Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage 2

Fist of The North Star is an anime that reached stardom on many levels, it is one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time, it is also ranked among the best-selling mangas of all time with over one hundred million copies sold, and finally, one of its most iconic scenes, the “Omae wa mou shindeiru”, “NANI?!” one, became viral recently. With so many accolades and fans, creating a videogame saga of this journey was an obvious choice for developer Tecmo Koei.

Released in 2012 in Japan, Fist of The North Star: Ken’s Rage 2 is a beat ‘em up game that runs in 3D instead of the traditional 2D formula of classic beat ‘em ups. It consists of fighting through improbably large groups of enemies on different levels as a way to progress the story. Which is by far the biggest selling point of this game.

Gameplay

The game offers twenty playable characters from the start and has three different fighting styles spread within the roster. A departure from the first game of the Fist of the North Star formula, this game is faster and gets rid of some bloated commands from the original one to add a smoother flow to the gameplay.

Players can choose from two different game modes, the “Legend Mode”, and the “Dream Mode”. Legend Mode is a fantastic way to experience the full story and universe of the Fist of The North Star, it covers almost all of the original arcs presented in the anime and is one of the finest depictions of how to adapt animes/mangas into a game effortlessly. On the other hand, we have Dream Mode, which expands upon the original lore, offering players and fans various “What If?” scenarios, or non-canon scenarios, which are valuable for all fandom.

Punch Your Way Through

For all the praise Tecmo Koei must receive for this masterful adaptation, impressive cutscenes, and superb character design, the combat portion of this game is underwhelming at best. There are fewer fighting options than its predecessor Fist of The North Star: Ken’s Rage, things like the “Meridian Shock”, “Signature Moves”, “Armor Gauges”, and “Timely Strikes” have all been toned down and streamed lined in order to create a faster game, but it doesn’t. Also in an attempt to make it more fluid, some hallmarks of the anime like announcing signature moves have been removed as a way to create uninterrupted combat, it does achieve that but exchanges some uniqueness for a game that still feels heavy and not very fluid.

The game has a long campaign at around seventeen hours, and if it wasn’t for the amazing story of Fist of The North Star universe, and the masterfully adapted version into a videogame, fighting to see its completion would be a very hard job. But, having such strong content to rely upon makes the journey bearable. Anyone who wants to complete the game with 100% achievements and all modes, there’s roughly seventy hours of content for you.

Verdict

Fist of The North Star: Ken’s Rage 2, is a lackluster game, but a wonderful story device for the saga. It fails to expand, and improve upon its predecessor’s gameplay, but in exchange gifts fans and players with a memorable adaptation.

Pros:

• Masterful Adaptation
• Great Original Soundtrack
• Well-Designed Characters
• Hours of Content

Cons:

• Combat is lackluster
• Game feels heavy
• Unfriendly to Newcomers
• A lot of Loading Points
• No Auto-Save Feature
• Generic and Repetitive Enemies