Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise (2018)

It's no secret this is Fist of the North Star slapped on the Yakuza franchise. Naturally, they're really similar, but different enough that this is better in some ways and worse in others.

The story isn't especially amazing, but it's a lot less convoluted than your average Yakuza game and isn't just a retelling of the source material like many anime games are. It's original featuring some original characters and a bunch of franchise mainstays. Some of these classic characters fit in perfectly well with the story (Raoh, Toki, Bat, Lin), while others felt more like they were there just to extend the playtime rather than add to the actual plot (Rei, Souther, Jagi).

The battle system is basic Yakuza fare (before you could switch styles or characters) except you have Hokuto Shinken special techniques instead of Heat actions. These are cool, but after you see them 20 times each, you kind of wish you could skip them.

Then there's the substories and minigames. Unfortunately, maybe as a result of the post-apocalyptic wasteland being kind of a super serious place, the substories aren't as quirky and fun as what you might find in the Yakuza games. They're still good for getting XP, items, and some world building, but I wouldn't expect to laugh much. The minigames, on the other hand, I think are an improvement.

• Hostess Club - A lot easier and more manageable than the one in Yakuza 0. Decent way to make money.
• Bartending - Basically a combination of three smaller minigames. Leads to a bunch of random substories and helps you unlock more stuff in shops.
• Bounty Hunting - Pretty self-explanatory. It has a long, predictable substory chain attached, but you can also just hunt bounties for cash.
• Buggy Racing - The racing itself is okay. I probably enjoyed it more than the taxi stuff in Yakuza 5. Getting materials to upgrade your buggy is a major time sink though. You have to drive around the wasteland picking up items or grind out points to trade in from racing or other minigames.
• Batting - You're using a steel beam to whack bandits on motorcycles. More satisfying than hitting a ball in a cage.
• Colosseum - It's just a bunch of fights that give you items and points to trade in, but no XP. Has no story.
• Clinic - A weird battle dance rhythm game that replaces karaoke. I'm terrible at these and didn't try it beyond the forced introduction.
• "Manager" Ken - You give Lin items she asks for in exchange for money. Leads to some substories but is basically just a one-sided store and not a minigame.
• Bunch of other misc games like the old arcade games and casino games.

Doing the main story and 70/80 of the substories took me just under 30 hours. It's a mediocre Yakuza game and a mediocre Fist of the North Star game, but if you're into either of those franchises, you'll probably enjoy it well enough.