It's sometimes hard to understand how some games get localized and others not. Don't get me wrong. Asura's Wrath is a very interesting game but it's a wonder how Capcom think that the game will sell better than a Megaman title. I honestly think the Japan sales alone of the Blue Bomber will surpass the global sales of Asura's Wrath. The game can be best described as having three styles of gameplay. Two button brawler, On rails shooter and QTE. The brawler parts of the game easily involve you the most in even if it's pretty repetitive feeling. The general idea is to keep hitting your enemies with normal attacks and to fill up the burst gauge to continue the story. You also have a heavy attack with cooldown. There is a state you can transform into which gives you infinite heavy attacks for a limited time but it doesn't really change the outcome of the battle very often.
The second part of the game is an On rails shooter. I regret that this mode is also pretty dull with very little to do but chain up attacks and shoot enemies to fill up the burst gauge so you can continue the story. It's pretty hard to get killed here and it really only serves to pad out the gameplay. Why it could not be like panzer dragoon I do not know. The final element to the game is the QTE parts. These can pop up at more or less any cutscene in the game and pretty much serve to give you a slightly different cutscene depending on if you fail or succeed. There is no way to die from QTE's in what I played of the game and the only purpose for it to be there is to keep you alert during the story. Shenmue pulled of QTE's fairly well as the pacing was better for it. Asura's Wrath is already an insane ride that adding QTE's just cheapen the experience.
So there you have it. From a gameplay point of view. The game is utterly terrible. I do not think I've played anything quite so bland and boring in my entire life. I really do not know how they cyberconnect2 screwed up the gameplay so much. Solatorobo had awesome gameplay and even the .hack series had interesting elements to the gameplay. It is good then that the story is good right?
Well yes actually, it's a pretty awesome story which taps heavily into Hinduism with an absurdly over the top anime flair. It's clear the game was created with anime in mind. You have fight scenes that feel like they've been pulled from a shounen anime like dragon ball. Mix in a massive revenge story and strength which seems to stem from the philosophy of rage solves everything.
If you like that kind of story then you're in for a massive treat with the game...If you're not...Then I cannot really see any redeeming feature to this game for you.
Before I finish this up though I'd like to point out that this is a Capcom game and while I was going to rate it well on the story alone. They even screw that up. What I mean is that you should not expect to see the ending. Even the special secret ending greets you with a cliffhanger and “to be continued” at the end. This is because Capcom have obviously seen fit to make us pay for the ending via DLC. Capcom cannot say that they did not have an ending planned already so this cheap cash-in is really not acceptable and one of the most detestable attempts at emptying our wallets I have ever seen. So unless you are planning to shell out £11.50 for the DLC I would honestly not bother and wait for Jet Set Radio or something.
My Score: Boring gameplay with a pretty awesome story which is held ransom as DLC. 4/10
The People: I don't really see people enjoying this game even if we didn't get ripped off out of DLC but I've surprisingly heard little complaints from people about it so I'll give it the same score. 4/10
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