Asura's Wrath

With every generation of handhelds and consoles, I tend to go back to the games I've missed out on. Nowadays, it's hard to keep up with the hype of newer games and ideas where some original, well thought out games tend to get brushed aside by bigger products. To this day I go back to some Playstation 1 games or 2 and find worthwhile experiences that I definitely would have loved more had I been there at the time. Hence why I don't like to discredit a whole generation of consoles because I know when I get back to some games, I know I would find hidden gems to really... bad experiences. Asura's Wrath is one of those examples where it is more or less a hit or a miss experience and for me it was mostly a miss. I generally have little to no patience when I find a game that doesn't satisfy my time for the most part, but Asura's Wrath had a lot of good things to simply just me being subjective towards my disinterest, which is fine given the circumstance I was playing it while waiting for Metal Gear Solid V to come out.

Meet Asura, our main character

I'm not very familiar with the developers for Asura's Wrath, but they have done a lot of commendable things in it. It's hard for me to describe what the game actually is, but to put it simply, it is what I saw as a playable anime. The game's flow is episodic, each with it's own opening scene and ending credits. Playstyles of the game range from a rail shooter to a quick time event prompt to you playing in 3rd person action style. The 3rd person action mode reminds me a lot of Onimusha or Devil May Cry although you can't juggle a lot with enemies as much. I'm just surprised so many mechanics were put into a single game and it worked just fine. I also commend them for actually providing an engaging experience as an anime. Of course, this game is not for those who aren't anime fans since the story is downright ridiculous in every sense and I automatically went on autopilot mode when I realized I wasn't supposed to use common sense and logic while watching its cutscenes.

Watch out, there will be a lot of QTEs here

Asura is a demigod among 7 other demigods who ruled the planet for thousands of years. Asura is betrayed by the other demigods where they use his daughter as a source of energy to rid the world of an alien species that has invaded their world, called the Gohma. Asura was infuriated by the betrayal of the other demigods and hence vows to rid the world of them along with the Gohma. There was simply no better way to tell this story in an anime fashion than a one man army like Asura. The way he is relentless and persistent against every character and his anger simply reminded me of watching Berserk for the first time and though he might not amount to what Gutts as a character is, he is still simply awesome. It's important to mention that if you were a big fan of animes that included a lot of fighting, you will enjoy Asura's wrath.

Have you ever been so angry, you grew six arms? No? Only in Asura's Wrath

Given that this is an interactive anime, I decided to go with Japanese voices when I was given the prompt between English and Japanese, and I was not disappointed. The story as a whole is mediocre at best and I recall dozing off halfway through cutscenes and going back to my excitement when I was given a QTE prompt. It's nothing revolutionary here but I have to admit that you don't see a game like this everyday. A lot of boss fights were blood rushing and exciting and other times I would just pause the game to take a break from the many elaborate cutscenes. I've always found it hilarious how when two characters are about to fight in an anime, would explain to each other their motives and the technicalities of their power to the point of me thinking that I would not be surprised if they go out of this as buddies instead of enemies. Regardless, I consider Asura's Wrath original in every aspect where I do actually want to see more of this format and I instantly got excited to watch Animes after playing it. Each episode or chapter in the game starts with the previous recap of the last episode and ends with foreshadowing of what would happen and let's not forget the episode cliffhangers. The game ended with a note indicating "Is it all over?" "Find out in DLC" to which I laughed and was satisfied to me having had enough of it.

R2 is your best friend in this game as well as the burst gauge

Whichever gameplay instance the player is put in, there, along with your health bar is a burst gauge that quantifies Asura's... Wrath I suppose? This bar keeps filling up the more damage you cause and the more combos you execute. Asura doesn't have a lot of combos the way I saw it but he can execute heavy and light attacks. Heavy attacks take time to replenish but with an overlimit gaugem he can infinitely throw them at the enemies for a short period of time. Asura can also counterattack enemies if done in the right time. All that is done in the 3rd person action mode whereas when he is in rail shooter mode, all you can basically do is lock on to enemies and shoot them all at once to increase your gauge. QTE events are made to be fun, so it is a merge between a narrative mechanic and a gameplay one where you get to live through the character's struggles as he is trying to overcome his enemies.

One of the 3 gameplay styles introduced

I don't want to end my review without mentioning the lovely aesthetics of Asura's Wrath. Despite some scenes playing in the game engine, I didn't feel disengaged from it however outdated it may seem to today's games' standards. Since it is presented as an anime, the graphics aren't as impressive nor are they that demanding. I can safely say it looks beautiful. The soundtrack was not memorable, aside from that one boss fight that had a classical music track that I kept humming to by Antonin Dvorak. It was perfect for the moment without any spoilers. 

Rail shooter mode was a lot more fun than I had expected

Asura's Wrath is a different breath of fresh air, the way I felt towards it and I would love to see more games like it that break out of the norm. Despite it using previous known mechanics, its approach to narrative is one that should not be forgotten despite the material being boring for others or barely engaging. Don't get me wrong, Asura's Wrath was engaging overall, it's just the story offered little to no incentive for me to care about the character enough to be curious for what would happen to him. Of course, that could be wholly preferential. You can find Asura's Wrath available on PS3 and Xbox360.