Fist of the North Star (arcade)/Gameplay

Notations

- Weak Punch
- Weak Kick
- Fierce Punch
- Fierce Kick
- Boost

Screen HUD

There's lot of stuff displayed on screen, so let's go deeper to understand what does what.

Energy Gauge

The orange bar on the top of the screen your character's life bars. When that depletes to zero you lose the round. The blue segment of the life bar, after receiving damage from attacks, heals over time as long as your character doesn't jump or being attacked.

Aura bar

Your regular super meter found in every 2D fighting game nowadays.
There are two levels : first one is blue, second one is yellow. Once you reach a level, the words "God Fist Blow" appear next to the bar. As you may have guessed, the main use of aura is to perform supers, but it has other uses you will find later in the FAQ and is also used by few character-specific moves.

Boost bar

The (long) Boost bar.

This bar is linked to the button and has 3 levels shown above : purple, yellow and green. Using Boost results in making the character perform a fast dash towards him ; that dash is cancelable with any move.

• The main use of Boost is to link or cancel moves you cannot normally cancel, resulting in a wide variety of pokes and combos.
• Bar fills as you hit opponent or get hit, just like Aura.
• Notice that when you deplete a boost stock, you will have to wait few seconds before you can stock boost again in the bar (same goes for Aura).

Hokutosei (Great Dipper) Bar

Also called the Star Bar

This bar is filled with seven little dots representing the number of stars featured in the Great Dipper. Here are the rules applied to it as it's a bit complex to understand at first glance.

• At The Time Of Retribution, both players receive a full star bar.
• Characters recover one extra star each round within the limit of the star bar capacity.
• Stars can be removed by performing moves in defined conditions.
  1. Any special move after a Grave Shoot
  2. Most special moves and few basic moves on counter hit
  3. Every time for super moves requiring Aura
• When all stars are removed, the Death Star (Shichousei in japanese) appears under the Great Dipper, and a portrait of the character seeing it displayed in the background for a short time. At that moment, opponent can perform the Deadly Fist Blow (named Fatal Strike in the U.S version), commonly called Fatal KO. This ultimate move removes 100% of the enemy's life.
• The character who has been beaten by the opponent's Deadly Fist Blow recovers a full star bar on next round.
• For balance purposes, you can not remove more than three stars in a single combo. However, a way to override this limit has been found by the japanese community, under defined conditions. This is covered later in the FAQ.

Guard Bar

Guard behaviour in Hokuto No Ken is quite different compared to other fighting games.

1. When the guard gets crushed, the character enters a stagger animation.
2. The game uses a ranking of three guard levels to define which character will receive a guard bar.

• Fierce Guard : Shin / Mr. Heart
• Normal Guard : Kenshiro / Raoh / Toki / Jagi / Rei / Juda
• Weak Guard : Mamiya / Thouther

What does all of this mean if Player1 faces Player2 (Player1 vs. Player2) ?

• Fierce Guard vs. Fierce Guard : both receive guard bars.
• Fierce Guard vs. Normal/Weak Guard : Player1 has no guard bar, Player2 gets one.
• Normal Guard vs. Normal Guard : none of the players have a guard bar
• Normal Guard vs. Weak Guard : Player2 receives a guard bar

Following those rules, Shin & Mr. Heart will always give guard bars to their opponents meanwhile Mamiya & Thouther will always receive guard bars. For Normal Guard characters, it all depends of the opponent.

Common moves

Banishing Strike

+
This move sends opponent to the wall you're facing.

• Banishing Strike removes one star on hit.
• You can hold the buttons and charge the move. When fully charged, B.S. sends opponent to the wall even if he was guarding the move, but there's a possibility for him to recover from the charge by quickly pressing buttons and moving directions. Note that in that case, opponent is automatically put into standing guard.
• When proceeding to a Banishing Strike pursuit (hold ), you automatically gain a boost stock which is instantly used in order to continue your movement towards opponent.

Heavy Strike

+
This attack opens opponent's guard after a short auto-charge time.

• Heavy Strike is unblockable (A red circle appear on your character as an indication).
• It removes one star on hit.
• You can't kill opponent with a Heavy Strike.

Throw

+ when close to opponent
Allows character to throw his opponent.

• Mamiya can't throw opponents.
• In Hokuto No Ken, throws are often used as combo openers since most of them can be either :

1. boosted into another move (Raoh & Kenshiro)
2. canceled by a jump or a special move (Rei & Toki)
3. linked with a combo opener (Thouther, Jagi, Juda & Mr. Heart) which can a basic or a special move.

Special Throw

+ when close to opponent
An alternative way to throw opponent.

• This throw will not grab crouching opponents (except Mr. Heart).
• Toki can't use this move. Mamiya can use the move in the air, but not on the ground.
• Special Throw removes a star on success.
• All Special Throws are combo starters except for Raoh & Shin

Agility Defense

right before guarding an attack.
Reduces both block stun and chip damage.

Agility Defense technique in Hokuto No Ken is often compared to the Just Defended! Garou MOTW feature, the similar KOF Neowave or Guilty Gear's last minute guard. If you guard as late as possible, your character will perform an Agility Defense resulting in a white flash effect on top of the sprite of the character.

Agility Defense is a very helpful feature to get out from heavy pressure strings (mostly used against Toki & Rei), counter your opponent by quickly recovering and reduce chip damage (essential for characters like Mamiya & Thouther).

Guard Cancel

++ when guarding.
Sends opponent away.

• Guard Cancel requires one Aura level

Guard Cancel in HNK is similar to KOF emergency cancel where you send your opponent away to evade dangerous situations or to avoid difficult pressure strings. This feature is to be use with caution as there are ways to avoid being guard canceled thus making you open to punishments.

Grave Shoot

+
Sends opponent in the air.

• You can follow your opponent with an automatic homing jump by holding right after the Grave Shoot.
• Any air special move performed after the homing jump pursuit removes a star.

Faultless Guard

Hold while guarding
A protection shield.

• Faultless Guard consumes Aura
• It prevents you from receiving any chip damage
• Performing it is mandatory to protect yourself in the air against ground opponent moves

This feature is a carbon copy of Guilty Gear's Faultless Defense.

Overhead

+
Hits crouching characters

• Mr. Heart has no overhead
• Raoh's overhead is mapped on the button instead of

Deadly Fist Blow (Fatal Strike)

++
Performs the character ultimate move.

• Opponent's star gauge must be empty and showing the Death Star (Shichousei)
• If missed, the character who performed it loses all his boost and aura stocks meanwhile opponent recovers one star.
• A red background appears and a special music is played (Instrumental Ai Wo Torimodose from the Fist Of The North Star / Hokuto No Ken anime, also known as You は Shock !
• Removes 100 % of opponent's life