Asura's Wrath

                So very recently I received Asura’s Wrath in the mail, but had gotten Borderlands 2 that same day. Borderlands 2 took precedence, because I had been waiting for it ever since it was annouced. When I finally got around to playing Asura’s Wrath, I was really impressed with what I saw. This game didn’t sell well enough, or so I’ve read, but I think it’s easy to identify the problems with it.

Fighting with six arms is so much cooler than two.

                I got lucky with Asura’s Wrath, because it’s actually the first game of its type I’ve ever played. It’s more like an anime with video game sequences interspersed between scenes. The video game sequences are composed of fighting enemies to build up your burst gauge and quick time events. It sounds simplistic, and it is, but I feel like it works with what they’re trying to do very well.

                Once you fill up your burst gauge and activate it, the fighting sequence ends and you perform QT events. Sometimes it leads to another fighting sequence, other times it continues the plot. I really appreciated the brisk pace at which the game advances. I think I only failed one sequence, so there was no back tracking or repeating events.

One of many quick time events in the game. Quick, do something with the control sticks while the guy on screen gets his ass kicked!

                I’m not one to normally praise a game for its graphics, but I loved the graphics of this game. With the bright, cartoonish looking colors I was always impressed, and felt like I was playing an animated movie. I loved the character design too. They really approached the Uncanny Valley here with a few characters, but it wasn’t distracting over all.

                I love the story. This reminded me of a better version of Dragon Ball Z, which I loved when I was younger, but was deeply flawed. This contains a lot of anime tropes and stereotypes, but it’s different enough that I wasn’t groaning or rolling my eyes.

Yes, that is a sword going through Asura's mid-section. What you can't see is that this sword is longer than a planet, and he eventually punches it out of him. Yes, this is something that really happens in the game.

                I strongly recommend trying this out, but go into it knowing that this a volume of anime with video game sequences put into it. I haven’t watched any anime for a long time, but here I am, really enjoying this game and wanting to see more. I’m pretty sure I’ll get the DLC at some point too.

                Are there any other games out there like this? I would definitely try another one out. I hope that someone else takes a shot at this, and makes sure to market it for what it is. I think it’s good to be clear and concise about what your product is. In a this generation of video games it can sometimes be hard to distinguish between games. I do feel like Capcom should’ve been more upfront and honest about what this game was instead of just trying to say it’s an “Action, Beat-‘em Up”. Sure, that’s part of the game, but when you leave it at that, gamers are going to be very frustrated and confused by what this is when you’re only play a few minutes of game play sandwiched between several minutes of story.

The most biggest and most scariest of vaginas, the planet vagina.