As far as tiers go almost everyone ranges from Unstoppable God Tier (Raoh) to not quite as broken but still fucking beast mode tier (Rei, Shin). I need to mess with Jagi a bit more, but a preemptive list without DLC would be as follows IMO.
God Tier: Raoh
Top Tier: Thouzer, Mamiya
High Tier: Rei, Shin
Mid Tier: Toki, Jagi
Low Tier: Kenshiro
Ironic that Kenshiro is the worst of the non DLC chars.
I still haven’t gotten around to playing Heart yet.
Were you playing on hard mode? I didn’t max out anything before fighting him I think, though I was pretty close. I still only had 4 super meter maximum at the time.
Why is Kenshiro so bad? No range?
I’m guessing mamiya is good cause of stuff like her throw and lvl3 triangle charge? What else makes her so good?
What makes shin as good as Rei?
Yeah…I don’t see how Kenshiro would be so low.
I would put Ken over Toki, Jagi, and Mamiya.
He’s very underwhelming. But honestly the gamefaqs community including myself found out quite a bit with him that probably bumps him to mid tier, but even then he is still the worst not counting Heart of course. His sigs are underpowered compared to almost everyone else. Compare his level 1’s to Rei or Thouzer and you see what I mean. He has one of the best if not the best level 3 musou in the game though, but that’s still 3 bars. Overall he is pretty bar reliant especially when you compared to Raoh, Mamiya and the Nanto warriors.
His special is great and is a key component to his infinite. Yes he has a true infinite that doesn’t require meridian shock so he can crush all bosses with ease. But crowd control wise he is one of the weaker chars in the game and his charge level 2 combo SSTT while having full 360 degree range has no power behind it compared to his elder brother Raoh’s SSTT which has enormous power thanks to the rapid punches before it.
He has the running grab which also boosts his crowd control though so that’s a big help. Overall he plays really generic and you end up relying solely on grab abuse and trying to nail a hit on bosses so you can infinite. He has a few really broken traits that save him from being abysmal.
Shin is better then Rei in normal mode. He has a ton of guard breaks and better T moves for crowd control. In Nanto mode he lacks Reis infinites so he isn’t as much of a boss killer but his crowd control with Nanto mode T (dubbed Claw Wave on gamefaqs) has a ton of power and range. The opening attack has a humongous hitbox all around Shin’s body as well as far above his head. By repeatedly jump canceling that he can decimate whole platoons of enemies and bases within a few moments. His sigs are the worst of the Nanto chars though so I consider him to be slightly inferior to Rei.
Mamiya is just really abusive. lvl3 charge is auto meridian shock. lvl3 R1 is a super powered energy blast. Her basic combos are great for crowd control. Throw has great crowd control too due to splash damage. Sigs are ok, but her main thing is she can crush anyone before they even get near her. Great running speed augments her long range game.
What’s Ken’s infinite? Is it the X, T deal?
I can’t remember exactly, but I think it’s SSTT, but roll cancel after the first T. Raoh’s is SSTT, but jump cancel the last punch in the rapid punch chain.
Raoh and Kenshiro have grab infinites that don’t require meridian shock. Ken’s is is grab then mash attack. Then hit strong attack and backstep cancel before the kick hits. Immediately press S and Ken will step forward with a hook punch. Cancel that into a grab and rinse repeat.
Raoh is hit grab grab 3 times then T. As soon as they are launched do a short jump then grab when Raoh lands. They will fall into Raohs hands as his arm juts forward. Then rinse repeat.
WHAT? Grab infinites too? Sheeeeet. If FotNS: Ken’s Rage was a fighting game I would have gotten blown up with my lack of knowledge. 
No, I was playing on Normal. This was my first run through. My Life and Defense were “Normal Max” (Full from Meridian Chart), and my Attack was about 3/4 completely full from the full Meridian Chart Attack + that skill that turns karma into Attack power.
Damn, you guys are really good at this game.
Do you have any videos of you guys playing? Apart from the demo of Rei, I haven’t touched any of the other characters yet, so all I know is Ken. I think he’s awesome. My favorite is nuking everyone with Heavenly Destruction, I think the max I killed was 120 people at once or something.
I don’t think this game is particularly difficult to get good at, but I’ll take some time out to record a run through the Hokuto Four with Raoh, since I’d like to try to get a sub-8 minute run.
Yeah I wasn’t that leveled up when I did normal mode, but I died like 5-6 times on him in a row before I finally got it. This was before I knew he had infinites lol
I’m playing Mamiya now, I’ve got the main core of her chart almost complete.
She’s good, but I feel that Ken is better.
you won’t feel that way when you max them out. Give her the skill that allows faster charging and she is freaking nuts.
Ken isn’t in any way shape or form better then Mamiya. That’s pretty much the first time I even heard someone make a claim like that btw.
I maxed out Mamiya, with faster charged shots.
She deals with groups better than Ken, for sure, but vs bosses/melee fighting, Ken is a lot better.
Unless I’m using her completely wrong, all of her signature moves aren’t that great
I just started using Shin. That guy is a beast, I just used him first level Dream Mode, he’s crazy.
Her lvl3 T is freaking broken, it almost always shocks even if they block, her R1 is really freaking powerful, and her melee strings are way better than Ken’s. Her STTT is much more reliable as both pressure and a combo than anything of Ken’s(aside from his infinite), and all her other strings are amazing versus the grunts.
Honestly her smoke grenade is the biggest thing, having free shock at almost any time against any enemy is a huge plus.
Finished it with Ken, how worth it is to play through with the others, have rei/toki now, when do I get souther?
Souther is second to last.
Raoh is last.
And easy mode.
As I see it.
Souther isn’t second to last, you just have to beat Dream mode with Shin, then Rei, then you unlock him. So he could be as early as 3rd. Raoh is the only one that is always last in Dream mode
Oh yeah, acerbic, it’s worth noting that you can’t actually play as Souther in Legend mode, same with Jagi and Shin.