Yakuza Dev’s Fist Of The North Star PS4 Gameplay Is Brutal And Over The Top
Last month, we got the surprise announcement of the next game coming from the Yakuza devs, an adaptation of the popular and incredibly gory martial-arts action anime Fist Of The North Star. Titled Hokuto Ga Gotoku (a hybrid of Hokuto No Ken and Ryu Ga Gotoku), the developers plan to inject their particular style and charms into the brooding and incredibly violent atmosphere of post-apocylptic Earth. During Tokyo Game Show 2017, the developers behind the game showed off much more of what people can expect from this bizarre and absurdly violent manga-inspired brawler.
Focusing on the exploits of the nearly unstoppable and skilled fighter Kenshiro, he faces off against hordes of bandits, criminals, and tyrants in post-apocalyptic Earth. While this setup alone already makes for an interesting setting, this new game–which apparently takes place after one of the early main arcs in the manga–takes some rather interesting liberties with the source material. Ken will of course have plenty of bad guys to fight, but he’ll also moonlight as a bartender serving post-apocalyptic alcohol, and occasionally mingle with hostesses in the various bars and social spots. While strange for the Fist of the North Star series, it totally fits with what the devs are familiar with for their games.
In this gameplay video from TGS, we see Ken brawling with a number of bad guys while using his particular set of skills. Similar to the Yakuza series, Ken will occasionally get into some scrapes with bad guys while wandering around town. From there, he’ll take on well over a dozen bad guys, and use his head-popping and physics defying moves to take them down. Combat looks appropriately more fast and violent than its Yakuza counterpart.
While they’ve still yet to show off the side-content and events focusing on Ken working odd-jobs and mingling with the inhabitants, the developers from the Yakuza series already look to have a handle on the new setting. We’re still a bit unclear on the specifics of the game, but with a PS4 release in Japan set for 2018, we will learn about this game soon enough.