Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise

Lost Paradise is an action role-playing game played from a third-person perspective. It features experience points, abilities;[2][3] and similar action-adventure gameplay mechanics and systems to Sega's own Yakuza series. Players explore the city of Eden, fighting through enemy encounters in a beat 'em up gameplay style, punctuated by quick time events.[2]

The action is centered on the "Hidden Channeling Points" system, one of the key elements of Hokuto Shinken, the main martial arts style of the series.[4] There are also various mini-games, such as bartending, baseball, racing, and retro games such as Hokuto no Ken for the Sega Mark III, Space Harrier, Out Run and Super Hang-On, that can be played after being salvaged from the wastelands.

The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic alternate timeline Earth. Due to a worldwide nuclear war, the earth's surface became devoid of vegetation, the seas evaporated and civilization was thrown into chaos, turning everyday life into a battle for supplies of uncontaminated food and water, where the strong survive by preying on the weak. Yet, in a corner of that world, there is a place called “The City of Miracles,” a city named “Eden”. Eden receives energy and water from a giant dome-shaped relic of the old world named “Sphere City". Citizens of Eden live a comfortable life that others in this era cannot even imagine.

Kenshiro, successor of the martial art Hokuto Shinken, was defeated by Shin, who proceeded to kidnap his fiancée, Yuria. Kenshiro thus travels through the wastelands to find his beloved. He eventually hears rumors that a woman called Yuria could be found in the city of Eden so he makes his way to Eden to find Yuria.

Lost Paradise was announced on August 26, 2017 for PlayStation 4. Studio head Toshihiro Nagoshi elaborated that the title would not make use of their new Dragon Engine, developed for Yakuza 6, as the development team was composed of largely new staff, who were not used to the more demanding tools of the Dragon Engine.[5]

The Japanese voice cast features many of the actors from the Yakuza series portraying characters analogous to those they played in previous Yakuza titles, such as Kazuma Kiryu voice actor Takaya Kuroda playing Kenshiro. The worldwide release of the game includes an English dub, making it the studio's third game since the original Yakuza and Binary Domain to feature one. It is also the first Fist of the North Star game since the first Ken's Rage to have an English dub, as Ken's Rage 2 did not have one due to budget constraints. The worldwide release also includes an option to increase the amount of in-game gore that is exhibited on screen.

Sega launched a marketing campaign in Japan, starring actor Takayuki Yamada. In the ad campaign, the actor goes to the gym, performing famous moves and gestures from the manga series.[6] During E3 2018, Sega announced the western release of Lost Paradise with a trailer and a large presence at Sega's booth.[1][7] An additional piece of downloadable content allows players to control Yakuza protagonist Kazuma Kiryu in place of Kenshiro, and was briefly available for free for the first two weeks after launch.[8]

Fist of the North Star Lost Paradise was a massive success in Japan where it sold 123,116 copies in its first week of release. It became the first game of 2018 to topple Capcom's Monster Hunter: World which remained at the top of the charts for seven consecutive weeks.[13][14]

The game won the award for "Writing in a Comedy" at the National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers Awards, whereas its other nomination was for "Game, Franchise Action".[15][16]

• Official website