Shin Hokuto Musou

Shin Hokuto Musou
-From Rage Quitter 87's Fist of the North Star site


Shin Hokuto Musou was released in 2012. It is the sequel to Hokuto Musou, which had been released in 2010. Like the original, Shin Hokuto Musou is a beat 'em up where you can play as one of several characters, and fight lots of foes on large maps. The story mode has been revamped, and includes everything the original game had along with parts it did not, such as the story arcs featuring Colonel and Devil Rebirth. Shin Hokuto Musou's main addition is that it includes characters and stories from the Hokuto no Ken 2 portion of the manga.

The game was released for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii U. Outside of Japan, the game is known as Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage 2. This was meant to be the working title for the game, but it was never changed.

Contents
1) Gameplay
2) Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage 2
3) DLC



Gameplay

Shin Hokuto Musou has two main game modes: the story mode, and the legend mode. The story mode has you mainly play as Kenshiro, going through most of the events of the manga. Throughout the story mode you will have to play as, or have the choice of playing as, several other characters, including Rei, Shuu, Juuza, Falco and Hyo. By fighting through the numerous levels, you can improve your character's stats to make them stronger. You can also find scrolls throughout the levels, which you can equip to your character between levels. The scrolls upgrade your character in various ways, such as increasing their strength. The story largely follows the original manga, going from Kenshiro first appearing to his final battle with Kaioh. Some stories are still skipped or altered, such as certain characters not appearing (such as Diamond). As a bonus, the end of the game has an extra chapter which features the Bolge story arc.

The legend mode is also back. Everyone from the original game is playable here, along with lots of additional characters, each with their own stories. The other major addition to Shin Hokuto Musou is that the game now has online multiplayer modes. The offline splitscreen mode is also present, but you can now also play through unlocked legend mode chapters online. There is also a competitive versus mode, which allows up to six people to compete. Players will be put into teams (with up to three people per team) and then have to work together to try and beat the other team in various events, such as defeating a certain number of enemies.

The game has the same two attack button control scheme the previous title have. However, Shin Hokuto Musou no longer has a jump button. This means a lot of jumping attacks are gone, although some can still be used by pressing the dash button followed by an attack button. The hyper signature move system from the original game is also gone. Some of these moves are in character's normal signature movesets.


Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage 2

Ken's Rage 2 was released in 2013. The game was released on Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii U. In America, the PS3 and Wii U versions were not released on disc, and could only be downloaded. However in Europe the Playstation 3 version did have a disc release. There was also no English dub for Ken's Rage 2, unlike the original game. However, whilst there were many differences between the Japanese and American versions of the original game, it doesn't seem that much was changed at all for the sequel, other than the title.


DLC

As with the original game, Shin Hokuto Musou has a lot of DLC. There are more costume packs, most of which give you manga-accurate clothes for each character. Some stores offered some of these costumes as pre-order bonuses. Several DLC challenge mode maps are also available, which give you new challenges to try out. These can be purchased separately, or together in a pack. There are also three extra characters available as DLC. These are Han, Amiba and the Nameless Shura. There three can also be downloaded separately, or all together in one pack for a cheaper price. Finally there are also some scrolls you can buy.

Rather than list all of the DLC here, I'd rather just complain about how expensive it is. Buying costumes separately costs around $3 each, and each playable character has an alternate costume. There are several costume collection packs that include around five costumes, these cost between $8-12 each depending on the bundle. The extra characters cost $8 each, or $18 for the all in one pack. The extra missions cost $1 each, whilst the mission bundle packs are around $4 each. To get all the DLC for this game, expect to spend a ridiculous $70 if you buy everything separately.

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