Rage never dies!! Time Warp Review: Asura’s Wrath!!

Between Street Fighter, Megaman and Ghost and Goblins, Capcom has made a considerable amount of action titles that were in depth in both gameplay and story. Nearly five years ago, the home of Ryu and Rock released a title with over-the-top action and an in depth storyline that showed what a father will do to protect his daughter. J1 fans, get ready to relive the fury of Asura’s Wrath.

Devildriver1313 here with another Time Warp Review of this awesome action title. First a little story. Asura is one of the Guardian Generals charged with protecting the planet from the Gohma, creatures made of concentrated impurity. After an epic battle in the game’s opening sequence, Asura returns home to find his wife dead, the emperor assassinated and, worst of all, his precious daughter has been kidnapped. On top of that, he has been betrayed by the very people he once called comrades. His former ally, a god named Deus, reveals himself to be the Emperor’s assassin. Enraged, Asura attacks Deus for his betrayal, but Deus gains the upper hand and tosses the beaten Asura off the platform. Asura falls to the Earth. Twelve millennia pass and Asura finally escapes the underworld to discover that his former comrades have used his daughter’s power to amplify their godly abilities. Asura swears to rescue his child and nothing will stand in his way.

Right off the bat, you are thrown into an epic battle that takes place high above the Earth. Taking control after the opening cut-scene, you unleash Asura’s powers upon the enemy horde attacking the Imperial Armada. The target mechanic allows you to attack several enemies at once. Place several cursors across the screen and Asura will launch a powerful attack that will damage all his foes. The scene is something out of Star Wars with an armada of giant spaceships locked in an orbital dog fight with lasers blazing. Asura’s Wrath is a straight forward beat ‘em up action game that is on tier with other hack-and-slash titles like Devil May Cry and God of War. Your weapons are your fists and a lot of pent up rage. Combat in the game is done mostly through contact-sensitive sequences, much like the God of War games. Press the button at the right time for the best score. You’ll spend most of your time building up Asura’s Boost Meter that will grant him extra strength when activated. This is mostly used as a finishing move.

The battle with Wyzen most certainly reached the heavens

Climatic battles are what made Asura’s Wrath so enjoyable to play. I was impressed with the game’s opening cinematic, wasting no time throwing me to the wolves during a climactic battle much like Bayonetta’s opener. And the larger-than-life Dragon Ball Z inspired boss battles are truly something. In one battle, Asura fights against his former mentor that takes place on the moon. Soon the fight is taken back to Earth where Asura is impaled to the planet by his mentor’s sword after it has grown so long that it passes through the entire world and comes out the other side. Another is a battle against a mountain sized titan who is the weakest of the Seven Deities, formally the Guardian Generals, until the god releases the power stolen from Mithra. The boss grows to planet-sized proportions. My immediate reaction, after making a Transformers-The Movie reference, was ‘I gotta fight that?!’ Imagine my surprise after witnessing a man-sized god defeat his planet-sized adversary by attacking his finger that covered an entire country. This scene truly sells the size this god has achieved.

Asura’s Wrath takes elements from Hinduism and Buddhism and blends them with science fiction, with the main character based on the ever-combative beings of the same name that are a part of this cosmology. The game is one of the most graphically beautiful titles to come from Capcom. The visual have tremendous scale, and the action is masterfully framed by someone who knows how to work a camera angel. Asura’s story is told through anime inspired episodes, each with a preview of what happens next. Some of these scenes are interactive where the contact-sensitive sequence helps move it along. However, some of these run for nearly three minutes, a couple times the scene was almost four minutes, before you get back to the action. There’s a cut-scene followed by a bunch of fighting, another cut-scene, more fighting, rise and repeat until the epic boss battle. Nevertheless, Asura’s Wrath is still an enjoyable game. The intense action and out-of-this-world battles against the gods make for a great game that is truly an underrated title with a raging avenger who can even make Kratos cower in his sandals.

Check out Asura as he goes head to head with the raging Spartan, Kratos!!
Fury Rages On-Kratos vs. Asura
Chapter1
Chapter2
Chapter3
Chapter4
Chapter5
Chapter6
Chapter7
Chapter8
Chapter9
Chapter10
Chapter11
Chapter12
Chapter13