Thursday, March 29, 2012

Asura's Wrath Episode 11.5 (DLC)


If you've read my review of Asura's Wrath, you'd probably take away that despite the game being relatively short, I greatly enjoyed having the opportunity to play that particular niche title. It didn't resort to filler and took a risk in design elements that I can't help but admire. Now that it's been out for a while, a little over a month, Capcom has begun releasing a series of planned DLC over the next few weeks, the first of which I will cover in this brief review.

Simply put, this $2 DLC fills the player in on what caused the mysterious explosion in Episode 11. While you can't directly control Asura at any point, the episode is filled with animation bSTUDIO4°C, the same studio responsible for the beautiful animation in Catherine. Their amazing quality is still present here, with gorgeous visuals matched with perfectly mapped Quick-Time Events that offer some, limited, sense of control. Since the ability to advance is based on having the Burst Gauge filled at specific points, it makes you really pay attention to what you need to press, though there are plenty of opportunities to get it right.

However, I do have one minor problems with this offering. While I again highly praise the animation, the quality does seem to change a little over time, which I'm sure is actually tied to a stylistic choice, although it mostly seems to be with Asura's character model changing its anatomy a little between shots. Still, it's mostly consistent and I do commend the animators for doing this.

Episode 11.5 is an interesting offering that manages to do its job quite well for the price. I'll note though that the content is about 10 minutes long, but that shouldn't immediately stop you from buying it, if at least to get some visual variety and a possible question answered.

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