Based on the manga Fist of the North Star franchise, Sega is back to release Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise. Originally launched in Japan in March of 2018, the worldwide release happened this October. With a Yakuza style gameplay experience, players are likely to enjoy everything this game has to offer.
In an alternate post-apocalyptic Earth, the oceans have dried up after the nuclear war. Kenshiro must travel to the city of Eden to find his love Yuria. Shin, has previously kidnapped Yuria and taken her to some far off place across the wastelands but rumors have steered Keshiro elsewhere.
During gameplay, players can expect action, adventure and a third-person perspective. Much like the Yakuza games, gameplay consists of quick time events, a lot of beat em up chaos while going through the city of Eden and even some mini games. While the mini games don’t exactly fit the plot, they are a fun way to kind of break away for a few from the main story. The mini games include baseball and racing, as well as a few more.
Even though people explode when you get to beating everyone, the balance of the game seems to waiver. Although the plot goes deep in a soap opera kind of way, which keeps things interesting, the pace seems extremely slow. Often Kenshiro, who is a really good guy, has to put his good natured personality to the side to fight everyone and everything plus do quests. The balance here between the end of the world, quests and the character designs is interesting to say the least. Mostly, it’s not what was originally expected, but it kind of was actually.
There are a lot of upgrade abilites however which is nice to break up all of the insanity. Abilities and weapon upgrades are available throughout as well as car upgrades for when missions are necessary to restock on supplies. When all of these things are mixed together with the plot and mini games, the game stays engaging.
Overall, Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise is a nice continuation of the series. The game offers many different ways to stay engaged throughout with game play style such as action and quick time events. Mini games as well are also fun even if they do tend to pull away from the plot a bit. Not suprisingly, in the end, this game is exactly what you might actually expect.
7/10
Available on: PS4
