Long stuck in my backlog, Asura's Wrath finally gets its due after I got to try the demo more than a decade ago. Does this straightforward game about a man TOO ANGRY to die deliver or does it show signs of aging? I guess we'll find out and also touch upon its controversial DLC while we're at it.

Opening on an epic siege of planet Gaea where the Eight Guardian Generals and their fleet are waging war on corrupting creatures called Gohma we see it's not the actual fleets themselves that are doing much fighting so much as the key generals themselves. Our protagonist Asura is one of them and he's pretty damn angry as he zips about and punches monstrosities to death. It turns out this is the finale of an offensive orchestrated by leader of these eight Demigods, man fittingly called Deus, during which they put Gohma to rest since they cannot truly be defeated. You'd think this is a happy ending, but Deus is not satisfied with the way war offensive had gone and decides to commit regicide on their Emperor while framing Asura for it. Seemingly betrayed by his compatriots, losing his wife and daughter in the process, Asura is cast down to the planet and left for dead. Then, 12 000 years pass and he awakes finding a different world while his wrath still burns bright.

Something that has to be emphasized about Asura's Wrath and is, in fact, it's main selling point would be just how over the top epic it is. I mean that in the true sense of the word. From the very opening you see these Demigods, who are never exactly explained WHAT they are – but we see they have cybernetic parts to them while also seem capable of having children and dying – treating things like vacuum, gravity and oxygen as mere suggestions more than hard rules of reality. They're capable of unbelievable feats for the sake of high action and drama. Another thing that immediately becomes obvious are heavy influences from Hindu and Buddhist mythologies both in terms of aesthetics and structure. After all, more astute may have already drawn a connection between Wrath, Eight Generals and Mantras. There's also Journey to the West influence here, but SF meets soul energy meets willpower gives it all a unique blend that really stands on its own. I wish there were more explanations about the setting at large even if just consigned to extras, though.

Since game goes the extra effort to have these important Demigod general characters it's only appropriate I talk about them for a while as well as how characters are treated as a whole. Not all of these are given the same treatment. Lucky ones get to be boss fights, some like Olga are resigned to background support or being inglorious dealt with. You know you're in for a crazy ride when the very first boss consumes millions of human souls to turn himself into a planet-sized big guy and tries to squash Asura with his finger. Those with the most characterization would probably be Yasha, Yin to Asura's Yang, and Deus as stand-in antagonist. I really liked how Yasha effectively becomes a deuteragonist in the story later on. I do wish Asura's daughter Mithra was more than an absentee he has to save throughout the game. She remains a distant objective for him to become ever angrier in the attempt to locate and save.

Man, then there's Asura himself.

I imagine there's an art form to sounding angry while performing quality VA and Liam O'Brien absolutely steals the show. Which is slightly amusing since 90% of Asura's dialog is yelling, shouting and grunting. This is a rare instance where I prefer English voice acting over Japanese where extreme emotions have to be brought forth. It makes few of Asura's longer lines really stand out. Since the same VA is involved I'd make a comparison to War from Darksiders – where War is cold angry barely keeping it under the lid, Asura is raging anger boiling all over the place. Despite some minor character development through the game, primarily through a random village girl he sympathizes with, you get the feeling he cannot fight his nature and remains one note throughout. In his own words “then I will destroy everything”.

If all of the above sounded great I guess now we get to the parts where I lose some of the audience.

It now occurs to me I haven't said anything about the structure of Asura's Wrath. Basically, we're talking episodic even with the accompanying “next time on...” trailer for the upcoming episode. Which is somewhat redundant since A) game was not released episodically and B) individual episodes are on the short side. I'm talking 30-ish minutes and even those have an intermission. Result is this stop-and-go disruptive pacing when I just want to sit down and play. There's also none of that character upgrading you might expect given how everything has incorporated progression elements nowadays. You are ranked on per-episode basis depending on speed, damage and QTE synchronization rate. Speak of the devil...

Asura's Wrath is very, very strongly QTE driven and that was a point annoyance all the way back in 2012. I don't mean “occasional QTE for special scenes”. Nah. They're omnipresent and driving force behind cutscenes which make for large chunk of the game. If this is a deal breaker for you look up a Let's Play or something because game will be unplayable. Sadly this also means you're more focused on inputs than watching the glorious battles unfolding, but couple of hours in there's this zen point where you realize just how well integrated QTEs are and how they're reflecting the actions character is performing. Considering this is a game running on fist-pumping moments that cannot be overlooked when mashing the circle button comes into play.

Not to say it's all QTEs, though. In fact gameplay is split between two distinct types. Firstly you have your ground beat'em up combat which is rather simple with light attack, heavy attack and ranged. Idea is you keep hitting the enemy until your Unlimited bar is full, which increases your attack and reduces incoming damage, and then hit them some more to fill your Burst gauge at which point you unleash it to end the fight. Second, there's aerial shoot'em up mode which is used somewhat sparingly and more of a diversion. Fast attack is here, but heavy is replaced with auto-targeting homing variety. Same as above applies in that activating Burst will end the current fight. This remains a constant and something you strive for as primary objective. In my opinion both modes of combat are simple and with more added enemy variety it boils more down to knowing how to instigate a QTE input to pull off specials. Some like elephant or turtle Gohma mini-bosses + their gang of monkey mooks were especially annoying since controls aren't exactly made for anything more involved than straight up 1v1 aka boss fights. Nothing offensively wrong here, but definitely airing on the serviceable side.

I hinted at it in the opening paragraph and now the time has come to pay the piper with unvarnished truth – selling the ending as DLC, in addition to two “movie” episodes that expand on key moments otherwise not present in the base game. Yes, there's the final episode and true final episode you unlock with enough A scores, but latter is somehow an even worse cliffhanger. If you actually want the ending, or heavily truncated sequel that never got made according to some theories, you'll have to get Episode IV: Nirvana. This is where I get to blast Capcom and game itself for the horrendous practice I'm glad never got to take root, right? Except I can't because Episode IV is incredible. Developers took the best parts from the base game, amplified what worked, told a 2-hour extended finale while also giving a certain character chance to shine. All the emotional buildup and HELL YEAH pays off as Asura sees character development he always deserved with an ending he could not avoid. All around phenomenal send off I wish was included in the game. There are also two Lost Episodes which are non-canonical battles where Asura faces off against Ryu and Akuma from Street Fighter in what are pretty challenging scenarios. Capcom, I swear.

And lastly – production values. Words or still images cannot really convey how much cutscene choreography, scale of setpieces and melodrama carry Asura's Wrath more than anything. At first I was annoyed by constant “animation/touch up” credits in every episode, but this turned into respect further in I progressed. I've already sung praises to VA so I'll skip that here, but the soundtrack. Man, this soundtrack. It adds to game's gravitas so much it's unreal. It's just not the same when heard out of context without all the grunting and inputs, but this track alone probably summarizes it the best. And that's not even crazy levels. And then you offset that with something totally different like this. If QTE-driven cutscenes are one pillar of Asura's Wrath then OST is as well.

Final Thoughts and Rating?

Asura's Wrath is a game you'll either love or hate. An action spectacle driven decidedly by its QTE sequences, as well as pretty basic beat'em and shoot'em up segments, we follow the eponymous Demigod Asura as he gets framed by his compatriots and after a 12 000 year power nap comes back with a vengeance. Episodic nature for a non-episodic game strikes me as somewhat odd, but it lends itself to almost anime approach albeit one deeply rooted in Hindu and Buddhist mythology as inspiration. Capcom selling the true ending as DLC would be a major blow against the game if only said DLC wasn't so good. It cannot be stated clearly enough – if you have low tolerance for QTEs this is not a game for you. You will miss out on amazing soundtrack and outrageous action. Sum of all parts, indeed.