Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage (PS3/Xbox360) Review and Gameplay.

Hello everyone, my name is Vladislav, and as always i glad to have you here on my channel. In today's video we going to take a look closer at "Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage", which was released by "Tecmo Koei" in 2010 for "PlayStation 3" and "Xbox 360".

So "Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage", as you can see is a "Dynasty Warriors" or as it known in Japan - "Musou" type of game. Which is in case of regular "Dynasty Warriors" could be a slasher game, but in case of "Ken's Rage", which is by the way titled in Japan as "Hokuto Musou", it is a very hardcore and brutal "Beat 'em Up".

And despite the fact, that game plays very similar to "Dynasty Warriors" series, and other games in similar genre, still this incarnation of "Fist of the North Star" have a lot's original features in it. Such as it's legendary storyline, which is in this game are based as on original "Manga", as well as on original 1984 Anime series.

And because of that, in game we are going to see a lot's of moments, that are already so close to the hearts of fans of the series for more than 30 years. More than that, all this are accompanied by absolutely insane soundtrack by composer of "Dynasty Warriors" series Haruki Yamada.

Yeah, if you up for some hardcore "Metal" style of music, then you will absolutely love it. And there is even one particular melody that are present in game, which is straight away will be recognized by all fans of original 1984 anime series. Yeah, i'm talking about "You Wa Shock"! But ok, now let's get into gameplay itself.

As we already established, that "Ken's Rage" plays very similar to "Dynasty Warriors", game controls are somewhat similar also. We can run, jump, perform light type of attacks, charged attacks, which are by the way, caninically turns your enemies into a mangled mess.

Light and Charged attacks we can combine in different variations of combos. And of course we can perform special moves, just take a look at it. Yeah, this is absolutely insane. I even while was playing this game, sometimes when special attack was charged, even if i knew, that there is no any strong enemies are nearby, i still performed it just for fun, because it never gets old.

Some of special attacks will do just massive damage, others will instantly kill even toughest enemy with single touch, or even multiple enemies. At start of game we have only one special move are available, but many more will be unlocked during playthrough.

And speaking of unlocking stuff like special moves, some of them are unlocked simply by progressing through storyline, about which, we are going to talk about more very soon, but most of stuff are unlocked by leveling particular character in game. Yeah in "Ken's Rage" we can play not only as Kenshiro, but as other characters too.

So as you can see, there are some sort of "RPG" elements are present in game. By killing enemies we are collecting points, then after we accumulate enough of them, we get special "Skill Points", that can be spent on upgrading that particular character, that we used during mission.

Also it needless to say, that it is possible to find some "Skill Points" in various crates, while exploring levels, and even more can be found in secrets. And at this point, i think it is time to talk about game modes. At first launch of game, your title menu will look just like that.

So as you can see, there is not that many game modes are available at start, exept "Legend Mode", "Tutorial", "Gallery", and "Options". And so before we will start to talk about game modes it self, let's take a quick look at "Options". Because in "Options", there are few moments that i want to point out.

And first off is game difficulty settings, which is very important. Because if you will struggle during some part of game, it is possible to change game difficulty at any time. but be careful, as soon as you change game difficulty, you will have to replay your current mission all over again.

But i want to tell you that straight away, that changing game difficulty won't affect any unlokable game modes and characters at all. So this is nice feature to consider. Next is violence options, which you can turn on and off, but in case of "Fist of the North Star" i suggest to turn it on and forget about it, because this is "Fist of the North Star" after all.

Yeah quick note, that game will ask about difficulty and violence settings right at start, so you will choose it prior visiting "Options" menu. But what game won't ask you, is on which language you want to play. And in "Options" we can choose between English or Japanese voice acting, and subtitles.

And here i found it very important, because at least for me, for better "Hokuto no Ken" experience, i prefer to play this game with Japanese voicing, and English subtitles. So after we done with "Options", it is time to proceed to "Legend Mode" straight away, because i don't see any point in "Tutorial", since all important information, as well as other hints, will be anyways shown already during playthrough.

So "Legend Mode" as you can guess, it's game's storyline. And story of "Ken's Rage" as i said, based on original "Manga" and 1984 "Anime" series, well...
1st season of it, until epic battle with Raoh at the end. Yeah by the way, why i referring to the series, and not to 1986 Animated film or other later animated films, because most of moments that you will see during storyline, are exact same moments, that were present in anime series, but by some reason was altered in 1986 Animated film so...

Yeah. At start of "Legend Mode" and for the most part of it, we are going to play as Kenshiro, but after certain parts of storyline, more characters will be unlocked like Rei, Mamiya and Toki. But as you unlock more characters, you can't just switch between them during missions, but instead of that, you can play "Legend Mode" as characters like for example Rei or Toki, but events of story will be from their perspective.

So some levels, like where Kenshiro were team up together with those characters, will be same for at least some part of it, but also there will be entire levels that are based on episodes, where those characters were split their ways with Ken. Which is already adds a lots of replayability, to already fantastic game.

And at this moment i want to say, that i recommend to complete "Legend Mode" as all characters first, in order to unlock maximum from it, and level up all characters, that are available for playing in this mode. Because as soon as you start unlock characters, you will notice that characters like Shin or Jagi are also unlocked, and unfortunately, you can't play as them in "Legend Mode', but instead of that, we can play as them in absolutely new "Dream Mode", which also will be unlocked as you progress through storyline.

But ok, before we get into "Dream Mode", i want to say few more words about "Legend Mode" gameplay part. As i said "Legend Mode" are represent original "Fist of the North Star" storyline, and split in chapters. Every chapter are represent sort of a game level, during which time to time you can complete optional objectives, succesfully completing which, will temporarily power up character that you are currently using.

At end of every level, you have to canonically fight against boss of that particular episode, so all most important battles are present here. Like battle against Zeed, Shin, Thouther and Raoh. As well as all important moments of anime, that are represented by ingame cutscenes in between missions.

And now it's time to talk about "Dream Mode", since we unlocked it by playing "Legend Mode". Gameplay wise "Dream Mode" already plays very similar to "Dynasty Warriors", and instead of being sort of guided through levels, like it is usually in storyline based games, in "Dream Mode" we have to fight agains enemy's army, capture their bases, and kill their generals.

But here's the thing, "Dream Mode" in "Ken's Rage" also have it's storyline, that been created specially for this game. In this mode we are going to see sort of alternative "What if" scenarios. What if Shin was victorious in battle agaist Kenshiro? Yeah! This is insane.

In this one, Shin may team up with other villains, like with Thouther, as you can see in this particular moment. Or in this one, which i absolutely loved it, when Jagi team up with Amiba! Yeah! Now everyone will know about Kenshiro and Toki. And there is many more stories and varioations of events just like that.

So basically it plays like absolutely different game. Aside of "Dream Mode", as you finish "Legend Mode", one more game mode will be unlocked, which is "Challenge Mode". "Challenge Mode" i found least interesting in this game, since this one is just a repetition of battles that you are already played, but with increased difficulty and on timer, and without any additional storyline are involved.

But well... it just me, since i prefer to play more story oriented games. And more than that, there is just so much content in two previous modes, that it will take hours and hours, to play though all of it. Only Kenshiro story alone, for me took around 10 hours to complete.

And now imagine to beat at least "Legend Mode" as all characters, and then finish whole "Dream Mode" as even more characters. Yeah "Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage" are totally packed with content. And i say this game, especially if you into "Hokuto no Ken" series or "Dynasty Warriors" series, is the game, which you will want to play again and again, and not only to unlock all characters and stuff like that, but simply just for fun.

But yeah, that was basically it, that was my sort of review and gameplay footage, and explanation of "Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage", which is as for me, is absolutely brilliant game. And oh yeah, you probably noticed, that in this video i didn't spoke about "Ken's Rage 2" at all, since i'm unfortunately yet to play it.