I got it when it came out, but I have yet to really sit down and play it.
What killed the whole thing for me, was the lack of co-op without completing the whole story mode beforehand. If Gundam Musou can, why can't Hokuto? I don't care if it's a non story character or whatever. I always played the Gundam ones co-op with a friend, and I was GOING to do the same with this game, but when we discovered that it wouldn't let us until I cleared the game solo, it got shelved. Maybe I'll try it in the future some time.
You only have to I believe beat Kenshiro's second stage at least to unlock Dream mode. Now what is true, is that you have to unlock characters by progressing in the story. And after that's done, you have to play through other character's Dream modes to unlock other characters. (beat Kenshiro's Dream mode to unlock Toki's, Beat Shin's to unlock Rei's, beat EVERYONE's to unlock Raoh, etc.)
Well after playing through Legend mode a few times, beating Ken, Toki, and Rei's story modes, Ive finally tackled Dream mode, and decided to use Shin, since I'd like to get myself Rei. And found it surprisingly fun. Its one of those capture the base types. theres a shitton of bases across a huge map, and you have to capture them, while also fulfilling story related objectives, like defeating certain characters, not allowing a certain teammate to be defeated, stuff like that. Come Saturday ill be able to try out Co op mode with a pal of mine, see how good that is.
Side note: Im rather disappointed that the themes for the game, Far Away and Believe You were removed from the overseas releases, Replacing them instead with stock music from the game.