I was so excited while watching gameplay videos of Asura’s Wrath on Youtube. I watched a video of that episode wherein Asura fights w Wyzen, then Wyzen turns into some gargantuan entity (as if he weren’t big enough already in his normal form), and Asura goes wild to beat him.
(yeah, this episode)
After seeing flashy combat and smooth animation, I felt I had to get it. That, and because I thought it was some open-world RPG. When I got a copy and played it…
wtf (yeah that’s Asura, say hi).
Well, I didn’t go “wtf is this” immediately. I had the same reaction when I played the first four chapters of FF XIII: “Oh I’m still in the introduction part of the game, I guess I’ll experience the whole world after this chapter.” After the second episode, I was disappointed. I was like, “ohmygod wtf is this it ain’t an open-world rpg i’mma throw this motherfucker outside the window and run over it w the car.” It wasn’t like what I thought it would be. I thought the idea of turning it into a comic book was complete bullshit, and the idea of being a robot demigod was stupid.
After finishing the game, that’s when I realized that it wasn’t as bad as I said it was. I actually thought it was great, but not something I would go crazy for like the Ace Attorney series. Okay now how do I go about this…
Asura’s Wrath is a game about Asura, one of the eight god generals who led the fight against the Gohma, the demonic entities that wish to destroy Earth aka Gaea. After subduing Vlitra, the big Gohma that pops out from Gaea like a worm from a deep wound (like this: http://www.worldwidewounds.com/2003/november/Thiemann/images/molly9.jpg don’t click if you don’t wanna see something disturbing), some of the god generals believe that Asura’s daughter Mithra is needed to amplify the mantra (their source of power). To do that, they had to take Asura out of the picture. So they frame him for killing the emperor, then they kill his wife and take his daughter, and send him back to Naraka (the place between life and death). All of this makes him blow his top off many times (hence, Asura’s WRATH). Remember God of War? Yeah. Kratos and Asura would make good friends. Maybe they can like, I dunno, go out for some coffee or something.
(oh, there you go)
The game fuses sci-fi and Asian mythology presented in the form of an anime series, cut into episodes. Each episode begins w an introduction of the episode and opening credits. You take control of either Asura or Yasha (at some point in the game), shooting enemies in a rail-shooter kind of way, kicking divine ass to fill the burst gauge, or interact in other ways (ex. That hot tub episode). Each episode has the classic “TO BE CONTINUED” at the bottom, w closing credits. Each episode is joined by illustrated cutscenes, so it’s like you’re reading a comic book w 3 panels.
(I couldn’t find pictures of the illustrated cutscenes, so here’s the hot tub episode)
The characters are all robot gods who watch over Gaea, harvesting mantra and purifying the land of the Gohma. Each god general has a “mantra affinity”, so each god general embodies one mantra. Asura’s mantra affinity is Wrath, so he’s always angry. Olga’s is Lust (and she also embodies Madonna w the fake English accent like hello, y’all are supposed to be Asian). Yasha, being the silent lone wolf type, embodies Melancholy, and has his own lone cowboy sounding theme. Deus (who is like Zeus for having control of thunder and lightning and being too proud) embodies Pride. Sergei, the flamboyant guy (think Makoto of Enchanted Arms), is obviously Vanity dressed in purple. All of the characters really act out their mantra affinity, except for Asura and Yasha, the round characters in the game. Both of them, at some point, act outside of their mantra affinity to save the world.
As gods, they have to look really powerful and epic, and this game brings back the epic boss fights (ex. Asura vs Gigantic Galactic Wyzen’s finger; Asura vs Augus and his extending sword that can skewer the Earth, appearing at the other end; Asura vs the really big and powerful Vlitra). See, it’s very much like God of War w only less blood!
The game alternates between being a third-person action game and a rail-shooter game. In some episodes, you shoot laser beams at really big Gohma carriers from Asura’s robot arms, or chase after a running Gohma while shooting at it. Then, you fight Gohma mammoths and big tortoises, or many divine soldiers. Either way, the point of fighting is to fill up your burst gauge. When you press the right button to enter into Burst mode, you have to press more buttons at the right time to get a nice score at the end of the episode. This is where the game fails, because the fight scenes start to get less exciting because they end up being repetitive. Punch, dodge, counter, punch, R2 for burst, press triangle at the right time to get the EXCELLENT rating. A score of S (highest score is S, followed by A, B…I dunno what’s below B because I never scored lower HAHAHA) in a number of episodes will unlock some prizes, and an S in all episodes gives you a trophy. So yeah, the game has incentives so players will do well in the fights and interactive sequences.
Asura’s Wrath is more of an interactive anime. If you talk about the game in terms of gameplay, you’re doing it wrong. You’ll definitely end up thinking it’s a shitty game. Asura’s Wrath is 70% watch and 30% play. You won’t get much from playing the game, because the whole game is a cutscene…and it does pretty well as a cutscene. Characters were rendered perfectly. Scenes were placed in the right spots, thanks to great directing. Animation was fluid, and it felt like I was really watching an anime series on TV. Sketches of the comic cutscenes in between episodes were drawn beautifully (pardon my poor choice of words HAHAHA). The game was visually-appealing, overall. Sometimes, I think it would have been better if someone else was playing for me, then I’d be in the back watching the whole thing.
What made the experience better was the music. The point of the soundtrack is to be cinematic and oriental, and it shows. Kaoru Wada, the guy who helped Yoko Shimomura with the Kingdom Hearts soundtrack, composed the game’s main theme entitled “In Your Belief” (link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l65NZt6EbeU). Although he isn’t the composer of the whole soundtrack for Asura’s Wrath, that song was the best in the whole game, for me at least. It just fits in the game so perfectly, in almost all scenes. It’s grief which turns to anger while still sounding hopeful. I’m no music expert, but that’s what I feel when I hear it, so it fits perfectly in the game.
DLC? Yes, you should definitely get the DLC, at least part 4. I didn’t buy any of them, but after reading about what happens in part 4, I wanted to buy it. It’s a nice ending to the whole game. As for the others, you could buy them if you wanted to. One episode features Ryu and the other features Akuma, both from Street Fighter. It’s a nice idea to put them there, since Akuma and Ryu are always looking for a fight w strong fighters. It would be fun if they also made a DLC w Kratos in it. 2 downloadble episodes are available, showing what happens between some episodes.
CONCLUSION
At last, we have come to this part.
I’d say Asura’s Wrath is a very special game, like other people who have reviewed it say. It tried to be a unique game, something that no one has ever seen before, and it has succeeded in being that unique game. Great animation, music, illustrations, with epic battles, rich storytelling and the Asian mythology x Science Fiction idea goes to show that it’s meant to be the first of its kind: an interactive anime. I don’t think it could stand alone as an anime because it will end up being like any other anime. It couldn’t stand alone as a game as well because it’s 70% cutscene and 30% game.
I’d give this a 7.5/10.
pics from:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GmoL5cYel10/T3CxvThSQVI/AAAAAAAABKk/MinBgSa0RyU/s1600/asuras-wrath.jpg
http://31.media.tumblr.com/23e978d6e16b288ec5fed7fc78b888d1/tumblr_mnc4b5nyjl1sqi1n0o1_500.jpg
http://www.oxmonline.com/files/u49901/asurareview2.jpg
http://www.vicioplanet.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Analisis-Review-Asuras-Wrath.jpg
http://gamershavennews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/asuras-wrath-wallpaper-hd-2-1080p.jpeg