I'm gonna preface this by saying if you don't know what Berserk is or if you want an objective review from a normal gamer...bail out now. I'll even be nice and throw you a score along with an closing comment:
Berserk is a game filled with nice graphics, a very solid action engine and spectacular boss fights. But it is also very repetitive and the level design has us scratching our head at times. The lack of a quit option is disturbing.
7/10
Ok, you normal gamers now have your review. now get out
-------------------------
If there's one thing that the almost 10 mins long credit reel in the PS2 Berserk game should tell you, it's that this game was a labor of love for a lot of people. I'm assuming, based on the fact that Sammy probably didn't expect 200/300k+ sales and that they don't tend to spend a lot on games (see Vampire Panic), that the budget for Berserk was most likely not incredibly high, yet it seems like 50+ people were working on the project. So considering what the end result of the game is, I'd like to believe that at least some of these people were doing it not for the money, but rather because they were big fans of the manga and really really wanted to bring the story to life.
The first thing that strikes you when starting up the game is the amazing opening song by my personal favorite Japanese artist, Susumu Hirasawa. Hirasawa was one of the first pioneers of industrial music in Japan in the 80's. Since then he's put out an album every year or two for 25+ years, either doing solo stuff or working in a group as P-Model. He's a bit crazy (recorded his album 'Solar Ray' using ONLY SOLAR POWER @.@) but aren't all artists ^^; Anyhow it's interesting to note how Hirasawa became involved in the Berserk franchise as he scored the anime series and also did the opening "Forces II" to the DC Berserk game before this. The story goes that the author of Berserk, Kentaro Miura when he found out that they wanted to make an anime series of his manga contacted Hirasawa and said something to the fact of "I create Berserk while listening to your music. I would be honored if you would score the anime adaptation of it". Hearing this Hirasawa agreed and thus became entangled in the creative universe of Berserk. Unlike the DC song which was a remix of "Forces" from the anime, the PS2 song is entirely new and fantastic. The ending song is a slower mix of the opening.
The other thing you notice is the cg cutscenes. Despite not rivaling Square or Namco, they don't look too bad. They pretty much just use slightly higher-res, cleaner models than the in-game action with added CG effects. But even though I usually despise 2d anime/manga represented as 3d CG, I ended up being pretty happy with how they turned out. The characters all look pretty accurate and the color choice is nice. Anyhow there are about 60+ cg cutscenes in the game to tell the story...and what a story it is.
The game covers the events of the Millenium Falcon arc from vol.22-27. Which is from
for current manga readers. There is also a newly created story written by Miura himself (He also wrote the entire DC game) which weaves itself inbetween the chapters and does a good job strengthening the themes of the main story. Having Miura write the DC game and this side-story is nice because then it becomes an official part of the series.
So as happy as I was seeing all the good scenes from the manga brought to life in the CG movies, it was giving the characters voices that really satisfied the fan in me. All the voice actors from the TV series return and the new voices chosen for the new cast are very fitting (though Ishidiro is a bit wierd sounding at first, but I think it works). Nobutoshi Kanna in particular has and will always be fantastic as Gatts IMO.
Since I'm talking about the presentation I might as well include everything such as the music. The music will be highly debated as for the most part it's not killing music it actually sounds more like good rpg dungeon and cutscenes music. Personally I thought the music was very very good. A nice selection of instruments and chanting were used to create very atmospheric music. The final chapter in particular has music that sounds heavily inspired by Batman Mask of the Phantasm with its choir-esque sound. The quality of the music really surprised me and I can't wait for the soundtrack release on 11/25/2004.
Last part of presentation will also be the most impressive part, the animation. The modelers and animators really went to extra lengths to capture the feel of current manga Gatts. The way the sword is swung around seems very natural and in-line with how a Berserk fan has always imagined him. The special 1-hit kill animations are especially fantastic, seeing Gatts stab his Dragonslayer through the head of monster and then pull it out in a circular motion to decapitate them, or watching him jump on top of an enemy and stab downwards then proceeding to spin around as they split apart is fun. Special note goes to the boss special animations which occur whenever you or the boss counter each other, or when you use your 1-hit kill move (which isn't 1 hit on the bosses but just a special move). These animations are very well choreographed and are just all kinds of awesome. The first time you see Gatts and Zodd lock swords, your jaw will drop. Some of the more generic bosses in the middle have less detailed animations, but all the major characters get really well done scenes.
So the presentation rocks. There's some slight loading delays when going between areas or saving but otherwise the presentation is fantastic and very true to the manga.
Gameplay-wise I seriously don't have to much to say. They fixed the problems of the DC version, mainly no more small areas and now your sword doesn't stop when it hits a wall or boundary, and they gave you a whole bunch more moves. You have normal swinging, strafe combos, charge attack, 1 hit kill attack, Berserk mode, counters, weapons, and support character attacks. All this adds some variety, but in the end you'll mainly just be swinging your sword. This is actually pretty damn fun though as there is a good variety of enemies and most of them die in 1 hit. Also the game throws about 10-15 on screen at a time and they respawn forever so the fun is trying to maintain a combo as long as you can. My best was 103 kill combo, but I know some people have gotten up to 300 chains. Getting good chains also has good rewards because you get bonus exp (the game has an rpg like upgrading your stats through exp system) in addition to the normal exp the enemies give. Also the infinitely respawning enemies really puts you in Gatts's boots as this is what it's like to be always hounded by demons due to the brand. As Gatt's puts it in the game "Being around me means every night is a sleepless night".
The levels are long, usually around an hour in length with 1-2 save points. Though the 2nd to last level took me 3 hours which is a lot of time swinging your sword. But I think the game shows that the repetitiveness isn't some thing the developers put in to pad the game, but rather the repetitive killing was IN THE MANGA in the first place! Almost everytime you have to "hold an area for a few mins to buy time", or "kill all the monsters at a certain point" it's something directly out of the manga that Gatts was doing. Gatts spends ALOT of time in the manga killing things, and the game accurately portrays that. Only real negative about the level design is some of the levels are like huge rpg dungeons with all kinds of paths but only 1 leading to the exit. Sorry but in a game like this I'd rather just keep edging forward as I kill everything rather than go search for the right way to the next area.
The boss fights are really well done and a complete joy to play. The game has a pretty decent lock-on system with R1 so you can circle around the bosses and then the fights become a matter of doing all kinds of crazy attacks and countering the boss's attacks. Countering is pretty lenient in this game as all you have to do is hold down X (guard) a second before an attack hits you.
The game is a very good (though maybe too long for some) length of 10 hours. Upon finishing the game you get a 100 monster kill mode and a boss battle mode that lets you fight any boss (very cool because the boss fights really do rock). Also all the cutscenes are unlocked and you can even choose to watch all of them straight through at once. There are also a bunch of hidden weapons you can unlock and if you want to you try to level up all of Gatts's stats to the max. For me I'm just gonna stick to boss battling and watching the cutscenes, probably never gonna touch the main game again ;P
I should also mention that the game is pretty violent. It's definitely the most violent Japanese game I've ever played, but I don't keep up with US games that much so I dunno how it compares. Basically you're slicing things into pieces non-stop throughout the whole game, blood flies all over and gets on your character and sword. This is a nice effect as when you've just murdered a 100+ trolls you really should look like a bloody mess...and you do There's no nudity though unlike the manga, but I don't think anyone really expected the game to have nudity.
Lastly I'll just say what really comes down to the most important thing. When you play through the 10 hours of the game you will really feel like you have lived through the starting story of the millenium falcon arc. From the story progression, to the locales, to the dialogue, to the feel of cutting things down, to the boss fights the game captures everything perfectly. Just as the anime series let you experience vol.4-13 of the manga, the game is basically the equivalent of a 3rd anime series covering vol.22-27. After I finished the game last night I seriously couldn't do anything else all night because I was still taking in the experience. The last chapter, omfg the last chapter...if you've read vol.26-27 I'll say this
. The game is a nice refresher of how GOOD the Berserk manga current arc is. The dialogue is really great and the pacing of the story, major events, and revealations is just spot on. When the manga eventually ends they could make a 50 hour+ game covering everything and it would be one of the greatest experiences ever.
Sadly AFAIK the game isn't coming to the US. Dubbing would be costly as there's a lot of cutscenes, and I think the main problem is that the story would make NO SENSE to the average gamer who hasn't read the manga. It would be really cool if someone did bring it over but who knows...
If your not a Berserk fan I have no clue why you've even read this far, but you shouldn't import it or buy it on domestic release.
But if you're a Berserk fan, especially if your a big fan of the manga, and you have a way to play imports...BUY THIS GAME. It's 100x better than the DC game and the best bringing to life of a manga, an incredible manga at that.
From a game point of view with flaws taken into account it's probably about a 7.5-8/10.
From a lunatically biased Berserk fan POV the game is so good I'd say it's a 9.5/10.
This is somewhat spoilers but I'll list the boss fights in the game:
Berserk is a game filled with nice graphics, a very solid action engine and spectacular boss fights. But it is also very repetitive and the level design has us scratching our head at times. The lack of a quit option is disturbing.
7/10
Ok, you normal gamers now have your review. now get out
-------------------------
If there's one thing that the almost 10 mins long credit reel in the PS2 Berserk game should tell you, it's that this game was a labor of love for a lot of people. I'm assuming, based on the fact that Sammy probably didn't expect 200/300k+ sales and that they don't tend to spend a lot on games (see Vampire Panic), that the budget for Berserk was most likely not incredibly high, yet it seems like 50+ people were working on the project. So considering what the end result of the game is, I'd like to believe that at least some of these people were doing it not for the money, but rather because they were big fans of the manga and really really wanted to bring the story to life.
The first thing that strikes you when starting up the game is the amazing opening song by my personal favorite Japanese artist, Susumu Hirasawa. Hirasawa was one of the first pioneers of industrial music in Japan in the 80's. Since then he's put out an album every year or two for 25+ years, either doing solo stuff or working in a group as P-Model. He's a bit crazy (recorded his album 'Solar Ray' using ONLY SOLAR POWER @.@) but aren't all artists ^^; Anyhow it's interesting to note how Hirasawa became involved in the Berserk franchise as he scored the anime series and also did the opening "Forces II" to the DC Berserk game before this. The story goes that the author of Berserk, Kentaro Miura when he found out that they wanted to make an anime series of his manga contacted Hirasawa and said something to the fact of "I create Berserk while listening to your music. I would be honored if you would score the anime adaptation of it". Hearing this Hirasawa agreed and thus became entangled in the creative universe of Berserk. Unlike the DC song which was a remix of "Forces" from the anime, the PS2 song is entirely new and fantastic. The ending song is a slower mix of the opening.
The other thing you notice is the cg cutscenes. Despite not rivaling Square or Namco, they don't look too bad. They pretty much just use slightly higher-res, cleaner models than the in-game action with added CG effects. But even though I usually despise 2d anime/manga represented as 3d CG, I ended up being pretty happy with how they turned out. The characters all look pretty accurate and the color choice is nice. Anyhow there are about 60+ cg cutscenes in the game to tell the story...and what a story it is.
The game covers the events of the Millenium Falcon arc from vol.22-27. Which is from
The snow scene at the Hawk's grave with Griffith/Zodd until after the Berserker armor fight at the witches house
So as happy as I was seeing all the good scenes from the manga brought to life in the CG movies, it was giving the characters voices that really satisfied the fan in me. All the voice actors from the TV series return and the new voices chosen for the new cast are very fitting (though Ishidiro is a bit wierd sounding at first, but I think it works). Nobutoshi Kanna in particular has and will always be fantastic as Gatts IMO.
Since I'm talking about the presentation I might as well include everything such as the music. The music will be highly debated as for the most part it's not killing music it actually sounds more like good rpg dungeon and cutscenes music. Personally I thought the music was very very good. A nice selection of instruments and chanting were used to create very atmospheric music. The final chapter in particular has music that sounds heavily inspired by Batman Mask of the Phantasm with its choir-esque sound. The quality of the music really surprised me and I can't wait for the soundtrack release on 11/25/2004.
Last part of presentation will also be the most impressive part, the animation. The modelers and animators really went to extra lengths to capture the feel of current manga Gatts. The way the sword is swung around seems very natural and in-line with how a Berserk fan has always imagined him. The special 1-hit kill animations are especially fantastic, seeing Gatts stab his Dragonslayer through the head of monster and then pull it out in a circular motion to decapitate them, or watching him jump on top of an enemy and stab downwards then proceeding to spin around as they split apart is fun. Special note goes to the boss special animations which occur whenever you or the boss counter each other, or when you use your 1-hit kill move (which isn't 1 hit on the bosses but just a special move). These animations are very well choreographed and are just all kinds of awesome. The first time you see Gatts and Zodd lock swords, your jaw will drop. Some of the more generic bosses in the middle have less detailed animations, but all the major characters get really well done scenes.
So the presentation rocks. There's some slight loading delays when going between areas or saving but otherwise the presentation is fantastic and very true to the manga.
Gameplay-wise I seriously don't have to much to say. They fixed the problems of the DC version, mainly no more small areas and now your sword doesn't stop when it hits a wall or boundary, and they gave you a whole bunch more moves. You have normal swinging, strafe combos, charge attack, 1 hit kill attack, Berserk mode, counters, weapons, and support character attacks. All this adds some variety, but in the end you'll mainly just be swinging your sword. This is actually pretty damn fun though as there is a good variety of enemies and most of them die in 1 hit. Also the game throws about 10-15 on screen at a time and they respawn forever so the fun is trying to maintain a combo as long as you can. My best was 103 kill combo, but I know some people have gotten up to 300 chains. Getting good chains also has good rewards because you get bonus exp (the game has an rpg like upgrading your stats through exp system) in addition to the normal exp the enemies give. Also the infinitely respawning enemies really puts you in Gatts's boots as this is what it's like to be always hounded by demons due to the brand. As Gatt's puts it in the game "Being around me means every night is a sleepless night".
The levels are long, usually around an hour in length with 1-2 save points. Though the 2nd to last level took me 3 hours which is a lot of time swinging your sword. But I think the game shows that the repetitiveness isn't some thing the developers put in to pad the game, but rather the repetitive killing was IN THE MANGA in the first place! Almost everytime you have to "hold an area for a few mins to buy time", or "kill all the monsters at a certain point" it's something directly out of the manga that Gatts was doing. Gatts spends ALOT of time in the manga killing things, and the game accurately portrays that. Only real negative about the level design is some of the levels are like huge rpg dungeons with all kinds of paths but only 1 leading to the exit. Sorry but in a game like this I'd rather just keep edging forward as I kill everything rather than go search for the right way to the next area.
The boss fights are really well done and a complete joy to play. The game has a pretty decent lock-on system with R1 so you can circle around the bosses and then the fights become a matter of doing all kinds of crazy attacks and countering the boss's attacks. Countering is pretty lenient in this game as all you have to do is hold down X (guard) a second before an attack hits you.
The game is a very good (though maybe too long for some) length of 10 hours. Upon finishing the game you get a 100 monster kill mode and a boss battle mode that lets you fight any boss (very cool because the boss fights really do rock). Also all the cutscenes are unlocked and you can even choose to watch all of them straight through at once. There are also a bunch of hidden weapons you can unlock and if you want to you try to level up all of Gatts's stats to the max. For me I'm just gonna stick to boss battling and watching the cutscenes, probably never gonna touch the main game again ;P
I should also mention that the game is pretty violent. It's definitely the most violent Japanese game I've ever played, but I don't keep up with US games that much so I dunno how it compares. Basically you're slicing things into pieces non-stop throughout the whole game, blood flies all over and gets on your character and sword. This is a nice effect as when you've just murdered a 100+ trolls you really should look like a bloody mess...and you do
There's no nudity though unlike the manga, but I don't think anyone really expected the game to have nudity. Lastly I'll just say what really comes down to the most important thing. When you play through the 10 hours of the game you will really feel like you have lived through the starting story of the millenium falcon arc. From the story progression, to the locales, to the dialogue, to the feel of cutting things down, to the boss fights the game captures everything perfectly. Just as the anime series let you experience vol.4-13 of the manga, the game is basically the equivalent of a 3rd anime series covering vol.22-27. After I finished the game last night I seriously couldn't do anything else all night because I was still taking in the experience. The last chapter, omfg the last chapter...if you've read vol.26-27 I'll say this
Normal Gatts fighting -> Berserker Gatts fighting -> BEAST WARPED Berserker Gatts fighting vs. the giant Grunberd in normal and dragon form is fucking incredible. The berserker armored done so well it brings tears to my eyes. As the beast form you are running and hopping like dog/wolf/man hybrid and flipping around and just doing absolute insane moves. Seriously the entire last level at Flora's house was one of the coolest game experiences in some time
Sadly AFAIK the game isn't coming to the US. Dubbing would be costly as there's a lot of cutscenes, and I think the main problem is that the story would make NO SENSE to the average gamer who hasn't read the manga. It would be really cool if someone did bring it over but who knows...
If your not a Berserk fan I have no clue why you've even read this far, but you shouldn't import it or buy it on domestic release.
But if you're a Berserk fan, especially if your a big fan of the manga, and you have a way to play imports...BUY THIS GAME. It's 100x better than the DC game and the best bringing to life of a manga, an incredible manga at that.
From a game point of view with flaws taken into account it's probably about a 7.5-8/10.
From a lunatically biased Berserk fan POV the game is so good I'd say it's a 9.5/10.
This is somewhat spoilers but I'll list the boss fights in the game:
Zodd human, Zodd beast form
Giant Zombie
Giant Golem
Ogre, Kerpie
Band of the Hawk
Griffith
Charles (new character)
Slan
Grunberd, Grunberd apostle form
Giant Zombie
Giant Golem
Ogre, Kerpie
Band of the Hawk
Griffith
Charles (new character)
Slan
Grunberd, Grunberd apostle form