that formality now over with I would like to say that with out a doubt that Fist of the North Star Ken's rage is one of the best adaptations of an anime I've seen.
First a little background info. Fist of the North Star (or Hokuto no Ken depending on your regional locale) is the great granddaddy of the Shounen (Young male) and to a certain extent the Seinen (18-30 male) Anime genre. its a hyper violent action anime based around martial artists who seek to bring peace to the world through their own self absorbed means following the events of a nuclear war which devastated the world and left human civilization in ruins.
In the now war torn world bandit gangs run rampant and menace the remaining civilian populace. Enter the protaginist Kenshiro Kasumi or simply Ken. The 64th heir to the deadly martial arts style of Hokuto Shinken (The Divine Fist of the North Star) a man who bears 7 scars on his chest and the burden of being the one to bring the world back from the brink of non existence.
Hokuto Shinken is a fictional martial art which is one of the three primary styles shown in the source material the others being Nanto Seiken (The Divine Fist of the South Star) and Taizanji Kenpo. although the main cast is split between Hokuto and Nanto.
The basic premise of the game and its source material by extension is that you the player battle your way back from the depths of hell (not in the literal sense) to take back Yuria, and then to take up the burden of the Hokuto Shinken successorship and the responsibilities it entails.
The game gives a digest version of the plot covering the primary arcs of the source material but leaving out many of the filler arcs and encounters that happened in the manga and anime. I won't go into extensive detail as it would take much too long to properly explain but i will say for what it covers it handles it really well with CG rendered cut scenes depicting the major plot bits. admittedly it could have included more of them to flesh out and establish things better but thats a minor nit pick point. the presentation is spectacular I actually think they picked some fairly competent voice actors and the writers stayed faithful to most of the dialog as well.
Game play
Yes for those who haven't picked up on it after reading the first paragraph of the post its a Dynasty warriors game. Is that a bad thing... for this adaptation i'd say "Absolutely not." after all the main draw is the idea of Ken and company's various crazy martial arts wreaking havoc over armies of low ranking peons with the occasional commander and then boss fights at the end of any major level in the story mode.
Just a word of warning to the Devil May Cry and God Of War crowd. This game does have a bit of clunky crunch to it. but in relation to the source material it fits you see Hokuto fighters like Ken are slow but heavy hitters. Nanto Fighters like Rei and Ken's primary rival Shin are speedsters who in the right hands can destroy large crowds with ease using their massively powerful air combos.
For those who stick with the game for more than one or two stages will find its very well built and action packed as you can build combos and do all the staple maneuvers of many classic beat em ups like God hand. such as canceling and other interrupt actions which can help give you some more agile combat without it feeling like your losing a sense of visceral impact. But being creative with your kills is encouraged as it yields bonus karma points which are used toward earning skill points used to upgrade your character.
Between stages you can upgrade your character on the Meridian chart which unlocks new moves, stat boosts and skills you can apply to your character to enhance them in ways such as lowering the requirement of the above mentioned karma points (Easier skill point grinding) passive recharge for your spirit (Musou for Dynasty warriors players) gauge for special attacks or even passive abilities that use levels gained to boost your primary stats (Vitality, Attack, and Defense) [note these abilities don't stop you from gaining skill points in exchange for the stat boosts.]
Once you've gotten upgraded and accustomed to the combat system the levels play a lot more smoothly. That said it won't be a total cake walk, if your playing in the later levels without any upgrades you will get your butt kicked if not by the peons the bosses.
On that topic the boss battles are fairly entertaining early on although those who dislike Quick Time events may be put off by the system the game uses to finish boss fights. basically once the boss's health is drained you walk up and press B on Xbox 360 (or Circle on Playstation 3) to initiate a timed button sequence mini game where you get a random sequence of buttons to press and a limited amount of time to do it in. starting out (the first few boss fights of each character where applicable) its fairly easy normally 3 or 4 sets of 3 face buttons but later on in the game it can get a little difficult.
One thing many of the main stream reviewers over look is that bosses have weaknesses to certain signature attacks (This game's Musou attack used with B or Circle depending on your platform) [Normally the attack that finished them in the source material.] each time you fail the Quick time sequence they regenerate part of their health bar but it can be reduced by hitting them with their weakness. [unfortunately Megaman logic doesn't apply here weakness doesn't grant excessively greater damage it just modifies how much they can regenerate if you fail the QTE.] after enough hits they'll only regenerate just barely enough to sustain a hit from a full 2-4 hit combo.
Now the end game boss fights can be unfair if you walk into them unprepared but usually the game gives you a decent hint about what you should do relative to the boss although the reliable tactic is with characters who have dodge cancels like Rei and Ken simply get a few hits in and break the enemy's guard and do an evade (Right Bumper or R1) or guard cancel to break your current string and quickly set up for another. Other characters profit from throw or jump canceling which as the name implies are canceling combos by doing the named action.
there's a cast of 8 or so playable characters including DLC characters each of them classified into groups by their fighting style Hokuto (Ken) Nanto (Rei) or Unique (Mamiya.) each one playing in their own special style which gives you a distinct way to play each one Hokuto as mentioned above are power characters, Nanto are speedsters and Unique are more based around ranged combat and special effects with Area of Effect moves to add to their range of usefulness.
Most of the characters are unlocked by completing Ken's story in Legend mode although a few are exclusive to the Dream mode which covers original side plots that were produced with input from the original creators of the source material.
Style
As you'd expect the game isn't to graphically flashy [it is a post nuclear wasteland after all. Thanks a lot Modern Warefare 2 :)] and as some of the reviewers tend to harp on their aren't that many varieties of minions four types in all (Basic grunts that look like cheesy Mad Max cosplayers. Brutes, large muscular walls of human flesh who take a series of chained hits to break their guard before you can land an effective hit. Tubbies who as their nickname implies are bulky guys who are basically fatter shorter versions of the brutes, they are slower to attack and are more resilient than the brutes but aren't heavy on per hit damage. Then we have the Bash brothers as I like to call them Bash Brothers are slightly taller than the normal mooks and carry around dual spiked clubs that they use to bash the ground and generate Area of Effect shock waves. their alternate model collectively known as spike are basically bash brothers wearing spiked armor thats resistant to standard attacks and can only be damaged by signatures and attacks that launch projectile. But to compensate they rarely guard.
The Bad
While the game over all plays fairly well there are a few minor glaring flaws that should have been removed or not put in, the biggest objection to it was the addition of platforming segments which feel tacked on to differentiate it from standard dynasty warriors fare.
It was a novel idea but it falls apart quickly as the engine which appears to be a modified version of the engine used in Dynasty Warriors 6 or possibly strike force i'd have to consult with someone else on it for conformation either that or if any viewers have the info provide it in the comments. but the engine simply isn't built for platforming.
The only other major flaw is the end game bosses can be overpowered and the difficulty settings aren't very well balanced its a cake walk on easy a fair challenge on normal and brokenly difficult on hard. (the only massive change between them is the amount of damage you take vs how much you deal .
The Verdict
other than that its a great game and a good value with a fairly complex if not mildly grindy upgrade system that will give you hours of replay time maxing out your characters in preparation for the boss rush mode which seems to be functionally hard mode on steroids as the bosses really don't change attack patterns or anything its more of the old stand by of them doing vastly more damage to you than you can dish out to them. But i could imagine a maxed out character in the hands of a player who knew the bosses patterns well enough could handle it. the one shining benefit of the boss rush mode is the bosses die without the QTE sequence at the end.
I'd give it a 4 out of 5 with a strong positive recommendation. The demo is available on Playstation Network and Xbox live Marketplace. But don't let the demo sour your opinion of the game if you can rent the full game before passing a negative judgment
