YMMV / Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise

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Yakuza: Like a Dragon | Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name | Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
Judgment series
Judgment | Lost Judgment
Other Spin-Offs
Ryū ga Gotoku Kenzan! | Yakuza: Dead Souls | Like a Dragon: Ishin! | Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise

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• Anti-Climax Boss:
  • The final bounty hunter substory featuring The Ripper (AKA Isuka) will be this for you if you level Ken to high degrees. He attacks you with a large knife, and you can defeat him easily once you beat him with specific skills.
  • The Final Boss is a weird example. At about 30% health he gets an immense boost to both damage and dodge speed, making it extremely hard to land hits on him and making his combos absolutely deadly. Unfortunately the designers seem to have forgotten that Toki's Destiny Talisman can unavoidably take 30% health off of any boss you use it on. So just as the fight gets hard, you pop your talisman and you win.
• Awesome Music:
  • The game's own version of the Like a Dragon series' Signature Song "Receive You" is one of its best renditions yet. Take a listen at the preview yourself. And now for the full version.
  • Jagi and Thouzer's boss themes are also among the best tracks in the game.
  • Raoh's theme is a pleasure to the ears as it really captures the power and dread of the character. have a listen.
• Best Boss Ever: The fight with Thouzer is one of the game's most memorable battles. Since your Hokuto Shinken moves do nothing to him for most of the fight, you're forced to be more tactical and hit him with combos at his weakest moments rather than rush him for constant onslaughts. Meanwhile, he comes at you with the ultimate evolutions of attacks you learned from Shin and Rei, and interspersed are long QTE sequences that send the two of you flying all over the various parts of the nightclub. It's a long, brutal, cinematic challenge that really lives up to the buildup.
• Breather Boss: Jagi comes after Thouzer, but manages to be fairly easy in comparison. His attack strings aren't too difficult to avoid, and his main gimmick, his gunshots, can be easily sidestepped. He also immediately fires his gun when getting up from a knockdown, which while it can catch you off guard the first time, is easily sidestepped afterwards, and leaves him wide open.
• Complete Monster: Targa is the second-in-command of the Army of Ruin. Using his position to slaughter the innocent, even killing helpless hostages, Targa tricks several high-ranking memebrs of Eden into helping him get revenge, only to betray and attempt to murder them. Eluding Kenshiro to reach Sphere City, Targa intends to set off the nukes therein to raze the world in purifying hellfire to reign over the rest like a god and to keep Yuria to forcibly bear him a child to preserve his legacy.
• Demonic Spiders: The flamethrower-wielding bruisers that start popping up in the latter half of the game. They soak up plenty of damage, and their fire attacks not only instantly stun you and knock off several good chunks of health, but stick around so long that if you recover quickly, you can end up getting hit again by the same attack. To make matters worse, they're always accompanied by similarly high level enemies, so if you try to prioritize them, you're likely to get swarmed and knocked down regardless. Good thing Kenshiro has a counter for them, too…
• Game-Breaker:
  • One of the first abilities you learn from Toki is his signature "Humanist Face Breaking Fist". It instantly kills two enemies but requires two enemies to be stunned (not meridian shocked but dizzied). In traditional practice this is tricky to land because you're very likely going to hit someone out of the stun unless you're looking out for it, or even worse you'll kill enemies before you can get them stunned. However if you unlock the ability to do so from leveling up, Ken can do a Ki burst that instantly stuns two enemies for the cost of one star worth of meter. The Humanist Fist can not only combos off of the burst, it immediately gives you a star every time you land it. This means that once you get these two skills combat becomes near brainless as you can clear all mobs immediately without anyone coming close to hitting you. its only weakness is it needs two enemies to trigger so against bosses and strong single enemies/mini bosses you're going to need to remember how to properly play the game again.
  • Nugget's destiny talisman is basically a "free money every 12 minutes" button, making saving up much, much easier.
• Goddamned Bats: Large Mooks armed with large weapons (e.g., hammers). They're not too difficult to take down (patience is key here), but their incessant Immunity to Flinching, the fact that you can't do much to break their guard, and their tendency to knock you 20 feet away from the other villains during random encounters can make them a headache to deal with even towards the endgame. Hell, even ones that are several levels below you can still be an annoyance.
• He Really Can Act:
  • Robbie Daymond voices Kenshiro. Yes, Prompto and Akechi have the same voice actor as Kenshiro. The difference in pitch and tone is astounding, to say the least.
  • Takaya Kuroda has such a deep voice from playing Kiryu that it's astounding for him to pull out high pitched "ATATATATATATATATA!!!" that even Akira Kamiya is known for.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • A manga called Super Doctor K features a protagonist who bears an uncanny resemblance to Ken. Come this game, and Ken can give pressure point treatments while temping as a doctor.
  • For added hilarity, that manga's Shonen Magazine run can be seen on news stands in Yakuza 0.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Jagi Everywhere System. ^Explanation After it was revealed that Jagi would be voiced by Majima's Voice Actor (Hidenari Ugaki) , and how astonishingly fitting this role is. Has lead fans to joke about how Jagi would have his own version of Majima Everywhere System from Yakuza Kiwami.
    • The Majima Everywhere System has gone too far.
  • Raoh Wants Kenshiro's Pants. ^Explanation In Yakuza 0 a young Ryuji Goda was a part of a sub story stealing Bontan pants from delinquents. This naturally became a Never Live It Down moment for the sheer audacity of it (granted he was very young at the time) and considering that in this game Ryuji's Voice actor voices Raoh the obvious jokes ensued.
  • Bartender Kenshiro. ^Explanation The sheer audacity of Kenshiro in a full suit serving drinks to the populace of Eden has earned some love from the fandom.
    • "You are already drunk"
    • "Shaka shaka shaka shaka (—shakashakashakashakashakashaka...)"
  • Kazuma Kiryu has still never killed a single person. ^Explanation Because Kiryu is an alternate skin and he shares the same voice actor as Ken, fans will point out that Kiryu has never taken a life and this game is very heavy on the deaths of mooks the player encounters.
    • They were already dead.
• Narm: Any time Ken uses Hokuto Hundred Fist Rush within cutscenes. During combat, the animation is very impressive and the Burst version is even more awesome. But in substory cutscenes, it comes off as very awkward as Ken is shown to only punching thin air when the story calls for him to use it in certain substories.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Being a Fist of the North Star game, it's bound to have a lot of it.
  • Ken can unlock and use Toki's famous Hokuto Ujou Hagan Ken (North Star Humane Face-Destroying Fist), which makes those who're hit by the armbeams contort in impossible ways while they're in a state of pure bliss, before disintegrating entirely. It's both awesome and terrifying.
  • The Game Over screen, which consists of nothing more than the words on a dark background, illuminated by a spotlight with a droning, airy sound, only for the letters to abruptly turn red with a Scare Chord before fading to black. It's not much, but it's creepy and unsettling enough to make you want to avoid dying/running out of fuel at all times. Especially on Extra Hard, where you can't even avoid this screen by choosing to continue!
• No Problem with Licensed Games: While regarded as inferior to the main Like a Dragon series, the game is still regarded by fans of both the manga, the Like a Dragon series as a whole, and action games in general as being pretty good despite some flaws, as well as the best FotNS game to date.
• Padding: A lot to be had here. Notably...
  • The Star Orb system (more below in Scrappy Mechanic). Compared to something like Yakuza Kiwami or especially Judgment and its sequel, it can be gruelling to unlock the skills that actually make fights go quicker.
  • Everything with the dune buggy. Want to get through the other half of the map to claim your newest treasure? Gotta get a new part first. Oh, you found the part needed to get through the quicksand? You gotta build it first. Don't have the right parts for it? Better go to the Wasteland to scrounge them up. Rinse and repeat.
  • Upgrading the Destiny Talismans also ties in nicely with the above. In case finding those car parts wasn't enough. Be ready to spend hours in the Colosseum or racing in the Wasteland to scrounge up a fraction of the required materials.
  • Not even blazing through the plot is safe. The issues stated right above notwithstanding, some chapters (e.g., Chapter 8 and the hunt for Jagi) have you go to one spot only to be redirected somewhere else, then coming back to the location you started in, rinse and repeat.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • The Star Orb system. After each major plot event you gain a randomized orb. This can force you to wait half the game to finally unlock that one node that prevented you from massively buffing your stats, which can leave you underpowered for a good chunk of the game. Sure there are potions you can get to give you these points guaranteed, but they usually involve abnormal amounts of grinding minigames or just spending absurd amounts of money.
  • Most of the stuff with the car can be fairly contentious, but the one straw that breaks the camel's back is the fuel gauge. It's bad enough finding new car parts (and the resources needed to build them) is a hassle in itself, but having to keep an eye on your fuel gauge (which leads to a Game Over if it runs empty, by the way) just adds insult to injury.
• Sidetracked by the Gold Saucer: "I must find Yuria...but before that, I have to do some bartending, bat away goons at the stadium, play arcade games, help Lin run her grocery store, manage the hostess club, treat patients, win some races, beat up some prisoners in the Colosseum, run the nightclub…"
• Slow-Paced Beginning: Fights near the beginning of the game can feel very repetitive, since the most efficient way to take out enemies is by using "Secret Techinques" with lengthy quick-time events. Thankfully, right after you reach Cassandra you unlock the ability to perform "Perfect Channeling", which can kill stunned enemies in a single well-timed button press.
• Spiritual Adaptation: This is probably the closest we'll ever get to a video game adaptation of New Fist of the North Star (Shin Hokuto no Ken). Mainly because the OVA and the game share many similarities in terms of story and plot devices.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: Many fans noted that Targa and Thouzer's themes sound similar or have a similar feel to Stroheim's and the Pillarmen theme from the anime, respectively. Naturally this gets a lot of JoJo references thrown around. With Targa's theme even having similar instrumental to Rammlied by Rammstein.
• That One Boss:
  • Toki on your first run. Toki will use most of his moveset while Ken is underleveled. The only way you'd fight back is to attack him while he's coughing. Which is very out of character for Ken for doing so. New Game Plus however makes this easier in a new run.
  • Though an awesome boss fight, in the harder difficulties, Thouzer proves to be a pain in the ass to deal with. As noted above he’s immune to your Hokuto Shinken attacks for a good amount of the fight and can deal a ridiculous amount of damage to you when you're attacking. His fast movements and high damage output also make him a dangerous opponent to deal with, easily making him one of the toughest fights in the game.
  • Also the first encounter with Nadai. His lightning attacks are very hard to avoid and deal tremendous damage.
• That One Sidequest: Job Hunt. Paying back the old woman whose vase you destroyed is a pain in the ass, since this substory happens automatically. You are required to grind 100,000,000 IDL in which you need to work certain jobs such as bounties and running the cabaret club. While this can be mitigated in New Game Plus, in which items and IDL are transferred, you would end up having to pay her again if you start a new game after that.

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