Some good and some bad in this new incarnation of the most popular manga of the 80s
Now the main concern that i had was that not even a single game based on this famous franchise has ever been transposed decently (seems a trend after all; the other big franchise related to manga are Dragonball, Saint Seiya and Gundam; each of them has a variety of games for multiple platforms, but just a couple that can be considered good games); so I approached the game with some sort of reserve; another thing that made me shiver was that the game was considered a port of Dynasty warrior; game that i do not dislike, but is not exactly the kind of game that i would like to play when i think about Gundams or Fist of the north star.
The game from what i can see in these few hours playing, is somehow different from dynasty warriors, so if you are worried that you will be facing hordes of mindless people, exploding all over while taking hits without moving, you will be disappointed in positive.
The game itself does not have the classic structure of dynasty warriors, you play in a level where your path is somehow predefined, so you will find obstacles that will in fact block you from going in a part of the map where you should not go, and while you proceed, you will engage in various groups of enemies. So forget about Dynasty warriors Gundam because this game has nothing to do with that format (even if to be honest it gets close due the huge amount of enemies to beat up).
- The game at glance
Once you start the game you will get the nice intro in CG; well done but I have never been a fan of CG intro, except for some rare occasions (blizzard CG for example), since they look very "fake" and stiff; you rarely see the animations at the same level of an anime, so don't expect too much from it. You will be introduced to Ken, Julia (Yulia), Rei and Raul (Raoh) and all the other characters of the series, with a nice rock song that follow the action.
Once started you will get a menu with 4 different choices: story mode, tutorial, options and gallery.
The first is the main fulcrum of the game; where you will follow the adventures of Kenshiro from the moment that he met Lynn and Bart (names could be different, I am not sure how did they translated the names in the US version of the anime) until the final fight with Raoh, following the manga chronology.
The tutorial is a single level where you get introduced to the fighting art of the Hokuto Shinken (you can choose just Ken, I assume that you have to unlock Rei and Mamiya while playing), going trough various hordes of enemies that will challenge you, and while executing and practicing the various moves available.
The gallery is basically a fan section,where you will find an encyclopedia with all the info on the characters, moves and techniques, fighting styles organizations, places and terms used in the manga and also in the game; the movie gallery let you watch the CG movies, in case you want to see them more than once.
The option is self explanatory; you will surely set the difficulty to normal (the game is really easy), or even hard if you like to sweat a bit more; this will increase the frequency with which the enemies will attack you and in particular the strength of the bosses. The other nice option is to set subtitles on and switch to Japanese voices....believe me you don't wanna leave the English voices if you have ever seen the anime in the original Japanese voice acting (personal preference here; the acting in the English version is not bad but not excellent).
- Main game
The game is basically a multi scrolling 3d fighting game; where you move the character around the areas until all the enemies are dead; then you will move on to the confrontation with the local boss, that in some cases can be a known character, while in others is just the chief of a particular criminal organization (you will find many like the Z, the wolf clan and so on).
The thugs are pretty much easy to kill; you need to hit them a bit and then enjoy their departure either by bleeding to death on the ground or exploding (the violence level can be configured between extreme and mild; I would suggest extreme since 70% of the fame of this manga is the incredible and some times ridiculously funny amount of violence...after all the game is rated M so we are all adults here); if you ever played any of the 90's arcade games like final fight, golden axe or the capcom games you will feel yourself at home, since the game is basically a 3d version of the aforementioned titles. On your journey you will find a lot of destructible props, that will reveal various items like health replenisher and other items that will raise your stats or karma level (kinda like mana, used for special attacks and other features different for each fighter).
The boss battles are a bit different, since they take place in arenas, where you will face either the boss alone or the boss with thugs that will try to distract and bother you; the boss itself is not just taking hits but is able to replenish his health over time, so you gotta plan a strategy about how to attack him and when; being careful to not being hit too much in the process (in the arena you will find destructible items that usually contains health items).
The boss will also defend itself, so before being able to hit it, you will have to break his defense, this is done using your signature moves that will basically leave him in an open state, and then you can start to beat him up to have his health drop down.
Once the boss reach his min health, the B button will appear on screen, and you will start the real time event part of the fight, where you will deal massive blows while performing combinations of buttons (yes, God of War is the inspiration); if you perform them well you will be rewarded by super flashy effects, and observe the cut scene where the boss dies; while if you fail you will be hit by the boss and will have to start again (the boss gain a little health, but not too much so it does not get frustrating) .
Once that you play enough, you will unlock different characters that can be used in the tutorial, and you will also unlock a special mode, where you can choose your fighter and play a brand new adventure based on that character; as now i didn't played yet that mode since i am focused on the main story, but at first glance it looks interesting to play with other characters other than Ken, with a story that is not the same of the anime...will update my review once i will play that mode more thoroughly.
- Controls, playability, camera
First of all; this is not Tekken, this is not a fighting game where you need to learn a bunch of moves like with UFC or similar; is a 3d arcade game, so the fighting model is reduced to the minimum (at least is not a 1 button masher like Naruto games; somehow seems more similar to the playing style of God of wars).
The controls are pretty decent; the left stick is used to control the character, while the right one controls the free camera; the cross controller is used to select your signature move, in case you have more than one.
The shoulder buttons are used to slide/avoid attacks, to block, to grab object or people, and to release the aura burst (kinda like a super sayan, for the DB fans, or the awaken for the Naruto fans), where you get momentarily stronger and can execute some special moves.
The other buttons are used for normal attacks, strong attacks, jump and special moves.
The fighting style is pretty much based on combinations of buttons; the controller stick is not involved in the moves so you just have to learn the various sequences of buttons, like XXXX or XXYY and so on; the good thing is that you can actually hit more than an enemy while facing them, instead of hitting only the closest one that is facing you; this gives you more fun while playing, since you can hit multiple targets without having to focus on a single one (in some cases you get swarm of enemies, so is very appreciated); and also you do not have a lock mechanism, so you are able to start a combo and move the control stick to face other enemies around you, avoiding to get stuck watching your fighter hitting the air while the thugs are behind you ready to beat you before that the combo is over; very well done!
As now seems that the response of the attacks is pretty good; i was able to perform some combo just alternating the x and y buttons; keeping pressed the Y will charge the attack, that will be very effective against weak soldiers to make them fly around, or to destroy the environmental props around you.
While grabbing an enemy, you can either slam him on the floor with a nice slowmo effect, or throw him and slam him on the scenario, otherwise you will perform a series of hits on his body; the first if you use Y after grabbing, the latter if you press X.
You can also grab items from the scenery, like metal rods and similar; being able in this way to hit multiple enemies at once (useful when you have a lot of enemies surrounding you); again it looks like a 3d version of final fight, and this is not a bad thing.
The response of the character is good; it reacts promptly to each command, giving you the feeling that you are in control of the character, and not that you are just there trying to get smoothly between the various animations, like it happens in other games of the same genre.
The camera is very good; it is responsive and as far as i can tell, it does not get stuck or goes to show something beyond the character while fighting; you can rotate the camera freely, and it will also zoom in and out, depending if there are enemies around or not.
When you rotate it you get a weird blur effect with a fast motion; honestly i didn't really liked this and would prefer a slower rotation without blur.
- Graphic, animation and audio
Graphically the game is pretty good; it reproduce very closely the post apocalyptic era in which the story is developing (rumors says that Tetsuo Hara collaborated with Koei to supervise the game look and feel); with good models and textures.
There are no moments in which the 3d engine starts to suffer, even after putting a lot of enemies on screen, and this is a real plus, since this is an action game, and a slow moment would compromise the experience.
The models are alternating between decent and porcelain-doll-likeness; due the fact that the textures and the shaders used are sometimes questionable, so Ken will look sometimes good, but in the close ups will show some bad textures on his skin (especially the torso and the area around the neck); while Bat will look like a lifeless doll with a shiny face; the quality vary during each scene and chapter, so i guess that it depends from the bad use of the lights in the game engine, even if is possible to see squared blocks on the textures of the skin on the close up scenes; this does not really look good if you play on a hd tv or on monitor, otherwise if you play on regular LCD tv the effect is not that bad.
The animations are so-so; they look very fake sometimes, while in other cases they aim to be ultra realistic (you will notice it especially when your hero is hit and fly on the ground with a ridicule effect), so you will not get exactly what kind of direction the graphic department at Koei decided to pick for this game, giving you the feel like they just mixed both types without caring too much). Other than that, the fighting animations and cut scenes are pretty good, reproducing closely the spirit of the anime.
The environments are not amazing but fits well in the general look and feel of the game; with some nice props and buildings, and the colors are very dark and lifeless, as you would expect from the manga. There is a total lack of variety, so they all look the same and the textures are decent but not exceptional; there is much more to do than look at the textures of course, but after looking at amazing games like the ones that came up in the past weeks (Castlevania above all), it seems like the programmers decided to just do the bare minimum to make the game look decent
Many parts of the environment are destructible, so while running around you can break a lot of things and get the items that they contains (boxes, rubbles, fences and so on); while in other cases you can use part of the environment to your advantage as weapon
The audio is in the norm, with good commentary and decent lip sync; the music is not the original from the anime but is a new soundtrack; mainly based on heavy electric guitar riffs; not bad and accompany you in the journey without getting too repetitive or intrusive.
The hit effect are maybe the worst ever heard; the punches feels like a guy hitting a dead cow with a baseball bat; I would prefer the usual pow smack and bam sounds that you can hear in many fighting games, but others could like these effects.
The commentary is very good; at least the Japanese one (doesn't seem that the original voices from the anime were used here), while the English is on the average; pick whatever you prefer and enjoy it.
- Bottom line
Honestly i am decently satisfied with this game; is playable, has some nice moments while playing the main story (like the fight at the wolf band camp; not saying anything to not spoil the story); the fighting engine is decent and has that retro style that will please old school players that enjoyed the mindless arcade fighting games like final fight and golden axe.
For the new generations this game is maybe one of the many, so if you are not a fan of the original anime you will not find too much to justify the purchase; especially if you need to have a more structured fighting style, with many alternatives, counters and buttons to press in order to perform moves and such; I would try the game and then consider if is worth the purchase.
For the fans this game has a different flavor; there are not so many games based on this masterpiece of the 80s, and this one is for sure the best of all, so the purchase is highly recommended; you will have a lot of fun making your way to the final confrontation with Raoh and living the great moments of the manga (i wish that they would have included also the emperor saga and the demon island saga...maybe in an expansion?)