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Cyberconnect2 and Capcom's Asura's Wrath is an attempt to take anime-inspired gaming to the West. Europe and America are home to a pretty big audience that enjoys manga and Japanese animated television shows along with their cups of coffee in the morning, so in theory, this would seem a most novel idea that could potentially rake in several million dollars/euros for Capcom. The product itself is interesting; Asura's Wrath is part action game, part episodic anime adventure, all packaged together gloriously on one blu ray disc or dual-layer DVD. But do the parts come together creating the anime action/adventure we have all been craving? Or are we left with something that is wildly beyond our comprehension?
We learn that Asura, one of eight demi-gods who fought to liberate Heaven and Earth from the evil Gohma was betrayed by his fellow demi-gods and subsequently stripped of all his powers. Having been banished to a world that has since been consumed by the Gohma, all he has left is his vengeance, which he discovers he can use to his advantage against his enemies. Asura's Wrath's narrative is told through various episodes that draw heavy inspiration from Japanese anime, with well-paced interactive fighting sections and epic boss battles in between. Calling some of these battles ‘epic' is quite the understatement — their scale and scope is unparalleled. Asura unleashes his wrath to take down entire fleets of enemies and fights near-endless waves of foes who are, to put it mildly, rather large. But what could potentially get in the way of immersion is the story itself (despite some delightfully despicable villains), which is perhaps too fantastical and anime-inspired, and is unlikely to appeal to someone who has not watched several hundred hours of something similar.
