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This thread has been linked to the game 'Asura's Wrath'.
Gameplay is king, I’ve always told myself. A good game makes you think about how to overcome the obstacles that face you and adapt to your enemies and your environment. But for the most part of Asura’s Wrath, it would be a stretch to call it a game at all. Asura’s Wrath is what you would call an Interactive Anime where most of your time will be spent watching cut scenes and watching out for Quick Time Events. The only game that I have played that is similar to this would be Fahrenheit which had a story that would play out differently dependant on whether you were successful with your QTEs. I have heard of Heavy Rain which was made by the same team, Quantic Dream but it has been a long while since I have last played a game like them.
Interactive story based games don’t usually offer much of a challenge but typically offer players emotional moral dilemmas to choose from. The question these types of games pose is whether there is a place for games that sacrifice game play for a more cinematic and story focused game. If you believe that these types of games should pick a more appropriate media such as film or television, then you may become annoyed at how little game play there is as a ratio to cut scenes. Asura’s Wrath has a cut scene ratio that is even greater than Metal Gear Solid 4, which is well known for its long cinematic scenes.
Asura’s Wrath starts with a battle between the evil Gohma and the Eight Guardian Generals (Demi-Gods); one of whom is Asura. Asura’s daughter Mithra is the Priestess of Shinkoku and holds the power to amplify the power of the demigods using Mantras, which she uses in the battle. Asura uses all his strength to temporarily stop the Gohma Vitra.
*spoilers* When Asura returns home, he is summoned to the Emperor’s throne room expecting a medal. He is shocked to find the Emperor murdered and everyone starts to blame Asura. Fighting through the guards, he rushes home to find his wife Durga murdered and his daughter Mithra kidnapped. He pursues the seven Guardian Generals and finds his daughter contained in a glass capsule. His efforts to save her fail as one of the Guardians, Deus, attacks Asura until he is weak. Deus reveals him to be the murderer of Durga and tells Asura his plans to use his daughters Mantra power to amplify the Guardians strength and bring about the “Great Rebirth”. Deus drops Asura of the edge of a platform and while falling Asura swears vengeance. He dies and his soul is send to a type of purgatory known as Naraka. He suffers from memory loss, but is reminded of some of the events and motivated to climb up out of Naraka by a talking golden spider. He spends 12,000 years climbing out of Naraka and when he gets out, his soul returns to his body. He sees a world where the Guardians are all powerful and they cull worshippers to use their souls to power a weapon to destroy the Gohma. Asura decides to get his revenge on the Seven Guardian Deities that betrayed him. *spoilers*
For those who don’t wish to read, upon returning home he gets betrayed and events occur that cause him to rage!!!
Technically, the spoilers will get you up to the start of the game but you may not wish to know them before playing.
Asura’s Wrath has a story that is split into 18 chapters and each one of them ends on a cliffhanger. The game then cuts to a comic book style means of telling the story in between each chapter and then the game will give a summary of the situation your character will find themselves in at the start of the next chapter. I found that the comic images were well drawn and the story is well told within them, but I found the text very difficult to read and on quite a few occasions they chose to use white text on a white background.
The difference between Asura’s Wrath and the Quantic Dream games is that it makes no difference to the story or outcome if you fail a QTE. In Asura’s Wrath it only affects the score you get at the end of a level and you could put your controller down if you don’t care about ratings.
Although the majority of the game is QTEs and cut scenes, Asura’s Wrath has two different types of game play. One is an on rails shooter where you hold one button to rapid fire and use the left analogue stick to control the reticule which will automatically lock on to targets. You then press another button to unleash missiles on locked on targets. This type of game play feels pretty mindless as you hold down one button without thinking and hit the other button when your reticule flashes yellow. You feel a sense of inevitability in how easy it all is for most of the game. It gets better near the end when the game provides obstacles you to dodge and jump through as you are shooting, making you feel like you should pay attention. The problem is that your character moves in the direction of your reticule so that you have to stop aiming to dodge projectiles and the right analogue does nothing during these sections.
The other type of game play is combat, which I found more enjoyable. Combat sections involve fighting groups of infinitely spawning enemies and each attack landed or received builds up a “Burst Meter” which will end that segment. This means that you are rated on how much you get hit and how quickly you can end the section, which also applies to the shooting segments. The enjoyment of combat comes from pattern recognition mostly in boss fights. When you use a Heavy or Special attack Asura overheats, so he can no longer perform those moves for a while, which means that you are supposed to save them to use when the enemy is about to unleash a strong attack, as they stun the enemy and you can then unleash a combo on them. You can also wait for an enemy to attack and you will sometimes be given a QTE to counter attack them, which usually deals significant damage. If you are overheated, you can dodge or jump from enemy attacks instead to avoid an enemy’s more powerful attacks.
There are a few sections where you just walk from one place to the next to trigger a cut scene, which you could consider a waste of time in a game that is already short. To put it into perspective, in the six hours this game lasts you spend 1 hour and 45 minutes of it actually playing it. The game also re-uses the same Gohma creatures to fight, which means you have a samey experience at times.
Maybe you could argue that story is the main selling point for this game. I do have to say that the set pieces are pretty over the top crazy and epic, like:
A fight with a demigod that has an ever extending sword that extends from the moon and cuts through the centre of the earth and kicking a boss so hard that he flies into space, but then uses powers to turn into the size of the solar system and crushes you with his finger. Asura uses his wrath and rapidly punches the boss’s finger tips so hard that he spontaneously combusts.
These set pieces are pretty memorable and for those who enjoy story based games may consider it worth the price of admission to see. I however prefer strong game play and there just isn’t enough of it to justify its price. The game comes to an obvious but conclusive end when you beat the game. You will then be asked to unlock the “true” ending, which leaves the game on a cliff-hanger, which means that DLC will likely be added in the future.
The only replay value that you can get from the game is to repeat it on a harder difficulty setting, but otherwise there isn’t much else to give the title longevity. I would recommend giving it a rental or wait for a price drop, but there are well done elements of story and game play to be found in its short duration. The length for its price is my main issue so if 4-5 hours were added in free DLC or the price was lower, then I could easily recommend it.
Good
Epic set-pieces
Interesting tale of betrayal, vengeance and sacrifice
Engaging and well made boss fights
Bad
Short Game
Low ratio of game play to cut scenes
Kind of dull shooting segments and some repeating fights
Poor text colour choice for comic strip sections
6.9/10
Interactive story based games don’t usually offer much of a challenge but typically offer players emotional moral dilemmas to choose from. The question these types of games pose is whether there is a place for games that sacrifice game play for a more cinematic and story focused game. If you believe that these types of games should pick a more appropriate media such as film or television, then you may become annoyed at how little game play there is as a ratio to cut scenes. Asura’s Wrath has a cut scene ratio that is even greater than Metal Gear Solid 4, which is well known for its long cinematic scenes.
Asura’s Wrath starts with a battle between the evil Gohma and the Eight Guardian Generals (Demi-Gods); one of whom is Asura. Asura’s daughter Mithra is the Priestess of Shinkoku and holds the power to amplify the power of the demigods using Mantras, which she uses in the battle. Asura uses all his strength to temporarily stop the Gohma Vitra.
*spoilers* When Asura returns home, he is summoned to the Emperor’s throne room expecting a medal. He is shocked to find the Emperor murdered and everyone starts to blame Asura. Fighting through the guards, he rushes home to find his wife Durga murdered and his daughter Mithra kidnapped. He pursues the seven Guardian Generals and finds his daughter contained in a glass capsule. His efforts to save her fail as one of the Guardians, Deus, attacks Asura until he is weak. Deus reveals him to be the murderer of Durga and tells Asura his plans to use his daughters Mantra power to amplify the Guardians strength and bring about the “Great Rebirth”. Deus drops Asura of the edge of a platform and while falling Asura swears vengeance. He dies and his soul is send to a type of purgatory known as Naraka. He suffers from memory loss, but is reminded of some of the events and motivated to climb up out of Naraka by a talking golden spider. He spends 12,000 years climbing out of Naraka and when he gets out, his soul returns to his body. He sees a world where the Guardians are all powerful and they cull worshippers to use their souls to power a weapon to destroy the Gohma. Asura decides to get his revenge on the Seven Guardian Deities that betrayed him. *spoilers*
For those who don’t wish to read, upon returning home he gets betrayed and events occur that cause him to rage!!!
Technically, the spoilers will get you up to the start of the game but you may not wish to know them before playing.
Asura’s Wrath has a story that is split into 18 chapters and each one of them ends on a cliffhanger. The game then cuts to a comic book style means of telling the story in between each chapter and then the game will give a summary of the situation your character will find themselves in at the start of the next chapter. I found that the comic images were well drawn and the story is well told within them, but I found the text very difficult to read and on quite a few occasions they chose to use white text on a white background.
The difference between Asura’s Wrath and the Quantic Dream games is that it makes no difference to the story or outcome if you fail a QTE. In Asura’s Wrath it only affects the score you get at the end of a level and you could put your controller down if you don’t care about ratings.
Although the majority of the game is QTEs and cut scenes, Asura’s Wrath has two different types of game play. One is an on rails shooter where you hold one button to rapid fire and use the left analogue stick to control the reticule which will automatically lock on to targets. You then press another button to unleash missiles on locked on targets. This type of game play feels pretty mindless as you hold down one button without thinking and hit the other button when your reticule flashes yellow. You feel a sense of inevitability in how easy it all is for most of the game. It gets better near the end when the game provides obstacles you to dodge and jump through as you are shooting, making you feel like you should pay attention. The problem is that your character moves in the direction of your reticule so that you have to stop aiming to dodge projectiles and the right analogue does nothing during these sections.
The other type of game play is combat, which I found more enjoyable. Combat sections involve fighting groups of infinitely spawning enemies and each attack landed or received builds up a “Burst Meter” which will end that segment. This means that you are rated on how much you get hit and how quickly you can end the section, which also applies to the shooting segments. The enjoyment of combat comes from pattern recognition mostly in boss fights. When you use a Heavy or Special attack Asura overheats, so he can no longer perform those moves for a while, which means that you are supposed to save them to use when the enemy is about to unleash a strong attack, as they stun the enemy and you can then unleash a combo on them. You can also wait for an enemy to attack and you will sometimes be given a QTE to counter attack them, which usually deals significant damage. If you are overheated, you can dodge or jump from enemy attacks instead to avoid an enemy’s more powerful attacks.
There are a few sections where you just walk from one place to the next to trigger a cut scene, which you could consider a waste of time in a game that is already short. To put it into perspective, in the six hours this game lasts you spend 1 hour and 45 minutes of it actually playing it. The game also re-uses the same Gohma creatures to fight, which means you have a samey experience at times.
Maybe you could argue that story is the main selling point for this game. I do have to say that the set pieces are pretty over the top crazy and epic, like:
A fight with a demigod that has an ever extending sword that extends from the moon and cuts through the centre of the earth and kicking a boss so hard that he flies into space, but then uses powers to turn into the size of the solar system and crushes you with his finger. Asura uses his wrath and rapidly punches the boss’s finger tips so hard that he spontaneously combusts.
These set pieces are pretty memorable and for those who enjoy story based games may consider it worth the price of admission to see. I however prefer strong game play and there just isn’t enough of it to justify its price. The game comes to an obvious but conclusive end when you beat the game. You will then be asked to unlock the “true” ending, which leaves the game on a cliff-hanger, which means that DLC will likely be added in the future.
The only replay value that you can get from the game is to repeat it on a harder difficulty setting, but otherwise there isn’t much else to give the title longevity. I would recommend giving it a rental or wait for a price drop, but there are well done elements of story and game play to be found in its short duration. The length for its price is my main issue so if 4-5 hours were added in free DLC or the price was lower, then I could easily recommend it.
Good
Epic set-pieces
Interesting tale of betrayal, vengeance and sacrifice
Engaging and well made boss fights
Bad
Short Game
Low ratio of game play to cut scenes
Kind of dull shooting segments and some repeating fights
Poor text colour choice for comic strip sections
6.9/10
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Gameplay is king, I’ve always told myself. A good game makes you think about how to overcome the obstacles that face you and adapt to your enemies and your environment. But for the most part of Asura’s Wrath, it would be a stretch to call it a game at all. Asura’s Wrath is what you would call an Interactive Anime where most of your time will be spent watching cut scenes and watching out for Quick Time Events. The only game that I have played that is similar to this would be Fahrenheit which had a story that would play out differently dependant on whether you were successful with your QTEs. I have heard of Heavy Rain which was made by the same team, Quantic Dream but it has been a long while since I have last played a game like them.
Interactive story based games don’t usually offer much of a challenge but typically offer players emotional moral dilemmas to choose from. The question these types of games pose is whether there is a place for games that sacrifice game play for a more cinematic and story focused game. If you believe that these types of games should pick a more appropriate media such as film or television, then you may become annoyed at how little game play there is as a ratio to cut scenes. Asura’s Wrath has a cut scene ratio that is even greater than Metal Gear Solid 4, which is well known for its long cinematic scenes.
Asura’s Wrath starts with a battle between the evil Gohma and the Eight Guardian Generals (Demi-Gods); one of whom is Asura. Asura’s daughter Mithra is the Priestess of Shinkoku and holds the power to amplify the power of the demigods using Mantras, which she uses in the battle. Asura uses all his strength to temporarily stop the Gohma Vitra.
*spoilers* When Asura returns home, he is summoned to the Emperor’s throne room expecting a medal. He is shocked to find the Emperor murdered and everyone starts to blame Asura. Fighting through the guards, he rushes home to find his wife Durga murdered and his daughter Mithra kidnapped. He pursues the seven Guardian Generals and finds his daughter contained in a glass capsule. His efforts to save her fail as one of the Guardians, Deus, attacks Asura until he is weak. Deus reveals him to be the murderer of Durga and tells Asura his plans to use his daughters Mantra power to amplify the Guardians strength and bring about the “Great Rebirth”. Deus drops Asura of the edge of a platform and while falling Asura swears vengeance. He dies and his soul is send to a type of purgatory known as Naraka. He suffers from memory loss, but is reminded of some of the events and motivated to climb up out of Naraka by a talking golden spider. He spends 12,000 years climbing out of Naraka and when he gets out, his soul returns to his body. He sees a world where the Guardians are all powerful and they cull worshippers to use their souls to power a weapon to destroy the Gohma. Asura decides to get his revenge on the Seven Guardian Deities that betrayed him. *spoilers*
For those who don’t wish to read, upon returning home he gets betrayed and events occur that cause him to rage!!!
Technically, the spoilers will get you up to the start of the game but you may not wish to know them before playing.
Asura’s Wrath has a story that is split into 18 chapters and each one of them ends on a cliffhanger. The game then cuts to a comic book style means of telling the story in between each chapter and then the game will give a summary of the situation your character will find themselves in at the start of the next chapter. I found that the comic images were well drawn and the story is well told within them, but I found the text very difficult to read and on quite a few occasions they chose to use white text on a white background.
The difference between Asura’s Wrath and the Quantic Dream games is that it makes no difference to the story or outcome if you fail a QTE. In Asura’s Wrath it only affects the score you get at the end of a level and you could put your controller down if you don’t care about ratings.
Although the majority of the game is QTEs and cut scenes, Asura’s Wrath has two different types of game play. One is an on rails shooter where you hold one button to rapid fire and use the left analogue stick to control the reticule which will automatically lock on to targets. You then press another button to unleash missiles on locked on targets. This type of game play feels pretty mindless as you hold down one button without thinking and hit the other button when your reticule flashes yellow. You feel a sense of inevitability in how easy it all is for most of the game. It gets better near the end when the game provides obstacles you to dodge and jump through as you are shooting, making you feel like you should pay attention. The problem is that your character moves in the direction of your reticule so that you have to stop aiming to dodge projectiles and the right analogue does nothing during these sections.
The other type of game play is combat, which I found more enjoyable. Combat sections involve fighting groups of infinitely spawning enemies and each attack landed or received builds up a “Burst Meter” which will end that segment. This means that you are rated on how much you get hit and how quickly you can end the section, which also applies to the shooting segments. The enjoyment of combat comes from pattern recognition mostly in boss fights. When you use a Heavy or Special attack Asura overheats, so he can no longer perform those moves for a while, which means that you are supposed to save them to use when the enemy is about to unleash a strong attack, as they stun the enemy and you can then unleash a combo on them. You can also wait for an enemy to attack and you will sometimes be given a QTE to counter attack them, which usually deals significant damage. If you are overheated, you can dodge or jump from enemy attacks instead to avoid an enemy’s more powerful attacks.
There are a few sections where you just walk from one place to the next to trigger a cut scene, which you could consider a waste of time in a game that is already short. To put it into perspective, in the six hours this game lasts you spend 1 hour and 45 minutes of it actually playing it. The game also re-uses the same Gohma creatures to fight, which means you have a samey experience at times.
Maybe you could argue that story is the main selling point for this game. I do have to say that the set pieces are pretty over the top crazy and epic, like:
A fight with a demigod that has an ever extending sword that extends from the moon and cuts through the centre of the earth and kicking a boss so hard that he flies into space, but then uses powers to turn into the size of the solar system and crushes you with his finger. Asura uses his wrath and rapidly punches the boss’s finger tips so hard that he spontaneously combusts.
These set pieces are pretty memorable and for those who enjoy story based games may consider it worth the price of admission to see. I however prefer strong game play and there just isn’t enough of it to justify its price. The game comes to an obvious but conclusive end when you beat the game. You will then be asked to unlock the “true” ending, which leaves the game on a cliff-hanger, which means that DLC will likely be added in the future.
The only replay value that you can get from the game is to repeat it on a harder difficulty setting, but otherwise there isn’t much else to give the title longevity. I would recommend giving it a rental or wait for a price drop, but there are well done elements of story and game play to be found in its short duration. The length for its price is my main issue so if 4-5 hours were added in free DLC or the price was lower, then I could easily recommend it.
Good
Epic set-pieces
Interesting tale of betrayal, vengeance and sacrifice
Engaging and well made boss fights
Bad
Short Game
Low ratio of game play to cut scenes
Kind of dull shooting segments and some repeating fights
Poor text colour choice for comic strip sections
6.9/10
Interactive story based games don’t usually offer much of a challenge but typically offer players emotional moral dilemmas to choose from. The question these types of games pose is whether there is a place for games that sacrifice game play for a more cinematic and story focused game. If you believe that these types of games should pick a more appropriate media such as film or television, then you may become annoyed at how little game play there is as a ratio to cut scenes. Asura’s Wrath has a cut scene ratio that is even greater than Metal Gear Solid 4, which is well known for its long cinematic scenes.
Asura’s Wrath starts with a battle between the evil Gohma and the Eight Guardian Generals (Demi-Gods); one of whom is Asura. Asura’s daughter Mithra is the Priestess of Shinkoku and holds the power to amplify the power of the demigods using Mantras, which she uses in the battle. Asura uses all his strength to temporarily stop the Gohma Vitra.
*spoilers* When Asura returns home, he is summoned to the Emperor’s throne room expecting a medal. He is shocked to find the Emperor murdered and everyone starts to blame Asura. Fighting through the guards, he rushes home to find his wife Durga murdered and his daughter Mithra kidnapped. He pursues the seven Guardian Generals and finds his daughter contained in a glass capsule. His efforts to save her fail as one of the Guardians, Deus, attacks Asura until he is weak. Deus reveals him to be the murderer of Durga and tells Asura his plans to use his daughters Mantra power to amplify the Guardians strength and bring about the “Great Rebirth”. Deus drops Asura of the edge of a platform and while falling Asura swears vengeance. He dies and his soul is send to a type of purgatory known as Naraka. He suffers from memory loss, but is reminded of some of the events and motivated to climb up out of Naraka by a talking golden spider. He spends 12,000 years climbing out of Naraka and when he gets out, his soul returns to his body. He sees a world where the Guardians are all powerful and they cull worshippers to use their souls to power a weapon to destroy the Gohma. Asura decides to get his revenge on the Seven Guardian Deities that betrayed him. *spoilers*
For those who don’t wish to read, upon returning home he gets betrayed and events occur that cause him to rage!!!
Technically, the spoilers will get you up to the start of the game but you may not wish to know them before playing.
Asura’s Wrath has a story that is split into 18 chapters and each one of them ends on a cliffhanger. The game then cuts to a comic book style means of telling the story in between each chapter and then the game will give a summary of the situation your character will find themselves in at the start of the next chapter. I found that the comic images were well drawn and the story is well told within them, but I found the text very difficult to read and on quite a few occasions they chose to use white text on a white background.
The difference between Asura’s Wrath and the Quantic Dream games is that it makes no difference to the story or outcome if you fail a QTE. In Asura’s Wrath it only affects the score you get at the end of a level and you could put your controller down if you don’t care about ratings.
Although the majority of the game is QTEs and cut scenes, Asura’s Wrath has two different types of game play. One is an on rails shooter where you hold one button to rapid fire and use the left analogue stick to control the reticule which will automatically lock on to targets. You then press another button to unleash missiles on locked on targets. This type of game play feels pretty mindless as you hold down one button without thinking and hit the other button when your reticule flashes yellow. You feel a sense of inevitability in how easy it all is for most of the game. It gets better near the end when the game provides obstacles you to dodge and jump through as you are shooting, making you feel like you should pay attention. The problem is that your character moves in the direction of your reticule so that you have to stop aiming to dodge projectiles and the right analogue does nothing during these sections.
The other type of game play is combat, which I found more enjoyable. Combat sections involve fighting groups of infinitely spawning enemies and each attack landed or received builds up a “Burst Meter” which will end that segment. This means that you are rated on how much you get hit and how quickly you can end the section, which also applies to the shooting segments. The enjoyment of combat comes from pattern recognition mostly in boss fights. When you use a Heavy or Special attack Asura overheats, so he can no longer perform those moves for a while, which means that you are supposed to save them to use when the enemy is about to unleash a strong attack, as they stun the enemy and you can then unleash a combo on them. You can also wait for an enemy to attack and you will sometimes be given a QTE to counter attack them, which usually deals significant damage. If you are overheated, you can dodge or jump from enemy attacks instead to avoid an enemy’s more powerful attacks.
There are a few sections where you just walk from one place to the next to trigger a cut scene, which you could consider a waste of time in a game that is already short. To put it into perspective, in the six hours this game lasts you spend 1 hour and 45 minutes of it actually playing it. The game also re-uses the same Gohma creatures to fight, which means you have a samey experience at times.
Maybe you could argue that story is the main selling point for this game. I do have to say that the set pieces are pretty over the top crazy and epic, like:
A fight with a demigod that has an ever extending sword that extends from the moon and cuts through the centre of the earth and kicking a boss so hard that he flies into space, but then uses powers to turn into the size of the solar system and crushes you with his finger. Asura uses his wrath and rapidly punches the boss’s finger tips so hard that he spontaneously combusts.
These set pieces are pretty memorable and for those who enjoy story based games may consider it worth the price of admission to see. I however prefer strong game play and there just isn’t enough of it to justify its price. The game comes to an obvious but conclusive end when you beat the game. You will then be asked to unlock the “true” ending, which leaves the game on a cliff-hanger, which means that DLC will likely be added in the future.
The only replay value that you can get from the game is to repeat it on a harder difficulty setting, but otherwise there isn’t much else to give the title longevity. I would recommend giving it a rental or wait for a price drop, but there are well done elements of story and game play to be found in its short duration. The length for its price is my main issue so if 4-5 hours were added in free DLC or the price was lower, then I could easily recommend it.
Good
Epic set-pieces
Interesting tale of betrayal, vengeance and sacrifice
Engaging and well made boss fights
Bad
Short Game
Low ratio of game play to cut scenes
Kind of dull shooting segments and some repeating fights
Poor text colour choice for comic strip sections
6.9/10