Review Tres!

What's that you say? I'm a lazy bastard?! Well, I suppose that's true enough. But hey! The third review is, at the very least, finally here! Not that it's been widely anticipated or anything, but still! Carrying right along, the subject of today's review iiiiiiiis:

Wrath is an understatement...

ASURA'S WRATH!

Asura's wrath is a multiplatform action/adventure (among other things) game produced by CAPCOM (No introduction necessary) and developed by CyberConnect2 (.hack, Naruto Ultimate Ninja series, ) Directed by Seiji Shimoda, and produced by Kazuhiro Tsuchiya. A collaborative effort of damn near epic proportions, Asura's Wrath is an attempt to bind together the best parts of dramatic anime and over the top video game action. The question is: did it succeed?

To the review!

First Impressions

From the moment the very first trailer concluded, there was absolutely nothing that could extinguish the almost sun-like intensity my desire for this game had taken on. Looking like a fusion of the most hot blooded of hot blooded anime, asian mythology and absolutely ridiculous action, There was nothing NOT to like. Then I experienced the demo, first at the New York Comic-Con 2011, then again when it was released on the playstation network, and nothing had changed. My hype simply roared on, growing in intensity until the game's release date by which point, I was a living damn supernova of "GIMME THE DAMN GAME!"

He understands how I felt.

Upon turning the game on, you're instantly treated to brief previews of what's to come on the start screen/opening menu, almost like the background of a DVD as it waits for you to begin playing. The screen is accompanied by a haunting yet energy filled track simply urging you to get into the action.

And when you do...

It's so hard to write this review in the fashion I usually would, as I don't want to ruin ANYTHING about the game, but alas, some sacrifices must be made so that my opinion makes sense.

The game opens with shots of the collaboration project's logo, then gives you a brief series of subtitles explaining a quick history leading up to the start point of the game. Then, with the absolutely beautiful "In Your Belief" playing in the background, you're given your first view of Asura, who briefly stands on the prow of one giant starship in a positively massive fleet of space battleships, pensively staring at the planet below before a prompt on the screen, at your discretion, causes him to leap off, diving into the ridiculously huge legion of Gohma (Mutant creatures who I'll get more into later) standing between him and the planet. 

You are then given full control of Asura as he descends towards Gaea, energetically fighting through the horde of enemies as the game seamlessly transitions between on-rails shooter style gameplay and excellently handled quick time events, giving you an expansive, yet somehow bare minimum idea of what you're in store for. 

This picture does it absolutely no justice...

Enemies are named, Allies are introduced, many, MANY things are punched, kicked, slashed, thrown, blasted and exploded, meteor sized creatures are used as bludgeons to destroy even larger creatures, and a continent sized beast with an impurity level stated to be immeasurable rises from the planet to ruin everyone's day...

And the prologue hasn't even ended yet...

10/10: I will not lie. This game's introductory sequence blew me away, then dragged me back, and demanded I continue playing without any remote hint that there was another option. The game's looks stunning from moment one, and the choice of opening level gameplay style, setting and execution in combination with the stellar soundtrack ensured that I would keep playing.

Overall Presentation

One of Asura's Wrath's more sci-fi influenced locations.

Okay, so prior to myself playing this, the game I held all other games to as far as presentation went was Okami. 

Asura's Wrath is currently fighting a very strong war to take it's place.

Asura's Wrath presents itself as a well crafted game full of nothing but fusions. A combination of Anime and Video Game. Rampant mythology and intriguing science fiction. A wild ride of Beat 'Em Up/On Rail Shooter/Interactive Media Experience/Moving, epic tale told through the Video Game medium/Over the Top, Out of your Mind ridiculous action roller coaster, and it all rolls up into one, and it melds together wonderfully.

The game also boasts impressive graphics which easily support the emotion filled cutscenes, as well as a stellar, and I mean absolutely beautiful soundtrack which plays along at all of the right parts of the game, creating spectacular atmosphere. The voice acting of the game is also excellently done, if quite over the top, and sometimes more intense than necessary.

Everything in the game draws heavily from Buddhist/Hindu religion and mythology, from the various symbols that decorate the menus and characters to the haunting chanting found in many of the game's tracks, though the game also manages to sneak Wild West, Samurai, Mech Anime, and damn near everything else in as an inspiration.

As you play the game, it becomes quite obvious that it's like playing a deeply interactive episodic anime, with opening credits, ending credits at the end of the "Parts" that the game is separated into, much like seasons of an anime, and even bumpers at the mid chapter point as if the show were cutting to commercial. There are even scenes/previews from the next episode at the end of each chapter following the "To Be Continued" screens.

To increase the immersion, there are also interludes in between episodes one can read to expand on the universe without having to go out of ones way, a very nice series of touches that tend to have easter eggs such as guest appearances from Sagat of Street Fighter or Amaterasu from Okami hidden within.

Granted, there are a few shortcomings. The game is unfortunately short, (At least until the extra cheaply priced DLC comes into play) and the story, while... For lack of a better term, brain-meltingly-awesome, is fairly simplistic, and asks for quite a bit as far as suspension of disbelief goes if you go in ill prepared. It's also plagued by a battle system that at times can grow stagnate, making it hard to get into if you go into it looking for a pure action game. But considering Asura's Wrath presents itself as exactly what it is, and is quite proud of it, I find it hard to complain.

9.0/10: An intense experience of a game, with faults not strong enough to kill the experience by any means, but definitely noticeable. But the strengths are so... Well, strong, that it's hard to complain.

Accessibility

Asura's Wrath is easy to pick up, from a gameplay standpoint thanks to a helpful HUD guide during the Prologue, followed by a well rounded tutorial a bit later on, which is also helpfully skippable for those who've already made inroads into understanding the combat, or who simply want to learn the hard way.

Learning the hard way.

From a storyline standpoint, it's also easy to get into, unless over the top action isn't your thing. But regardless of taste, Asura's Wrath doesn't force you to work to understand it, nor do you need to fight to finish it. At no point while playing the game did I feel like I was trudging through to just get the game over with; Asura's Wrath does an excellent job of being open to it's audience, and being enjoyable the whole way.

It's also fairly easy, but for gamers who prefer a more hardcore challenge, there are definitely ways to make that happen, such as using the Mortal Gauge (An exercise in frustration at times.) But I'll touch more on that later.

Also learning the hard way

8.0/10: While I can understand while it doesn't appeal to all audiences, Asura's Wrath certainly doesn't make it hard to get into or finish should you choose to give it a chance.

Graphics

Deity fight on the moon. Epic? Yes. Anywhere near top of the scale? HA!

Asura's Wrath boasts a slightly cell shaded style a fair bit less obvious than CyberConnect2 usually uses. It suits the game perfectly, rendering vast and interesting environments, wonderfully designed characters who move with vigor and energy in a way few video game characters do, both in and out of cutscene. the decision to cel-shade the game, and simultaneously have the entire game be presented using the in game graphics engine makes one truly feel like they are immersed; there are no jarring shifts in quality of movement or quality of appearance to jar one out of their in game trance.

That giant dude in the background? That's him in his smaller form.

The game spares nothing when it comes to visual effects, be it a giant, planet sized Buddha-like deity threatening to erase an entire country (and Asura) from existence by poking it (most specifically, him) rather vigorously with his colossal, godly, country sized, fire covered finger (Sounds silly, looks fucking awesome) or a battle between gods culminating in a meteoric descent from the moon, one god impaling the other on a giant sword that literally pierces through the entire planet of Gaea, causing a geyser of lava to erupt from the far side of the planet, the game's visual aspirations never fail to impress while continually topping one another on the  "DID THAT REALLY JUST FUCKING HAPPEN?!" scale.

I'd provide a visual example here, but FUCK THAT. Play the game.

On the downside, It's not the most graphically powerful game, with some textures rendering mid cutscene, and occasional slowdown during combat, But the game fanatically makes up for it by attempting to provide every bit of enjoyable eye candy that it can with what it can do.

In total, Asura's Wrath is absolute decadence for the eyes.

8.5/10: While not the most graphically powerful game I've ever seen, Asura's Wrath does practically everything it can with what it has. There are occasional slowdown issues, and rendering will get a bit wonky at times. Fortunately, not often, and not for long.

Sound

The soundwork in Asura's Wrath is, in my opinion, some of the best in this generation. The soundtrack is amazing, swelling, falling and surging in all of the right places, accompanying all of the moments in the game that it should wonderfully. From the various versions game's main theme, "In Your Belief" (regular, ethnic arrange, piano solo, and of course, the reprise) to the series of Wild West inspired leitmotifs of the rival character "Oprhan Wolf Legend (-Wind-, -Fang-, and -Bonds-) I find it extremely hard to stop raving about it. 

Many of the tracks in the game incorporate pieces of other tracks played earlier on at just the right moments It combines beautifully with both the sound effects and the superbly fitting voice acting, both in Japanese and English. From Asura's rage filled roars and gruff threats (surprisingly performed by Liam O' Brien), to the mentor character, Augus' hearty and brash laughter to the rival character Yasha's subdued but soulful statements, everyone's voice stands firmly apart from one another, and fits their character rather absolutely.

Tracking back to the sound effects, every punch, blast, thwack, slash and slap sounds heavy, strong and full of impact, truly conveying the feeling of beating enemies down with all of your wrath. Bells and chimes constantly accompany actions and significant moments, providing a uniquely anachronistic feel to the whole game that fits especially well, considering the sci-fi/mythology juxtaposition that the game is presented with.

The only issue I can honestly find with the soundwork in the game is that at times, the voice acting can be a bit cheesy, but depending on your taste, that may not even be an issue for you.

9.5/10: A magnificent composition of sounds, both memorable, and wonderful on the ears. The soundwork is hands down one of my favorite things about the game.

Controls/Gameplay

Perhaps one of Asura's Wrath's shakiest points, Asura's Wrath attempts to take on the task of combining multiple genre gameplay styles into one enjoyable ride without everything crashing into each other, and making a complete mess. For the most part, it achieves it's goal, switching between On Rails Shooter, Action/Beat 'Em Up, and Interactive Drama/Anime with little fuss. The problem however, lies in the fact that by combining all three, a bit of each seems to have been sacrificed, particularly in the action/beat 'em up area.

There really aren't enough of you guys...

The on rail section is controlled with the left thumbstick to move and automatically place a lock on reticule over target, the square/x button to shoot, the x/a button to control aerial dodging, and the triangle/y button to fire lock-on blasts at anything with a reticule on it. These parts tend to be fun, if slightly repetitive.

These feet are comin' for you!

The weaker points come at the beat 'em up sections. Players use the left thumbstick to control Asura, square/x fires projectiles, x/a jumps, circle/b is Asura's single light melee attack combo, and triangle/y controls Asura's heavy, crowd clearing attack. The heavy attack will cause Asura to overheat, and a small circular gauge will appear in the middle of the screen. Until it depletes, you can't use the heavy attack again. Occasionally, variety is provided when an enemy uses an attack you can counter by pressing a button corresponding to a prompt on screen which will appear shortly before an attack connects, resulting in an intense counterattack. There are also special attacks that you can use on grounded enemies as long as a triangle/y icon is above them, but, like the heavy attacks, these cause Asura to overheat and you must wait for him to cool down again.

At this point, shit gets particularly real.

 During both of these sections, the goal is to fill up a "Burst" gauge, as opposed to depleting a specific enemy's health, before Asura's Health depletes. The Burst gauge represents the current amount of rage Asura is feeling, and when full, pressing R2/RT will usually cause Asura to begin thrashing the remaining enemies, and progress the game. Usually via the third gameplay style.

When the game switches to interactive anime mode, prompts appear on the screen corresponding with the movements of the characters. These quick time events, unlike in most games, won't kill you, but failing them can cause you to miss chunks of the cutscene, and will seriously detract from your score at the end of each episode. Moments of intense impact during these scenes are handled using the "Synchronic Impact" system, which, unlike a usual QTE, requires a timed press of the triangle/y button, in a similar vein to rhythm games like Dance Dance Revolution or Rock Band. A prompt will appear on screen with a circle shrinking around it, and you must press the button as soon as the outer circle meets the rim of the prompt. Pressing the button too early or too late will decrease your overall score.

Giant turtles are not safe from the wrath

What makes the gameplay work together is the pacing of each; You'll spend much of the game usually switching between two of the three gameplay styles per episode, and the cutscenes act as a perfect set up for whichever style you'll be playing, keeping things from getting too stale. All the same, at times, the beat 'em up section of the game still stagnates, and it does occasionally seem like there's a bit of an over reliance on the QTE's to make up for it.

Of interest is the game's choice to switch midway to it's secondary protagonist, Asura's rival, Yasha. His style of gameplay, while not fundamentally different, visually differs enough to create a refreshing change of
pace.

And yes. Yasha is, in fact, the fucking man.

7.5/10: The game's on rail shooting and QTEs are the strong points of the gameplay, and while the beat 'em up section isn't anything groundbreaking, the collaboration of the three creates a solid, fun gameplay style. The game would sincerely benefit from at the very least, an expanded moveset, perhaps combat upgrades as the game progresses, or even a purchaseable upgrade system using some sort if in game currency. (excess wrath? I dunno...)

Difficulty

Asura's Wrath is not a difficult game on the standard difficulty, and it provides some challenge on hard. But one of the game's unlockables, the Mortal Gauge, is a change to Asura's health meter that severely increases the amount of damage he takes from enemies. While playing with the mortal gauge on hard, it's not uncommon to be killed in a single hit, which creates a much greater challenge. In the end it becomes up to the player.

Better learn to dodge, bro!

5.0/10: The game is fairly average as far as difficulty goes, unless you choose to use the difficulty altering modifiers.

Replayability

Some. Asura's Wrath has 3 difficulties to play on, with rankings ranging from D to S for each stage. Playing through the game a few times will unlock various "Gauges" that modify Asura's in game statistics, from the aforementioned Mortal gauge, to the Thermoregulator gauge, which decreases the amount of time Asura must spend in his overheated state. There's also some secret stuff to unlock if you get 7 or more S ranks across a playthrough of the game...

5.0/10: While not the most spectacular tour de force of inclination to replay the game, it's worth beating at least twice. (Or many more times if you're like me...)

Story

Left to Right: Wyzen (Violence), Asura (Wrath), Augus (Greed) and Yasha (Melancholy)

Asura's Wrath tells the story of Asura, a demigod of rather impressive power who is one of Eight Guardian Generals (representing Pride, Sloth, Lust, Greed, Melancholy, Violence, Vanity and Wrath) of the planet Gaea, who answer to the Shikoku Trastrium, the governing force of civilian demigods who rule over the planet. The Guardian Generals exist to defend Gaea's citizens from the impure Gohma, mutant beasts of horrendous strength who threaten the existence of all of mankind.

Aiding in this war against the Gohma is the Mantra Priestess, Asura's daughter Mithra, who can summon and manipulate the demigods' source of power, Mantra, formed from the emotional content of mortals, summoned through prayer. This energy can be used to increase the strength of the demigods in order to combat the Gohma.

What a magnificent bastard that Deus is.

After a particularly fierce battle wherein which the Generals were forced to use their ultimate weapon, the Brahmastra and only managed to temporarily subdue the Gohma leader, Gohma Vlitra, the commander of the Eight Guardian Generals, Deus, enacted a coup d'etat, killing the emperor of the Shikoku Trastrium, and framing Asura for it. As a result, Asura and his wife were killed, and his daughter was kidnapped, to be used as an engine to harvest mantra.

Jump 12,000 years into the future: Asura has crawled his way back out of Naraka (Gaean limbo) in order to exact revenge. His wrath is burning brighter than ever, and there is no god who can help those who have taken everything from him.

It is on, it is fucking on!

Asura's Wrath's story progresses from there, told in an episodic anime format that thoroughly fits it's over the top action style. The story is a fairly simple one of vengeance, familial love, and raging against those who believe themselves higher. Asura is not a particularly deep, intellectual hero. No, his preferred method of conversation is fist to face for anyone in the way of his wrath, and said wrath is quite justified.

For a story so simple, however, it is very well told, with an excellent presentation, creating an easy sympathy for Asura's plight, and making it very easy to want to root for him to win. As the game progresses, you see glimpses of his life pre-betrayal, which provide much needed insight into Asura's character, and these, combined with his interactions with other characters in the game save Asura from being generic revenge-bent badass #782.

There ain't enough room in this 'verse for the both of 'em.

The somewhat simultaneously told story of Asura's rival and brother-in-law, Yasha, as he struggles with the weight on his conscience from his rather deplorable acts as one of the Seven Deities (the name the remaining Guardian Generals now go by) is just as interesting, and watching the two clash in the same vein as other anime rivals such as Goku and Vegeta of Dragonball Z, Kazuma and Ryuho of S-Cry-Ed, and Naruto and Sasuke of Naruto/Naruto: Shippuden is just as exciting and fun to watch/play as watching them evolve as characters.

Honestly, it impresses me that they could develop the characters so well in such a short time, as the game is quite short, barely lasting longer than 6 hours. But even that is remedied with the downloadable content chapters, which, while only adding about another hour and a half of pure story time, create a magnificently satisfying end, a rarity in gaming as a whole, at least for me.

9.0/10: A simple story told in excellent fashion, presented in a cinematic and wonderful fashion, and with one of the best endings I've ever had the joy of playing through.

Fun Factor

And so we arrive at the cornerstone of the review, the reason we play games at all. The fun factor. And my god, if I can say anything about this game, it's that it was an unadulterated, unstoppable, absolute blast to play through. I put the game in my PS3, and didn't stop playing until it was over, then fanatically downloaded every bit of DLC on the day it was released  (Don't even get me started on the lost episode DLC... I'd rather not tear my hair out, and damnit all of the DLC is so awesome that I'll be bald if I play it too much...), and also earned the platinum trophy. I have every intention of beating the game quite a few more times, memorizing the lines, and even dressing as Asura for the NY Comic-Con this year (provided I have the muscles for it by that point...). I mean... Just... BFHBJKSBHIVFB jnnklandjobf.... Grargh. Such an awesome game.

10/10: I don't even have words for how much fun I had with this game. And am still having... Grargh.

And so, It's score time. No further adieu.

THE VERDICT

ASURA'S WRATH SCORES AN

81.5

AN EXCELLENT GAME 

 *Much Applause!*

A total blast that gripped me from moment one, Asura's Wrath has it's faults, but it's strengths overshadow them in a major way. If I could score the game higher without completely stomping on my objectiveness, then believe me, I would, in a heartbeat.

But yeah. That's it. Hopefully the next post won't take so long.