I re-played Asura's Wrath for the first time in 8 years yesterday and I binged through the whole game in one 8 hour sitting because I just couldn't put it down, forgot how engrossing it was honestly. It's still one of my all time favorite games and just as much of a masterpiece as I remembered.

Asura's Wrath is less of a game and more of an interactive anime, but it'll be one of the best damn anime you ever see in your life. Like an even more ridiculously over-the-top DBZ, but with the dark themes and emotional depth of Berserk.

Asura's Wrath follows the demigod Asura on his quest for revenge against the other demigods who betrayed him, killed his wife and kidnapped his daughter. This epic tale of divine drama spans literal millennia and though it features every classic anime trope and cliche in the book, the jaw dropping action scenes that just get more and more over-the-top as the story progresses (Like a 1v1 battle on the moon to Dvorak's 9th Symphony) alongside the influence of Hindu and Buddhist mythologies in the narrative and themes keeps Asura's Wrath from being predictable and makes it constantly fresh and exciting.

The characters in Asura's Wrath follow typical anime archetypes from Yasha who's Asura's brother, but also biggest rival to Augus who is the hard-ass battle loving teacher of Asura, but despite being trope-laden their eccentric personalities and great voice acting keep them memorable, however no-one stands out more than Asura himself.

Asura has always been one of my fave protagonists, reminding me heavily of Guts from Berserk. Being a struggler who's life is full of pain and suffering, but he fights for survival against insurmountable odds with just his rage, his never faltering will and his fists. I think Asura is a very relatable character on a primal level. He's a father that's too angry to die and would go through hell and fight GOD himself just for the safety of his daughter. Oh and Liam O'Brien's phenomenal voice acting performance really captures Asura's anger and rage perfectly.

As previously mentioned Asura's Wrath is essentially an interactive anime and the presentation perfectly captured this. Asura's Wrath is split into 3 Chapters with 18 individual 'Episodes' that last around 20-30 minutes each. The episodes are complete with opening and ending credits, a freeze-frame with a 'To be continued' screen at the end of each episode and even before each new episode there's a narration recapping and foreshadowing upcoming events.

The gameplay in Asura's Wrath features elements from multiple genres. The bulk of it is QTEs during cut-scenes to give the interactive feeling, like an anime version of a Supermassive or Quantic Dream type game, but the game also shifts between third-person action beat 'em up segments where you fight waves of enemies and a rail shooter where you have to dodge incoming attacks and fire energy beams at your enemies.

All in all Asura's Wrath is a criminally underrated game that didn't get nearly as much praise as it deserved when it first came out. From the anime series presentation style to its grandiose universe spanning scale, over-the-top action, Hindu and Buddhist themes and creative mix of various genre elements even 10 years later there's nothing else quite like Asura's Wrath and it's a one-of-a-kind masterpiece that everyone deserves to experience.

P.S. I will say locking the true ending behind a DLC paywall is still one of the absolute worst things Capcom ever did especially since that's some of the best content in the game, but that doesn't detract from the absolute masterpiece the game is regardless.