A few weeks back, when previewing the game, I wrote that Asura’s Wrath inhabited the same sort of gaming spectrum as “Don’t take it personally…†By that I meant these games were focused on narrative with only a modicum of interactivity.
Having written that I realise now why so many previews are essentially fluff pieces with very little information. Either they focus on a tiny facet of the gaming whole or they talk about what the game might be, without being completely clear on what it is.
The problem is that by writing that preview for Asura’s Wrath I have left myself very little to work with for the full review. In essence the full game is the preview, only longer. I don’t know how I am going to extend this piece into something approximating a thousand words.
[Here AJ originally embarked on a long, rambling piece about the nature of games. He pulled in some Nietzsche references (as if AJ knew anything about him) and then went on to to talk about the recent 6 Nations Rugby matches, with liner notes suggesting that this might be only work of his read by his sister all year. After that he made this entirely fictitious editor’s note so as to bump up the word count. True story. – Ed]
By most people’s standards – mine included - Asura’s Wrath is barely a game. It consists of long rambling cutscenes that would make Hideo Kojima blush. These are built around the idea that you are watching an animated television show about a very annoyed demi-god. There is often nary a button press in sight for more than 10 minutes and even then the interactive sections are dominated by extended Quick Time Events – i.e. a few button presses while a cutscene carries on in the background.
When the game does attempt to present you with some sections of actual gameplay they are bite-sized: a few seconds of button spamming in a 3D brawler and then some very light Panzer Dragoon-esque sections.
As a concept it is pretty loathsome, but the focus – to create a game that is essentially an interactive cartoon series – is so concentrated on generating a specific type of experience that it is hard to hate the execution. You cannot judge it on the conventions of other games. This is not Devil May Cry or Bayonetta; it has more in common with the anime series Dragonball and Sword of the Beserk. The overall result is that developers CyberConnect2 have made one of the best animated shows ever committed to polygons.
The extended periods of minimal activity with fairly few fail states tie into the fiction. Asura is powerful enough to punch through giant space ships; it stands to reason that he would find it effortless to launch himself into the stratosphere and then punch fat Buddha-like characters, or squash a star fighter with his bare hands while you repeatedly tap the B button. Between the limited gameplay and these entertaining visual setpieces I found myself with a game that this isn’t really a game and was left wondering if the story was actually any good.
The answer is not really. It starts off strong with Asura smashing things everywhere he goes and generally being quite narked by everyone he meets. The violence and insanity escalates pretty satisfyingly until about chapter 10 when Asura is forced to confront Augus, his mentor. At this point they are fighting on a moon with Augus going on about how much he prefers drawing his blade to shagging maidens (while devastating large portions of the planetoid). Then he guts Asura while simultaneous piercing the entire planet. Obviously Asura goes pretty ape-shit and vaporises him.
When it is all over it is hard not to find yourself grinning. After all, you have fought an ever more ridiculous series of gods and it seems that it couldn’t possibly get any crazier.
And it doesn’t.
Mechanically the game does not deviate from its template of random punchy moments, QTEs and on-rails shooter sections. But narratively, after the Augus fight, Asura’s Wrath loses its way and starts to get kind of dull. It stumbles on for another 8 and a bit more episodes yet never quite presents enough spectacle after that high point, with the scenarios repeated and the stand-offs and set pieces not inspiring enough to distract you from the repetitive button presses the game only half-heartedly makes you press. There are several sections where the game will simply wait patiently for you to push the prompt, or worse still reward you with a ‘good’ notification even when you missed the prompt by a mile.
On top of that, after Augus is wasted none of the other characters have the strength to stand beside Asura’s madness and make any kind of impact. I would definitely say that there are still some awesome bits worth playing but when they drag in another character – Yasha – it doesn’t work to the games strengths. I want to be stumbling through the sand head-butting enemies because I have lost all six of my arms and I am too pissed to give a fuck; I do not want to be a wet flannel like Yasha, all eyeliner and posturing.
The ultimate insult is that to see the true ending the game forces you to replay the last level again even if you have already met the prerequisites (five S ranks in any five episodes) before you reach that point. The last level isn’t that fun, so doing it twice with the same sequences and boss fights feels a little insulting.
That is not to say that it is all bad. The game truly is a spectacle and a strong first step in a direction that, although not appealing to me, will appeal to others. The production values are through the roof when it comes to both the presentation and voice acting, to the point where I would say there aren’t many cartoons that could rival it.
Your tolerance for this sort of stuff may extend past mine, and with good reason. The joy of watching the main character punch gods is not likely to get old for some. Asura is also the angriest character ever committed to fiction, to the point where the Incredible Hulk appears a sombre and reserved fellow by contrast.
That everyone’s experience will be the same, and that there is little to do on a second playthrough other than hunt for achievements, is unlikely to trouble most who play this game. The spectacle is what this game was designed to cater for and that honesty, coupled with the fact that at least Asura’s Wrath isn’t another awful, linear first person shooter, should be commended.
Comments
6 responses to “Asura’s Wrath: Review”
the godkilling and the “angriest character ever committed to fiction” reminds me a bit of Izo. And somehow the more i think about it the more i want to play that movie as an asuras wrath-like game. Although the mother shagging scene as a hot-coffee-mod mini game would probably be a bit awkward…
Just looked up Izo, how have I not seen or even heard of it? This is something I must remedy.
There are a couple of extremely awkward moments in Asura;s Wrath, one of which is a drinking scene with a scantily clad woman. It has to be seen to be believed. Thanks for reading the review whoever you might be and thanks for tipping me off on the film. The main character wears a mask similar to that of Yasha's.
you shouldn’t thank me yet. I’ve been zapping through the movie in search of a scene i wanted to see and realized the movie i have in my head may have not much to do with the movie that is. And there was a woman that gets cut in half… i don’t know how i could forget how bloody gory it is. And probably pretentious. Ah well, whatever.
Found your side through rps, by the way of Jonas Kyratzes’ traitor, who made a statue for electron dance who linked here for some reason. Could have had it easier because i read your me3 article and i vaguely remembered that i wanted to keep reading you guys. I think this time i will. So you have a watcher, remember that the next time one of your comment threads becomes too intimate… or something less creepy
Ah, the statue for Electron Dance was a trophy for a Neptune's Pride game I wrote about. There's a diary on here about the game called Across A Sea of Stars if you're interested. Good to hear you're sticking around!
Jonas Kyratzes did the statue for the game that Harbour Master played alongside Arcadian Rhythms' Shaun (he wrote a diary about it and everything) so I imagine that is why we got linked. RPS have been kind to us and linked us a couple of times now so we must be doing something alright.
Re: Izo – a pretentious film with people getting chopped in half, and Takeshi 'Beat' Kitano? Sold.
Thanks for taking the time to read and even formulate a reply.
[…] meathead some sense of gravitas but barely frame the justification for the combat. The fact that Asura’s Wrath looks like fucking David Mamet in contrast is […]