Has anyone actually played the Hokuto No Ken / Fist of the North Star AW game?

EX_Andy

Vanessa's Drinking Bud,
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Yes, I realize this post isn't news, but it's asking for news.

I've already done a forum search and haven't found any posts of people talking actual gameplay on this game.

If this post makes anyone that angry, feel free to move to gameplay, or whatever.

I HAVE NOT PLAYED THIS GAME MYSELF YET.

But the game appears to have been out in Japanese arcades for some time. I've been looking for new screenshots and videos of it, and from what I can tell, it seems pretty disappointing. The sprites are very pretty, picturesque, in fact, in still screenshots. However, the animation seems very stilted, reminds me of Savage Reign or an older KOF...specifically normal and special attacks are built around one good-looking frame of animation, but that frame doesn't really flow into the next move. So, there's a lot of repeated attacks in sequence, which makes the game look really stilted and jerky in action. I don't think I was looking for the oozing animation of Guilty Gear or Street Fighter III (where it's kind of overdone), but after seeing both of those games, this game's animation (or lack of it) is pretty shocking. In fact, it reminds me of Super Tag Battle / Kizuna Encounter or Rage of the Dragons, and if you've ever read my posts, you know that's a very bad thing for me.

Also, even though the sprites were designed to look like the actual animated characters, I'm very, very disappointed with the special effects, which from what I've seen are just lazy lightsourced blobs, similar to the Capcom vs SNK effects. Slightly better than the CVS effects (not as sloppy), but they're still too generic and still look out of place. To do it right, the special effects really should've been animated sprites, but that would've required the artists to actually hand-draw many frames of animation, and it looks like they were trying to avoid having to draw lots of frames of animation (possibly to make the game easier to port, like the PlayStation ports of SS3/SS4?). Anybody know if the game is getting ported?

Also where's the dismemberment? I haven't seen any video of any of the North Star (Hokuto Shinken) guys in action [EDIT: Yes, I have], these are the guys who make your head explode. Just the South Dipper (Nanto Seiken) guys, winning anyway. There are some nice references to the original series (Shin's finisher is apparently his finger torture from the movie; in Jagi's blocking animation, he pulls out his statue and hides behind it). But no exploding heads or guts or anything so far. (Maybe I just haven't seen it yet.) When you lose, you just fall over. Body more or less intact.

Probably the thing I'm worried about most is that the game seems to boil down to just inescapable chain combos and juggles. The actual fighting looks pretty shallow, to be honest. Super Tag Battle or RBS shallow (just do your best combos over and over again until somebody's life bar runs out). Can anyone who has actually played the game speak to this?

Here are some recent movies to show you what I'm talking about. You may have to right-click and save, rather than play in your browser:
http://big.freett.com/henvoke/hk1218-1.wmv
http://big.freett.com/henvoke/hk1218-2.wmv
http://big.freett.com/henvoke/hk1218-3.wmv
http://big.freett.com/henvoke/hk1218-4.wmv
http://big.freett.com/henvoke/hk1218-5.wmv
http://big.freett.com/henvoke/hk1218-6.wmv
http://big.freett.com/henvoke/hk1218-7.wmv


[Edit: more videos]

http://game41.web.infoseek.co.jp/movie/game41-20051223hkt_1.wmv
http://game41.web.infoseek.co.jp/movie/game41-20051223hkt_2.wmv
http://game41.web.infoseek.co.jp/movie/game41-20051223hkt_3.wmv
http://game41.web.infoseek.co.jp/movie/game41-20051223hkt_4.wmv
http://game41.web.infoseek.co.jp/movie/game41-20051223hkt_5.wmv
http://game41.web.infoseek.co.jp/movie/game41-20051223hkt_6.wmv

(These seem like matches between pretty skilled players, so I'm assuming that mid- to high-level play looks something like this.)

I'm hoping if someone has actually played the game that they can conclusively disprove all of the critical things I said above. This game is the closest thing to a compelling reason for me to bother with the Atomiswave hardware, but from what I can tell, it really doesn't seem worth it so far.

[EDIT: Added more videos of Raoh & Yuda. Also realized/remembered that Toki actually uses Hokuto Shinken style, so I have seen it in action, as well as in the Raoh movies. No dismemberment there either]
 
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Darklighterx

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Haven't played it.. yet, but it looks like GGX#R to me.
 

Spike Spiegel

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Oozing animation of Guilty Gear? That game's animations suck for the most part, outside of dust clouds. I'm downloading the movies now of this, so I can't wait to see what it looks like. Perhaps Atomiswave is just too damn weak to do anything well? Not sure...

EDIT: So far, the animation's nothing.... but, I will say it reminds me a lot of Guilty Gear anyhow, with the hit sparks, or whatever, and the.... ahem, poor animtion. I can't wait to hear what people say about it that have actually played it. I'm still very intereted, as the atmosphere and sound are amazing.
 
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H

hermegildo

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Spike Spiegel said:
Oozing animation of Guilty Gear? That game's animations suck for the most part, outside of dust clouds. I'm downloading the movies now of this, so I can't wait to see what it looks like. Perhaps Atomiswave is just too damn weak to do anything well? Not sure...
From what I've seen, the game's animation is of the same quality of GG, if not better. Even if the quality is the same, Fist of the Northstar is more aesthetically pleasing to me because of the better character designs and old-school build and proportions of the characters, i.e. small heads, long limbs, giant bodies, etc.
 

Spike Spiegel

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WTF? I can't believe more people are posting about this.
 

2Dfan

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I'm deffo buying this when it comes to ps2. Fist was one of my first anime and I fucking love it. The vids looks awesome, sure it's GG, but oh how I want it.
 

LoneSage

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Jotarou said:
I'm deffo buying this when it comes to ps2.

You really think it'll come to the PS2?
I told myself if that that does happen, it will be the sole reason I buy some Swap Magic discs. Shit, I hope it does.
 

SoloFenris

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I played it briefly a few weeks ago. Overall, I would say it isn't a bad game. The comparisons to Guilty Gear aren't too far off but I would say it feels less manic than GG. I admit I didn't play it for too long but I thought it was pretty cool. The authentic music and characters definitely created a nice atmosphere and the controls were pretty good too.

Jeff
 

DevilRedeemed

teh
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RGP said:
This is a GG re-hash special ;)
:annoyed: naomi fanboy, your continuous stream of defamation of everything arcade not naomi is a tired trick. give it up.

I want to play this.
 

RGP

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DevilRedeemed said:
:annoyed: naomi fanboy, your continuous stream of defamation of everything arcade not naomi is a tired trick. give it up.

I want to play this.

OK, calm down, I meant nothing :rolleyes:
 

RBjakeSpecial

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Played it twice. I was too excited about the Hokutono Ken characters in the game to really judge everything. I thought it was extremely underwhelming. There is a cool speed button that let's you jet around. The animation and backgrounds look pretty bad. Seemed pretty average, a let down (I wanted something spectacular.)
 

Lyte Edge

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SoloFenris said:
I played it briefly a few weeks ago. Overall, I would say it isn't a bad game. The comparisons to Guilty Gear aren't too far off but I would say it feels less manic than GG. I admit I didn't play it for too long but I thought it was pretty cool. The authentic music and characters definitely created a nice atmosphere and the controls were pretty good too.

Jeff

I've been playing the game every time I go to the arcade; I agree that the game is very similar to Guilty Gear (which is to be expected since it's the same developer, Arc System Works) in overall look (high res sprites, but the animation could be better) and game play feel, but less manic overall. Not quite as mich blood and gore as you'd expect from Hokuto No Ken, though!

Arc System Works has done an awesome job keeping the look and feel of Hokuto No Ken; it's a vry nostalgic game with little details all over that will make fans happy. If you're not a big Hokuto fan and/or not very much into Guilty Gear, however, I doubt this game will be of interest to you.

Considering that this is a fighting game based on a manga/anime series, it's quite good; far better than 95% of the other licensed crap that gets released.
 

Tehcno

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MY GOD!
Finally a good looking Fist of the Northstar game. The only Fists game that I have really gotten into was the Americanized Genesis game Last Battle.
 

Kirk Foiden

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I definitely see enough screenshots come through this group. At first glance, they do kind of make you think of a Jo Jos Bizarre adventure kind of fighting game, but in high resolution. Well, outside the fact there's probably nothing like stand-usage, and the chracters are recognizable from Fist. I'm kind of curious how you use those two bars, at the bottom of the screen. Boost and Aura? What does what?
 

SoloFenris

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Tehcno said:
MY GOD!
Finally a good looking Fist of the Northstar game. The only Fists game that I have really gotten into was the Americanized Genesis game Last Battle.

That was the first game I bought on my old Genny. A lot of the bosses were hard as hell but I still managed to whoop it. Good shit.

Jeff
 

EX_Andy

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More questions for those who have played:

-Can you explain how the meter system works? Are there EX ("powered-up" versions of regular special) moves? Is the Fatal KO done just by finishing off the other guy with a super move? Also, the character's portrait flashing onscreen in the second round, I assume that means the character is now vulnerable to Fatal KO, right?

-Can you explain how the speed button works? Does it let everyone fly? (Rei seems to be able to which makes sense, but it doesn't look like Raoh or other slower characters can.) Does it have a different function for everyone? Comparable to the "all-purpose" D-button in SS5 / SS5s ?

-Are there standard unblockables for all characters? (Seems to be)

-Are there throw escapes?

-What does the character balance seem like? Are there any characters that seem to be much stronger or weaker than others? (I've been hunting down movies for some time and have yet to see Kenshiro in action, for instance.)

-Any obvious exploits so far? Infinite combos / juggles, game-breaking bugs?

-Is the game pretty popular still in terms of competition, or have people already started losing interest?
 

machfive

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LoneSage said:
You really think it'll come to the PS2?
I told myself if that that does happen, it will be the sole reason I buy some Swap Magic discs. Shit, I hope it does.

Fist is pretty popular in Japan, so I'm betting there's a good chance it gets a port of some sort! (crosses fingers)
 

Rated G

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Judging from the videos I've seen, this games graphics look great! I'm tired of everyone bitching about animation, # of frames, etc.. Do you understand how hard it is to actually animate a character? It's not easy and not cheap, especially for a game character that you actually control via joystick/buttons. As of present, there are no game companies out there that are willing to spend the time/money it takes to create a 2D game with high # of animation frames that looks anywhere close to 3rd Strike. For me its all about how big and cool your characters look, and judging from what I've seen of this Fist game, it looks really cool.
 

games_sk

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The game looks great with smooth animation.

Still waiting for it to arrive in the arcades in London so I can't comment on gameplay yet.
 

abasuto

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As stated, damn this screams GG. Right down to the intro "decide your destiny".....a.k.a......Heaven or Hell.
 
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