Does justice to the manga series and packs a substantial amount of game. Despite the repetition involved to complete it
Surprisingly the game has a wide array of rather cool elements. I found the cut scenes including the opening cut scenes to be top notch and beautiful. The music is also amazing I wouldn't expect anything less from Japanese Melodic Heavy Metal. Matter of fact as a ring tone I have the main theme for most of my incoming calls. haha. As far as Gameplay is concerned initially the game plays very repetitive as your moves are both short and have less mix up ability. As your character becomes more able to do longer combos the game becomes funner to play. In example, the ability to juggle enemies till the point their incapacitated. I also enjoyed the growing list of super moves but have a love for the hundred crack fist despite its lower damage out put.
Unlike past Fist of the North Star games, you have the ability to play full stories of multiple characters from the manga series. Such as Toki, Rei, Mamiya and even antagonists such as Raoh, Thouzer and the fool Jagi. I found that to be a substancial inclusion to the entire package of the game.
Now for the reasons why this game has possible franchise killing flaws. As stated above this game is very repetitive and lacks any real difficulty (till the end). You can be up on grunt characters with out the worry of absorbing too much damage or blocking for that matter. At least that was my experience, despite the fact I'm quite good at beat'em up games. End level bosses are also rather easy to beat up once you figure out the method to how they attack and what combo types their susceptible to. Towards the end of the game the need to upgrade your character becomes present and you will find yourself repeating levels to farm for experience points to rank up different categories of skill. Which is rather fun when you repeat beginning levels with an already well built character. The ending levels of the game are also very easy until you meet Raoh for the final time. In order to beat him you have to more or less perfect him and as his super attacks have the ability to either 40-60 percent damage regardless of your defense level. I love games with steep difficulty but end bosses that have attacks that do double the amount of normal large attacks is down right over powered. lol.
I in no way dislike this game. I would enjoy a sequel to this game as a large amount of the story wasn't included. I was rather blown away by how much fun I ended up having. Anyone that grew up on the PS2 or has an avid love for Japanese Anime/Culture or even kung fu beat'em ups should pick this up.