The most brutal Musou is how Berserk And The Band Of The Hawk was announced. Now the game is finally here. Does it avoid the Warrior series’ flaws? Does it bring anything unique to the series? And is it the most brutal Musou?
GRRIIIFIIITHHHHH!!!!!
Band Of The Hawk’s story mode covers several arcs of the manga instead of having a unique story. A rough majority of the story mode covers the Golden Age arc which is pretty disappointing. The Golden Age Arc, while good, mostly feels like a set-up for where Berserk really shines the brightest. Another problem is that almost every piece of media that isn’t the manga mainly covers the Golden Age Arc so fans of the franchise are sick of seeing the same thing over and over again. The way the story is delivered also leaves something to be desired. The game uses footage from the cell-shaded CG movies which didn’t look all that amazing to begin with. Warrior or Musou games are all action no downtime which doesn’t work with the way the story is trying to be conveyed. One moment you get a short cutscene of events that happen after a battle and the other moment you are watching almost fifteen-minute footage from the movies that have almost nothing to do with the actual game. It’s pretty baffling and it becomes pretty hard to care about what’s going on when none of the cutscenes feel like they are directly connected to the main gameplay. After the Golden Age Arc is done the game dumps the Cell-shaded CG cutscenes pretty much entirely and instead uses in-engine cutscenes or the game’s own CG cutscenes which look way better. It’s a shame the earlier parts of the game don’t use these cutscenes as it would have helped the pacing and presentation considerably. Beserk’s action is pretty easily adapted into an action game but its narrative is harder to pull off in these kinds of games. The team tried to put too much into the game instead of doing an abridged version and instead the story is presented in a sloppy, awfully paced mess.
The story that’s being delivered has almost nothing to do with the actual gameplay.
That thing is too big to be called a sword.
Berserk plays just like any other Warrior game. You run around on a battlefield filled with cannon fodder and use light and heavy attacks to dispose of hordes of enemies. The combo list is fairly shallow and enemies mostly just stand around waiting to be hit. Enemy commanders and bosses do require players to block and dodge attacks but other than that the game just resolves around basically mashing buttons. While moving through waves of enemies feels satisfying, it gets monotonous pretty quick. Beserk keeps its stages relatively short so the repetition doesn’t set in as fast but eventually, the game will get the better of most players. There are items players can equip or certain characters have which mixes things up but only minimally. Characters play the same with just the attack animations being different and things like speed or power being the only difference. Aside from the main story mode, there is the Free mode which lets you tackle any stage with any character you want. Then there is Endless Eclipse Mode which let you pick a character and requires you to progress through one hundred layers in order to fulfill their deepest desires. The mode makes an already monotonous game even more of a drag since the gameplay isn’t varied enough to be enjoyed for one hundred battles. Aside from that, the mode doesn’t really offer player that much for finishing it. Berserk And The Band Of The Hawk falls into traps most Musou games fall into. And with a lack of modes in this game specifically Berserk won’t hold the attention of most people expect for the most devout fans of either series.
Gameplay is the same Warriors formula we all know… but gorier.
Berserk’s presentation is everything but divine.
Berserk’s presentation is messy. The art style the game uses is great and while on a graphical level it isn’t that impressive, models and characters are well-modeled. Berserk is also more gory and brutal than most Musou games with limbs and buckets of blood flying all over the place. This mixed with the impressive amount of enemies on screen makes the game run poorly at times. Frame drops are pretty frequent and sometimes even get in the way of the game’s enjoyment. The characters and environments all look the part and the Eclipse stages are visually interesting but that’s mainly due to the Manga itself. As stated earlier, the game uses several different art-styles in its story mode. It’s messy and disconnects events from that actual gameplay. It’s pretty jarring to see the game go from in-game cutscenes to a cell-shaded clip form one of the movies to a high rendered CG render. It’s clear the team tried to skimp on the budget by using the movie clips for as long as they could. The music is one of the better elements in the game. All the music is original and fits right in with the berzerk universe. Heroic tunes for when The Band Of The Hawk storms a castle and Evangelical hums to accompany anything Eclipse related. Berserk looks and sounds like Berserk but the inconsistent framerate and presentation leave a lot to be desired.
Graphically the game looks okay and a lot of the visuals are carried by the great designs from the manga.
Closing Note:
When push comes to shove Berserk And The Band Of The Hawk is just another entry in the Musou franchise but with the Berserk title applied to it. Aside from being gorier than most Warrior games, Band Of The Hawk brings nothing unique to the table. The game plays competently enough but its shallow repetitive gameplay beats will make sure players will be done with it before reaching the endgame. The game’s main visual style looks good enough but switching between three different art styles is jarring and it doesn’t help that the movie clips are implemented poorly. The music is great and fits Berserk perfectly. Berserk And The Band Of The Hawk is a nice time waster for fans of Musou or hardcore Berserk fans but for anyone else there is not much of interest or value.
6/10
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