Ever since its reveal at Tokyo Game Show 2010, I’ve been really intrigue by Asura’s Wrath. A God of War styled game but using Asian Mythology, Asura’s Wrath was something that no one saw or was expecting from Capcom and developer Cyber Connect 2 (who are known for the majority of the Naruto games and the .hack series) . While it was demoed out at various events, including E3 2011 (which I missed out on trying in favor of Street Fighter 3 3rd Strike). But eventually I had the chance to try out the game, which came in the from of a demo for the PS3 this past week (and the 360 if you prefer that system).
The Asura’s Wrath demo came in two parts: Chapter 5 Hollow Victory and Chapter 11 The Final Lesson, and are both boss battles based on the TGS 2011 demo build. This is kind of odd in my opinion, since most demos that I’ve played tend to start you off in a section that leads up to the boss battle and have you get used to the controls. Chapter 5 starts off by having Asura going up against one of his former comrades and one of the Seven Deities, Wyzen. In the demo boss battle, Wyzen is in his giant form, Vajra Wyzen, and starts the first of a series of QTEs (Quick Time Events). As soon as Asura recovers from Wyzen’s punch, he starts to rush towards him, shooting what seems to be beams of energy from his fits, thus turning it into a third person shump. As soon as Asura gets close to him, another series of QTEs start, allowing Asura to try to come in closer to Wyzen. It was at this point I was thinking “Alright I’m finally gonna punch this fat ass in the face.” No, instead Asura gets thrown to the grown and Wyzen proceeds to jump up and do a ground pound with his giant stone ass. As hes getting pummled right after getting sat on, an image of his daughter flashes in his mind. Wyzen’s taunts Asura saying that thanks to her he and the rest of the deities have gotten stronger. This pisses off Asura and initiates another QTE, which has him grow more arms and punch his way back up. As he does make his recovery, Wyzen sends his space battleship to bombard Asura. A few missiles, lasers and a shump section later, Wyzen gets desperate and summons his mantra to transform into Gongen Wyzen. If you remember the first few times that the game was being shown off, there was a giant planet sized Buddha-looking thing crushing Asura, that was Wyzen. One final shump section and QTE, and Asura finishes off Wyzen, showing that the Seven Deities shouldn’t underestimate his powers.
The second demo boss battle, The Final Lesson, has Asura going up against his former mentor/teacher Augus. This time the battle takes place on the moon. That’s right, the moon. This boss battle is a bit more straight forward, with less QTEs and more brawling. The few times that there will be QTEs, are when Augus tries to strike Asura with his sword, but Asura catches it and runs towards him, and when the two of them come in close to each other and start machine gun punching each other. At first it looks like Asura is gong to when, then Augus over powers him with his sword. As Augus thrusts his sword through Asura, it keeps going, growing longer and taking Asura along with him.
SO after playing both boss battle demos, what’s the verdict? I’ve been following this game for a while, and I know that there is more to the game than what is shown in the demo. With that said, I’m pretty excited for the game next month. However, I think Capcom and Cyber Connect 2 may have turned potential players off by having the game being one half QTE and one half brawler. If they would have had each of the chapters have a section that leads up to the boss battle, that would have fared better. That that one section that has Asura fighting a horde of enemies and a mini-boss with just his feet. That trailer was pretty awesome and I would have loved to have played that section. Asura’s Wrath has action and style and I think people should at least keep an eye on this game.
