predawn bangkok: Asura's Wrath (Xbox 360/PS3) Review

Asura?s Wrath?is CyberConnect2?s?and Capcom?s?love letter to the world of hyper-charged, hyperbolic anime?and it?is also?their?attempt to do for Buddhist mythology what the God of War series did for Greek mythology: punch its brains in whilst screaming at it. Gamers were promised a sweeping journey through a brutally surreal world that placed them in the hands (or rather, fists) of one of mythology?s go-to ass kickers. There was a lot of room for error in that promise, and just like Asura himself, Asura?s Wrath doesn?t quite make it out in one piece when all is said and done.

Asura?s Wrath tells the story of Asura, a bio-mechanical demigod and one of the Eight Guardian Generals of the ancient Shinkokou?Empire. Shinkokou?is locked in a titanic?war with a race of demons known as the Ghoma, and only Asura and fellow generals have been able to stem the onslaught of the supernatural beasts. But shortly after Asura deals a crippling blow to the Ghoma, he finds himself ensnared in a plot by his fellow generals to overthrow the empire and claim power for themselves. Asura is cast into the underworld, his wife is murdered, and his daughter, the high priestess Mithra, is kidnapped and used to fuel the bad guys? (now calling themselves the ?Seven Deities?) new empire?and that?s just the prologue.

Asura then spends the next 12,000 years climbing his way out of the underworld, returning to find the world he once knew as a technological utopia reduced to a barren and backward wasteland under the stewardship of the Seven Deities. From there, his path is a relatively simple one, and he sets out to rescue his daughter from the clutches of the Deities by doing what he does best: face-punching everything that gets in his way. Asura as a character is a little hard to relate to at first, coming off as an angry and arrogant brute akin to God of War?s Kratos. However, unlike the Ghost of Sparta, Asura has a surprising and inspiring character arc to him. As his past is slowly revealed, and his future becomes clearer, Asura?s quest accumulates a well-earned righteous fury as the player comes to empathize with him and learns the full breadth and depth of how badly his whole world has been defiled by his former friends. Unlike Kratos, who is an irredeemable sociopathic monster, Asura has a surprisingly tender and complex side to him, and is even unambiguously heroic at times. He might be a raging dialog-lite lunatic, but I actually found myself rooting for Asura to come out on top, something I rarely (if ever) did for Kratos.

One might be forgiven for mistaking Asura?s Wrath?for a high production value 13-episode shounen anime series at times. God knows, it sure strives to be one, though to mixed effect. While the episode breaks, half-time bumpers, ?To Be Continued?? screens, and the ?Next time on Asura?s Wrath? outros?narrated by Kari Wahlgren are all well and good, they begin to lose their punch after the third or fourth time you see them. Especially in such rapid succession, such as after one episode which consisted of?and I have the numbers to prove this?46 seconds of gameplay time. It leads to a rather jerky stop-and-start pacing that breaks the flow of the gameplay. The game even has the gall to interrupt itself with ending credits sequences every time you clear a particular block of episodes. This happens multiple times and is about as alienating as it is self-indulgent. It also leads to this troubling realization: take out the gameplay elements, and Asura?s Wrath is one damn good anime; take out the anime odds and ends, and Asura?s Wrath is one damn short game.

While it?s bad enough that the game can?t decide whether it wants to really be an anime, it also has a hard time trying to decide just what kind of game it wants to be, period. At its core lies the tried-and-true God of War-style beat ?em up gameplay, which is always entertaining. The game lets you relish your enemies?s pain while pulling off stylistic slow motion counter moves. But it also tries to be a rail shooter too, and while these segments add some variety, they?re not that smoothly integrated into flow of the action. Asura?s Wrath also pulls in Quick-Time Events from the God of War series as well, at times managing to make them even more obnoxious than the ones in GoW. Because Asura?s Wrath?blurs the lines at times between cutscenes?and gameplay, it has a nasty habit of throwing a QTE?at you in the middle of a scene where you wouldn?t expect there to be one?like during a quiet dialog scene between two characters, or four minutes into a five-minute long action cutscene. Thankfully, there?s not that much of a penalty to missing a QTE, or just being a little slow on the draw. It?s simply one more little time wasting annoyance to deal with here and there.

That said, the close combat mechanics are very well done in those scant moments where the game lets you use them between cutscenes?and QTEs. Asura?s Wrath?s combat is fast-paced and focuses on strings of combos, well-timed reversals of enemy attacks, and using powerful finishing moves on downed enemies. Your objective in most fights is to defeat enough enemies to fill up Asura?s Burst Gauge, at which allows you to trigger a Burst Attack?an ultra-violent cinematic QTE?sequence that brings the battle to a close and allows you to progress onward. QTEs aside, the actual gameplay of Asura?s Wrath?is well designed, but as I mentioned earlier, the game runs surprisingly lite on gameplay at times. It?s like its afraid the player will get board of it so it rushes back in with its anime-isms, when really the inverse is true.

Stylistically, at least, Asura?s Wrath?is a masterpiece. This is the one place where the game?s anime-inspired tone is pitch-perfect to its premise. The over-the-top narrative about a wronged god?s roaring rampage of revenge is perfectly complimented by the game?s madcap artistic flair. Asura and his fellow demigods inhabit a colourful and charismatic world that blends the high technology of science fiction with the humble art and architecture of the ancient civilizations of South East Asia. As Asura trounces through the world, he looks like an ancient watercolour scroll come to life in three dimensions. The cinematography reaches House of Flying Daggers-level?complexity when things really get going. The one-on-one fight between a crippled Asura and his rival Yasha?at the end of Part I is a stylistically and emotionally riveting sight to watch, and even to play through (again, when the game lets you). The art style really compliments the mood of the game whenever the action starts getting crazy?usually during boss fights.

The soundtrack packs a powerful punch too, making use of both traditional Asian instrumental cues and Western-style orchestral movements leading to a score that?s phenomenally expansive and expressive. In fact, the soundtrack carries much of the emotional weight of the narrative?Asura?s got murderous anger covered, but the music really helps to convey the rest of his emotional spectrum that he has trouble getting across to the player. Because, try as you might, you can?t really express ?I regret being emotionally detached from my family and friends? via a punch to the testicles. There is a vibrant and infectiously appealing soul inside the game, but its schizophrenic need to try to be both a game and an anime pulls it a little thin at times.

Ultimately, Asura?s Wrath abounds in eager, but unsteady enthusiasm, getting about halfway to the point of being something special, only to stumble and look around for someone?s approval for a second or two before continuing on, only to have lost its momentum. And that?s just what it is?it?s 75% of a really great game, as evident by its score up there at the top of the page. I enjoyed Asura?s Wrath, when it let me, but I was ultimately frustrated with how it kept me at arm?s length the rest of the time and how it left me wanting more when, based on its premise, I should have been thankful to receive what I did. Asura?s Wrath is not the glowing radioactive ball of carcinogenic awesome the hype tries to portray it to be. It?s a competent outing, but it?s more the kind of game best rented for a weekend and then returned without much afterthought; it?s quick to play through once, but there?s little there to warrant doing it a second time around.

Asura?s Wrath was reviewed with a copy rented through GameAccess.ca.