I've heard this game described before as a 'playable anime', and honestly? It's a very fitting moniker for Asura's Wrath.
It has the energy of a title made by Platinum games, minus the gameplay depth/innovation you'd expect from them.
The fight scenes are huge and exaggerated, with focus on cinematic camera angles. The character designs are bold and memorable, with inspiration from Buddhist and Hindu mythology.
The art style is also quite unique with a cel shaded, almost cross-hatched look to the characters. I really loved seeing the characters in action doing crazy moves and transforming, it's all so over the top yet awesome.
The music is fitting towards the feel of the game and grand nature of it, but the way it used to convey emotion and accentuate the mood is impressive.
and the game is played in episodes; you'll frequently get recaps on the story akin to the ones you'd get in anime.
The story itself has a fairly interesting premise, where divine beings backdropped against advanced technology fight the evil spirits of the Earth, essentially. Without going into spoilers, the main story actually focuses on Asura's path to get revenge against those who have wronged him.
It's a fairly straightforward story with one or two twists, but the presentation itself is what makes it so special.
I think the pieces to make this game a masterpiece akin in quality to something like Metal Gear Rising are there, but it just doesn't quite reach it.
The game's combat system is rather mindless and shallow, and this is the one thing apart from very noticable performance issues that bring this game down for me.
You'll mostly just be mashing the same buttons over and over in the fights, and in a game where almost everything else seems to have such a high level of polish, this is kind of a bafflingly important aspect of the game that seems to be overlooked.
Other the actual combat, the game is dotted with quicktime events and rail shooter segments that are implemented into the episodes that the game is split into.
Although quick time events are frowned upon these days, I think their use in this game is actually quite good, and doesn't detract from the quality of the game.
Asura's Wrath is still a unique and enthralling title, greater than the sum of its parts, and had a novel idea at its core.
It has the energy of a title made by Platinum games, minus the gameplay depth/innovation you'd expect from them.
The fight scenes are huge and exaggerated, with focus on cinematic camera angles. The character designs are bold and memorable, with inspiration from Buddhist and Hindu mythology.
The art style is also quite unique with a cel shaded, almost cross-hatched look to the characters. I really loved seeing the characters in action doing crazy moves and transforming, it's all so over the top yet awesome.
The music is fitting towards the feel of the game and grand nature of it, but the way it used to convey emotion and accentuate the mood is impressive.
and the game is played in episodes; you'll frequently get recaps on the story akin to the ones you'd get in anime.
The story itself has a fairly interesting premise, where divine beings backdropped against advanced technology fight the evil spirits of the Earth, essentially. Without going into spoilers, the main story actually focuses on Asura's path to get revenge against those who have wronged him.
It's a fairly straightforward story with one or two twists, but the presentation itself is what makes it so special.
I think the pieces to make this game a masterpiece akin in quality to something like Metal Gear Rising are there, but it just doesn't quite reach it.
The game's combat system is rather mindless and shallow, and this is the one thing apart from very noticable performance issues that bring this game down for me.
You'll mostly just be mashing the same buttons over and over in the fights, and in a game where almost everything else seems to have such a high level of polish, this is kind of a bafflingly important aspect of the game that seems to be overlooked.
Other the actual combat, the game is dotted with quicktime events and rail shooter segments that are implemented into the episodes that the game is split into.
Although quick time events are frowned upon these days, I think their use in this game is actually quite good, and doesn't detract from the quality of the game.
Asura's Wrath is still a unique and enthralling title, greater than the sum of its parts, and had a novel idea at its core.