Overall: 2.2
Gameplay: 1
Story: 3
Characters: 2
Boredom: 5
Asura's Wrath is an episodic button masher that is part God of War Clone, part anime series and whole infinite boredom. This game tells the tale of Asura, who is a brash general/demi god that just recently subdued the evil spirit of the world named Vlitra (with the help of his daughter, the priestess). Well since there needs to be something that drives the plot, Asura is framed for killing the emperor by the head commander and is forced to watch his wife murdered and his daughter taken away from him. Then he is killed, sent to the depths of Nakara where he does god knows what. 12000 years later (I think that's how long) he comes back with a vengeance or should I say "wrath". Oh yea, they use that annoying lost memory trick so they can start you right in the action without giving you any more background information. What they don't realize is that there really is no need for this because the background information they do slowly feed you is completely inconsequential to the overall plot. Well... if that hasn't convinced you to not buy this game, let me try to convince you further.
Gameplay
This game has been called a mish mash of several types of games. This is true in a technical sense. The game is part button masher, part rail gunner and part quick time events. Let's talk about the last one. The entire game is composed of quick time events. You spend your entire time working your way from one quick time event to another. Each quick time event allows you to beat the boss or progress the plot. So in essence, you don't actually beat anything. Also if you haven't gotten tired of quick time events the game allows you to do several in-battle quick time events. This isn't a near death sort of thing, but instead just a "I dropped you on the floor so I want to do some damage kind of thing". In fact, some enemies will fall on the floor for you, waiting for you to initiate the quick time event. If this hasn't completely deterred you, then let me mention the fact that the rail shooting sequences are completely boring and repetitive. When was the last time you were like "man I really miss those old rail gun games that were essentially impossible to win". Never? Oh yea that's probably because rail gun sequences get old. It doesn't help that each episode is the same fucking thing. Intro> kill pointless Gohma grunts> Gohma boss> kill pointless Deus grunts> rail gun sequence where you deter projectiles from a static position> rail gun sequence where you are moving> more grunts> deity fight. Yep. I played the game on easy because I had no intention of wasting more time than necessary. It took me two days to beat the episodes on the disc. I don't care how easy is easy, it shouldn't take you two days to beat a game.
To be fair, there is some cool stuff about gameplay, when you think of it metaphorically. The issue is when something isn't fun I find it hard to care how metaphorically moving it is. So let me drop the one cool nugget. There are no health bars for enemies. Even for bosses. In fact, the way you trigger the aforementioned plot progressing quick time events is by filling a bar up. That bar seems to represent "Asura's Wrath". This means you are literally beating the game by means of Asura's wrath. That's pretty cool. Too bad all that other stuff I said is still true.
Story
Apparently this game is based on some Hindu mythology and Japanese folklore. Now I don't like insulting Japanese Folklore, simply because Miyazaki has me believing some of it, but if this is an actual story then I may have lost hope. So I decided to do some research of my own. And after thoroughly looking at wikipedia for 5 minutes, I found this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asura_(Buddhism) and from the look of it they simply took the generic character traits from the ancient myths and ascribed it to this character. I'm curious if the story even has any root in actual Hindu mythology. But the important thing is Japanese folklore seems to be inconsequential.
Now let's get to what could pathetically be called, the plot. I told you that Asura is mad because his wife is dead and his daughter is being used as a tool of war, but then some random spider eggs him out of Naraka (hell) and back to the real world so he can claim vengeance. The spider is pretty snarky and one wonders why Asura didn't kill him after the first time he goads you with the death of your daughter, but Asura seems content to ignore him and run up out of hell yelling. When you get back to earth you get a flashback explaining how to fight (as if button mashing needs to be explained), and then you need to save some innoccents from the Gohma (they're the evil minions of Vlitra). Then one of the old commanders, now revered as gods, comes in one of his ships and tries to kill you for being a traitor (by the way there's seven of them). You make quick work of him, but not after he completely wrecks your shit in a cut scene. This leaves you incredibly vulnerable for your old brother in law, who is also conveniently one of the old commanders/gods, to come over and finish you off. But that annoying spider is there again to wake you up and taunt you, compelling you to get out of Naraka and start the entire cycle again. This is repeated until you beat the big boss in the end. Your brother in law will have a change of heart at the end. Funny, you'd think if you spent 12000 years working on something it'd take more than a few days of reflection to cause you to jump ship. One of the commanders isn't even dealt with. She's completely ignored and for some reason doesn't intervene in the final battle. Also, Viltra is apparently the soul of the Earth and is mad at you for no clear reason. This is never explained, just put out there as fact.
The dialogue is horrible. I'll give you near one word encapsulations of every characters' dialogue (and the characters themselves).
Asura: ARRRRGH
Wyzen: Traitor
Yasha: The cause
Yasha after the cause: Justice
Olga: Whatever's necessary
Kalrow: I'm smart
Augus: Fight!
That other guy: beauty
Deus: the cause
Spider: your daughter is dead
I wish I could be making it up.
God of War Clone
This game has actually been given popular reviews for being original. I don't understand how people can't see the God of war influences in this. A list is in order
1. Daughter issues
2. Return from Hell
3. Killing of all the Gods
4. Awkward Sexual undertone minigame
5. Angry Kratos, Angry Asura
6. Quick time event boss killings
7. Loss of wife
8. Going back to Hell again
9. flash back to random girl who resembles your daughter, but isn't
I'm sure there is more, I was just too lazy to get through them all.
So there you have it. This isn't a good game. Most of the game is cutscenes anyways so you can just watch all the cutsences on youtube and get the exact same experience of playing. These guys are still releasing episodes for money. I don't know who is stupid enough to actually buy that crap. I'm certainly not.
Gameplay: 1
Story: 3
Characters: 2
Boredom: 5
Asura's Wrath is an episodic button masher that is part God of War Clone, part anime series and whole infinite boredom. This game tells the tale of Asura, who is a brash general/demi god that just recently subdued the evil spirit of the world named Vlitra (with the help of his daughter, the priestess). Well since there needs to be something that drives the plot, Asura is framed for killing the emperor by the head commander and is forced to watch his wife murdered and his daughter taken away from him. Then he is killed, sent to the depths of Nakara where he does god knows what. 12000 years later (I think that's how long) he comes back with a vengeance or should I say "wrath". Oh yea, they use that annoying lost memory trick so they can start you right in the action without giving you any more background information. What they don't realize is that there really is no need for this because the background information they do slowly feed you is completely inconsequential to the overall plot. Well... if that hasn't convinced you to not buy this game, let me try to convince you further.
Gameplay
This game has been called a mish mash of several types of games. This is true in a technical sense. The game is part button masher, part rail gunner and part quick time events. Let's talk about the last one. The entire game is composed of quick time events. You spend your entire time working your way from one quick time event to another. Each quick time event allows you to beat the boss or progress the plot. So in essence, you don't actually beat anything. Also if you haven't gotten tired of quick time events the game allows you to do several in-battle quick time events. This isn't a near death sort of thing, but instead just a "I dropped you on the floor so I want to do some damage kind of thing". In fact, some enemies will fall on the floor for you, waiting for you to initiate the quick time event. If this hasn't completely deterred you, then let me mention the fact that the rail shooting sequences are completely boring and repetitive. When was the last time you were like "man I really miss those old rail gun games that were essentially impossible to win". Never? Oh yea that's probably because rail gun sequences get old. It doesn't help that each episode is the same fucking thing. Intro> kill pointless Gohma grunts> Gohma boss> kill pointless Deus grunts> rail gun sequence where you deter projectiles from a static position> rail gun sequence where you are moving> more grunts> deity fight. Yep. I played the game on easy because I had no intention of wasting more time than necessary. It took me two days to beat the episodes on the disc. I don't care how easy is easy, it shouldn't take you two days to beat a game.
To be fair, there is some cool stuff about gameplay, when you think of it metaphorically. The issue is when something isn't fun I find it hard to care how metaphorically moving it is. So let me drop the one cool nugget. There are no health bars for enemies. Even for bosses. In fact, the way you trigger the aforementioned plot progressing quick time events is by filling a bar up. That bar seems to represent "Asura's Wrath". This means you are literally beating the game by means of Asura's wrath. That's pretty cool. Too bad all that other stuff I said is still true.
Story
Apparently this game is based on some Hindu mythology and Japanese folklore. Now I don't like insulting Japanese Folklore, simply because Miyazaki has me believing some of it, but if this is an actual story then I may have lost hope. So I decided to do some research of my own. And after thoroughly looking at wikipedia for 5 minutes, I found this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asura_(Buddhism) and from the look of it they simply took the generic character traits from the ancient myths and ascribed it to this character. I'm curious if the story even has any root in actual Hindu mythology. But the important thing is Japanese folklore seems to be inconsequential.
Now let's get to what could pathetically be called, the plot. I told you that Asura is mad because his wife is dead and his daughter is being used as a tool of war, but then some random spider eggs him out of Naraka (hell) and back to the real world so he can claim vengeance. The spider is pretty snarky and one wonders why Asura didn't kill him after the first time he goads you with the death of your daughter, but Asura seems content to ignore him and run up out of hell yelling. When you get back to earth you get a flashback explaining how to fight (as if button mashing needs to be explained), and then you need to save some innoccents from the Gohma (they're the evil minions of Vlitra). Then one of the old commanders, now revered as gods, comes in one of his ships and tries to kill you for being a traitor (by the way there's seven of them). You make quick work of him, but not after he completely wrecks your shit in a cut scene. This leaves you incredibly vulnerable for your old brother in law, who is also conveniently one of the old commanders/gods, to come over and finish you off. But that annoying spider is there again to wake you up and taunt you, compelling you to get out of Naraka and start the entire cycle again. This is repeated until you beat the big boss in the end. Your brother in law will have a change of heart at the end. Funny, you'd think if you spent 12000 years working on something it'd take more than a few days of reflection to cause you to jump ship. One of the commanders isn't even dealt with. She's completely ignored and for some reason doesn't intervene in the final battle. Also, Viltra is apparently the soul of the Earth and is mad at you for no clear reason. This is never explained, just put out there as fact.
The dialogue is horrible. I'll give you near one word encapsulations of every characters' dialogue (and the characters themselves).
Asura: ARRRRGH
Wyzen: Traitor
Yasha: The cause
Yasha after the cause: Justice
Olga: Whatever's necessary
Kalrow: I'm smart
Augus: Fight!
That other guy: beauty
Deus: the cause
Spider: your daughter is dead
I wish I could be making it up.
God of War Clone
This game has actually been given popular reviews for being original. I don't understand how people can't see the God of war influences in this. A list is in order
1. Daughter issues
2. Return from Hell
3. Killing of all the Gods
4. Awkward Sexual undertone minigame
5. Angry Kratos, Angry Asura
6. Quick time event boss killings
7. Loss of wife
8. Going back to Hell again
9. flash back to random girl who resembles your daughter, but isn't
I'm sure there is more, I was just too lazy to get through them all.
So there you have it. This isn't a good game. Most of the game is cutscenes anyways so you can just watch all the cutsences on youtube and get the exact same experience of playing. These guys are still releasing episodes for money. I don't know who is stupid enough to actually buy that crap. I'm certainly not.
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