Asura's Wrath

"Asura’s Wrath seems overly simplified."


Developer: CyberConnect2
Publisher: Capcom
Release Date: February 21, 2012 (US), February 24, 2012 (EU)
Platform(s): PS3, X360
Genre: Action, Adventure

 

A man’s struggle can be many things. In over-the-top action game Asura’s Wrath from Capcom, this means defying the Seven Deities themselves, because they kidnapped your daughter and are abusing her. It’s not an easy task, but luckily the man used to be a general for these pricks and was endowed with 6 arms that shoot lasers. Basically, the man is Bruce Lee, infused with the use of mythology this game employs in order to create a heavily story-based game; almost like interactive anime.
 

 

As an anime, the universe of Asura’s Wrath is as flamboyant as possible, as literal as possible. Vivid lighting of bright and sharp colors emphasizes the heavy cel-shading and angled models, in a complementary color scheme that makes the action pop. Giant idols perform dazzling techniques, which split the open battle fields to shreds, whilst creating as many explosions as possible. Asura and his nemeses, which is the confusing plural of nemesis, duke things out with a side of ostentatious dialogue, as parties shout and taunt each other. It’s quite like series like Dragonball Z, heavy on the dramatic and overly accentuated emotions, classic to the oriental story style.  However, also like Dragonball, it’s a lot of story. Luckily all of it is intertwined with the action, rather than separated, but this game does focus primarily on telling a tale, rather than actively entertaining someone.

 

 

Asura’s Wrath seems heavy on Quick Time Events (QTE) that require the proper input at the right time. These prompts flash on screen whenever the opportunity presents itself, whether it is in one of many cinematic sequences or the main action portion itself. For instance, some attacks are reversible, such as flicking back missiles to a giant ship. The controlled action itself seems to be a blend of simplified shooter mechanics, like the over the shoulder perspective of Space Harrier, together with simplistic fighting elements. Asura can jump, dodge, shoot fast punches from his 6 fists or explode all of them in one giant attack. The focus here lies in filling the appropriate bar above screen until a Burst can be performed. This launches a cinematic sequence where inputting the QTE is critical to the story progression. Think of games like Heavy Rain, where the QTE is integral to the cinematic experience. But for those wanting to be an active part of the action, Asura’s Wrath isn’t showing a lot of satisfying interaction as of yet.

What the game did show is that it has different gameplay ideas for different chapters and that might become an enticing way of changing the pace, in order to keep the cinematic part appealing. The Space Harrier perspective gets alternated for an arena experience, where Asura can move, jump and dodge freely; though as of now that’s just replacing a 2D plane with a 3D one. It still works in varying things however.

 

 

The demo, available now on PSN and Xbox Live, doesn’t show enough to make this game an instant classic. Yes, the high production values and narrative look enticing to say the least, but once it’s time to play, Asura’s Wrath seems overly simplified. This might turn out in one of two ways: Either the story is the experience itself and the game can rest easy on it or the lack of player input makes getting revenge less satisfactory. Asura’s Wrath starts his irate quest on February 21, 2012 on Xbox 360 and PS3. Here’s hoping for an experience like Heavy Rain on acid and not the recent Space Harrier failure, Yars’ Revenge, on downers.

 

Daav Valentaten, NoobFeed. (@Daavpuke)