Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise

Did not see this coming lol.

Oh snap, this is a dream game right here, even kiryu's actor is ken. Hope it comes to the west.

I'd rather it be a straight action game than this. Not a Musou one either. Hokuto Musou was actually ok, but I mean like something from Platinum.

I would love it if Platinum did a FotS game with mechanics like GH. GH is pretty much a FotS game as it is but they could add in some kind of pressure point system. Maybe similar to blade mode. These mechanics would fit really well.

I'd like to see platinums take on hokuto too, GH is more than acceptable for me. Haven't seen any gameplay beyond this trailer but I take it's gonna be like Yakuza but with more sick brain busting punches(probably gonna be censored at least in Japan), yakuza devs are a good fit, maybe they will have a pressure point mini game, more likely heat move qte stand ins. I think death by degrees has some sort of pressure point X-ray mechanic.

The trailer shows Ken switch fighting styles to a faster one just like Yakuza Zero.

Combat looks like yakuza 6, same engine I take.

Yo so it's gonna have a post apocalyptic kamurocho, its called Hokuto ga Gotoku. They also announced yakuza kiwami 2.

I probably won't be playing it but I still hope it's not simply an HnK skin.

It's likely going to use yakuza combat as its basis with some unique hokuto stuff, mostly styles and heat move stand ins probably. I'll check it out but I hope it gets localised, might not given hokuto isn't known much in the west, not enough to warrant a localisation.

Hokuto Musou 1 & 2 got Western releases so I don't see why they wouldn't release this.

That's what I was thinking, this hokuto game could be a big hit for hokuto and yakuza team, especially with the recent resurgence of yakuza in the west. Sega has just opened a survey for interest in the announced yakuza games.

When I saw this my head exploded...and then I saw the gameplay and thought: of all the Yakuza titles they had to base the combat of the worst one...
Yakuza 6 has a lot of merrits but it's mosou style combat isn't one of them. I'll still get this day one since I love Fist of the North Star and just adore the team behind Yakuza, but the combat looks shallow at best. That being said imagine Heat Actions with this game...I need that in my life.

Yakuza is really making grounds in the west though. Zero was a big success and Kiwami2 will probably have a really quick release after Asia.

yeh yakuza 6 looks really odd, it looks older gameplay wise than yakuza regular gameplay you know what i mean? Its so different from all the others, like kiryu does new moves and not dragon of dojima style i think. The ragdoll and animations all look really off and goofy. looks like an og xbox type combat. Plus 6 runs at 30fps than yakuza 0/ishin/kiwami 60fps. Hokuto really deserves a great action title and yakuza team are prime candidates to do it justice.

Yeah Yakuza 6 runs on a new and different engine. To be fair in terms of graphical fidelity and open world it's a lot better in 6. You can now seemlessly enter stores and also have fights there instead of pressing X to enter and looking at a loading screen. And all Yakuza games originally ran at 30fps, don't forget that Yakuza 0, Ishin and Kiwami are originally PS3 titles that ran at 30fps but us dirty westerners got the PS4 release with updated frame-rate.

That said the combat...looks extremely meh.

Gameplay looks pretty slick and responsive so far!

So far so good, is it 60fps? I'm not surprised the gore is censored.

It's 30fps as it runs on the 'dragon engine' that was used for Yakuza 6 and the upcoming Kiwami 2.

Game just got announced for a Western release in October! Less than a month after the Western release of Kiwami 2.

This one surprised me the most at E3, along with the Resident Evil 2 remake.

I'll be getting the game for sure since I enjoyed the manga/anime and the Yakuza games. The game being developed by said team was a huge plus as well.

https://gematsu.com/2017/08/toshihiro-nagoshi-explains-hokuto-ga-gotoku-not-use-dragon-engine

Uses Yakuza 0/Kiwami engine, not the Dragon engine. Runs at 60fps.(can confirm, just played the JP demo runs solid 60fps)  

West release is Oct 2nd 2018 and includes a English dub and extra gore options(or black blood if you want).



Kiryu killed no one...

Dead Souls doesn’t count either, as they where already dead...
(hope someone gets that joke)

Oh and Jagi is voiced by Majima(sadly with no complimentary Jagi Anywhere System)

#KiryuDidNothingWrong

Jokes aside, game looks amazing. Heard some good stuff about it too as I know some of the action-greats played this game a lot (Rayneasd, Strider etc.). It's already got quite the cult following. I am going to dive into it as well when it launches (one of the few games I've pre-ordered).

So this is out now, I’ve got my copy ordered. An English demo is also out, I played it and it’s the same as the Japanese demo except in English text and voices(with no Japanese dub option unlike the full release). The dub is a nice edition for those that want it, but from the demo it didn’t sound great, it’s hard to top the yakuza cast. On that note the Kiryu skin is available for free until Oct.15-6.

As for some combat details: there’s juggles, grabs are replaced by meridian shock(pressure point) stun states, which vary depend on earn you do them in a combo, as well as the heat move you get. There’s also a super mode when all the seven stars meter fills up. At which point you can do a summersalt move after dashing and do a bunch of unique moves like a rapid air kicks(like the ones against Mr.Heart) and an AoE shockwave. Don’t know more than that, I wanted to see for moreself.

There’s also car traversal and car racing.

Been going pretty deep into this game over the last few days, very hard to put down. Few notes on how the game works:

- the whole game revolves around getting enemies into stun states, when you can do your thing with them. Regular attacks fill the stun gauge, but you deal more stun via juggles and attacks from behind.
- once stunned you can do 'Strikes' which are QTE high damage moves.
- once stunned you can also do 'perfect channels', which is a button press that replaces the QTE dealing massive damage. Enemies killed this way drop orbs (often 7Star orbs, sometimes health) or an item you can attack with.
- you have a meter called 7star, once filled you can become 'super you' (called Burst) that has access to numerous other moves like a double jump with some follow ups like rapidkick (great for kills) and a shockwave (great for clearing).
- meter management is very key in the game. You can spend meter for instance to activate a 'parry state' in which you can activate a double jump with i.frames if someone attacks you during it, allowing you to access the Burst moveset without being in it. You can also spend meter to do a stun-wave that is really good.
- you also have a set of equippable 'super attacks' that deal massive damage, but have huge cooldowns (we're talking 30 minutes plus).
- there is 'leveling' sadly. Enemies have a level, if they out level you you will die much faster and your damage is abysmall.

Combat sees you balancing large groups of enemies while trying to get as many differing Strikes off without being touched for a good rank (S++ is the highest). You can also juggle enemies very long if you know how the mechanics work, even disabling some bosses for longer periods of time. An example:

Square Triangle Triangle > dash > Square Triangle > dash and wait > Square Square Square > Dash Triangle > Square Square Square > activate burst > on landing Strike. Deals great damage and stun.

Overall, very satisfied with the game so far!

Is it still like the the Yakuza games outside of combat?
I'm not interested in another action RPG or huge world full of quests, mini-games and shit. I really wish someone would just make a straight up action game of this.

Outside of combat it is still 'Yakuza'. That means random battles walking through the streets and plenty of (very) optional mini-games. The minigames this time around are really fun though. That said, if you play it 'pure action' you can, just includes some walking from an objective marker to another one.

That said Straight Up Action Games are too rare. I really miss those.

Played up to meeting Toki and stopped at the beginning of the next chapter. Really good so far, but mashing X to skip dialogue is annoying, considering I don’t care much for the dialogue or plot so far(Ken is a cool punch man, but he’s pretty flat as a character to me, he’s just really good for atatatahs). I hope there’s some wacky side stories to give him some flavour to work off.

@Roy: Did ya pick up the Kiryu skin yet? It’s free until Oct 15th or 16th. Kiryu’s anatomically correct proportions look so odd compared to Ken’s extremely long legs and short, stout arms. He’s a foot shorter too.

Fuck me I typed a long response here, but forgot to press send. Anywho, I beat the game. Overall I really enjoyed it but as you note, Kenshiro is pretty one note, though in the sub-stories he's basically just Kiryu to be honest. I feel they didn't really implement his character to the best of their ability. The ending caught me off guard though, really well done.

That said I loved it. Think it could be better with some added enemies, bit more variation (gameplay was a bore in long stretches) etc. But overall the long fights, bosses and minigames were really fun to me. The final fight theme is honestly one of the best I've heard in a long time. You hear it as Kenshiro is fighting through a big wave of enemies climbing a type of tower. Very, very well done song:

Made a playlist with some fights to showcase how the game works. Note most are early game (EX-HARD). Should give a little insight into the game for some.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKz6wVNSUw6F7gj22gN_jYNkZWcBV2rop

Nice. I was actually going to ask about some stuff.
I've only watched up to Shin.

How are juggles? Similar to GH? (both games having no jumping).

Everyone seems to have circle button prompts. Why? I see some pop up after what looks like heavy hits, but some have them when you haven't touched them?

Is that 'strike' thing a counter?

Can the death scenes be skipped?

I'm seeing a lot of different executions. What decides them?

> Juggles
Depends on the foe. Regular mooks and lower bosses you can just juggle infinitely by using the launchers. Other enemies have safeties put into place, some will do an air-recovery if they are in the air for too long and do a counter attack, others will flip away to safety etc. Some will just fall down faster the longer the combo goes on.

> no jump
There is. But only in Burst Mode (or with certain abilitys on low health). Some moves can be upgraded to have a jump built in.

> everyone has a circle prompt
Level difference. If you're too high level compared to the enemy you can get a free stun on them. Otherwise you have to fill their stunbar (the little skull icon) for it to appear.

> Strike
It is basically a 'heat action'. You can do it when certain criteria are met. One could be hold block and have an enemy attack with his fists (the counter one you saw), another could be having them get stunned and use the channeling-point strike on them.
The different animations are based on the 'state' they enter when stunned. For instance, doing 4 regular hits puts them into a static-state where they will be grabbed for a group throw. Doing two hits into a channeling strike, gives the blinded animation. It is a weird system, but pretty fun too. It isn't random at all thankfully (something a lot of casuals assume).

> death scenes
Cannot be skipped, but you can do an alternative that does nearly the same damage and drops an health or meter-orb but has no real animation (great for speeding up fights).

Hope this clears some things up :)

More or less.

How long is the game? I assume you can repeat missions for ranks.

You should do a video of the non heat action attacks. I'm interested in those.

Do you know if anything was removed? I know the western versions are more violent but I wouldn't be surprised if they removed something.

> length
I beat the game in 35 hours, but I did a lot of derping around with sidequests, races and minigames.

> repeat missions
Nope. It is one story from beginning to end. But there's no real 'rank', just a ranking at the end of a fight. Bosses don't have ranks I believe, and missions don't have a final ranking either.

> non-heat action attacks
https://youtu.be/ZV0ITMWx6ZE (around 12 seconds in). You see the circle close, this deals damage if you time a button press correctly. You can also just deal enough damage. Killing an enemy using this method kills most enemies instantly and they either drop:
- a green health orb
- a blue orb (restores 1 star)
- a glistering blue orb (full star-charge)
- an item you can attack with for massive damage.

> removed content
Strangely enough, only added content. The Japanese version had no blood, the EU/USA version does. Other content is the same 100% from what I know.

I'll show some more things as I progress through EX-HARD, like Talismans.

Repeat missions
That sucks. I need my scoring systems.

Normal attacks
Yeah attacks like basic punches and kicks, launchers, dash attacks.

Is that a boss rush mode or something?

Removed content
There could be something. Like that walkman in Yakuza Zero?

How is the leveling? Are the stats doing all the work?

> need a ranking system
Why?

> normal attacks
I show it in a few videos, but that's just not using the mechanics. The game is built around using channeling points for kills, same as you are promoted to use Oblitheration Techniques in NG2 or Blade Mode in MGR:R, because enemies just have a ton of HP. Your main source of damage is from Channeling Point strikes (either Perfect Channels, or Strike Animations).

> removed content
I've done some searching, found none. The EU/USA version is the best one.

> leveling
It is very basic, and I mean very basic. You get XP for doing pretty much anything, get enough and you level up which grants you an orb to spend in the talent tree (some orbs require a special orb though, which you only get by doing certain tasks). If your foes are higher level than you they will deal more damage to you and you deal less to them, while stunning them is also a tad harder. But in all honesty, it isn't too impactful. The biggest impact it has is if you outlevel the rest you can sometimes get a free stun on them (they start with a full stun bar).

> boss rush
You can unlock an arena early on where you can duel a recolor of every boss without the story interruptions (making some a lot harder).

Ranking/score
Something I can repeat over and over to improve. Not always necessary, but it's something I really enjoy.

Leveling
As long as it's not the GoW 2018 type.

Arena
I like the sound of this.

Looks like it isn't out here yet and is listed with a placeholder price of $129.99. I guess it will be around $110 when it actually releases.

I'm going to go listen to the soundtrack now.

Edit: Ok so I'm reading that the JP version got exclusive DLC
https://gematsu.com/2017/09/hokuto-ga-gotoku-launches-february-22-japan

Did the English release get these? I'm particularly interested in those songs. If not, not even considering touching this until they release them.

Also, I didn't know you could mess with the music until I looked into this DLC. Is there any limit or is it like LC where you can set any track to any boss, battle, etc?

> ranks
I gotcha, that said I feel it can also sometimes direct to a specific playstyle too much.

> Leveling
It isn't that bad, but close. If I'm level 20 and I fight a level 99 boss, the chip damage from his hits is enourmous and will kill me.

> Arena
It is a lot of fun, only dislike about it is that the bosses all have the 'arena' music instead of their own tracks.

> versions
One thing to note is that the game gets weekly free DLC (costume, songs, talismen). The Japanese version already has these all released. So it is ahead in that regard.

> soundtrack
Some of my favorites:

https://youtu.be/mcMLdaPGPn4
https://youtu.be/YUeYcg0aJuU
https://youtu.be/RLg6sUJsYrQ (especially around 1:25)
https://youtu.be/j-Cn8MPpoxU (especially around 1:20)
https://youtu.be/G4WoCR3BZFw (whole song is gold)
https://youtu.be/wa4QR9oTk3Y
https://youtu.be/Libnv-XHeE8 (easily my favorite, especially from around 1:10)
https://youtu.be/eto0u4T2MrM (reminds me of Power Rangers...)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4Km-16EJRw


Generally the OST is really good imo. Good metal/rock'ish tracks that get you pumped to kill some mohawk people.

specific playstyle
Agreed. Depends how they're done. I think we talked about El Shaddai and NG's systems as being examples of bad ones. Other games like Nex Machina or Matterfall, don't really change, you just get better at reacting and dodging while holding a huge multiplier.

If I'm level 20 and I fight a level 99 boss
What's your damage like to him? Will take years to kill him?

all have the 'arena' music instead of their own tracks.
So you can't change them at all? They way I read it was that you can change any background track, or is it only limited in the arena?

weekly free DLC
Ah ok. Sounds like we'll get it. I'll wait and see.

Tracks
Pretty good. Sounds a bit darker than Hokuto Musou but I'm still liking it. My bro will love some of these though, as he's super into guitar.

Is there a first person mode? I watched a boss fight against Jagi and it was first person. Or is it just that fight?

> ranks
I still feel Metal Gear Rising has the best one, it is in my notes on the article on the matter (one day). But yeah I agree.

> damage to lvl99 boss
Not too bad, your regular hits will barely do anything but your strikes will still do good damage as will your burst-mode attacks. This boss is nearly 20 levels higher than me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV0ITMWx6ZE&feature=youtu.be

If you know what you're doing you can wreck them fast. That said you really need to know the game. For instance I use air juggles for added stun and I bought the skill that makes Charged attacks deal massive stun, so I use the air-charged kick for nearly double the fun.

Sadly you cannot influence your level, as it is automatic. So no LVL1 run.

> change the OST
You have a playlist during the driving sections. And you can of course use Spotify. But don't think you can change in game OST from what I know.

> fps mode
Only during the Jagi boss, more a gimmick.

NOTE: found it. There is a minor change. The car-soundtrack is apparently slightly different between versions, and the Japanese Deluxe Edition got one extra track (You Wa Shock).

I've been playing the game as well, Hard mode for my first playthrough, so far it's decently challenging. The fifth boss in particular didn't take much damage since he was 5 levels higher than me (23 to my 18) and I didn't have many Attack upgrades to avoid killing everything too fast so the fight became a matter of trying to get an opportunity to do a Channeling Strike and a Secret Technique to actually deal damage, a good fight overall!

I haven't quite completely figured out how to precisely pick my Secret Techniques depending on the Channeling Strike I use and the state it causes to the enemy (Like Blind Chance), but I know how it works, pretty much, I just need more practice with it.

Oh, also I've seen that Gabriel Phelan Lucas was mentioning mashing X to skip dialogues, you can actually hold R1 and X together to skip them much faster without mashing anything, it's the same trick as in the main Yakuza series.

I'm starting to find that strength upgrades aren't that important, but Secret Technique Damage upgrades are. Some of the arena bosses really rely on you using those for damage, otherwise you're looking at 20+ minute fights on low level attempts. I beat a level 84(?) Jyun (arena version of Shin) at level 24 myself, took up to 5 minutes even with good upgrade choices.

Few notes I discovered:

- during the insanely hard QTE against Toki, you can just mash the PSN button to pause-unpause the game to see the icon. Takes some practice on when to start mashing, but it works.

- if you get a perfect channelingstrike (requires you to press O when the icon reaches the smallest circle) you get a Sparkling Orb which gives you full Burst meter, even when in Burst (meaning when you run out, you'll start with a full bar again). I got the timing of a few of them down now and it is a bit too broken haha. I can just ram through fights.

- you can infinite nearly every enemy in the game using XYY XY XY XY XY XY XY XY it is hilarious.

- you can only have one Destiny Talisman active at one time sadly;


@Lemmy.

About the Secret Techniques.
They are dependant on three things: enemy size (tiny, regular, large, extra large), which hit in the combo-string they were and location. 

If you do two attacks (doesn't matter if they hit) and then do a channel, you get a Blind-stance which leads to that poke to the face. But if the enemy is Large, you get the HI HO GEKI (spinebreaker). If they are Extra Large, you just get the headslicer. If you do four hits and then a channel, you get the stance that lets you do the AoE special. But if they are in that stance, and there's no one else around, then you get the face-cruncher (or whatever it is called).

Also found out that you can level up talismans even futher. Not sure what the limit is, have on on Level6 now (2stars). They are pretty fun to toy around with, if you want you can just nuke a whole boss or stage with them, but their cooldowns are huge (some up to 48 minutes).

Have to say I'm really, really enjoying this title. Might even do a NUR down the road, which might be interesting. My biggest complaint is that you can get really powerful with burst-chaining, and that the game tries to relegate this by just throwing huge amounts of enemies at you that cover their openings (especially in the arena). Can make for some painful fights if you run out of meter.

I did notice that most of the damage seems to come from Secret Techniques against bosses. That and the Burst Jump Kicks, these rack up damage like crazy! To the point I try avoiding to use those too much to make the fights last a little longer. (I am recording the bosses, so I try to give at least a good show, if not an amazing demonstration of skill like you!)

Thanks for the rundown on the Secret Technique triggers! I had figured out how to use the Hordebreaker Strike pretty reliably, and yeah, the Steel-Shredding Clench takes that spot if there's no enemy group. So it's two attacks to get the Blind chance, that's good to know, I do like the Bone Crusher Strike quite a bit so I'll make good use of it!

I haven't used Talismans a lot yet, mostly because of their cooldown, I sometimes uses the Yuria one if I feel like I need a short Burst though, and they do seem to get quite a bit stronger as you level them up so I'm sure they'll come in handy, IIRC, the Musou Tensei is a Talisman as well.

Burst is by far the easiest way to clear packs, same with bosses. Without it they can last quite long. You get some tools later-on to speed things up a bit (Celestial 100 Fist Rush), but the game really is about that meter it seems. If you fight without it some fights will take a long, long time, especially on low level. Devil's Rebirth arena fight would take centuries just to get him on his knees.

The Talismans are already good, even at level 1. Rei's talisman will kill whole groups, Toki's is a nuke basically, Raoh's can kill entire groups of enemies at level 1 too. The revivals are really good as well. Yuria's isn't too bad either, downside is that using it resets your gauge to zero when used. The ones that give bonus EXP when used are great as well, I just have a set with just them. Haven't tried the attack-buff ones.

Yeah, a good Burst when surrounded can really clear things, and then you have the jumps and the attacks that come with it to help with crowds. And the damage increase is certainly significant enough to turn long fights into much shorter ones!

I should really look more into Talismans, I've made a few but I haven't really invested in the tree for set bonuses yet, and I'm always wary of using them because of their long cooldowns.

Note that for the set bonusses, they have to be in your 'active' set, so it isn't too useful, especially since some aren't gained until the end game. About the talismans, I tend to save them for the Arena so I can just skip some of its fights, or to nuke an Arena boss for instance. That said if you go 'all out' in this game you can nuke the final boss for instance. If you use your four best Talismans with some leveling, they can kill him easily.

Ah, so you can only have one active bonus at a time, I guess there's not much point in focusing on that instead of just putting your most useful Talismans on one set for their efficiency. I'll keep that in mind, thanks!

Note, for easy ranks, having a Destiny Talisman active - like the Experience Buff - counts the kill as an "Talisman kill" which gives a 100%x multiplier on your kill-score. Used wisely it can lead to very easy S++ ranks (or SSS if you're on JPN version).

I played the demo a little. Combat seems decent but due to the fact that's it's structured like a Yakuza game, I won't be playing it.

I really wish someone would make a proper HnK action game, not Musou or with any RPG elements.