Asura's Wrath Review

By Kevin Mitchell  |  Posted: May 31, 2012

Anime fans rejoice as Asura's Wrath blends Japanese anime into an interactive game that has you watching more than actually playing. With its comic book-styled anime filler, Asura's Wrath is a very unique and pleasurable game while it lasts – just don't expect to get more than six hours out of the title.

As the game plays out, you control a demigod named Asura whose power is fueled by his anger, and boy is he angry. Once a member of the eight generals charged with the protection of the planet Gaea, Asura is betrayed by the other gods when his family is killed; he even gets killed by the commander of the group, Deus, and sent to the depths of Naraka. Fueled by his rage, Asura rises from the depths to challenge the new seven deities after 12,000 years of being in the underworld. Gaea is no ordinary world, as it is being plagued by the Gohma, and in charge of them is a massive creature that is essentially the heart of the planet.

It's hard to label Asura's Wrath as an action game. Instead, it is more like an interactive anime with action sequences included. The game is presented as an anime series with 18 episodes (including one more for the true ending). The episodes themselves only last 20 minutes or so, but you will be playing maybe only a quarter of that time. It plays out like an interactive story with mini-sections and plenty of quick time events. You can't fail the events, but doing poorly will affect your ranking at the end. The action in the game is pretty standard with heavy and light attacks with combos thrown into the mix. The fun truly begins when you power up your burst attack. Once activated, you will go into a fury state where anything is possible. Activating this burst mode will start a quick time event, and you will truly see just how far the rage built up inside Asura will go.

There is a quick break during the episodes, as if it's returning from a commercial, after which it will backtrack a little to really give that "returning from commercial" feel. At the end of each episode, they also play a sneak peek of what is going to happen in the next exciting episode of Dragon Ball Z... sorry, got off track.

Asura's Wrath is a six-hour journey that plays out like a Japanese anime or manga series. Once beaten, I don't see any reason to replay the title, but what keeps you progressing is the story and the desire to see what happens when burst mode is activated. When I say that anything is possible, I truly mean it. Have you ever been fighting on the Moon only to be launched to Earth by an ever-extending sword? Well, I have, and I will tell you the fights in this game are sublime. There are multiple difficulties, but to unlock the "true" ending to the game, you have to get a certain number of "S" ranks, so if you are struggling, you may want to switch to a lower difficulty.

Simply Put

Is a six-hour game worthy of the full price of admission? Usually, I would say it isn't, especially due to the lack of multiplayer, but the game is such a unique experience that I would recommend it to anyone who is an action game fan or anime fan. If Capcom was fishing for box quotes, I would say, "Asura's Wrath is one hell of a ride."