In case you aren’t familiar with this absolute powerhouse from the Fist of the North Star anime/manga, he’s quite handy with his fists, capable of some very nasty beatdowns via the use of some moves that target opponent pressure points to cause maximum damage. We expect that he’s going to be a melee character with some excellent mix-ups and high-damaging combos that can be hard to get out of as his knowledge of techniques long-forgotten brings some serious firepower to the arena.

It’s going to be quite interesting to see how Kenshiro measures up against other playable characters like Nightmare Geese and Blue Mary. Kenshiro’s addition to the roster as part of the game’s Season 2 DLC is certainly welcome, but it isn’t exactly what we’d call a surprise, considering that he’s been anticipated for a while now.

Nevertheless, he’s looking as stoic and awesome as ever in an interesting callback to that teaser from earlier this year. Check out the latest trailer below.

The move in question is reminiscent of the pressure-point-focused finger attacks used by Kenshiro throughout his travels in Fist of the North Star, and the animated short even makes use of a similar sound effect to the manga’s anime adaptation. Assuming that Kenshiro is indeed making his way to Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, we can expect his combat style to largely revolve around special moves featuring rapid strikes that culminate in massive damage caused to his opponents in one go.

The martial art used by Kenshiro in Fist of the North Star is known as Hokuto Shinken. While wanting to live a simple life with his fiancée, Yuria, Kenshiro gets pulled into conflict when his rival, Shin, abducts her after defeating our hero in battle. This prompts him to travel around the world in search of his fiancée, while also getting pulled into stopping whatever new evil plot Shin has cooked up over time.

SNK Corporation has been rather coy about this tease, with even the title of the video simply being an emoji, and its description on YouTube left blank. So far, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves has mostly seen crossover characters from Street Fighter, with Chun-Li and Ken having joined its roster last year. The title opening up its doors for a manga character implies that SNK Corporation might be expanding the kinds of crossovers that we get to see in the fighting game.

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves is the latest entry in a fighting game franchise that saw its previous release happen 26 years ago. The current entry was released last year, and features several improvements over 1999’s Garou: Mark of the Wolves, including a new REV system that offers players an entirely new toolset for both offensive and defensive options. The system includes REV Arts, REV Accel and REV Blows, among others.

Fatal Fury: Cry of the Wolves has also seen quite a bit of post-launch support with the addition of characters like the aforementioned Ken and Chun-Li, as well as Andy Bogard and Joe Higashi. The final character part of the planned year 1 content, Mr Big, is slated for release early this year. The fighting game is available on PC, PS4, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. For more details, check out our review, where we gave it a score of 7 out of 10 thanks to its gorgeous art direction and the REV system.

Yakuza Kiwami 2, the remake of Yakuza 2, is now out in the West, the fourth Yakuza game to launch within the last year and a half. And just like Yakuza 0, Yakuza Kiwami, and Yakuza 6, it’s absolutely excellent- perhaps even more so than all of them. More than anything, these recent releases have seen a boost in popularity for this franchise outside of Japan, and it seems Sega are becoming very aware of that fact.

In Japan, remastered editions of Yakuza 3, 4, and 5 are also releasing between this year and the next. Until now, we’ve had no information regarding whether these remasters would make it to the West, but a recent official Sega survey suggests that they’re definitely considering bringing over these games, maybe even along with some spin-offs, at some point to markets outside of Japan.

The official survey asks questions regarding how interested users would be in buying remasters of Yakuza games, new games in the series, and other games created by the team, such as Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise, which, in fact, is bound to launch outside of Japan not long from now. The survey also asks a question about spin-off titles such as Yakuza: Ishin! and Yakuza: Kenzan! which were never released in the West. The very fact that Sega is asking these questions means there is a chance that we’ll be getting to see more Yakuza games (and more) releasing in the West in the future.

Sega’s definitely been working on expanding Yakuza’s audiences in the last few months. Outside of a string excellent releases, they’ve also released Yakuza 0 on PC. A PC release for Yakuza Kiwami is also in the pipeline, and recent reports suggest one for Yakuza 6: The Song of Life might be too. In the meantime, you can enjoy Yakuza Kiwami 2, as it’s now out for the PS4 across the world.

Hokuto Ga Gotoku, the game based on the popular Japanese manga and anime Fist of the North Star by Sega’s Yakuza team that launched for the PS4 last year, has been confirmed to be coming to the west as Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise, also exclusively to the PS4.

The game will be launching on October 2, and will come with English and Japanese dubs both (which is even better treatment than Yakuza, which never gets English dubs, gets). The game will feature an alternate take on the events of Fist of the North Star, and utilize the same kind of brawler combat that has made the Yakuza series so beloved. Given that the Fist of the North Star IP is more recognizable and iconic, hopefully, that also means higher sales for it than a Yakuza game.

You can check out an announcement trailer for the game for yourself below.

Another week, another round of video game hardware and software sales charts from Japan. This week saw the release of the PS4 exclusive Fist of the North Star from Sega, the new adaptation of the popular property using the Yakuza style of gameplay. Though the game had a relatively underwhelming debut with only 123,000 units sold, it nevertheless managed to top charts, pushing Monster Hunter World to number 2 (the first week that Capcom’s monstrous success hasn’t topped charts in Japan since its release).

Nintendo evergreens such as Splatoon 2, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Super Mario Odyssey, all ended up charting in the top ten as well. This persistent strong performance from Switch software ensured the system ended up topping hardware chats with 45,000 units sold, in spite of no new game release. PS4 came in at second place, with 28,000 units, with the 3DS, selling 10,000 units, came in at third place.

The next few weeks should be interesting- Kirby Star Allies finally launches, giving the Switch its first major release in Japan in the last few months. Will the console see its sales increase even more, or will they hold steady? It should be interesting to see it all unfold, that’s for sure.

[via ResetEra]

Hokuto Ga Gotoku seems to be quite a good game and now, a new launch trailer has been released to celebrate the release of the game in Japan. This is a game that is attempting to stay very faithful to the anime/manga it’s inspired from and this is evident even in this new trailer.

The gameplay is quite similar to what we’ve seen in the Yakuza games and it looks like a lot of fun. This new trailer showcases the many villains you’ll face off against during the course of the game. We also get a glimpse of the several mini-games available to play. Combat in the game also looks like a lot of fun with the fast-paced action. If you’re a fan of the anime it’s based on or of the Yakuza games, then this is a game that you’ll definitely want to check out.

Hokuto Ga Gotoku released today exclusively for the PS4 in Japan but there’s no word regarding a Western release as of now.

Sega’s Hokuto ga Gotoku aka Fist of the North Star will be receiving some free DLC in the form of a new difficulty level. Referred to as “Original Mode”, it presents a rather interesting option for fans of the manga.

While other difficulty options like Easy, Intermediate and Hard tend to make enemies tougher as players progress, Original Mode sees characters appearing with the strength that they have in the original property. So regardless of how progress you’ve made, if enemies that are present in the beginning happened to be strong in the manga, then you can bet they’ll be just as strong here.

It’s an interesting take and should provide players with a more “faithful” recreation of the manga’s atmosphere. Hokuto ga Gotoku is now available for PlayStation 4 in Japan and has received its first review from publication Famitsu gave it a 35/40. There’s no release date yet for the West but hopefully it will receive the Yakuza treatment sooner rather than later.

The Fist of The North Star PS4 Exclusive Hokuto Ga Gotuko is now out in Japan and it has received fantastic scores from Famitsu. In fact, it has received the highest score among all the games reviewed by Famitsu in this week. While there weren’t many other major games releasing this week, the game’s score is still impressive all on its own.

Hokuto Ga Gotuko is a game that mixes  the gameplay style of the Yakuza games with the popular anime/manga series Fist of the North Star. Since the Yakuza franchise is already known and loved in the West, it may be possible that the game will have a western release if there is enough demand for it. The game has received a score of 35 from Famitsu with scores of 9,9,9 and 8.

The game also received a demo on the Japanese PSN store recently. Thoughts on this review score? Let us know in the comments section below.

Fist of the North Star adaptation Hokuto Ga Gotoku, which takes a fair number of elements from Sega’s Yakuza series, has some new gameplay videos to sink your teeth into. They feature two of the key environments in the game – Eden and the Wasteland. Check them out below.

Eden is the main city of Hokuto Ga Gotoku and features a number of mini-games (including Sega arcade classics) and thugs to battle. You can also hunt for bounties, become a bartender and, of course, play some rhythm-based games. The Wasteland is as you’d expect but it allows for usage of protagonist Kenshiro’s buggy for exploration. There are also mini-games here along with racing challenges and treasure boxes to discover. If this is all sounding very Mad Max-like then, you wouldn’t be too far off.

A demo for the game is available on the Japanese PlayStation Store to try out. Hokuto Ga Gotoku will be releasing on March 8th for PlayStation 4 in Japan. Thus far, there’s still no information on a Western release.

• 1. Development
• 2. Story
• 3. Gameplay
• 4. Characters

Development

On August 26, 2017 the world would learn about the Yakuza team taking on a new project, the adaption of the popular manga and anime series by Buronson and Tetsuo Hara, Fist of the North Star, and immediately revealed that the game was expected to launch sometime in 2018 in Japan. Known by Hokuto ga Gotoku, the story of the game was said to pick up after the events of the manga series.

The game would be shown off at Tokyo Game Show 2017 just over a month later, introducing some of the Yakuza flavour that the Sega team was bringing to the title, which included series protagonist Kenshiro not only destroying bandits and the like, but also getting involved in several Yakuza like mini-games. The combat shown off was said to be faster than Yakuza  and very fitting with the series.

News would come out in bits and pieces over the next several months, with some of it being revealed by Sega themselves streaming bits of the game. Nothing major, but small things like a screenshot here and there, without showing off anything particularly new. In December 2017, Sega invited Japanese players to enter a contest at DAM Karaoke, where they would provide death screams for the game.

The studio would first provide a stream of the beginning of the game on January 13, 2018 where producer Daisuke Sato played while Sega Chief Creative Officer Toshihiro Nagoshi spoke about the game. Universe specific elements like Hokuto Shinken that change up how this game works from traditional Yakuza were first shown off here.

Story

Taking place shortly after one of the early arcs of the manga, Kenshiro is making his way to a city, a haven for humanity following a nuclear crisis that left a good majority of the world dead. The Hokuto Shinken martial artist makes his way there tracking down rumours that his love, Yuria, is still alive within the city’s walls. This city is granted electricity and water by “Sphere City”, and grants the people of the city a comfort that hasn’t been seen since before the bombs fell.

Through his journey in Eden, Kenshiro will run into many faces from the series, even a few that never originally appeared in the adapted arc. His rival Shin, Rei, Jagi, Toki, Souther and Raoh all appear in modified capacities from the original manga, and some new characters are introduced.

Since it is a Yakuza game in sprit as well, Kenshiro will find an excuse to partake in a variety of mini-games and part time jobs. For example he can don a tuxedo and find a Sega Master System with an old Fist of the North Star game to play in it’s entirety.

Gameplay

Fist of the North Star has its series specific flourishes, but it largely remains familiar to a Yakuza fan who might want to use the game as an introduction. From a third person perspective, players explore the city and take on various side missions and earn money through mini-games in between major story segments.

When Kenshiro isn’t directly searching for Yuria within the city, he’ll take on a variety of side activities, with their own small contained stories and objectives. These can involve side characters in the universe as they tell their little vignettes and help build the story. He can also participate in a variety of mini-games and side activities, much like the Yakuza titles. Many of the old favourites are carried over and adapted in some form.

Through exploration, Kenshiro can find old Sega Master System cartridges, including Fist of the North Star game to play in the entirety. Money is very important, because it acts as both buying power as well as experience, letting you invest it into skill trees to grow Kenshiro’s abilities.

When Kenshiro engages in combat with a group of enemies, a version of Yakuza’s real time, combo focused fighting is used. The action is focused on building combos and the environment against your attackers. Hokuto Shinken techniques stand in for the Yakuza heat attacks, and medallions allow Kenshiro to use the signature fighting styles of other characters from the universe.

Characters

Kenshiro is the protagonist of the series and the main character of the PS4 title. The rightful heir to the ancient Hokuto Shinken, an art of assassination which uses the bodies weak points to kill, often in spectacularly gory fashion. Kenshiro protects the people of the wasteland against all kinds of pillagers and his rivals from the Hokuto school also trained in the art of Hokuto Shinken.

His rivals include Raoh; he takes the mantle of Fist King and is a towering man who lusts for power and hates that Kenshiro was chosen as the true master. His ego never allows him to retreat or reconsider his actions, which is his ultimate flaw.

Toki is the second of the four trained in Hokuto Shinken, but developed it into a healing art, in line with his pacifist nature. His use of the technique has developed into the self-made Hokuto Ujoken, and he can either use his skills to heal, or to kill in a pleasurable manner, granting his victim a euphoric death.

Jagi is the last of the four, a deceptive man who has zero problem cheating to see his ends realized. He always has a sawed off shotgun at his side, since he never really got the Hokuto Shinken down very well. He was left terribly mangled after a failed attempt at framing Kenshiro for his crimes.

Kenshiro has other rivals from different martial arts disciplines as well. Shin is one of the first major enemies Kenshiro faces down in the series and is suggested to appear here as well. He’s the keeper of Nanto Koshuken. Rei is the keeper of the elegant Nanto Seiken style and is a proud man who cares deeply for his sister. The star of leadership, Souther, is an intimidating man who commands the ultimate Nanto Ho-ohken. He’s somehow immune to Kenshiro’s Hokuto Shinken techniques.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.