Hokuto no Ken (PS1) Review and Game Explanation.

Hello everyone, my name is Vladislav, and i'm glad to have you here on my channel. So in today's video, we going to take a look closer at "Hokuto no Ken", also known as "Fist of the North Star", which was released in 2000's by "Bandai" exclusively on "PlayStation one", and unfortunately only in Japan.

And why unfortunately? Well first, because this game is a quite good beat 'em up, with good graphics, and which is most important, with awesome story. And "Hokuto no Ken" storyline, alongside with it's main character Kenshiro, it's the probably reason why we, well...

At least fans of "Manga" and "Anime" love this old school franchise so much. And speaking of story, this game is based on 1984 original TV series, which of course based on "Hokuto no Ken" Manga. So game based on first season of Anime, and opens with familiar opening scene, with legendary "You Wa Shock!" sound rockin' on.

Yeah, unfortunately i can't pop up this song in this video, but those who familiar with series, i think will understand what i mean. And yeah, at the end of game, on title screen, once again will play same song, as at end of any first season episode.

And of course during battle and storyline cutscenes, we will hear many of the familiar melodies and sounds. Yeah, i started my review with sound presentation, since nowadays there is not so much to say about game graphics, because game is already nearly 20 years old.

But actually game is holds up very well i'd say. And more than that, every cutscene, that we will see in game, are made actually on game's engine. And i say, developers managed to transfer most of the scenes from Anime, very close to how they did look in original.

Oh yea, i forgot to say, that most voice actors from original TV series, also mostly reprised their original roles in this game, which is absolutely awesome. But ok, let's chill with game presentation for now, because as i mentioned, game was released only in Japan, so almost every single word that you see in game, will be written and pronounced in Japanese.

And if it's possible to understand during story cutscenes, by simply reading Manga or watching Anime, on your native language, unfortunately not everyone can read Japanese menus. But don't worry, i got you covered, and will explain every menu in game.

So here's how game title screen is looks like. And we can see five options, that we can choose between. Very first option, is obviously game's storymode, so if you want to play it's storymode, just press circle and here we go. Oh yea, since this game is Japanese , circle will be our input button, instead of cross.

Yeah, in Japanese and in United States games, those buttons are usually switched. And i actually wonder, if it is still in newer titles, so who knows, i don't know, please let me know in comments. So second option, is a movie theater. Yeah, just like in "Tekken 3".

So basically in this option, you can watch any cutscene, that you saw during playthrough, and because of that, at start of game, this option will be locked. So as the next one, which is 2 player versus mode. And reason for that, so this option also locked, that you have to beat story mode first of course.

And not just beat, but win every singe boss battle without losing, because if you hit continue upon losing, that particular character which was boss or sub boss, that particular character, which was boss or sub boss, unfortunately won't unlock. Next option is memory card, well...

Since you have to continue story somehow, and since it will take like six hours to beat it. And not everyone able to do it in one sit. And by the way how to save game, i will explain soon also. So last option that we can choose, is actually game options and configuration menu.

But aside of choosing stereo or mono , and vibration on and off, there is nothing to do here at all. So title screen we figured, and let's proceed with storyline and gameplay now. As i mentioned already, and as you saw on screen, this game is purely beat 'em up, or a "Brawler" as some people may call it.

So basically how game looks, there is storyline cutscenes are going on, tonns and tonns of them, oh yeah, and they are not skipable by the way at all. So in between of cutscenes, we going to fight against waves of enemies, or sometimes it will be a boss battle.

So controls while fighting enemies and bosses, are absolutely same just in case. And i want to point it straight, that you can't leave your battle area at all. You can run around it, but it is not possible to freely move in between locations. So areas will switch only as you progress in storyline.

Ok, now back to controls. Arrows as always will move character. Double tap, will make you run, which is useful to escape deadly situations, that may happen a lot, especially closer to the end of game. Square is a punch button. Cross is Kick. Square and Cross together, is a block.

And circle is a jump button. It is possible to combine all those buttons, to perform different types of attacks and combos, and that of course depend on character, that you currently play. Yeah, most of game you will play as Kenshiro, but there will be few moments, where it be possible to choose between character, Rei and Kenshiro, and where game will force you to play as Rei or Toki.

And yeah, of course don't forget that versus mode, yeah... So as we figured, there only 3 buttons, that we will use mostly during battles, aside of arrows. And so, what's with Traingle? Well, we will use that too, in one and only mini game, yeah, this looks like "Test Your Might" in "Mortal Kombat".

But mostly, we will use Traingle in "Quick TIme Events", which is one of, or if not the main mechanics of this game. While fighting enemies, sometimes they will start to blink, right before they try to perform attack, and of course during attack also.

So if you hit enemy during "blink", if it regular enemy, and not a boss, most of them, will just instantly blow up, or sometimes, and always if it's a boss battle, "Quick TIme Event" mini game will start, where you have to input proper combination of buttons, in very limited amount of time.

And by doing so properly, if it's a regular enemy, he will explode and damage every enemy, that standing nearby, and little chuck of your health will be restored. This is by the way, only way to restore your health during battle, without taking continue.

So if it's boss battle, you will just do heavy damage to him, and once again recover portion of your health, but when you fighting against boss, and his health already dropped to zero, you have to finish him off. So finishing move looks same like regular "Quick TIme Event", but with different button pattern to input.

And just in case, if you fail finishing this "Quick Time Event", nothing scary will happen at all, you just have to attack boss one more time, and just re-input buttons until you succeed. Which buttons by the way to press, at first is not so obvious, but as you play this game, you get really use to it.

Like see for example, if fist point left, this is a Square button, if up, it's a Traingle, right, it's Circle, and down it's a Cross, so just like that, simple. So okay, how to fight, i think we already figured out, and now let's see how to actually save your ingame progress.

Since there is no any obvious option to do that. As i said before, this game is based on 1984 TV series, so game story itself, also split on episodes. Of course unlike anime, there is no 100+ episodes, but game split into 8 episodes, after end of which, there will be save function available.

So and to save game, soon as this option appear, just like you see on screen now. On first window, we choose first option, and press circle. And on second window, we choose second option, that's it, that's how you save game. And yeah, basically that's how this game is looks like, and that's all information, that you really need to know, if you want to play it and beat it to the end.

Of course that is sad, that game doesn't have any English translation, and all storyline understanding for non Japanese people, may come only from Manga and Anime. But, aside of that, this game is not bad to remember it, and beat it at least once, of course if you like "Hokuto no Ken".