thefreak62
This review contains spoilers
It really makes feel like you're fighting Nosferatu Zodd!
Not an amazing game, but it makes for a fun distraction if you got an afternoon or two to kill.
This review assumes you've read Berserk up to the Millennium Falcon arc, so things about the plot won't be explained as in-depth. This games takes place right after Guts, Casca, and Puck leave for Elfheim as they end up taking a detour to a town infested with a plague that turns its victims into rampaging monsters called Mandragorans. The ruler of the town, Balzac (They got away with this name) tells Guts that in exchange for getting a heart of a fully grown Mandagora, Balzac will help Casca retrieve her memories (if you read Berserk and never heard of this happening, this plot is in this game only). The story is alright and gets the job done, it can't really do anything too grand since it takes place in the beginning of an arc that will have many amazing moments much later on, however there is a very sweet moment near the end with Guts and Casca where Casca momentarily regains her memories (even though given things that happen much later, it probably wouldn't have happened nicely as it does now).
The gameplay of Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage is pretty janky all the way through, but it's never unplayable. You play as Guts and use his iconic sword, the Dragon Slayer. Your main moves are a horizontal slash, a vertical slash, a jump that lets you do aerial attacks, and a guard. You can also use a selection of sub-weapons Guts has used during the story such as his throwing knives, repeater crossbow, miniature bombs, and his Cannon Arm (It should be noted that the knives and cannon arm only have limited uses so be careful when using them). Guts has a meter that he can build that lets him go into a Berserk Mode (I actually don't know what it's called but I mean Guts does go Berserk so) that lets him armor through hits, attack faster, deal more damage per swing, and slash through walls. If you know anything about Guts and the Dragon Slayer, then you know that the Dragon Slayer is a really big sword, which is why I think the fact that the any attack with the Dragon Slayer getting stopped whenever it touches the wall is very questionable, it doesn't happen often but when you're in stages with small corridors it gets annoying. The boss fights range from doable while being a bit annoying to Nosferatu Zodd (At least it's accurate :D ). Nosferatu Zodd is by far the most difficult boss in the game even compared to the final boss, and can definitely be a gatekeeper from people beating the game, if there's anything to praise about this music (aside from the music), it's they made Zodd's difficulty accurate to the story. I did have to retry the Zodd fight multiple times until I learned one funny thing about Guts' move kit, his jumping vertical slash. This is move is very special for the fact that it makes Guts very hard to hit, won't collide with walls, and deals good damage. It is the best move in Guts' move kit and it's not close. One other odd gameplay things is a level where Guts has to run to the camera avoiding crumbled walls, where taking any damage causes instant death. Overall while the gameplay can be janky, it's not enough to make it unplayable but can hinder the experience at times, what helps is that the game is very short (Took me 5 hours to finish) so the annoying aspects don't linger for very long.
If there's anything that is 5 Stars in this game, it's the music. The soundtrack was done by Susumu Hirasawa, who was the composer of the 1997 Berserk anime, and has done music for other Berserk pieces of media. His music is always wonderfully done and this game is no exception with some stands out being Forces II and Indra.
Overall while a janky game that can be annoying at times, I'd recommend this to any Berserk fan who has an afternoon or two to kill.
Not an amazing game, but it makes for a fun distraction if you got an afternoon or two to kill.
This review assumes you've read Berserk up to the Millennium Falcon arc, so things about the plot won't be explained as in-depth. This games takes place right after Guts, Casca, and Puck leave for Elfheim as they end up taking a detour to a town infested with a plague that turns its victims into rampaging monsters called Mandragorans. The ruler of the town, Balzac (They got away with this name) tells Guts that in exchange for getting a heart of a fully grown Mandagora, Balzac will help Casca retrieve her memories (if you read Berserk and never heard of this happening, this plot is in this game only). The story is alright and gets the job done, it can't really do anything too grand since it takes place in the beginning of an arc that will have many amazing moments much later on, however there is a very sweet moment near the end with Guts and Casca where Casca momentarily regains her memories (even though given things that happen much later, it probably wouldn't have happened nicely as it does now).
The gameplay of Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage is pretty janky all the way through, but it's never unplayable. You play as Guts and use his iconic sword, the Dragon Slayer. Your main moves are a horizontal slash, a vertical slash, a jump that lets you do aerial attacks, and a guard. You can also use a selection of sub-weapons Guts has used during the story such as his throwing knives, repeater crossbow, miniature bombs, and his Cannon Arm (It should be noted that the knives and cannon arm only have limited uses so be careful when using them). Guts has a meter that he can build that lets him go into a Berserk Mode (I actually don't know what it's called but I mean Guts does go Berserk so) that lets him armor through hits, attack faster, deal more damage per swing, and slash through walls. If you know anything about Guts and the Dragon Slayer, then you know that the Dragon Slayer is a really big sword, which is why I think the fact that the any attack with the Dragon Slayer getting stopped whenever it touches the wall is very questionable, it doesn't happen often but when you're in stages with small corridors it gets annoying. The boss fights range from doable while being a bit annoying to Nosferatu Zodd (At least it's accurate :D ). Nosferatu Zodd is by far the most difficult boss in the game even compared to the final boss, and can definitely be a gatekeeper from people beating the game, if there's anything to praise about this music (aside from the music), it's they made Zodd's difficulty accurate to the story. I did have to retry the Zodd fight multiple times until I learned one funny thing about Guts' move kit, his jumping vertical slash. This is move is very special for the fact that it makes Guts very hard to hit, won't collide with walls, and deals good damage. It is the best move in Guts' move kit and it's not close. One other odd gameplay things is a level where Guts has to run to the camera avoiding crumbled walls, where taking any damage causes instant death. Overall while the gameplay can be janky, it's not enough to make it unplayable but can hinder the experience at times, what helps is that the game is very short (Took me 5 hours to finish) so the annoying aspects don't linger for very long.
If there's anything that is 5 Stars in this game, it's the music. The soundtrack was done by Susumu Hirasawa, who was the composer of the 1997 Berserk anime, and has done music for other Berserk pieces of media. His music is always wonderfully done and this game is no exception with some stands out being Forces II and Indra.
Overall while a janky game that can be annoying at times, I'd recommend this to any Berserk fan who has an afternoon or two to kill.
As someone who loves the original Lisa: the Painful, Definitive edition my ass.
2007
This review contains spoilers
>:]
As of 05/07/2023, I got B Ending as Daan.
As of 05/09/2023, I got A Ending as Marina.
As of 05/26/2023, I got C Ending as O'saa.
(WIP)
As someone who thoroughly enjoyed the first Fear and Hunger, I am a massive fan of this game. While it reels back the darker aspects of the last game, they remain relevant in some areas and also brings some new themes and ideas to the table.
Fear and Hunger was already pretty difficult and Termina doubles down on the difficulty with having a limited amount of saves, not counting items such as the Book of Enlightenment, you're limited to only 8 saves, and even with these saves you would be severely hindering yourself using these sparingly. Meaning that losing progress is likely if you want to make the most out of your saves but you end up dying. I can see this being a huge deterrence from playing the game which I think is valid, but for me personally I had a lot of fun being efficient with my saves and optimizing my routes for what I would do each day.
Overall the combat relatively stays the same from the first one, but the acquisition of skills in Termina improved a lot from Fear and Hunger 1 in the ways of getting skills. It is much easier to obtain a certain build you'd want to play with and is much less RNG reliant given you know what you're doing. While there is still no experience points in this title, collecting heads in order to get soul stones acts as a great alternative to it as it gives the feeling of customization and progression without needing to make bosses artificially harder and focus on strategizing more.
One aspect I enjoy a lot is the music, Fear and Hunger had more ambient or no music playing in the majority of the game, which had its own strengths, but I think the music added in Termina really enhanced the experience. The tracks were inspired by older Megami Tensei titles like the first Shin Megami Tensei 1 and it can definitely be felt with the tracks throughout.
As of 05/09/2023, I got A Ending as Marina.
As of 05/26/2023, I got C Ending as O'saa.
(WIP)
As someone who thoroughly enjoyed the first Fear and Hunger, I am a massive fan of this game. While it reels back the darker aspects of the last game, they remain relevant in some areas and also brings some new themes and ideas to the table.
Fear and Hunger was already pretty difficult and Termina doubles down on the difficulty with having a limited amount of saves, not counting items such as the Book of Enlightenment, you're limited to only 8 saves, and even with these saves you would be severely hindering yourself using these sparingly. Meaning that losing progress is likely if you want to make the most out of your saves but you end up dying. I can see this being a huge deterrence from playing the game which I think is valid, but for me personally I had a lot of fun being efficient with my saves and optimizing my routes for what I would do each day.
Overall the combat relatively stays the same from the first one, but the acquisition of skills in Termina improved a lot from Fear and Hunger 1 in the ways of getting skills. It is much easier to obtain a certain build you'd want to play with and is much less RNG reliant given you know what you're doing. While there is still no experience points in this title, collecting heads in order to get soul stones acts as a great alternative to it as it gives the feeling of customization and progression without needing to make bosses artificially harder and focus on strategizing more.
One aspect I enjoy a lot is the music, Fear and Hunger had more ambient or no music playing in the majority of the game, which had its own strengths, but I think the music added in Termina really enhanced the experience. The tracks were inspired by older Megami Tensei titles like the first Shin Megami Tensei 1 and it can definitely be felt with the tracks throughout.
2018
(EDIT: As of 04/19/2023, I have gotten the A ending as Ragnvaldr)
At the time of writing this, I got the D ending as Ragnvaldr / The Outlander, so I definitely can't commentate on everything in the game, however I found the overall experience to be enjoyable.
This game deals with a multitude of heavy subjects (unsure if I'm allowed to name them on this website) and nudity is common, so be warned if you play this game.
I believe one of the game's biggest strengths is the lack of experience points, while I'm not one against grinding in RPGs I do think it helps that in this game there's no EXP. This means you can escape or run away from encounters in this game (which you'll definitely want to) without penalties, which allows more emphasis on exploring and finding items. This also means that the fights you do that are mandatory or are significant will have you do a lot more strategizing than the average RPG, however this brings up my next point.
Another large aspect of this game I find to be both enjoyable and annoying is the heavy amount of RNG. No two playthroughs of Fear and Hunger will be exactly the same with even the layouts of areas being completely different on other playthroughs. Items and enemies you find will be different, this aspect of the RNG I enjoy a lot as it allows for a lot of re-playability which is especially useful given the large amount of endings the game contains. On the other side of RNG is one of Fear and Hunger's defining mechanics, the coin flip. In many situations in Fear and Hunger the player needs to flip a coin that determines what happens next and call a side of the coin. The coin flip's severity will range between unimportant such as opening a chest, to evading an enemy attack that will lead to an instant kill. You also need to coin flip to safely save the game which I can imagine would be insanely annoying for some. I enjoy the coin flip (that isn't to say I didn't get annoyed by it at points) but I can imagine it could be a deal breaker for some.
There's also a lot of different things in this game that the game will never tell you about or only vaguely hint at it, I don't consider this a positive or negative personally, but it should definitely be something to look out for if you pick this game up (You might want to consult the wiki if you're not one to scrounge for secrets).
Overall I enjoyed this game a lot, it has a very punishing early game, and possibly questionable RNG, but once you get used to it and get into the gameplay loop it's very enjoyable.
At the time of writing this, I got the D ending as Ragnvaldr / The Outlander, so I definitely can't commentate on everything in the game, however I found the overall experience to be enjoyable.
This game deals with a multitude of heavy subjects (unsure if I'm allowed to name them on this website) and nudity is common, so be warned if you play this game.
I believe one of the game's biggest strengths is the lack of experience points, while I'm not one against grinding in RPGs I do think it helps that in this game there's no EXP. This means you can escape or run away from encounters in this game (which you'll definitely want to) without penalties, which allows more emphasis on exploring and finding items. This also means that the fights you do that are mandatory or are significant will have you do a lot more strategizing than the average RPG, however this brings up my next point.
Another large aspect of this game I find to be both enjoyable and annoying is the heavy amount of RNG. No two playthroughs of Fear and Hunger will be exactly the same with even the layouts of areas being completely different on other playthroughs. Items and enemies you find will be different, this aspect of the RNG I enjoy a lot as it allows for a lot of re-playability which is especially useful given the large amount of endings the game contains. On the other side of RNG is one of Fear and Hunger's defining mechanics, the coin flip. In many situations in Fear and Hunger the player needs to flip a coin that determines what happens next and call a side of the coin. The coin flip's severity will range between unimportant such as opening a chest, to evading an enemy attack that will lead to an instant kill. You also need to coin flip to safely save the game which I can imagine would be insanely annoying for some. I enjoy the coin flip (that isn't to say I didn't get annoyed by it at points) but I can imagine it could be a deal breaker for some.
There's also a lot of different things in this game that the game will never tell you about or only vaguely hint at it, I don't consider this a positive or negative personally, but it should definitely be something to look out for if you pick this game up (You might want to consult the wiki if you're not one to scrounge for secrets).
Overall I enjoyed this game a lot, it has a very punishing early game, and possibly questionable RNG, but once you get used to it and get into the gameplay loop it's very enjoyable.
(For the record these were my immediate thoughts just after beating the game so maybe take some things with a grain of salt or not idk broh)
One of my favorite RPGs I've played recently.
The Delay System the game uses is a very enjoyable variant of turn based RPGs as being able to momentarily stop the enemies allows for fun strategizing. The weapons used are straightforward but I appreciate that despite the fact that multiple characters use the same weapon, their weapons and stats are different enough so that each party member is useful throughout the game. I'm also a fan of the fear and depression status effects, it helped make the tough battles even more tense and fun. Speaking of, having done a no death run the boss battles were very tough but fun, and I was a fan at how the game tries to tempt you into sacrificing your party members.
I won't get into huge spoilers, but I thought the story is pretty damn good, though it's definitely the characters that make it. I found all the characters in the game to be enjoyable and had a lot of fun seeing how they interacted in the link events. I also enjoyed how these links interacted with the battles between the Passive boosts and Link Attacks. While I had no deaths in my playthrough, I can imagine how shitty someone might feel if they ended up sacrificing one of their party members. Having played the other Little Tail Bronx titles and seeing the trailer for Fuga 2, I am very interested what will happen to the cast in Fuga 2.
On that note, as someone who played Tail Concerto and Solatorobo beforehand and has read some of the supplementary light novels, the nods to those two games and extensions to the lore and worldbuilding was very appreciated. I have nowhere else to put this nor am I able to say much without getting to huge spoilers, but Fuga having a French language option was an incredibly great attention to detail ( NOTE: If you decide to play this game do yourself a favor and play the game in French :D ). Even though this is the most recent release in the LTB series, it is the earliest game in the timeline. While I'd say you might be able to appreciate some parts of the game more if you played the previous titles, this is more than an acceptable title to start with in this series (but if you played the other games iykyk).
I don't have the a lot to say about this, but the soundtrack is really good too.
I could say more about this but to "quickly" conclude,
With its fun gameplay systems, enjoyable characters, and an interesting world and lore. Whether you've played the Little Tail Bronx series beforehand or not, this is a really great RPG that is worth your time (~22 hours), and (at the time of posting) with the sequel coming shortly in May, there's no better time to play Fuga (or get into the Little Tail Bronx series) than now.
One of my favorite RPGs I've played recently.
The Delay System the game uses is a very enjoyable variant of turn based RPGs as being able to momentarily stop the enemies allows for fun strategizing. The weapons used are straightforward but I appreciate that despite the fact that multiple characters use the same weapon, their weapons and stats are different enough so that each party member is useful throughout the game. I'm also a fan of the fear and depression status effects, it helped make the tough battles even more tense and fun. Speaking of, having done a no death run the boss battles were very tough but fun, and I was a fan at how the game tries to tempt you into sacrificing your party members.
I won't get into huge spoilers, but I thought the story is pretty damn good, though it's definitely the characters that make it. I found all the characters in the game to be enjoyable and had a lot of fun seeing how they interacted in the link events. I also enjoyed how these links interacted with the battles between the Passive boosts and Link Attacks. While I had no deaths in my playthrough, I can imagine how shitty someone might feel if they ended up sacrificing one of their party members. Having played the other Little Tail Bronx titles and seeing the trailer for Fuga 2, I am very interested what will happen to the cast in Fuga 2.
On that note, as someone who played Tail Concerto and Solatorobo beforehand and has read some of the supplementary light novels, the nods to those two games and extensions to the lore and worldbuilding was very appreciated. I have nowhere else to put this nor am I able to say much without getting to huge spoilers, but Fuga having a French language option was an incredibly great attention to detail ( NOTE: If you decide to play this game do yourself a favor and play the game in French :D ). Even though this is the most recent release in the LTB series, it is the earliest game in the timeline. While I'd say you might be able to appreciate some parts of the game more if you played the previous titles, this is more than an acceptable title to start with in this series (but if you played the other games iykyk).
I don't have the a lot to say about this, but the soundtrack is really good too.
I could say more about this but to "quickly" conclude,
With its fun gameplay systems, enjoyable characters, and an interesting world and lore. Whether you've played the Little Tail Bronx series beforehand or not, this is a really great RPG that is worth your time (~22 hours), and (at the time of posting) with the sequel coming shortly in May, there's no better time to play Fuga (or get into the Little Tail Bronx series) than now.
was fun until my ass got softlocked.
2021
Antonball!!!
1998
Very cutesy and very charming 3D platformer, while the control scheme and camera may be too annoying outdated for some, if you're able to deal with those issues you'll have very enjoyable experience with the game's cute cast of characters, nice soundtrack (especially if you're playing the japanese version the opening music is fucking awesome), and simple but enjoyable story.
2023
Amazing game.
2022
Pretty rocking game, music is a 10/10
makes me smile a bit
2014
made me cry, not in a good way.
made me scream
2014
A good remake that stands apart from the original games. Lack of Battle Frontier still hurts though.