Fist Of The North Star : Lost Paradise

Sega’s daft Kenshiro/Kiryu mash-up goes global.

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You might think this a no-brainer. Tetsuo Hara’s Fist Of The North Star is all about explosive, brutal combat. So is the Yakuza series. So this is a marriage made in heaven, perfect fodder for a quick copy-and-paste job. Certainly, there’s enough of the Yakuza games in Lost Paradise to back that theory up. Yet this has been a far more complex project than you might think.

Perhaps the biggest problem, producer Daisuke Sato admits, has been the one thing you’d expect to be straightforward: combat. Fist Of The North Star’s Kenshiro may have plenty in common with Yakuza’s Kazuma Kiryu – both are kind-hearted, cold-blooded souls with fists like trucks. But while Kiryu has to work to win a fight, Kenshiro’s use of the Hokuto Shinken martial art means that, well, he doesn’t.

“That’s been the most difficult thing about the project,” Sato tells us. “Kenshiro’s so strong in the manga; he can just punch someone once and they die.”