I’ve been at this games writing business for a lot of years. And as much as some people will tell you that they have time to play & finish all the games in 2018 like it’s some badge of pride when covering games (it isn’t), they’re obviously lying. Or they don’t take too much stock in their real lives and social obligations. But hey, you do you, right?

Of course, that doesn’t excuse us at Kakuchopurei from missing out on some treasured gems of last year, which is why I’m crafting this one column to talk about the hits of yesteryear. So let’s start off with one of last year’s criminally-underplayed hit game from Sega which involves a ton of fisticuffs and bartending…

Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise

The premise: It’s a retelling of the first half of Fist of the North Star. Ass-kicker Kenshiro is out looking for his lost love after finding out she’s alive and in the city of Eden. Once he manages to get in after a series of ass-kicking circumstances, he becomes the kingdom’s errand boy, doing missions while also learning North Star techniques to up his game.

Basically, it’s a Yakuza game in Fist of the North Star post-apocalyptic dressing.

Why I missed it: September 2018 was chock-filled with a ton of games that needed my obligatory attention: Marvel’s Spider-Man, Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country, Valkyria Chronicles 4 (again, another game on our LTTP list), Dragon Quest XI, and a couple more. Oh yeah, and TGS 2018 got in the way too.

Why I shouldn’t have: Because it’s a 60fps bloody Yakuza game set in the goddamn post-apocalypse and it has muthaf***ing Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star, son!

Sure, repetition can set in if you’re tapped out of Yakuza games from Sega, but having Kenshiro running around in a city beating up random thugs, proving his innocence by beating up a giant, and keeping bar patrons happy with his cocktail-making techniques is just too hilarious and awe-inspiring to pass up. It feels good to play, the skill tree is ginormous and can make Kenshiro a bigger badass than before, the challenge ramps up to reasonable heights, and there’s a ton of funny side stories to check out.

I may not be familiar with the anime’s lore, but seeing a cocktail-making minigame and a hostess bar minigame somehow worked into a post-apocalyptic setting is pretty absurd yet somehow wouldn’t be completely bats*** loony in a world where people’s heads can explode via correct pressure point-stabbing.

It may not be for everyone, but the anime vibe and unintended hilarity on how stone-faced most of these heroes and villain are when going through the motions of the story make this game worth buying if you can get it on discount.