JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R (PS5)

Note: This review contains spoilers for JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.

Ten years after the release of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle (ASB), a PS3 fighting game based on JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure (JJBA) by Hirohiko Araki, developer CyberConnect2 would release a remastered version for modern consoles, fittingly subtitled All-Star Battle R (ASBR). This release would not only commemorate the 35th anniversary of JJBA, but also the 10th anniversary of its anime adaptation, which at the time was in the middle of adapting Part 6: Stone Ocean (this is important for later). Although the game received positive reception from critics and fans, its online scene sadly decayed in the time between the game’s release and this review. Despite this, we still wanted to document our thoughts on ASBR as fans of JJBA and the original ASB, especially now that all of the DLC characters have released. In that regard, ASBR is definitely a great way to experience ASB, although its differences in presentation may affect your preference.

Second Look - JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle

Note: This review contains spoilers for JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.

Back in 2014, we reviewed JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle, developed by CyberConnect2, and though we were positive, we’ve since grown dissatisfied with how we covered the game then. With the release of the remastered version of the game, All-Star Battle R, we thought that now would be the best time to look back on the original version, originally released to celebrate the 25th anniversary of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, and see how it stacks up ten years later. Not only that, but whether or not an ESRB copy of the game is now worth its aftermarket value (around $55+) versus the amount we paid for it originally (around $40 at SDCC 2014 directly from the Bandai Namco booth). As it turns out, thanks to the recent delisting of the game, your enjoyment may really depend on whether or not you already own it (and the eBay price may not be completely worth it).

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle

In 1986, Weekly Shonen Jump began serialization of a work by Hirohiko Araki named JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. The story started out as one about a young man in 1880s Great Britain named Jonathan Joestar (aka JoJo) whose family adopts the young Dio Brando as their new son following his own father’s death. While the two are supposed to get along, it soon becomes apparent to Jonathan that Dio is doing all he can to usurp the family and become the richest man alive. While Jonathan does manage to stop Dio from belittling his name, an ancient stone mask, one that has the power to turn humans into vampires, enters their lives and grants Dio immortality and the additional abilities of a vampire. When Dio, with the powers of the stone mask, begins to cause trouble in Britain, Jonathan teams up with a former street thug named Robert E.O. Speedwagon and an Italian named Will A. Zeppeli, who begins teaching Jonathan a technique known as Hamon. Together, they must stop Dio from creating a supernatural army and taking over the world.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure was far from Hirohiko Araki’s first work, since he had three other works serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump between 1983 and 1986, but it would go on to be his most successful, as it is still being serialized to this day. In fact, once the story of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure finished in 1987, it turned out to be the first story arc of a multi-generational epic, where every main character’s name can be shortened to “JoJo” somehow, with part two originally referred to as Joseph Joestar: His Proud Lineage, focusing on Jonathan’s grandson 50 years later in 1938 New York and eventually Europe. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure would continue to receive additional parts of the storyline, with all parts at some point receiving new names: Phantom Blood, Battle Tendency, Stardust Crusaders, Diamond Is Unbreakable, Vento Aureo, Stone Ocean and Steel Ball Run. During Steel Ball Run however, the series switched from being a weekly series to a monthly one and, as such, moved to the monthly Ultra Jump publication, where this part would end and Part VIII: JoJolion would begin serialization; this part is currently ongoing, with no way of knowing when it will end or if the series will continue beyond this point. In any case, you can think of each part as a separate series, with each one connected in some way to the previous ones.

Hirohiko Araki continues to get work outside of his magnum opus.
Here, he did a cover, by request, for the American scientific journal, Cell.

During its run, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has become one of the best selling series in Japan, giving way to a media empire which includes the original manga, multiple video games, and even a fashion line. Despite this however, the series has been relatively obscure in the West, but with a devoted fanbase. Each time the series has been brought over to the West, it’s usually been through media related to Part III: Stardust Crusaders, which is actually the most well-known of all eight parts, focusing on Joseph Joestar’s Japanese grandson, Jotaro Kujo, and introducing the series’ signature Stand abilities, which are physical manifestations of energy from the user that grant mystical abilities like control over fire or the ability to manipulate the iron in someone’s bloodstream.

Fittingly, this is the Stand that can do that.

The first attempt to bring the series over to the U.S. was through an English localization of a Capcom fighting game based on Stardust Crusaders simply titled JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure (aka: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future). This game (which incidentally was recently re-released as an HD download) planted the seeds for the fanbase due to its popularity, while memes would later spawn and spread word of the series further. Between 2003 and 2005, Super Techno Arts would release an English dub of an OVA from Japan also based on Part III, which, while popular, featured a watered-down version of the full story. Beginning in 2005, Viz Media would then release an English translation of the Stardust Crusaders volumes, though under the title of simply JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, until 2010. At this point the fanbase continued to thrive in relative obscurity until 2012, when David Production began producing an anime in Japan that would faithfully adapt JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure beginning with Part I: Phantom Blood. The anime proved to be a hit and later got an official English sub released on the anime streaming website Crunchyroll. When word of the anime spread, the fanbase exploded outwards, introducing new people to the franchise as a whole and drawing in new fans that would soon spread the word and continue the cycle. While the anime has adapted Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency, and is devoting an entire season to Stardust Crusaders (still being released at the time of this writing), the show has yet to gain full mainstream success. However, an official English dub of the Stardust Crusaders season is in the works, so the situation could change if it manages to get aired on the revived Toonami block.

Seriously, this had better get on Toonami if it wants more exposure.

The reason I brought up all of this history with JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is because I wanted to provide some context for what I’m about to review. I wanted to illustrate the origins of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and give an idea of its history not just as it pertains to Japan, but its success in the West and how something which began with a niche audience is steadily growing in popularity. This brings me to the subject of this review, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle (All-Star Battle), a fighting game developed by CyberConnect2 (best known for Asura’s Wrath or their Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm series) and first announced in 2012 to coincide with the 25^th anniversary of the franchise. After a 2013 release in Japan, the game would receive an English localization, with the Japanese language soundtrack intact, in late April 2014. When I first played this game at WonderCon 2014, I really wanted to play more, though I feel it was for the best that I didn’t get it back then. Since its release, I’ve been watching the entirety of the David Production anime and at this point, I can’t get enough of it; I’d highly recommend everyone give it a shot due to the amazing animation and high amount of creativity in the plot and battle scenes.

During our last visit to San Diego Comic-Con 2014 (SDCC), after getting as far as humanly possible with Stardust Crusaders, we ended up buying a copy of the game at a lowered price ($40 instead of $50) at the Namco Bandai booth. Since SDCC was extremely tiring, my brother and I decided to unwind by playing as much of All-Star Battle as we possibly could. Since doing so, we’ve been unable to stop due to the sheer amount of fun we’ve been having. Suffice to say, I’ve been really enjoying it and find it to be well worth the price of admission.

Though the absence of a physical manual is a bit of a drag.
(Not my photo, but the point stands.)

The only problem I have with fighting game reviews is that it’s a little hard to know where to start. At this point though, I guess the best place to start would be the Story Mode. In this mode, players play through the first seven parts of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, going from Phantom Blood all the way to Steel Ball Run, unlocking new characters for the game as they go. Each of the fights involve characters represented in the game from each part, so other fights or elements which can’t be visualized this way are given text explaining what happens. You can also complete Secret Missions by recreating certain moments from a specific fight, which means using or landing specific moves, to earn extra gold (the in-game currency) or other rewards.

Based on my experience with the anime, the story recaps aren’t perfect, since they leave out a lot of context for certain fights and much of the plot is skipped over in favor of streamlining the experience as much as possible. However, I did find that they gave enough of the story so that players who didn’t know the story already would at least know what was going on and it did actually pique my interest in experiencing the rest of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure outside the game so that I can get the full story. Also, I like that they at least tried to represent Part VIII: JoJolion, going away from its actual story (as it’s still being serialized) in favor of a series of fights against all of the JoJos of the previous seven parts. The Story Mode, while not perfect, is a nice effort to give fans the chance to play through the stories they have come to love. However, I’d like to issue a warning for newcomers to the series or people, like me, who have only been watching the anime: playing through this mode will spoil the entire franchise in some way, but it is a necessary step to unlocking all of the on-disc characters. In fact, I’d like to give off a second warning for those reading this review:

Spoiler Note: Due to the nature of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle, there may be unmarked spoilers from here on regarding character names, abilities and plot points.

In addition to Story Mode, there is also a Campaign Mode. This may sound similar at first, but in reality it operates much differently, in fact playing like a free-to-play mobile game, but on a console. When playing Campaign, you must have an online connection to even access it. Once you’ve accepted the EULA, you are given an energy bar and can select one of five Campaigns to go through. What this entails is expending a point of energy to search for a Boss to fight so you can earn extra stuff for each character, including costumes, quotes and color tints. Finding a boss isn’t a guarantee though, because you’ll more likely be fighting an avatar of another player, meaning that you aren’t directly fighting another person, but a character that they have selected to represent them (you can set up your own avatar in another menu separate from Campaign); beating an avatar can still net you a prize. When you do encounter a boss, you can expend extra energy to do more damage to the boss and gain more prizes at once upon beating them (this is different from the health that they have when fighting them for real). Hitting bosses often and hard is key to beating them, made easier by a mechanic where upon encountering any particular boss, that boss’ show rate will increase to 100% for 10 minutes, meaning that searching for a boss will cause them to instantly appear.

It doesn’t end there though, since sometimes before a fight, at least one character from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure will show up and offer to aid you in ways that usually involve expending one or two points of energy. Doing what they say will give you an advantage, such as increased defense or lowered enemy health during your fight with them. With all the energy expenditure however, you will at some point need to take a break to let it recharge. It takes two minutes to recharge one point of energy, which isn’t too long a wait, although you can purchase additional energy through the PlayStation Store. This sort of micro-transaction business in a console game is a little hard to get behind, since I see no reason why I would spend money like that on a game I already paid full price for unless it’s DLC that affects the game in some way. You can just as easily deal a lot of damage to the boss, challenge them again and then simply do something else while you wait for all of your energy to come back; you’ll likely be able to finish the boss off when you come back.

In general though, I don’t really mind the Campaign Mode, although I do question the need for an online connection. I like the prizes that I can get since they can add to someone’s experience, but not the idea that if the servers shut down, then no one can have access to this content unless they rerelease the game down the line with everything on it. Still, the mode is a little addicting, but best when played in short bursts.

But you'll need to download the free Campaign Update to get anywhere.

Apart from these special game modes, there’s also the U.S.-exclusive Arcade Mode, where you select one of the game’s 32 characters (41 with all DLC) and fight through a gauntlet of eight fighters in a row for more gold. There is actually a reasonable amount of challenge in this mode, with a gentle difficulty curve as the opponents are randomly chosen. I haven’t played this mode very much, but I got enough of an idea after a while and think that this is a good way to farm gold if you’re trying to buy more gallery items to view (and believe me, the temptation to buy them all will sink in). However, I want to point out that the first time I ran through with Joseph Joestar and got the final three opponents, the computer picked Esidisi and then Wamuu, but missed an opportunity to end with Kars.

Anything is possible in Arcade Mode.

This leads me into the next topic: the characters. As I’ve noted in the previous paragraph, there are 32 characters on-disc, but 41 if you buy all nine DLC characters (which I did). Each character comes from one of the eight parts of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, with the lone exception being the DLC character Ikuro Hashizawa, who hails from Baoh, a previous series by Hirohiko Araki. To match which part they’re from, they all have a different fighting style, which can be broken down into the following categories: Hamon, Vampirism, Mode, Stand, Mounted and Baoh Armed Phenomenon. In battle, every character has a Heart Heat (HH) Gauge, which each style interacts with differently, usually by charging it up, strengthening certain attacks or pulling off a Heart Heat Attack (HHA) or Great Heat Attack (GHA). A lot of the fun from playing the game comes from pitting these different styles against each other, such as a Hamon user against a Stand user.

What really adds to the fun factor though is not only how ridiculously awesome each character’s power can get, but how CyberConnect2 thought of every possible interaction between them down to the last detail. One standout example comes from a battle between Jotaro Kujo and DIO, whose Stands respectively are Star Platinum and The World. DIO’s GHA is his (in)famous Road Roller attack, wherein he freezes time with The World before dropping a Steamroller on his opponent to punch it repeatedly until it explodes. When used against Jotaro, an additional animation will play where Star Platinum will move through the frozen time and punch the Steamroller to defend Jotaro. Normally this would be the extent of the special interaction and the Steamroller would explode anyway. However, if the player controlling Jotaro inputs the command for Jotaro to stop time, then an additional animation will play where Star Platinum freezes time and Jotaro comments on DIO being unable to move before DIO retreats. This not only recreates a famous moment from Stardust Crusaders, but it also causes Jotaro to overall take less damage from the attack.

Road Roller Da!

This level of detail isn’t just limited to individual character interactions though, as it extends to special dialogue, the individual nature of each character and even specific stages. When Vampires (Dio Brando, DIO and Vanilla Ice/Cool Ice) or the Pillar Men (Wamuu, Esidisi and Kars) take damage for instance, some of it will be converted to silver health which they can recover, unless that damage was inflicted by a Hamon user, since Hamon is similar to the power of the sun. As for stages, each of the 12 selectable locales has a Stage Hazard and a Dramatic Finish. One of these stages is DIO’s Mansion, where the Dramatic Finish involves one of the fighters being thrown out the second story window into the sunlight. Normally a character would fall to their death, but if they are a Vampire or one of the Pillar Men, they will disintegrate into dust. There are more of these possible interactions, but I love that CyberConnect2 thought of every last detail and made it possible to find something new every time you play.

Apart from the thrill of all of this detail though, I do find the game to just be genuinely fun to play. After unlocking all of the characters and buying the DLC, my brother and I would keep fighting each other, eventually finding ourselves gravitating towards certain characters that we really liked to play; some of my favorites were Funny Valentine, Joseph Joestar and Panacotta Fugo while my brother liked being DIO, Kosaku Kawajiri and Bruno Bucciarati, among others. From our countless matches together, we realized why we liked playing: not only is All-Star Battle easy to understand, it’s also balanced pretty well. Though the game takes place on a 3D plane (because you can dodge to the side) with 2D attack patterns, the controls are very easy to use and combos are pretty easy to pull off thanks in part to the easy input language and ability to use some HHAs by just mashing the Square button. When reading that, it’s probably easy to assume that the game is for button mashers, but button mashing and spamming attacks will only get you so far. To truly master the game, you need to learn to combine each character’s special moves in the most effective combinations and know when to be conservative about your attacks or try to build up to an HHA or GHA.

In this regard the game is balanced, but the reason we’ve been able to play against each other so many times is because no matter how strong someone’s abilities are, it’s still possible to lose. For example, the only character I can really consider broken in any fashion is Diavolo, since his Stand, King Crimson (Emperor Crimson in the localization; more on that in a bit), has the ability to skip time. He can do so by skipping 0.5 seconds (his specific dash animation) at just the right moment, activating his HHA to automatically dodge for a few seconds, defensively using his GHA to damage the opponent, or, most dangerously, using a specific Skill. With this skill, he is able to cancel the priority of any move, even in the middle of a combo, allowing him a golden opportunity to strike back. Despite all that Diavolo is capable of however, he is not infallible, as any competent player is capable of defeating him. As I said before, this is what keeps us coming back, the idea that no one character is miles above everyone else and that, no matter who we pick, the threat of losing is real. We always pick a different character every match to keep things fresh, but this careful balance is essential for any fighting game and it’s amazing that All-Star Battle was able to pull it off.

King Crimson: It just works.

Speaking technically, All-Star Battle is a very distinct game. The visual style does a very good job of representing Hirohiko Araki’s evolving art style over the decades, with each character rendered in the art style of the part they came from as opposed to going for one homogenous style. On top of that, the game uses a very bright color palette throughout, befitting the very flashy nature of combat. In a sea of fighters with muted or saturated color schemes, unless they are (a) Street Fighter IV, All-Star Battle stands out enough to give notice. But CyberConnect2 didn’t decide to just end it at that. They even went so far as to have nearly every animation and quote be a reference to a specific panel or line from the manga; that’s true dedication to a property if I ever saw it. Because I know people care about this, I’d also like to mention that All-Star Battle runs at 30 FPS as opposed to 60. While admittedly this isn’t perfect, on an HD TV I’ve had some moves not go off as perfectly as on an SD TV, it does keep the action at a more reasonable pace and does avoid variable frame-rate issues that are present in other fighting games.

The poses are also a little flamboyant, but we love it all the same.

I also love the music of this game, thanks to its diversity and memorability. On one screen you’ll hear a steady guitar riff, on another a heavy electronic track. Characters also have their own background themes, each covering a different genre while also being fun to listen to. If I could get my hands on a physical release of this game’s music, I totally would.

Before I end my review, I’d like to address the name changes in the localization. Since JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is filled to the brim with musical references in the names of characters and Stands, localizations of the series have had to do some legal-dodging renames to avoid any trouble; All-Star Battle is no exception. These renames were all approved by Hirohiko Araki himself and still fit what he was aiming for with the names, but that doesn’t prevent some of them from being a little odd. Something like the aforementioned name change in Diavolo’s Stand from King Crimson to Emperor Crimson is pretty reasonable, as is the Stand Killer Queen being renamed to Deadly Queen, but changing Made In Heaven to Maiden Heaven just makes the Stand name hilarious now, like changing Kiss to Smack.

One standout example of an odd name change is going from Jean Pierre Polnareff (a major ally in Part III) to Jean Pierre Eiffel, since every other localization (including the Crunchyroll subs) was able to keep the Polnareff portion intact and Eiffel just further emphasizes, perhaps hilariously, that Polnareff is French. In another case, Funny Valentine’s Stand, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, gets an interesting treatment that comes off like the localizers didn’t want to change the name. For the English version, the name is changed to its official abbreviation, D4C, and subtitles have Valentine (who somehow got to keep his name) say something like “Filthy acts at a reasonable price”. No matter what anyone thinks of the name changes though, JoJo fans can take some solace in the fact that the Japanese soundtrack was untouched, so no matter what name is displayed, the characters can still be heard saying the original name. So have no need to fear, you can still hear Stand users saying Aerosmith or Purple Haze to your heart’s content.

You don't want to get near this Purple Haze.

While not a perfect experience, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle is an experience that’s difficult to not recommend. The game is balanced pretty well, with good pacing that’s not too fast and not too slow, and the game is fairly easy for those unfamiliar with fighting games to understand. CyberConnect2 also did a very commendable job on every last detail of this game, replicating Hirohiko Araki’s evolving art style near flawlessly while also taking every last combination of characters and situations, and sometimes even skins, into account to deepen the experience for fans. I’ll admit however that this game isn’t for everyone, as some will get turned off by the frame rate, 30 FPS, and the fact that this game is barely tournament worthy. This game is definitely made to appeal to existing JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure fans, but even then it’s a very fun fighting game that I have a really hard time putting down. Fans should definitely pick this up, while those who are unsure should try to watch whatever they can of the outstanding David Production anime first or at least read part of the original manga. If you stick with the series, you may gain the urge to seek out this game and play it.

Second Look - Asura's Wrath (+ DLC)

Asura's Wrath (and all of its DLC) has been discussed before on this blog, but recently I decided to take the opportunity to replay it, only with a different approach. Since much of the DLC actually contributes to the main plot, I decided to play all of the Episodes of the story in order (with DLC Episodes 11.5 and 15.5 in their respective places), while also skipping Episode 18 in favor of viewing its Interlude before going straight for True Episode 18 as a lead-in to Part IV: Nirvana (I also played the Lost Episodes DLC packs afterward to complete my experience). In addition to this, I did all of this on the Easy difficulty setting with the Thermoregulator Gauge equipped (this Gauge lets you recover from overheating faster). Now that I've explained what I did in order to re-experience this game from last year, I suppose I should say what I thought of this experience. It was not only interesting to play everything in order the way I did, but I think it made for a much better and fulfilling story as a result.

When played in this manner, I felt that the story seemed more fleshed out, especially with the ".5" episodes filling in a couple of gaps in the plot; on the other hand, this means it's also much easier to see how off-model the ".5" animations from STUDIO4°C can get, but they help the story nonetheless. Experiencing the story this way, I think, also gives the events of Part IV: Nirvana a much greater impact and makes the final boss fight against Chakravartin much more epic than it already is (in fact I would consider it the greatest boss battle ever, but that's just my personal opinion). Aside from the animation of the fill-in episodes, everything flows together rather neatly when put in their proper order and further shows the great scope that CyberConnect2 had planned for the story during development. In this new context, while there is evidence of when the Lost Episodes would take place, the end of Lost Episode 2 seems to show that they're more of a enjoyable side story independent from the main plot.

After over a year, the graphics of this game still look good, though with some minor texture loading and slight lag during the Part IV material. When played in order, the animations of the fill-in Episodes look a little jarring next to all the others, but they are animated well despite their off-model nature. The gameplay still holds up rather well, though I think we'd have to wait a little longer to see if the game has really stood the test of time. I'm not sure what else I can say here other than that everything else holds up well after a year.

Asura's Wrath is still an amazing game and is a more interesting experience when the main game and DLC are played in their proper order. If you have not picked up this game yet and you don't mind Quick-Time Events, what are you waiting for? For the best experience, I would recommend purchasing the DLC before starting up the game for the first time, since it is well worth the price and only enhances an already great story, ending with one of the most epic clashes you will ever see in a video game.

(As a side note, this is the first review published under the blog's new logo in the header, which I had a hand in designing.)

Asura's Wrath Lost Episode 2 (DLC)

With the release of Lost Episode 2, Capcom has reached the end of their announced DLC schedule for Asura's Wrath. While this may be a short review, as with Lost Episode 1, I'd still like to share my thoughts on this well done piece of content.

The episode picks up immediately where the previous episode left off, with Asura and Ryu on the moon and the arrival of a new challenger. The challenger displays his strength by punching Ryu so hard that he gets sent back to the Street Fighter universe, as well as sending Asura against a wall. He then reveals himself as Akuma after acknowledging Asura's strength, challenging the god of wrath to satisfy his hunger for battle. While the first half uses the Street Fighter IV engine, it's still awesome and satisfying to play against an opponent like Akuma, who provides an even greater challenge than Ryu. While this isn't as evident in this portion of the fight, the transition to fighting in the third dimension, which is also when Akuma transforms into his dark counterpart Oni, has him prove to be a most worthy opponent for Asura indeed. Admittedly though, there were times when the battle felt a little too close to the battle with Augus in the vanilla game, like having Asura perform a barehanded blade block (or arm in the case of Oni) and then throwing the attack to the side to cause part of the moon to rise up. In addition, certain attack patterns and strategies felt very close to the Augus fight, which almost made me feel as though they almost made a copy of the fight at times. Thankfully however a lot of creativity is displayed in mixing in Oni's own attacks and tactics (seen in Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition) to make the fight feel much more unique and challenging in its own right, as well as placing in an epic amount of concentrated awesome as the episode draws to a close.

As with before, I praise how they managed to create a genuine combination of the two universes beyond the inclusion of the SFIV engine. For example, the opening hit on Ryu is made much more satisfying by also using Street Fighter's sound effects. The dialogue only being in Japanese also wasn't much of an issue either, since it felt like quite a bit of effort was put into this DLC. The inclusion of the Mission Mode again also increases the replay value, though I'll admit that some of the missions can get a little frustrating in their difficulty, especially the Perfect K.O. challenge.

At only $2 for at least 15 minutes of gameplay, Asura's Wrath Lost Episode 2 is a great piece of content worth downloading. The amount of work that must have been put into its creation is amazing and the end result is, again, incredibly awesome to fans like me. Even if all you want is more content for a game like Asura's Wrath, you're still going to have a very good time.

Asura's Wrath Lost Episode 1 (DLC)

With Capcom nearing the end of their announced DLC schedule for Asura's Wrath, they've now released Lost Episode 1, which I'll of course be covering here. As with my other DLC reviews, I probably won't have very much to say given the amount of content. However, I would still like to throw my thoughts on it out there anyway to give you an idea of what it's like.

This episode isn't meant to explain anything, since it doesn't appear to take place at any point within the canon of the game, save for going to the moon post-Augus battle. That's not a bad thing at all really, since the player gets to play out a battle between Asura himself and Ryu from the Street Fighter franchise. Personally I found this to be incredibly awesome, mostly because the first half of their struggle uses the Street Fighter IV (SFIV) fighting engine to have them duke it out. I also liked it when in the second half they fight on a fully three-dimensional plane, since it allows the player for the first time to see what Ryu's attacks look like in this realm (perhaps a preview of what's to come with the upcoming Tekken X Street Fighter?).

On that note, it's really cool how they managed to inject SFIV into the Asura's Wrath formula anyway. While using the former's fighting engine, Asura's controls are adapted to suit the controls of a fighting game, minus blocking it appears, while still using his very simplistic controls and for the first time allowing him to combo heavily against an opponent and even perform air juggles while against a wall. The Ultra gauge is instead his own gauges conformed to the required shape, which made it even more fun to fire off a round of Burst. What really helps also is not only making the button prompts match specific moves from SFIV (specifically the Shoryuken and Raging Demon), but also keeping Ryu's character model from his native series on top of the graphics original to Asura's Wrath, giving it a unique crossover blend that's appealing to the eyes, especially since there's no shortage of over-the-top action scenes (including Evil Ryu being strong enough to fix the moon!). I think I should also point out that the episode explicitly states that the dialogue is only in Japanese, something I didn't really mind anyway as I felt it contributed to the non-canon vibe of the whole thing.

As a fan of both Asura's Wrath and Street Fighter, I think that this offering is really awesome. Fanboyism aside though, I think that Lost Episode 1 had a very solid presentation that felt unique and exciting with some crossing elements to help keep things fresh and fun at a bargain price of only $2. If paying that much for about 10 minutes of content doesn't seem worth it to you, especially for a cool crossover like this, then hopefully the extended replay value that comes from the SFIV-like Mission Mode will suffice, since it kept me busy for a good hour longer. Overall, this is a fun offering I can recommend and now I really can't wait for them to put out Lost Episode 2.

Asura's Wrath Episode Pack Part IV (DLC)

Capcom continues their DLC schedule for Asura's Wrath, this time with an episode pack billed as the "True Ending" to the game. This pack promises to continue where the game's True Episode 18 left off, offering full closure on just what the heck happened at the very end. Fortunately, like the other offerings, this bundle does not disappoint.

Prepare for heavy spoiler tags, because some things are just too cool or interesting to keep to yourself.

Contained within are four Episodes, numbered 19-22. The story they hold feels a lot like a natural extension, showing that no matter how over-the-top you believed the rest of the game was or how crazy you found the revelation with the Golden Spider to be, you should still prepare to have your mind sufficiently blown wide open, because things are about to get even crazier. I don't really want to spoil anything, especially regarding the Golden Spider's true form Chakravartin, but what I will say is that what goes on provided a very satisfactory ending to me and I didn't feel cheated at all for having to drop $7 to see it. It also manages to conclude the character arcs of Asura and Yasha in a way that not only shows what they'll do to save the world, but also just how well they see each other as friends and not enemies. I'll admit that a couple of times, particularly the more silent moments, it was heartbreaking to see their final fates partially because they finally find peace within themselves and are willing to accept how they go out. I also found the after credits sequence to be a nice touch, including the interlude that follows it.

While the graphics and gameplay remain exactly the same, there are still a couple of things different about what you get. For one thing, the button prompts that pop up seem to be more unique and inventive, introducing interesting actions that seem to show that they took some time with this one rather than cut it off to make a quick buck. The fights also consist primarily of ones against Yasha and Chakravartin, though they are fun and engaging and bring something new to the table, including what is perhaps literally the biggest fight ever in a video game, putting Bayonetta and God of War to shame, where Asura becomes the size of a planet to fight off Chakravartin, who throws planets and stars at you as both rapidly pass by galaxies and systems in a ludicrously epic fashion. My favorite one of all though has to be the very last one against Chakravartin, where it not only has the first instance ever where a boss uses their own button prompts against the player, but you also essentially get to have a fist fight with God (in the context of the universe). Graphically speaking though, there is a little more semblance of variety in the effects and I do commend the development team for thinking of ways to keep it fresh when needed.

If there's only one complaint I have, it would be this: occasional skipping. The episodes have a noticeable lag, at least for me, that would sometimes prevent me from hitting the correct button when prompted, resulting in a lower grade. Perhaps they should have ironed out all of the bugs before release.

Overall, I believe that CyberConnect2 did a very great job with Part IV of Asura's Wrath. The story helps give the character more depth, the villain has a genuinely ominous presence, and the way things are wrapped up is very satisfying. On top of all this, there is a sequel hook at the very tail end, which is now brewing some  interest in me for a potential full-fledged sequel to this wonderful game. If $7 doesn't seem like too much to pay for four episodes to do all that and provide a truly epic climax, please download this bundle and witness the True Ending for yourself.

Asura's Wrath Episode 15.5 (DLC)

As Capcom continues to release DLC for Asura's Wrath, I shall be here to review it. In a similar vein to Episode 11.5, Episode 15.5 acts as a way to explain events between episodes within the game, this time between 15 and 16. This brief review will cover my thoughts on this offering.

This episode helps to explain Yasha's defiance of Deus in the third act of the game, before Asura gets to fight him as well. Once again the player can't directly control the character, this time Yasha, but STUDIO4°C does an amazing job animating the action in a way that resembles an anime, as the game is already like in the first place. Advancing again requires precise timing of the Quick-Time Events to fill and trigger the Burst Gauge, though it's still an enjoyable way to digest new information regarding Deus' character as well as flesh out Yasha completely. My only problem however is when the dialogue between Yasha and Olga cuts itself off and the voice acting doesn't seem to have as much heart, though every other spot gets it done right.

While the offering only lasts about 10-15 minutes, including the dedicated interlude, I still had a good time and would recommend downloading this. $2 is a bargain price for DLC in any game, especially ones that contribute to the story. If you can spare that much, this content is well worth spending it on.

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 by STUDIO4°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.

Second Opinion - Asura's Wrath

I have seen (and played) my share of action games, but never have I experienced one like Asura's Wrath. This game had me hooked from the very beginning of its story all the way to its shocking and unexpected finale. This is helped by its characters, who are themselves deep enough to be interesting and able to contribute to the plot, including the ones that don't show up very often. The structure of the story itself plays out very much like an episodic anime, complete with very attractive eyecatches, which only serves to aid the presentation of the product as a whole.

The combat system of this title is simple, but effective. You have two buttons dedicated to light and heavy attacks and one for rapid fire, and in some rail-shooting sections the heavy attack button becomes one that unleashes a hail of projectiles after locking on to enemies. When an enemy is down, you can unleash another attack that can deal great damage to them, although after performing it (or heavy attack) you must wait for a cool-down period to expire before you can do it again. When you take or deal damage, an Unlimited Gauge fills up that, once activated, temporarily makes you even more powerful and removes the cool-down during this time. As the battle advances, the damage you deal fills up a Burst Gauge, located underneath your Health, which allows you to advance the story once it is filled up and activated with the lower right shoulder button. As I said, this is simple and works really well, and is also quite easy to pick up.

These combat sequences don't happen too often or last very long though, since a lot of the interactivity comes from cutscenes combined with special Quick Time Events, in which you must synchronize your button presses to the actions on-screen. This is not a complaint however, since this works in the game's favor of immersing you in its storyline. All of this is backed by amazing music and phenomenal voice acting (thought the sound mixing makes it a little hard to take in), both set in beautifully rendered environments within a mythological sci-fi world filled with equally amazing character designs. Aside from a few instances of clipping here and there, there are surprisingly no other technological problems to speak of throughout the entire game.

Asura's Wrath may be a short game (it can be beaten in a single day on easier settings), but it is nonetheless enjoyable. If you're looking for something that can take several days to beat and/or has a very deep combat system with long button combinations, I would advise you to look elsewhere. If you're looking for something short, but engaging or want something new that stands out in a sea of shooters, this is most definitely a game for you.

Asura's Wrath - "Over-The-Top" Is Its Middle Name

Imagine putting God of War, DragonBall Z, Bayonetta, Heavy Rain, and Star Wars into a blender. Now imagine drinking this tasteful combination and finding yourself with an experience that equals that of this game: The event doesn't last very long, but the delightful and addicting taste has you making another one. That would describe Asura's Wrath in a nutshell, but to cap off this review then and there would not even begin to do Capcom and CyberConnect2's joint venture any justice.

Asura is very pissed, but understandably so. One day he's one of the world's Eight Guardian Generals, tasked with eliminating the world of an enemy race called the Gohma. The next, he's being exiled with false blood on his hands, his wife Durga murdered, and his daughter Mithra taken from him by the other Generals to further their own cause with her unique powers. When he tries to rescue his daughter and clear his name, he is instead killed by the General Deus and sent down to Naraka. After 12 millenia pass he reemerges, only to find that the world's landscape is in ruin thanks to his former allies, now more powerful and known as the Seven Deities. Now to reclaim his daughter, Asura must fight not only the Gohma, but also the Deities before they can initiate a plan known as the "Great Rebirth".

The setting for which this all unfolds is rather unique, with a great blend of sci-fi and Hindu mythology that really sells itself well. The Deities can all be attrributed to a vice (lust, greed, sloth, etc.) or fill an archetype (mentor, sadist, etc.), with Wrath of course being Asura's primary attribute. Their overall designs also take the blend into account, complete with all of the Generals/Deities being cyborgs to help explain away abilities like breathing in the dark vacuum of space.

If there's anything that really needs to be addressed first for this title, it would be the controls and overall design. As Asura's goes through the game's 18 levels, or Episodes, he'll be spending most of his time building up two special gauges: the Unlimited Gauge and the Burst Gauge. By way of combat, through taking or dealing damage, the Unlimited Gauge builds up. When it's full, the player can press the lower left shoulder button on the controller to increase the damage Asura can dish out on his opponents, but only for a limited time. Most importantly however, it also serves as another way to quickly build up his Burst.

To elaborate, the Burst Gauge is the most important thing on the screen to worry about. Asura's combat prowess, as stated before, combined with the player being good at nailing the numerous Quick Time Events both help to build it up at a good rate. The effort of the player is then culminated by pressing the lower right shoulder button to go onto the next part of the game. In a sense Burst is basically the "end sequence" button, as it is the only way players can truly advance through the Episodes. This isn't really a bad thing since it enables one to see everything in proper sequence.

To extend my opening drink metaphor, the actual combat of the game is like a shot glass: very simple to pick up but not very deep. While Asura can lock onto his targets and jump with ease, he has one button for shooting airborne targets, another for his regular attacks, and another for special attacks. If special attacks are used, he'll overheat and need to cool down before being able to do another one either freely or to damage a downed enemy; an activated Unlimited Gauge temporarily removes this restriction. While rushing and diving attacks do add something to combat, it probably won't be enough to satiate the types of players who find enjoyment in systems that rely on deep menus, multiple button presses and combinations, input cancels, or the like. In spite of this I still found what was used here to be very satisfying in that it's basically designed to express Asura's dominant anger and frustration.

That said however, the finished product plays very much like an interactive series, as cutscenes with QTE's take precedent over the combat sections, though some rail-shooter moments do help break up the gameplay as well. In my opinion this isn't a detriment to the game, but rather an advantage. What may seem like a mindless video game, or even God of War ripoff if one goes exclusively by text previews, is actually backed by an amazing and compelling story that serves as the true backbone of the experience, as well as offering the game its own flavor. The interesting characters, great plot twists, over-the-top moments (ranging from fighting a planet-sized Buddha to a man that wields a 300,000 mile-long extendo-sword) and fascinating world keep you playing to see how everything turns out; the shocking finale of the True Ending also helps and draws me to wanting a sequel just to see how that turns out.

Some gamers may also be turned off by the admittedly short campaign, which can be beaten in merely a day. This doesn't really hold back the game from achieving all that it can though. By sticking to the length it has, it prevents itself from resorting to padding the length, which would have probably made the game even more repetitive. Still, it's a satisfactory length that actually makes me want to go through it again if I can if only to continue unlocking extras.

The smooth texture of this enjoyable concoction is made more complete through the game's technical side. Top notch voice acting helps brings each character to life and captures their personalities perfectly, while the score backing the action onscreen is very fitting and appropriate. The visuals help bring everything, including the sheer scale of the world, to life. It's amazing how the woodcut detail of the Deities mesh perfectly with the fleshy humans and metallic technology, made even more so by the fact that no glitches seem to exist in the game, aside from the occasional minor clipping. The only thing that may hold this back a little is that the interludes, which add depth to the story, have text that can sometimes be hard to read thanks to a combination of playing on a standard def television and it being on top of visuals that are either too bright or dark causing me to move the text around a lot. I'll admit however that this allowed me to fully enjoy the beautiful artwork present, drawn by different artists. Another problem I encountered was that sometimes the sound mixing seemed to be off, with the music being placed high enough that I couldn't hear the dialogue; changing the mix in the options can fix this problem. However, it can't fix when the dialogue is rarely cut off.

In the end, Asura's Wrath is a very unique experience. With its anime-like quality, complete with loading screens that resemble eyecatches, the game is able to lift itself into a realm where it can form its own niche, which now includes me. Asura is a truly sympathetic character underneath his rage and I was happy to see his story come to a close, for now at least. For those who want to immerse themselves in a different sort of game from most others on the market, as well as a story that can be considered an Epic, I strongly encourage you to play this game.