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Asura's Wrath
When first offered the
chance to review this title I must confess that the graphics were what
had my interest piqued. It’s such an odd looking stylised title that I
couldn’t pass up the chance to have a closer look.
The first thing that I
have to warn you is yes, this is a crazy long winded Japanese game.
Insane amounts of storyline to wade through with content that doesn’t
always make sense, it is nonetheless a fun title to play. My first
session took almost about 40 minutes before I got to the point that I
could honestly say that I was fully controlling the main character Asura.
Prior to that was a heavily scripted space battle scene that attempted
to tell us the story of just who was who and why Asura would even have a
wrath in the first place.
Cutting to the chase on
this story, Asura is a demigod general in the army of Gaea. There are
eight such generals in this army and together they are working together
to try and wrest control of their world back from beings who have
embedded themselves into the very crust of the planet. Asura’s daughter
is the high priestess of the planet and has the ability to channel the
prayers or Karma of the people into power for the army to use. She is a
major player in the machinations of those who would have her power for
themselves, and thus is worked into the betrayal of her father, albeit
unwillingly at any stage.
Asura is framed
for the death of the Emperor of Gaea, and as such the generals want his
head, sending their own warriors after him. Gaea is a very odd mix of
technology and religion, with both being thrown at you in equal measure.
Amazingly enough this really works.
Asura’s wrath is a
button masher third person fighter. It’s very easy to control and
doesn’t require an insane amount of skill to get through. It’s highly
enjoyable even when being spoon fed copious amounts of bizarre
storyline. The title helpfully enough offers to school you whenever you
start it up, so if you actually forget some of the basic moves, you can
be taught again in a very short amount of time. There are combos that
can be strung together, along with awesome powerups that can be used to
devastating effect. These amazing attacks will cause Asura to overheat
which simply means you cannot use that attack again until he cools back
down.
This is one
amazing title to look at. It’s an odd mix of both cell shading and also
looks painted at times. I am sure that it has a proper term but if so I
have no idea. It simply looks cool as hell and both characters and
environments are convincing and interact well with each other. I was
highly impressed with the appearance and remained so throughout the
game. The audio also works nicely with the English language work being
dramatic and making the title a lot of fun as well with the general
overacting you tend to get with some of these import titles.
Asura’s Wrath is a fun
game that is well worth the money and well worth playing. If you are not
a fan of button mashers then avoid it as the fighting style can be
repetitive, but if you love amazing graphics and bizarre stories, then
this most certainly is the game for you. I highly enjoyed it.
Tory Favro |
