100man-nin no Hokuto Musou

100man-nin no Hokuto Musou (100万人の北斗無双, Hyakuman-nin no Hokuto Musou; Literally: "One Million People's Unparalleled North Star") is a social game adaptation of Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage. It is one of many IPs created to celebrate the comic's 30th year anniversary.

Early registration began on Mobage on December 18, 2012. Beta testing started in January. The social game was intended to be a simultaneous launch with the sequel, but it was pushed back into mid 2013 to fix quality issues. It currently has 100,000 some odd registered players.

Gameplay
The game's controls are simple. Players simply tap the touch screen (smartphones) or use the left-mouse button (PCs) to confirm their commands. The game is played in real time, and timers are needed for nearly every action in the game. Players can choose to mute the game's music by pressing the volume icon in their menu interface.

Avatars have two consumable meters: Move and Fighting Spirit. Energy from either bar can be naturally regenerated over time or instantly through an item. Once the player has depleted an increment of either meter, a timer will automatically appear to inform players of the real-time needed for complete restoration. If avatars level up, these meters will be restored to optimum levels with an automatic one point bonus to their maximum capacity. Players will need to consume either meter to access the two major modes: Story or Versus.

Story consumes Move energy when accessed. Each chapter provides a series of battles accompanied by voiceless and simplified reenactments of the same scenes seen in Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage. Similar to the game of its base, players access chapters based on individual character scenarios. The default and longest one available is Kenshiro's with a total of thirteen chapters. Players cannot access another character's route until his is cleared. Aside from unlocking additional scenarios, character cards, harder versions of these chapters, and experience needed for leveling up avatars can be earned by progressing through this mode. Limited time events –which offer rare exclusive cards for players to earn– often require avatars to fight here for event boss encounters.

Versus, an open PvP mode, drains the Fighting Spirit meter. Players can select their opponent from a random selection and might be given information regarding their foe's base stats for offense or defense –higher leveled players may have their stats masked from previewing. Winning these matches rewards players Versus Points and occasionally items based on their performance. Points can be allocated to raise a player's rank for rarer rewards. Alternatively, players can directly challenge a rival player to a match. These duels require each player to bet one of their rarer cards to give to the victor. Formal rematches, or "Revenge matches", can be issued with the same opponent they dueled; double points and a rare card are granted to whoever wins these battles.

Combat in either mode is an automated sequence between decks; players can control a maximum of five cards at a given time. Cards attack whoever is parallel to them on the opposing side. When two opposing cards fight, the winner is decided by whoever has the highest Attack and Defense attributes. A side with no defender present leaves the controller open for a direct attack. Results are posted for each miniature battle through numerical points, and combat concludes only after each card has had their turn. Victors are decided by whoever has the most points at the end. Players can choose to skip card animations if they are interested in only viewing the final outcome.

Each winning scuffle the player gains also builds up the Musou meter at the bottom of the combat screen. If it is entirely filled before the end of the five bouts, players can activate a Musou sequence with their commander (leader) card. The screen cuts away to a quick-time event which requires players to tap or click on their foe's pressure points in a randomized yet consecutive order. Musou finishes are an automatic victory and a guarantee for bonus points if players successfully complete them within the seven second time limit. Avoiding or failing Musous reverts to the standard judgment system for match results.

Benefits for befriending other players (or "Worthy Foes") include an option to ask for reinforcements in Story. Reinforcements increases the performance of the player's deck for as long as the player desires. Cheering for them in the friend menu rewards a meager sum of Gacha (roulette) Points.

Cards
Each deck is comprised of one commander and four possible fighters under him/her. Commanders are the rarest or strongest card in the deck and often have the ability to perform Musou. Kenshiro is the default commander given to players through the game's tutorial. Rarer character cards have to be earned through the game's events, by collecting summoning scrolls within Story or Versus (the third option for free-to-play only players), or by making micro payments using digital currency (Mobage coins) for rare ticket drawings.

The most basic deck is solely comprised of character cards. Character visuals and appearance match both games; innate traits and special abilities found for rarer versions of these cards often mirror those found in the home console version. In other words, Ryuken is considered a Hokuto type character with a special buff for his defense and so forth. Dual personages earned from events, such as "Juza the Cloud" or "Ryuga the Lone Wolf", have different abilities than their default versions. It is possible to form a deck with both versions of the same character, as they are considered unique entities from one another.

Attack and Defense are the two main stats which affect a character card's usefulness in battle, yet they're assigned a secondary attribute to further determine their fighting characteristics. The three properties are:
 * 1) Power - higher chance of dealing critical hits
 * 2) Speed - increases the likelihood of activating innate skill/technique(s)
 * 3) Spirit - if this character wins a bout, the Musou meter will fill slightly faster

Technique cards can further change their performance if a character card can equip them. These set of cards are either conditional buffs or damaging special moves from the pictured character's moveset. Effects for these cards are clearly indicated for the player's convenience. Matching the fighting styles between character and techinques will grant a 20% or 30% bonus of the technique's effect. These particular cards can be drawn for free once each day. Gacha Points can be collected from battle and may be used to draw more.

Players can individually strengthen character or technique cards by fusing their preferred card with unwanted ones. Character cards will gain more attack and defense with higher levels while strengthening technique cards boost the chances of their activation.

"Awakening" is the act of merging a character card with an exact duplicate; it can be performed at any character card level. The fusion strengthens one cards' base stats and may unlock another technique slot if successful. "Aura icons", or the flame icons located at the bottom of each card, indicate the card's Awakened status. Most cards have two Aura icons available. Aura is randomly activated when players are face mobs in Story, altering the likelihood of activating a crowd clearing technique. A fully awakened card often changes the character render.

Rarity is separated into seven levels from Normal (lowest) to Ultra Rare (highest). The simplest method of checking a card's rarity is counting the number of colored stars filled within the card's Ursa Major constellation. Rarer cards tend to have more levels, more slots available for techniques and rarer character abilities.

Related Media
Consumers who own Shin Hokuto Musou can use the serial code included with the package to obtain a special Mamiya technique card. Players could participate in a limited time event to earn a Rare yelling Kenshiro card; its visual matches the home console's package art.

Players can register and play the following Mobage social games to earn multiple Rin cards (significant boost for character fusions), gacha tickets for characters or techniques, or restorative items in the social Hokuto Musou: Newcomers who start the game in mid-December 2013 can obtain a Rare Rei card.
 * Hyakuman-nin no Nobunaga no Yabou
 * Nobunyaga no Yabou
 * Hyakuman-nin no Winning Post
 * Hyakuman-nin no Sangokushi Special
 * Hyakuman-nin no NINJA GAIDEN
 * AKB48 no Yabou