Asura is angry. Banished from the heavens by his own kind, he had been lost for over 12,000 years. Now he is back, and he wants revenge.
Sound familiar? At first glance, Asura’s Wrath may seem to be a God of War-esque action title, but don’t go writing it off just yet. There’s a lot to like here, as Capcom and CyberConnect2 have partnered to deliver what looks to be a fast-paced, high-action title.
Based on guidelines seen during the presentation, controlling Asura will be very familiar to action fans. The left stick moves Asura, right stick moves camera, X button (A for 360) jumps, Circle/B is a normal attack, Triangle/Y is a Heavy Attack, and Squre/X fires projectiles. Combat will be fast and frenzied with enemies coming from all sides,a format that action fans have been used to for years. Boss battles will be fought on a grand scale as well: in one sequence, a giant deity tries to crush Asura with his finger, and through quick time events Asura is able to deflect the blow and defeat his enemy.
As the battle rages, Asura will build up a Burst meter, allowing for one super-powerful attack once it fills up. In the demo I watched, Asura grabs the head of a large enemy, drags it across the ground, then throws the enemy off of a cliff with little to no effort. These Burst attacks have the potential to be massive and over-the-top, which many action fans are perfectly fine with.
While watching the presentation, I felt like I was watching the debut of a brand new anime and not an action game. The visual style takes from any action anime I’ve ever seen, with broad attacks, vibrant color, and familiar actionsound effects. Most of all, the dialogue seemed to be ripped straight from Dragon Ball Z, oozing with machismo and toughness. This had me thinking that Asura was voiced by Christopher Sabat, aka Vegeta, but I learned that the voice is actually Liam O’Brien, or Gaara of the Sands from Naruto. Either way, I was waiting for the trailer to say something like “Next time on Asura’s Wrath!” or “to be continued…”.
Oddly enough, the new trailer does indeed say “to be continued” at the end. The creators of Asura’s Wrath say they are taking an episodic approach to the storyline. The game will be divided into chapters, and each chapter will end with a cliffhanger leading into the next one. I can already see myself finishing a chapter at about midnight one night then having the “one more chapter or go to bed now” inner struggle that I’ve had with many other games and TV shows.
Here is the E3 2011 trailer, straight from the boys at Capcom-Unity:
Action fans should have no problem feeling right at home with Asura’s Wrath when it launches in 2012 for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
