After enough Dragon Ball Z episodes (or similar anime series), it’s hard for anyone not to have a power fantasy. Dreams of charging giant fireballs and using the world’s energy for massive “power levels” are commonplace for any fan. Asura’s Wrath lets the player take our fantastical day dreams into the video game reality, and does an incredible job of it.
After playing the demo when it first came to the Playstation Network Store, I laughed off Asura’s Wrath, thinking it a button-mashing frenzy and so ridiculously over-the-top that not even I would enjoy it. I was so wrong.
After a couple weeks and remembering that I love everything about insanely over-the-top games or movies, I decided to buy the game, still unsure about it. Asura’s Wrath blew me away from start to finish, including the two extra episodes available as downloadable content currently.
The game stars Asura as the main character. He is a demi-god and protector of Earth, or Gaea, alongside seven other guardians, who each represent one of the eight “mantras” – Pride, Lust, Greed, Violence, Vanity, Melancholy, and of course Wrath.
The “Guardian Generals” as they are called, battle the “evil” Gohma – which is essentially Gaea’s immune system fighting to claim the spirits of the humans when they pass away or are sacrificed – so that the demi-gods can use this energy to power their technology.
Asura’s daughter, Mithra, is a priestess who is able to harness the power of the souls to hold off the Gohma from destroying human civilization on Gaea. The other Guardian Generals devise a plan to rid their “heaven” of Asura by framing him for the assassination of the Emperor, murdering his wife, and kidnapping Mithra. The “Seven Deities” as they call themselves can now use Mithra to power themselves up. This is where Asura starts to get angry. Saying any more of the story would spoil an incredible ride, but suffice to say, Asura somehow gets angrier.
The actual game-play of Asura’s Wrath is broken up into “episodes”. As the player progresses forward in the story, the next episode is unlocked with a preview of the one following. No episode took me longer than ten minutes of actual playing time to finish, though the cinematics and quick-time events did not count towards that total. The actual game probably took about seven hours to complete.
Asura’s Wrath’s action takes place both in the air and on the ground. While in the air, Asura can lock onto enemies and release power shots, or rapid-fire to quickly destroy enemies approaching. The in-air and fast running sequences played a lot like the Panzer Dragoon series, and a little likeStar Fox 64, with very fast movements, lots of lasers, and tons of enemies. I enjoyed these sequences a lot more than I thought I would going into the game. They added a lot of speed and power to the mix, and the controls felt perfect, with no sluggishness at all.
The on-ground element to the game felt like God of War, or any similar brawler. Asura has the ability to execute quick attacks into combos, heavy area-of-effect ground-smashes, and shoot incredibly fast projectiles to destroy those who oppose him. Thankfully the game allows for locking onto targets and evading, though sometimes I found myself swinging at a distant enemy rather than a closer threat. Upon charge-attacking by holding the quick combo button down, enemies are juggled into the air with the option to pull off an execution, which always looked really nice.
The action in both the air and ground sequences felt fluid most of the time, with surprisingly no frame-rate issues considering the number of enemies in certain battles. Some of the fights became somewhat repetitious, with evading until the enemy slowed down, then attacking, but on the whole, the game’s fighting felt incredibly immersive. The quick-time events helped pull me into the battles as well, featuring great animations and effects.
The most rewarding part of any fight in the game was undoubtedly the “Burst” ability. Below Asura’s health bar is a second meter that steadily fills up as the player dishes out attacks. Upon filling this bar, Asura enters burst mode and a quick time event begins. Bursts usually signal the end of a battle, though some levels had different stages involving bursting several times. Pressing the R2 trigger down to initiate this ultimate ability made me feel infinitely powerful as Asura would destroy whoever or whatever is attacking him at the time. The only way to finish any episode of the game is a final burst, and it felt so climactic every time.
The main reason the quick-time events felt so perfect for this game is that often, a button-pounding event would begin when Asura was doing something very strenuous. The player takes on some of his struggle, even if just a small amount with some minor thumb pain. Bursting after an intense O-button smashing experience felt very rewarding. The only other occasions I have experienced quick time events being so effective are in Heavy Rain throughout, and Metal Gear Solid 4 in the last section of the game.
Asura’s Wrath’s graphical style is very distinct. The characters and terrain all look like they have been pulled right out of an anime, similar to the style of Super Street Fighter IV, though the scope of the visuals goes well beyond any game I have ever played. Battles on Gaea sometimes rose into outer space, and in one of the more amazing fights, the enemy becomes larger than Gaea itself. All of this intensity is captured with great textures and well-designed characters.
The sound of the game is another excellent part. The voice acting throughout is all done perfectly, with each character sounding exactly how I felt they should. Asura’s voice actor did a fantastic job as well, truly containing the anger that the character would be dealing with. The music is another high note (pardon the pun). Some of the more wild battles played classical-sounding music, really bringing the dramatic nature of each fight to life, and for one character in particular, a very “Wild West” sounding song played, which I loved. The song suited the character in the strangest way.
Asura’s Wrath is by far one of the most entertaining games I have played in some time. Every element of the battle system felt so fluid and organic, with some of the most outrageous scenes I think I have ever witnessed in any medium – movies, art, or video games. This title plays with so many different emotions, and pulls the player into feeling how Asura feels – incredibly angry – by perfect cuts and animations in the cutscenes and even in the quick-time events.
The only real shortcoming I felt in regards to this game was the difficulty level. On normal, I only died once, and most of the game did not feel like a challenge. On the upside, the story could unfold in a more fluid manner due to the easiness, though I am sure the story would have been fine even with some difficulty.
Asura’s Wrath portrays so much more than I would have ever expected from the title. The game shows human innocence, demi-god anger (to the extreme), and a great deal of sadness. I have never felt quite so invested in an action game, and I urge anyone with any interest at all to try this game out. The demo is a good starting point, but it is important to realize that the events in it are very much out of context. Any fans of anime should play this game as well, as it tells a great story with great anime visuals. I cannot recommend this game enough.