remove the useless combat sections, replace the QTEs with fighting mania controls and this game easily becomes a 10

honestly i never really liked cyberconnect2, they never understood how to make combat engaging and it shows in almost all of their games, and since it's mostly shonenslop adaptations it's never really worth playing anyway.

asura's wrath is an extremely simple game, and contrary to popular belief, you're almost always pressing buttons in one way or another. now like i said earlier the combat sections are an annoyance and shouldn't be in the game to begin with, i'd even say they negatively impact the density of the action, diluting it with pointless repetitive fights on top of being extremely easy and predictable (even on the rare occasions the boss fights actually requires you to understand attack patterns). the few shmup sequences are alright, but exist only as a mean to drive the story and show off the gigantic scale of the fights (as opposed to the combat sections that are mostly static grounded fights). which is an okayish way to do it, and keep player engaged at the same time. It just feels really mindless doing all that, especially when you have an in-depth understanding of both those genres.

it's always pretty hard to use QTEs in creative ways, especially as an extensive mean of expression as far as game design is concerned. Because it's an extremely simple mechanic that anyone can understand without prior experience, it's been universally used in video games (and still to this day). you will often see them as a way to reward the player with some stylish shit (like finishers), used as a replacement for more complex game mechanics in gimmicky sections that you'll probably encounter only once or to keep the player engaged during passive segments (can't scratch your balls during the cutscene).

Asura's Wrath almost exclusively relies on the latest, counterbalancing the fairly large QTE window with the fact that they happen a lot and for almost every move asura does, making it an actual challenge to scratch your balls during the non-stop action happening on screen. yeah it's not deep, but it's still probably the best way to use QTEs in a game like this. you have to FOCUS, or the next button prompt might just surprise you. Playing with the 60FPS patch so the button-mash QTEs are twice as demanding makes it even more interesting because it pushes the core idea of the game, unleashing your wrath. You WILL strain yourself pushing buttons but it will come off as rewarding, this is what makes the augus bossfight so KINO, aside from dvorak's symphony no.9 banger playing on the background, perfectly synced with the action happening on the screen. this is the most braindead, no-skill way of giving the player the ability to express something, but it works well here especially for that reason. It allows the player to really FEEL the fights.

This brings me back to the beginning of this review, imagine this but you have to actually PUNCH the buttons with your fists, how much more rewarding and expressive for the player something like this could be.

tbh I had no idea how to rate this game, and it probably doesn't deserve to be rated that high, but I like the fact this game is 1/ honest with the fact it's just a button masher, and doesn't pretend to be more than this. most of nowadays AAA games could probably work as QTE games because of how poor their actual game design is, but they try and pretend to be le deep instead. 2/ the shonen tropes viscerally appeals to me, a dad beating the shit out of literal gods to save his daughter, fist bumping his nakama after a battle to the death, this is KINO. also, the over the top, gigantic scale of battles, reminding me of super robot peak anime like getter robo armageddon or gurren lagann, idk most of the time it just hit the right chord.

now if you'll excuse me i need to go build my meter inside the official capcom rage cage