14 DAY TRIAL // One of the games that started a few rumors at the Tokyo Games Show was Hokuto Musou. Koei didn't actually announce the title at the conference but it seemed to pop up in plenty of discussions. Now, we finally get some official statements as it has received its first event this week in Japan. The action game will be developed for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles and is expected to be ready before the end of 2010. So far the company behind it has release plans in Japan only, and there are no current details regarding a possible launch in the States.
If the name Hokuto Musou doesn't ring any bells and no association is made with any kind of image or concept, then maybe Fist of the North Star will. The title will be a Dynasty Warriors-type action game set in the post-apocalyptic wasteland of the manga. Its protagonist will be Kenshiro, a shadowy martial artist trained in the Hokuto Shinken style. Specifics about the gameplay haven't been released as of yet, but since the game will follow the general lines set by the Dynasty Warriors series, we can still get a pretty good idea of what to expect.
Kenshiro will face an endless horde of nameless henchmen of some evil lord and as he battles his way through them he will be able to charge up and release one of his devastating moves. The power attacks of Hokuto Shinken imply some sort of body-explosion so we can expect them to be pretty graphical and bloody. Kenshiro's name isn't the only one that was revealed. Inside the game we will also come across Raoh, the evil boss of the first installment and our leading man's adoptive brother. Yuria will also make an appearance as Kenshiro's fiancée with a history of a permanent damsel in distress.
Fist of the North Star is a manga that was published in Japan from 1983 to 1988 and was later developed into an anime series. The story was featured in Shonen Jump, one of Japan's biggest publications in the manga industry, was illustrated by Tetsuo Hara and written by Buronson, proved to be a huge success and went on to leave its mark on many artists in the field.