Quite a fun and technical beat em up game with a nice combination of post apocalyptic and martial arts themes.
Fist of the North Star Ken's Rage,(which I'll refer to as FotNSKR)is set in a post apocalyptic world that uses influences of Asian style martial arts and Mad Mad style social anarchy.Huge gangs that are more like armies go on rampages and prey on the vulnerable and weak and steal the very small amount of food and uncontaminated water that's left in the world.The strongest fighters use powerful,ancient forms of martial arts that give them almost superhuman abilities.
The main mode for the game is legends mode,which follows the story in the manga,but allows you to choose to play as 8 different characters(plus others via DLC)and you can see the story from their perspective.However,Kenshiro is the real main character because he's the main character in the manga and he has the longest story in legends mode.Also,some of the stories for the other characters in legends mode are quite short.
Dream mode is another story-based mode that focuses on an entirely new story and you'll select one of those 8 characters to do military missions similar to the ones Dynasty Warriors games where you'll be in command of an army and you'll need to defeat enemy armies and capture bases.Dream mode is actually my favorite gameplay mode because it's fun trying to capture bases and having many of your own soldiers follow you and sometimes you'll encounter enormous numbers of enemy units and you'll have many of your own units and many enemy units on the screen and many enemy officers(stronger enemies)will show up and to capture an enemy base you'll need to defeat all the enemies around that base but enemies will try to capture your bases too and it makes the gameplay frantic and fun.
The story includes quite a few NPCs and tries to get you emotionally involved because characters will die,but unless you've read the manga or watched the anime,you probably won't care about the characters.You'll see the gangs killing innocent people.
As for the gameplay,it plays very much like a beat em up that's in 3D environments.The beat em up style gameplay in this game has a very flowing feel to it.The special moves are quite powerful and can damage multiple enemies at once who are spread out over a wide radious but they take a second to charge up which leaves you vulnerable while you're charging them up.You can easily perform special moves at the end of normal attacks/combos but when you're surrounded by many enemies(and there is many times in the game when you will be)getting the timing right for when you do a special move is crucial because the enemies are fairly aggresive compared to other beat em up games.
You can perform signature moves which can inflict enormous amounts of damage but you'll require 'spirit' to do them and you can collect spirit or increase your spirit levels my damaging enemies and receiving damage.Your character is invincible while performing a signature move and a signature move can be a handy way of preventing your character receiving damage when they're not in position to dodge or block a powerful attack from a boss.Signature moves can connect with multiple enemies on the screen and some signature moves are capable of killing large numbers of enemies instantly.
The game gets tough towards the end,especially the boss fights.Even on the easy difficulty it took me many attempts to defeat the final boss for Kenshiro's story and I only barely did it and it took me many attempts.
Also,because the enemies are aggresive when it comes to them trying to attack you,you'll need to keep running and jumping and you'll need to react very quickly because enemies will run at you and swing their weapons at you very quickly.The block button is of little help when you're surrounded by enemies because they'll hit you as soon as you stop blocking and when you try to jump away but blocking is cruical when you're fighting some of the tough bosses.
Some gameplay elements are frustrating such as when one of the mission requirements is for you to destroy a certain number of statues which can be hidden through a few areas that are set out like mazes.And when you need to defeat many enemies within a time limit and if you fail you'll have to fight them all over again.
But otherwise,I enjoyed the game and I like it's flowing,technical style of beat em up gameplay.
You can see how the graphics for this game are inspired by it's manga.During the cutscenes and comic style stills you'll see how many of the characters have huge muscles,and manga inspired physical features.You can tell the game has 1980's style influence because many of the characters have mullet style hair cuts.
However,during the gameplay the graphics look a bit rough.They're by no means ugly and the wasteland environments and city ruins and fortresses give a nice Terminator style or Mad Max style post apocalyptic atmosphere but they could use a bit more polish.There's other technical problems with the graphics such as when you're carrying an object near a wall,part of that object will sink into the wall.
I like the cinematics at the start of the game that shows the entire cities being destroyed by nuclear weapons and I love the scene with a delicate little flower on a grassy hill being destroyed and as the flower is getting destroyed you'll see it's color being stripped from it and it turning into dust.
I like how some of the characters wear Asian style armor,and how many of the bandits have mohawks and dressed in the dark leather outfits that the bandits on Mad Max wear.I also like how some of the characters have purple hair or long white hair.
The game has lots of blood and you'll literally see enemies explode if you hit them with special moves or signature moves but you can turn the blood off.
The music at the intro screen is great and you'll hear great electric guitar music playing.The music for the rest of the game is okay,I don't know if it's supposed to be the music from the anime series.And I'm glad you can select an option for Japanese VA's with subtitles.
Overall,I enjoyed Fist of the North Star Ken's Rage,it's easy enough to pick up and play,it's gameplay is technical enough to be very challenging, and I like it's combination of post apocalytic and martial arts theme and I think people should at least give it a try.