This deserves credit for ambition - I wouldn't necessarily have expected the first Berserk game to have a new story written by Miura, music composed by Hirasawa, etc. Befitting that, there's a strong focus on the characters and cinematics and it actually does a solid job of bringing the vibe of the manga to the somewhat limited medium of a Dreamcast game, with a good localization and all. (They even did Puck pretty well!)
Unfortunately, the game side of things is a bit of a letdown, with simplistic combat, a very short length, one absurd difficulty spike, and a deeply annoying camera. Oh, and worst of all, this game inexplicably goes way, way out of its way to depict the realism of Guts not being able to effectively swing his famous massive sword in tight quarters, deliberately putting you in confined spaces where it'll bounce off walls every time you try to combo, and keeping the ability to swing through them behind your powered-up state. This is authentic to the source material, I guess, but good Lord above is it annoying, and a baffling design choice that seems to exist just keep the fun levels tamped down.
Because it IS fun, obviously, to go full sicko Gattsu mode with the sword and start chopping people to into big bloody pieces five at a time. In its best moments, this lets you do that, and occasionally you'll be hacking away and accidentally realize that you can do something sick like slide dodge into a small enemy to pop them up and then follow with a jumping combo at which point HAIIIIIIII YAI FORRRCES will start blaring in your head like the Kill Bill siren,,,, but then that brief combat encounter will be over and you'll be doing a QTE or watching a lengthy cutscene or be in an idiotic CRASH BANDICOOT run-towards-the-camera stage for no good reason.
Again, I appreciate the ambition here, and it does look and sound and, in brief flashes, feel pretty great, but focusing a bit more on the fundamentals and expanding, you know, the actual gameplay might have been wise.
P.S.: On a personal note, this was in my physical backlog the longest of any game ever - I bought it twelve years and four months ago. The time was finally right!
Unfortunately, the game side of things is a bit of a letdown, with simplistic combat, a very short length, one absurd difficulty spike, and a deeply annoying camera. Oh, and worst of all, this game inexplicably goes way, way out of its way to depict the realism of Guts not being able to effectively swing his famous massive sword in tight quarters, deliberately putting you in confined spaces where it'll bounce off walls every time you try to combo, and keeping the ability to swing through them behind your powered-up state. This is authentic to the source material, I guess, but good Lord above is it annoying, and a baffling design choice that seems to exist just keep the fun levels tamped down.
Because it IS fun, obviously, to go full sicko Gattsu mode with the sword and start chopping people to into big bloody pieces five at a time. In its best moments, this lets you do that, and occasionally you'll be hacking away and accidentally realize that you can do something sick like slide dodge into a small enemy to pop them up and then follow with a jumping combo at which point HAIIIIIIII YAI FORRRCES will start blaring in your head like the Kill Bill siren,,,, but then that brief combat encounter will be over and you'll be doing a QTE or watching a lengthy cutscene or be in an idiotic CRASH BANDICOOT run-towards-the-camera stage for no good reason.
Again, I appreciate the ambition here, and it does look and sound and, in brief flashes, feel pretty great, but focusing a bit more on the fundamentals and expanding, you know, the actual gameplay might have been wise.
P.S.: On a personal note, this was in my physical backlog the longest of any game ever - I bought it twelve years and four months ago. The time was finally right!