Fist of the North Star = Kenshi?

[Chris]

So I recently started watching Fist of the North Star and I find a lot of similarities with Kenshi.

Were the developers at any point ever inspired by it or was this just coincidence?
If so, they did a damn good job.

[Friends with Benedicts]

Hokuto no Ken is pretty much inspired by mad Max, which basically is what inspired kenshi.

Kenshi is mad Max with ronins, those wandering samurai without Lords. There's a faq here where Chris answered the source of inspiration.

Also hokuto no Ken is amazing. Have fun watching.

But IMO kenshi has a much better lore. The political scenario intrigues me, the geographical distribution not only of the factions and powers, but also the historical geology of the world was given much much more thought than these works. It's a much richer and palpable universe than the fictions which inspired the game.

Hokuto no Ken and mad Max were too black and white about what is good and what is not. Kenshi on the other hand has everything in a shade of grey. You'll basically decide who's evil based on your ideals or current roleplay, the game doesn't do that for yourself.

[Zee_]

I prefer to think Kenshi was inspired by Six-String Samurai. Just because I want it to be so.

Mad Max becomes much more morally grey with Mad Max 2. Max didn't give a crap about anyone in that movie, most of the time he only helped because he had no other choice. Of course he starts to get a soft spot for the kid toward the end, but even then he was only helping because he was seriously injured and would have been killed if he stayed behind and he knew it, a damned if you do and damned if you don't scenario.

[Friends with Benedicts]

@zee check the pinned FAQ here on steam discussion. Chris himself talked a little about his references for kenshi.

[~ Fabulous ~]

this anime also like kenshi, complete with robot race that are almost similar to skeleton to boot

https://myanimelist.net/anime/2068/Sousei_Kishi_Gaiarth

[Pyrrhus]

Are you speaking of 1986 Japanese manga film, not 1995 Hollywood film? I had glimpse of 1995 Fist of North Star film trailer, some characters used magics. No magic in Kenshi.

[Friends with Benedicts]

The anime, Pyrrhus. The one with like a hundred episodes and a very cool opening that dragon Ball just ripped off.

Also if you only consider magic things a fantasy mage would do (like use teleport and fireballs) yeah, no magic in kenshi. But dudes ran at astonishing 35mph, don't sleep and some may need to take several hundreds of sword blows or arrows to die. You may not call it magic but it sure as hell it's not real life.

Also they... Well... They magically recover from fatal wounds by just sleeping after being treated on the spot. What I want to say here is that hokuto no Ken is a good guess when you're seeking what may have inspired the game. It's not an absurd guess.

[Pyrrhus]

Planet Kenshi may have different gravity fields that you may run faster than you could on Earth. So that's not magic-related as magic doesn't fit in Kenshi's lore. If humans ever make it to surface of planet Jupiter, they wouldn't be able to run without assistance of mechanical exoskeleton suit like in Factorio.

There may be mods for sleeping that devs didn't code in, maybe because they didn't have enough time or resources. Even it's not real life but magic stuff like fireball, teleport, etc should stick to X-Men, Avengers, Star Wars, Skyrim, Witcher, etc as I like Kenshi to be different.

[Friends with Benedicts]

Well. Hokuto no Ken has nothing of the sort. Just a insane martial arts that can kill instantly if used correctly. The whole plot of the first Arch is just a dude seeking the other dude of his school. I don't know where you got fireballs from that. (but I didn't watched the movie so...)