Asura's Wrath (2012)

Asura's Wrath is often (and accurately) described as an "interactive anime." Each of its acts consists of 15–30 minute episodes, complete with a "story so far" recap and even a break in the middle for (nonexistent) commercials. Each episode is heavy on cut scenes, interspersed with sections of beat-em-up combat, on-rails shooting and/or quick time events.

It pleasantly surprised me, for several reasons:

• As someone who finds bombastic "stylish action" games visually appealing but too demanding to play, I really appreciated the approachability of Asura's Wrath.
• I'm used to narrative-heavy games feeling smaller in scope than their more traditional counterparts (think Telltale Batman versus Rocksteady Batman), but Asura's Wrath makes me question why exactly that is. The game plays a lot with scale, taking advantage of how smoothly its limited interactions apply to threats of varied (sometimes colossal) proportions.
• The character designs draw inspiration from mythology, religion and science fiction in equal parts. Digging a little into some of the references often yields an interesting layer of commentary as to the dev team's perception of the character and their place in Gaia. The hatched style of shading and gritty textures make everything feel carved from stone or torn out of shōnen manga.
• The optional interludes prominently feature a variety of illustrators with distinct styles. I enjoyed seeing the characters and world from a different perspective, especially as a break between breathless cliffhangers.

That said, Asura's Wrath tends to get in its own way:

• Strip away the style, setting and cosmic scope, and you're left with a pretty trite story of a father rescuing his kidnapped daughter, with plenty more well-worn tropes throughout.
• The audio is poorly mixed. Songs and sound effects are overused and repetitive. Dialog consists of enough yelling to make Dragon Ball Z blush.
• In terms of performance, the PlayStation 3 version struggles. The frame rate is inconsistent. Screen tearing was common enough that I ended up checking connections and video settings and trying other discs to confirm it really did ship this way.
• The game's apparent ending teases a true ending on completion. This supposed true ending is 90% the same, but with a new cliffhanger teasing DLC with the actual true ending. Thankfully the "Part IV" DLC does offer a satisfying conclusion, but the hurdles to get there were ridiculous (even for the time).
• The portrayal of women in this game… oof. 😓

And yet, I walked away from this one feeling mostly positive, simply for how bonkers it is. I have such a soft spot for games that take big swings, and Asura's Wrath certainly qualifies. It's a bombastic, stylish, misguided hot mess, and I'm fully here for it.

Asura's Wrath is too cool to be true. So cool, in fact, that ends up being just that. A cool overglorified visual novel with a lot of wasted potential.

One thing that Asura's Wrath makes pretty clear is that what matters the most is the story. Pulling from bits and pieces of mythologies here and there, Capcom managed to create a plot interesting enough to get me to the ending, plus its unnecessary hidden episode. It is full of tropes and obvious anime set pieces, but it excels when it comes to character design, epic duels and 'deity drama'.

Fights are the highlights of the game, with some of them crossing the line of ridiculous, while still holding its own pretty well. It is engaging from beginning to end, even if the writing fails to be anything more than fodder for MORE duels and gibberish.

One other thing that impressed me a lot was the art style. This game is from 2012 and still manages to be one of the best looking anime games I've ever played. Quite stunning, visually, at least. That was, in fact, what made pick it up in the first place.

But this is where Asura's Wrath stops working. It is a nice "battle shonen", but that's it. It forgets to be a game most of the times and when it remembers, it's just not good enough. The gameplay is repetitive, boring, lazy and it seems to be there just for the sake of being. The only actual good fights are the ones against Augus and the final boss.

Outside of art direction and some points in storytelling, there's not a lot to do here. The hidden episode is a waste of time, the soundtrack if forgettable to say the least, enemy variety sucks, there is little to no challenge and the unlockables just weren't enough to boost its replay factor.

You either do it out of love for the story or you leave it.

I do get the appeal of this game. It may seem like I don't, but I truly see beauty in it. There was a lot to explore here. The sheer sense of scale and overarching plot could've turned this into Capcom's own God of War clone. A cool one. But it's not like they dropped the ball. They didn't even get a hold of it in the first place.

If you want a fun interactive battle shonen to have in your console, this could be nice. Maybe give it a go on Youtube, at least. If not, don't even try it.

Beside God of War, Asura's Wrath turned up at the top of the God-killing-game lists—and it really delivers the god-killing. The story is delivered via in-game cutscenes, animated illustrations, pre-rendered cutscenes, during in-game action, and even some text on its own. The QTE-heavy, action-based combat is there to help deliver the story. I was expecting the story to be an afterthought, but I could not have been more wrong.

Having played Bayonetta just a short time ago, I was prepared for cutscenes mixed with gameplay, but I was surprised by the balance here. Add to that cuts between episodes whenever there's a dramatic moment followed by story and then a small recap of the previous chapter even though I just beat that chapter and I was happy to see the credits roll (which roll multiple times). I think it was going for an anime feel and it succeeded.

Overall, I'd recommend Asura's Wrath to folks looking for over-the-top action sequences delivered by a demi-god drunk on revenge. It also has demonic turtles and elephants.

Original Review from 2013

I'm an ardent fan of quality storytelling in video games. The approach that Asura's Wrath takes in the storytelling department is certainly… interesting. Practical, no. But interesting, sure. The game is structured like an 18 episode anime, complete with title cards for commercial breaks, opening credits on every episode, even sneak peaks at the next episode. All of this is perfectly fine and good if you play through one episode per day, but if you are racing through, it absolutely murders the pacing. Speaking of which, do you like watching games more than you like playing them? Yeah? Well, then this will be right up your alley. I would say the overall experience is about 40% gameplay and 60% cutscenes with frequent moments of QTE just to keep you engaged. Failing at said QTEs will not affect anything other than your score at the end of the episode, so it really doesn't even feel like it matters unless you are a perfect score junkie. The gameplay itself is half beat-em-up ala God of War and half rail shooter ala Star Fox. Both of them feel inferior to their influences by a solid margin. They just aren't very polished or deep. Also, the fact that the game is so easy takes away much of the edge that these games need. I think I only failed once on my entire play through, both times on one particularly annoying boss. The pattern of the game is essentially sit through a long winded cutscene, fight for a couple minutes, watch another long cut scene, press a button when prompted to, fight again. Rinse and repeat.

So that's the negative. The positive is the production values, all around. This game really should have been a launch title for this generation of consoles, where the graphics and presentation are more likely to woo people over actual gameplay. The anime style characters are very expressive in their faces and body language. Music is powerful and varied, while retaining a traditional Asian aura. The art of the world, inspired by Hindu and Buddhist religious iconography, is lush and ornate. The concept art stage of this project was literally flawless. It's too bad it got undermined by being transformed into a mediocre game. In the end, Asura's Wrath is a letdown. It ends with little ceremony, employing you to buy the DLC that apparently contains the "real" ending. This is probably the most infuriating attempt to wrangle more cash out of gamers that I have ever seen. It's fine to deny me the fancy gun or the multiplayer map pack, but give me the damn end of the game. Especially when the one you provide with the game is such garbage. Asura's Wrath is already a title where 60 dollars feels way overpriced. Now you want another 10 bucks? Forget it. And shame on you for putting me in the awkward situation of wanting to see the real ending since I already put 8 or so hours into a game, yet not wanting to have to spend more money on a game that wasn't really worth what I paid for it in the first place.

I like where you are trying to do, Cyber Connect 2. I really do. Anime is cool, this game's art and style are awesome. I genuinely wanted to love this. But your execution is all messed up. You are a video game studio, correct? If you want to make anime, then go do that. Just don't neglect gameplay as blatantly and lazily as you have here ever again. And never, ever, give your game a hack ending with the intention of releasing another one for MORE MONEY. Crimes such as these are unforgivable.

Asura's Wrath is in a strange place, even today with the rise of interactive cinema style games. Its focus is mostly on the cutscenes and story, with heavy QTE use, like a Telltale game, but it also is a halfway competent brawler in its own right, though I'd never recommend Asura's Wrath on its combat alone.

The story is classic shounen action anime melodrama, familiar to anyone who has watched Dragon Ball, with an interesting blend of Hindu and Buddhist mythology influences and Sci-fi that keeps it fresh.

The game is mostly cutscenes interspersed with beat-em-up and on rails shooter gameplay segments. The game is divided into 3 Acts, with 6 episodes each, totaling 18 episodes, further solidifying the game as interactive anime. There's even bumpers half-way through the episode, much like the ones in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and many other anime. Throughout the cutscenes, there are many many QTEs. Despite the quantity, the QTEs in Asura's Wrath never feel cheap, nor do they really detract from the experience. They're implemented well; each button in the QTE corresponds to the button in gameplay. If you are jumping, you hit the jump button. If you are making a strong punch, you hit the heavy attack button. If you are doing some Dragon Ball style pummel dueling, you mash the light attack button. It never punishes the player for missing a QTE, besides missing out on a little bonus to the rage meter or lowering the player's rating in the results screen.

As for actual gameplay, the player, as Asura, punches things. Punching things fills up his rage meter. When the rage meter is full, Asura performs a finishing or transitioning punch on the enemy he is facing, resulting in a cutscene, where he usually punches things. A punchscene. The combat is relatively simple, one button performs a light attack and a charge attack that deals knockdown damage if you hold it, another button performs a heavy attack with a cooldown and a lock on blast in the on rails segments, and another performs a ranged attack that is fairly useless except for during the on rails segments. In addition to the rage meter, Asura also has an unlimited mode meter that removes the cooldown for the heavy attack for a limited time. It is filled by punching things. There are not really any combos, or any defense skills beyond a dodge button. It's simple, not bad, not really good, but it works for the game.

The graphics are very well done, not just for a game that came out six years ago for seventh generation consoles, but in general. The art style is unique enough that the occasional muddy texture does not detract from the overall look. The modeling work for the main characters is superb for a 2012 console exclusive. An HD remaster and PC port would be absolutely stunning. Unfortunately, many of the locations on Gaea are boring desert wastelands, but the models and any time that the game goes to space more than makes up for it.

The sound design is a bit of a mixed bag, with more positive than negative. The dub is very well done, with great voice work. Unfortunately it is nearly impossible to hear several characters, especially Deus, over the games soundtrack. There's no way to turn the music down or the voices up, either. Fortunately there are subtitles. But it's still very hard to hear certain characters, especially those that talk to you during the fight. You are focused on the gameplay, so you can't look down to see the subtitles for whatever Yasha is mumbling at you. The soundtrack for this game is fantastic. From the title theme, to the end of episode theme, to the almost cowboy western inspired theme of Yasha to Symphony No 9 From the New World, to the haunting remix of the main theme used as the final boss battle theme, there are so many tracks that stand out. And they are used so well, too. Music cues are on point and overall it's just a memorable, stand-out soundtrack to me.

Overall, my biggest issue with this game is probably the pacing of gameplay. Frankly it feels like the story was made first, and then gameplay segments were shoehorned into it. Some episodes feel like they don't need combat segments, but they were put in anyway because it does happen to be a video game. These segments slow down the game and are not that fun to play. Every boss battle against a named character in the game is fun to play and cinematic, but almost none of the Ghoma fights are fun, especially the turtles. The Ghoma are just an uninspired and kind of boring enemy.

Overall, how one rates Asura's Wrath depends on if one sees it as cutscenes with occasional gameplay, or gameplay with lots of cutscenes. Despite being an action game, it would probably be better enjoyed by fans of RPGs or other story-heavy titles. It's not ground-breaking in its story, but I do think it's fairly unique in its presentation and use of QTEs. It's a fun game, but it's a little rough on the game part. And besides trying to get a better ranking, there's not much use in replaying the game, besides experiencing the story again. 7.5/10, but it is a very niche game.

Quick Round-Up of DLC

Episode 11.5: This is literally just an anime episode but with QTEs. Kind of meh. The surrealist art style detracts from this, in my opinion. But that is my personal opinion. Another person could find the art style beautiful. It just kind of makes me feel uneasy. It elaborates on something that didn't really need to be elaborated on. 4/10, I wouldn't get this unless you really really need some more Asura's Wrath.

Episode 15.5: The same thing as above except the animation is just kind of lazy and stilted in this one. This deserved to be elaborated more than 11.5 but not by much. 4/10. Don't get it unless you really really need Asura's Wrath or are a completionist.

Episode Pack: Part IV: Nirvana: So this is the actual ending of Asura's Wrath. Normally I'd be pretty down on a game for selling it's "true ending" as DLC, but this game was not going to get a sequel. It was either wrap up the game in a four episode DLC or the game is just an eternal cliffhanger. And it also doesn't hurt that these four episodes are some of the best of the best of Asura's Wrath. They have all the melodrama, epic battles, and angry punching that Asura's Wrath had, turned up to 11. If you liked Asura's Wrath, you basically need to get this. It sucks that it's not part of the game, but it'd suck more if it was just an eternal cliffhanger. 8/10, it's basically essential.

Lost Episode 1: Asura fights Ryu from Street Fighter. It's kind of fun, especially the first part where you fight in a 2d plane like in Street Fighter. The 2nd part is a regular Asura's Wrath battle, but still fun and crazy. It adds a challenge mode to the 2d "traditional" fighter mode for added replayability. 6.5/10, probably a 7 or 7.5 if you like Street Fighter. Much better use of $2 than 11.5 or 15.5. Not really essential, but it is fun.

Lost Episode 2: Asura fights Akuma from Street Fighter this time. Basically the same thing. 6.5/10, probably a 7 or 7.5 if you like Street Fighter. Fun, but not essential.

Recommended for fans of: Dragon Ball Z, God of War Franchise, & Interactive Cinematic Games (The Walking Dead, Heavy Rain, etc...)

Asura's Wrath was dubbed an interactive anime when it appeared and has since developed a cult following due to its unique style. The game intentionally or not is an antithesis to the God of War series because even though the protagonist is a demigod with anger issues who breaks out of the underworld to assassinate a pantheon of Gods, it is for noble reasons and the hero Asura is wholly sympathetic throughout the game. On that note, the anime-like story is undoubtedly the high point of this game, with plenty of over the top action and emotional resonance for the player to want to play all the way through on a single setting. The game's playstyle is also very unique in that along with third person action gameplay, cut-scenes contain quick time events/action commands that synch perfectly with each other because the implementation makes the player's action have genuine impact. But what holds this hidden gem back from greatness is two glaring flaws:

>You Have to Fill that Stupid Meter!: The strength of combat is that it's varied and you feel like a genuine badass while controlling Asura, but it does have a pretty noticeable problem. When Asura is fighting he has to max out a meter to perform a special move to finish the fight or to transition to another stage of said fight. The trouble is if you haven’t filled the meter by the time the all the enemies are killed or the Boss’s health is zero, the enemies respawn infinitely/become immortal or the Boss’s health meter refills. This game mechanic is really annoying because it takes the player out of the game. But most of the time the Boss fights are so epic and the story so engrossing I don’t really notice. If this was the only flaw I could still call the game great but there is a bigger problem…

>The Ending Isn't on the Game Disc, Unless You Pay!: I’m not against DLC and am frankly tired of gamers whining about it, but I am mad about cutting off the actual ending of a game and turning it into paid DLC. Maybe the developers couldn’t fit the entire game on the disc? Well I played the Xbox 360 version which has only one disc which contains 18 game episodes. The DLC has 4 episodes, 2 anime shorts, and 2 Street Fighter Episodes. If the developers couldn’t put all that on one DVD why not add another disc? You would probably only have to do it for the 360 if you did because a PS3 Blu-ray disc has a much bigger storage capacity. Then again I’m not a game designer and maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about. But if it wasn’t physically or fiscally impossible to add another disc and the only way to get the ending to the players was through DLC, why not make it free? Developers have done that before you know!

But other than those two flaws this game is a genuinely unique experience that deserves more attention than it has gotten and if you like any of the things I put in the recommendations tab you need to play this game!

This game gets a well-deserved ★★★½