"As a game, Asura's Wrath can't meet up to the standards of the majority, though that's what makes it a gem. "
Whereas Heavy Rain felt like an entire cinematic experience, actually having gameplay decisions that would affect the overall story and outcome, Asura's Wrath enjoys playing it safe with a linear story that has a certain outcome and ending. Asura's Wrath can be seen as a love letter to the style of epic anime, tremendously leaving the gamer in awe as soon as something amazing and godlike occurs. Of course, being developed by CyberConnect2 of the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm fame, it's no wonder why the game is seemingly inspired from anime. In fact, the game is heavily inspired by Asian mythology, explaining the majority of the symbolism and architecture of the game. Heck, why stop there? Asura's Wrath uses an enormous amount Science Fiction in order to set the world and scale of the game, creating a beautiful atmosphere.
Asura's Wrath follows Asura – obviously – one of the Eight Guardian Generals amidst an epic battle in space against the dreaded Gohma, beings whom mercilessly kill the inhabitants of Gaea, the equivalent to Earth. As the battle rages on, Asura obliterates countless Gohma along with the Generals, including his brother-in-law Yasha. The battle grows to a point where Vlitra is unleashed, the strongest of all Gohma, whom resides within Gaea. Asura ends up subduing Vlitra, a feat quite difficult for one man, causing it to return into hibernation for another several thousand years with the assistance of the Priestess and daughter, Mithra, controller of the life force known has Mantra, which is created from the souls of humans. Asura returns to the city of Shinkoku, his home, where the Generals betray Asura by setting him up for their Emperor's death, murdering his wife and kidnapping his daughter in order to power their war machines, creating a cause that will someday end the Gohma for good. The leader of the Generals, Deus, defeats Asura at their headquarters and condemns him to death. Upon being launched from space to plummet into Gaea, Asura proclaims his vengeance and his wrath becomes stronger.
Asura's Wrath has a very different style of play compared to Heavy Rain, though it's to be expected when you're a demigod out for revenge. Asura's Wrath can be broken down into three segments of gameplay: the typical beat-em-up style with combos, on-rail shooter segments that either takes place on ground or in space and the interactive, cinematic quick-time events that allows the player to fuel Asura with his wrath and power. These segments are scattered along the game nicely, placed appropriately and used when necessary. However, at the end of the beat-em-up and the on-rails segments, there will always be quick-time events. When the next beautiful cutscene plays, be sure to have a finger on a button, it's very easy to miss when not prepared.
These actual gameplay sections of the game, where you have complete control over Asura, feel quite entertaining, especially the on-rails segments where the player absolutely annihilates every living enemy and turns them into dust. The beat-em-up sections of the game, however, can be somewhat seen as a letdown and it shows. While the main experience is in the quick-time cutscenes, more work could've gone into these actual combat segments. While there are nice ideas here and there, such as an "overheat" system for your heavy attacks that makes the player carefully plan out their heavy-hitting attacks, there is little-to-no effort required in order to defeat enemies on the ground or even those that hover above. The feeling of being a demigod is tarnished due to these sections and the feel is there during those cutscenes, however with the lack of control, the feel can be hindered for some.
In order to progress through the levels, identified as Episodes for the sake of being closer to an anime series, you must fill up your Burst Gauge, which shows the player a beautiful scene accompanied with quick-time events that show Asura destroying all that stands in his way. These quick-time events, luckily, aren't too demanding of the player. You're given an appropriate amount of time to hit the button prompts and occasionally some aren't timed. Some prompts aren't even possible to do, though that is for the sake of the progression of the episode, as all events are scripted, bringing the game back to the aforementioned linear story. If the player needs to stop playing the game for a brief moment, perhaps needing to attend dinner or take a quick break, Asura's Wrath allows the player to pause during cutscenes, allowing them to come back later and finish watching the scene or hit the button prompt on the screen.
Upon beating an Episode, a player receives a ranking depending on their performance in three categories: Time, Damage and performance in quick-time events. The ranks are similar, nay, exactly like the Sonic games, with E being the lowest rank and S being the highest. These ranks contribute to the acquirement of additional content. While the player will gain concept art and CG art as he/she natural progresses, getting higher scores such as an A or S will give the character even more art and even different health gauges, which give the game a ton of replay value in order to experience the game in a different way. There are over ten gauges, each of them unique and some being a great help in higher difficulties. There includes are gauge that doesn't allow the player to see their health or Burst gauges whatsoever, creating a great challenge.
In between Episodes, the player is always shown a slideshow, depicting events before or after the next Episode begins. These are used to tell the story from different standpoints, explain the motives of certain characters and develop characters not consistently shown on-screen, most notably Yasha and the other generals. These slideshows are accompanied with beautiful images of our characters and there is a different art style and illustrator for each slideshow. These changes can be seen as changing tones for each scene in place, whereas even scenes with sinister dialogue will have a beautiful, bright art style, putting the scene into a different perspective. These scenes also have a track that is just so magnificent and touching that you'd find it difficult to even leave these slideshows.
The cast of Asura's Wrath, despite being respectively small, is filled with characters that are not only interesting, but also made the player wish they could've been expanded upon or could've stuck around for longer than intended. Asura, while a seemingly anger-filled bloke, intrigues the player with the mystery of his wrath – where does it come from and why? Mithra is honestly less interesting, as she's the typical damsel in distress, though being the Priestess at young age gives her character more of a spark. Yasha is the typically morally convicted character, unsure if he's doing the right thing and Deus is an antagonist with a motive that makes sense, seeing as it would actually work. Special mention goes to Asura's mention, Augus, a character with so much energy, so many memorable lines and having one of the best themes that it's saddening to not seem him as often as you'd like. The acting itself isn't bad, though there are several lines and moments that just seem so laughably bad, especially from Yasha. There is also a Japanese dub option, just in case the English dub isn't your cup of tea.
The graphical style is what one might expect from an anime-like title – it's very unique and is what fuels the game with its charm and character. There is an extraordinary amount of detail on the characters and their clothing, especially Asura and Yasha. The setpieces, such as the space fleet and Shinkoku, look amazing, with the latter being a tease, as you're unable to explore it in high detail. Due to its high influence in Asian mythology, many of the enemies and battleships are designed with properties from Buddhism or Hinduism tales and traditions, heck, even named after them. The game has a constant shine and style that sets it apart from most titles of this generation and its unique sprinkle of architecture and design enforces its position.
Asura's wrath can only be quenched when he saves his daughter, however, this does not mean he's not going to have some trouble along the way. While he fights the usual Gohma and occasionally Shinkoku soldiers, Asura will have to defeat the Generals that he had once been allied with. The boss battles in Asura are like the scale of the cutscenes: epic. While the boss fights, for the most part, rely on the shoddy beat-em-up sections, which at times don't even make the bosses flinch, the quick-time events usually act as the finishing sections and are by-far the most amusing part of the fight. You watch as Asura becomes stronger, becoming nigh unstoppable against his opponents. The first boss fight involves one of your former allies transforming into a gargantuan Buddhist statue larger than a planet and proceeds to kill you – by poking. The boss fights are, without a doubt, epic in scale.
As mentioned earlier, the slideshows are accompanied with a piece of beautiful music. In fact, nearly all of the game is. Asura's Wrath has a superb soundtrack that truly belongs in an anime. While there are those tracks that are filled with peace and quiet, there are those that sound tremendously intimidating. Boss fights are given the pleasure to have epic music that stands out above music from most other games themselves. Some characters even have themes, such as Yasha's western-inspired "Orphan Wolf Legend," complete with acoustic guitar and a whistle that would set the stage for showdown, which is does greatly. There is even use of classical music, with Antonín Dvořák's "Symphony No. 9 in E Minor From the New World" being used during the boss fight with Augus.
Asura Wrath, unfortunately, does feel rather lacklustre in some areas. As mentioned, the beat-em-up sections are unfortunately tiresome due to the fact that you can mash the same buttons over and over as there exist no dynamic combos. You also don't fight every General, you only fight four of them, which makes you wonder how their battles, one on one, would've went. The game itself, while a wild ride, doesn't last long either, with first runs usually spanning from five to six hours to complete, making it a sadly short game, though backed up with replay value. There is no option to actually watch entire episodes, a shame if you want to actually watch and admire the scenes without hitting a button with the precise timing.
All in all, Asura's Wrath can be seen as an interactive anime, rather than a fully-fledge game. While actual gameplay options exist and the ability to actually control Asura, while not constantly is there, it feels as if Asura's Wrath would've been a perfect anime series. As a game, Asura's Wrath can't meet up to the standards of the majority, though that's what makes it a gem. It has everything you could ever want in a game – replay value, a bunch of collectables, a unique style and a fully engrossing story, with beautiful cutscenes. Asura's Wrath is a must-buy for any fan of anime or interactive stories. With this, we can only hope that Asura will become a regular in any Capcom cross-over game.