development for over 3 years, and shin ryu ga gotoku still in development,

That the B Team is what made this game. As it also feels like it uses the engine from yakuza 0 and kiwami

the yakuza engine/framework seems like it would the perfect medium for an actually good hokuto no ken game, i just hope the end result holds up

I dunno, this looks really solid. If we didn't have the best of Yakuza to compare it to it'd be a heck of a game in this style.

Doesn't Yakuza have some really frustrating bosses, too? Or was that just how Dan played it?

Boy this is some pretty derivative stuff.

A hokuto shinken user with seven scars in the shape of the hokuto? Doesn't that describe like all of them?

Ben is having some real trouble saying "omae wa mou shindeiru"

I don't think any of the main story bosses in these games have been that hard. Granted I might have been just more leveled up, but I found them not that challenging when leveled up properly. A lot of it is also coming prepared with health and heat boosters and knowing you can't rely on just attacking but working with the defensive moves you have too.

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Omae wa mou shinderu.

Not feeling this English dub though.

I have been playing this for a while and both as fan of Yakuza and more importantly Fist of the north star I couldn't be happier.

Its better than Koei's last effort and better than Hokuto Renkitoza.

this game owns

This seems good, not my alley but it seems like the stuff the crew is complaining about is specific to the stuff they skipped. They go out of their way to show you the town and a few side quests, I'm assuming if you put in some time to do those you would be leveled appropriately for the boss fight.

Is this Dynasty Warriors?

Putting bosses in a meridian state and doing a secret technique will damage them by big chunks. You can even unlock points on a tree to make that happen easier.

Being also same or higher level is helpful as taking even regular mooks five levels higher can be tricky.

Yakuza team really likes to switch between you feeling like an invincible badass in the normal fights to the bosses punishing you for being too cocky. Rei’s not bad at all though, most of his attacks are super easy to dodge, leaving him vunerable to some good hits, also the QTE event he spams near the end takes off huge chunks of his health.

This game is definitely Yakuza Lite though. I’d only recommend grabbing over Y0 or 6 if you really like FoTN and Yakuza already. Half of the fun of this game is all the returning Japanese voice actors like Kiryu for Kenshiro and fighting all the iconic badasses from FoTN.

Eventually the treasure chests start giving you some pretty cool stuff, you find a bunch of old arcade machines (Out Run, Space Harrier, etc) and even a Sega Mark III with a copy of the old Fist of the North Star game (aka Master System's Black Belt). Sadly it's mostly just car crafting parts though, and map drops are very few and far between.

Definitely the best Fist of the North Star game ever made.

Probably pretty low on the Ranking of Yakuza's list though. But not the worst.

I fucking love it. But it's one of those games that's super hard to recommended. It's like designed for a niche of a niche audience. If you love FotNS AND Yakuza? Easiest purchase ever.

If you're just curious and familiar with neither? Honestly? Try Yakuza Zero instead.

For a game that is probably the best Fist of the North Star game ever made, it's so hecking unfortunate that this game seems so incredibly dull, for what seemed like it could have had so much potential.

Jason is really bad at this game

Naruto Tender Chicken

maybe it's cus i've been playing yakuza for years, but it seems like jason's being a bit unfair to the combat cus he's bad at it.

that said tho, this game still really does seem less good than yakuza in pretty much every way

I don't know the first thing about FoTN, but I absolutely love the Yakuza formula and everything about this, even the stuff they were complaining about, seems right up my alley. Looks rad.

This looks terrible.

I kinda wished that east crew did this, considering their background of the Yakuza series. While watching the quick look i kept imaging how Alex would comment on different parts of it.

Since i'm not a fan of FoTN i didn't find anything interesting from the quicklook but i'm might give it a try as a Yakuza spin off because i played all of them!

I dont know.

I liked it a lot, and I have watched maybe 3 episodes of Fist of the North Star for context? I feel like people weirdly dislike this game, and i think its the best Yakuza style game since 0.

@theodoricfriede: I think this game looks interesting, just that some parts are as slow as Yakuza. Lots of texts to go thru, and require bit more time to gain more skills.

I'm actually amazed that Jason managed to rope Jeff into this QL.

@sub_o:Well, yeah.

It is a Yakuza game in everything but its setting. This is just how the Yakuza games work.

I don't know if I want to play this. I'm a huge fan of Yakuza, but I have zero background in FotNS beyond "you are already dead" memes, and I'm just not feeling the art style. I really dislike Ken's exaggerated gigantic muscles and tiny head, and he's the main character!! (Although, I just remembered there's a free Kiryu skin right now) Plus, the game screaming the name of the finishing moves at me every single time is already getting annoying just from watching the QL. I suspect I'd feel better about it with Japanese voice acting. I think I'll wait for a deep discount, or it could become a PS Plus game, considering several Yakuzas have been Plus games already.

leave it to jason to expect us all to know what this obscure japanese property is about and not explain a single thing. literally all i know about this game is it’s based on a monga and it’s an action game. is it based on a tv show? is this a series? is this a sequel? who made this? is there a story? are there other games?

@perkotreason:

Maybe it's just me, but "Fist of the North Star" and "obscure" just don't go together. It's one of the most famous properties of the 80's, with decades of material. In any case, to answer your questions, yes it's based on a tv show, which was serial, the game isn't a sequel, it's made by the Yakuza team, there is a story, and there are other games made by other development teams, in the past.

This honestly looks lazy and terrible as a game.

@rothbart: @perkotreason:

Honestly, I agree with both of you. Fist of the North Star is not a particularly obscure title as far as mid-80s Japanese media goes - but its certainly niche.

As a game about a licensed property this video would have benefited from a minute or two of explanation about the context. It's not a major ask and it removes potential barrier for entry to the viewer.

For my part - this thing is based on an 80s re-imagining of Mad Max, there have been manga, anime and games based on the series but like Mad Max theres no significant narrative which would mean you need to be familiar with them.

The best Fist of the North Star game is Double Dragon 2.

Jason is bad at it and pinning his own shortcomings as a player on the game. It's pretty fun once you get used to how the combat works, and actually comprehend the tutorials the game gives you like how to choose what finisher to use.

When he said "I don't want a boss to actually dodge or block my attacks" you can tell this game isn't for him. Probably better off with Dynasty Warriors or something.

*complains about being level 15 for a level 23 boss when you've skipped most of the content the game is giving you*

oh

This game needs some kind of crazy gore-tech. I feel like when a dude's head explodes i want to have a visceral reaction to it.

Other than that boss fight at the end, this game actually looks pretty cool. I really love how Yakuza-esque those side-quests are, too.

THE FIRST 15 SECONDS OF KAWAII MACHINIMA

Throwing a 2 in the chat for Ben's One Punch Man game suggestion!

The character design / art and the overall look of Fist of the North Star always was kind of off putting to me. Game looks like it could be fun though.

PC release when???