great review as always joe!! Might check out the demo in a few days

Yes! Using Dvorak's Symphony no. 9 "From the New World" - 4th Movement in your background music. It's one of my favorites, very nice powerful review as well!

It's straight from the game, too. It's the soundtrack for the epic battle between Asura and Augus on the Moon.

I think 6/10 is a bit to low to score this game in general.
You would better score this a bit different for the average gamer, the Anime loving gamer and the Hardcore gamer

For me it was about 8,0/10

I agree, it would have neede two seperate scores.
One as a game where a 6/10 is absolutely justified and one for the general experience, wich in this case would be much higher.

But the Review itself was pretty much spot on. It was an experiment and the term Love it or hate most likely was exactly what the developers wanted. Not trying to please everyone but make something unique. We need more games like this, not in the sense of gameplay but in the sense of unrestrained creativity.

That surely looked impressive but I am not fan of quick time events in games.

????Ryu -
???????Ree+U
not
????????Rai+U

I can't believe how many people in TGWTG can't make the correct pronunciation.

Oh, come on. It's not like I haven't seen Japanese animes that mispronounce common English or European names.

Besides, there's a reason I find this completely excusable: when the Street Fighter games were first released here in the US, not a whole lot of people who played them actually spoke Japanese, and it's not like the games pronounced the names for us. Gamers since the early 90s have been calling him Rai-U, and they aren't likely to change their 20+ years of habit just because you whine about it.

Actually Ryuu is a single syllable name, so you're both wrong. Look at Tokyo; we speel it Tokyo, Japan's romaji says it's Toukyou, we pronounced it Tow,kee,yow, they pronounce it Tow,kyow. If they spelled it the same way we did, then they'd pronounce it Toh,kyoh & if they pronounced it like we do, then it would be spelled Toukiyou.

Bingo! And even after spending three years studying Japanese, "Ryu" is a really hard syllable for me to pronounce, so I have to say "Ree-yu".

I don't mind people mispronouncing Japanese names, as long as it doesn't sound as if they went out of their way to say it wrong. That's all I expect.

Man, if gameplay weighs that much on your opinion of a game. Never review a visual novel, ever.

I think a game should be reviewed on it's experience and it's entertainment value mainly. Just like you would with any other media. I don't review a film primarily on how good it's camera work is. It helps, sure, and if it's terrible then the score will go down. But if it's average then I don't think it would make the rest of the game average as well considering what the rest of it is like.

I disagree, Killsteal. The problem is, the gaming industry does not market visual novels as a separate type of thing than video games. Go into a gaming store, and you are likely to see Asura's Wrath on the shelf. Go into a visual novel store and... oh, wait. There are no visual novel stores. My bad.

So it's not as if visual novels and video games are entirely separate things. On the contrary, visual novels are a genre of video games, albeit a genre that downplays the gameplay element and highly elevates the story.

In my opinion, so long as the box has XBox 360 or PS3 or even Wii on it, and the developers do expect people of some sort to buy it, then it is fair game for reviewers like Angry Joe to look at them, play them, experience them in whatever fashion, and to rate them for us potential customers.

Frankly, I think Joe took a very balanced approach to addressing this particular product: he was honest about its lack of gameplay, but at the same time, he did take into account what the product was intended to be: an interactive visual experience. And he brought both of these to bear in his review so that those gamers looking for intense gameplay will know this product isn't for them, but that those who really want the intense visual experience and story will know that this is exactly what they're looking for.

And ultimately, that's what a review is supposed to do: give the potential customer a sense of whether this product is for them.

You may think it unfair to judge a visual novel by the same standards as a full-blown video game, but that is Angry Joe's job: to give us the potential customers a sense of whether a product like this is worth our money.

Me, generally speaking, I tend to think that gameplay is the most important aspect of any game. Nevertheless, a great story and presentation, in my opinion, go a long way in drawing the player into the gaming experience. As a long-time anime fan as well, I could see myself enjoying this just for that: the story and visuals.

I actually agree with this statement, but I do believe that visual novels are significantly cheaper than normal video games. Games such as Heavy Rain, and Asura's Wrath should be a little cheaper if the cinematics outweigh the gameplay in terms of length. Don't get me wrong though, its not because I am poor or w/e other reason, just simply because it will make you feel like you paid a decent price for what you have received from games such as these.

Now for games like Final Fantasy, I think those games have pretty balanced time lengths between gameplay and cutscenes. Games such as these should be able to be around $60 just because of the length of them altogether, seeing as it took me about 60 hours just to completely FF13 story wise, without doing any side quests or extra scavenging.

i am an an otaku, so this game is now going on my wishlist. one thing about your review though: with all the mentioning of "wrath" "angrier" and "rage", I'm surprised there wasn't a Red Lantern joke. but, cool nonetheless.

I expected to see Red Lantern Joe, too. But my disappointment swiftly evaporated when I witnessed the awesomeness of DBZ Joe!

Superb review! You really got me interested in experiencing the game. Good points about how the game actually plays, I´ve never liked QTE but this might be worth playing in spite of that.

Ohhh, now where do I get one of those scouters?

This should be marketed as an interactive anime, not a game.

Good review, though. I agree with both the 6/10, for its lack of "game-ness", and the seal of approval.

bewbz

The visuals, premise, and characters of this game seem awfully similar to Sengoku Basara, don't they? Even the alternate endings and kickass music are present in both.

It even has the same stupid translation mistakes in the german version. The german translators at Capcom usually do a decent job but there seems to be on guy who can not write the german word for destroyed to save his live. Destroyed means vernichtet in german(among others, we have a lot of words describing the same thing), this guy writes zernichtet (a word that does not exist). It's not just a typo, in both games you see this error over and over again.

Devil may cry is a good example of a good anime style *game*. It does not have unnecessary quick time events, but good challengin gameplay. Capcom really should take a look back a do the things the way they used to do.

Yeah. Capcom hasn't made a game like that in y-
Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes.
Hello. My name is Pey N. Atenshion.
It has all of that and no QTEs.

Didn't liked the Demo. Gameplay felt just like a copy paste of the Naruto games. A Game is already an interactive movie. You don't need to have specific camera shots and almost no control in the action to be told a decent story.
If they wanted to do an Anime they should have done it, it would have been less expensive. When I'm watching an anime or a movie I don't want to have to carry a remote in my hands and use it from time to time.
Heavy Rain is different because you do have the power to interact with the story. Based on what I know it's not the case with this game. No matter what you do the story is a linear path so there's no comparing it with HR.
I'd rather watch a video footage of someone playing the game rather than actually playing it.
The gameplay mechanics from the Demo were really repetitive and boring.
Now I want a game adaptation of Asura's Wrath cause the universe is really interesting.

why is this vid still on tgwtg and not blistered thumbs

is this a problem?

-The Theory

I think, for some, it's raising a question about the precise relationship between TGWTG and BT. Why is it that long-time TGWTG gamers like Spoony and Joe suddenly uploading all their vids to TGWTG instead of BT?

For one thing, BT just redesigned their website. There are still a lot of flaky design issues - like the fact you can see Thumbs Down numbers, but not Thumbs Up numbers (and if they had to ditch one or the other, why not the Thumbs Down? Nobody really cares about them anyway).

Another issue, once BT started up as a separate site, I was watching stuff over there sometimes as much as a week before it was posted on TGWTG. That, and TGWTG hasn't been as busy lately as it has been in the past. It may be that they've asked Spoony and Joe to post here instead of BT so they can increase activity on TGWTG.

In the case of Spoony, it sort of makes sense, since hardly any of his stuff ever got posted to BT anyway.

Ultimately, I have no clue. But you have to admit, it is kind of weird.

Considering that BT has had approximately 1 new video in the past 4 days, while TGWTG posts 5-7 new videos a day, I don't think your theory is all that sound.

It's probably due to something much stupider.

That's only one of the theories I posted. The other is that BT is currently under a revamp, in case you hadn't noticed.

Besides, if you look at it long-term, the disproportionate numbers of uploads you cite doesn't really hold. Up until a few weeks ago, BT was much busier. Since the redesign, it hasn't seen nearly as much activity.

Yeah, the revamp has made trying to navigate to episodes/articles from a specific contributor somewhat annoying. I can see why Joe has been posting to this site, instead.

Still, it is odd to see Joe jumping ship. Since, he was main driving force behind the creating the Blistered Thumbs website.

And according to the site, he's still Director of Operations. It's pretty sad when a website's DO is posting elsewhere.

But hopefully, once they've got all the design issues worked out, he'll return.

I'm not sure what you're talking about with Blistered Thumbs being busier than TGWTG. Those disproportionate numbers hold up really well. This site has always posted 5-7 videos a day, and rarely to never posts less than 5 videos.

Besides the sheer number of contributors on BT, only a quarter of them post with any real consistency, and even less post on a weekly basis.

Your belief that BT is "busier" simply comes from the fact that they happen to post articles, which this site no longer does. But when it comes to video content, it's not even close. The last thing BT needs is LESS people posting videos on it. Especially their most popular contributor. That theory makes no sense.

The revamp should have nothing to do with it. It's just a change on how the site looks.

Let's set a few things straight there:

1. prior to the revamp of BT, about half of the videos posted here were reposts of stuff that was already up on BT, for example, videos from Angry Joe or Benzaie that were already up on BT. So that cuts the original videos on TGWTG down from about 5-7 to about 3-5 a day.

2. TGWTG hasn't even been posting a consistent 5-7 videos a day recently. It's been more like 4-5. And again, considering that up until recently, about half of that was stuff was reposted from BT, we drop the number yet again.

And by the way, when was the last time TGWTG actually posted more than 5 videos a day at all? A year or more ago? Because you see that video ticker to the right side of the page? I don't remember seeing that thing filled up with new content for almost a year. Again, usually about 4-5 new posts a day, and sometimes even less than that. And lower that even more for stuff that was previously posted on BT.

So in reality, it is you who have no clue what you're talking about.

And once again, it's only a theory, so quit getting your panties in a wad over it. Unless you have a real explanation, in which case, I'd love to hear it.

"So in reality, it is you who have no clue what you're talking about."

You're cute when you blindly assume. I can't wait until we find out the truth.

I would just expect all of the gaming related stuff to be on BT like it has been ever since there was a BT.

Yeah, this game truly is just not a game, but an interactive media instead. I'd give this a 6.5 out of 10 due to its absent gameplay and length, but I'd give this game a try just to see how much DBZ influence this game has. Only problem is, I don't have any Blockbusters to go to rent anymore since they are all closing down. And a friend of mine told me Gamefly is not worth the price of admission.

God Lord,do I love Joe's reviews.

I tried the demo and kinda liked it. I'll pick it up later on since ME3 is right around the corner.

toonami reference FTW :)

As good as it supposedly is, there's no way I'm paying $60 for an anime. I'll check it out when it's $20.

Aaah, Asuras Wrath. This is the kind of game I WANT to like because everything about it's story just SCREAMS "THIS IS WHAT YOU LIKE IN STUPID ACTION GAMES"... but that lacking gameplay. I got the cut-scene in the demo where Yasha tells Deus that the only one Augus has ever drawn his sword against is Deus, and if Asura can manage that then certainly he is among the baddest of asses...

And I just felt nothing because the fight until then had been, mechanically speaking, such a hum-drum, low-effort affair.

I WILL get Asuras Wrath. I will play it, and I will most likely enjoy it. But for full price, when I have to pinch my pennies and want games that give me longevity? Eeeeh, naah. Once the price goes down, you'll see this game on my shelf. I'm not paying 60 bucks for a bunch of very pretty and crazy awesome cutscenes.

Okay, recommended for all Shonen fans. Not anime fans in general. Not all of us like Dragonball Z and Naruto. I, for one, feel they are very much the bottom of the barrel on storytelling and animation. Just saying I have a far better love for a well told and developed story over pure action.

Well, seeing as I'm an obvious anime junkie, and AJ didn't steer me wrong re: the first two Saints Row games, definitely gonna give this game a look. Was a bit put off by the ad testimonial re: 16 years of gaming. Really? I'm supposed to be impressed with an anonymous gaming milksop's opinion of this game? But Joe's in-depth review certainly piqued my interest.

Cyberconnect2? So THIS is what they've been working on since the last Dothack game.
Glad to see their work is still worthy of praise, but you're right; compared to their earlier works, it seems short on gameplay. Quicktime events usually aren't their style. Still, as a fan of their productions, this is probably one I'd look to picking up. Thanks!

6:27 Eww....Thanks alot Joe...I'm putting that on my list of things I can't unsee, & the boobs weren't washing it out of my brain like I hoped they would.

I would like to say to people that we should support developers from Japan to encourage more games like this because this game could diversify our gaming genre. I think with enough voice and interest, developers will understand the western culture's need and will be open for an improvement. The best way I can explain this game is basically if George Lucas was an asian buddhist and made a movie/anime, this would probably be it. This game is rich with story and artistic style which is very lacking in western gaming. It was a breath of fresh air. For me, Fallout 3 or skyrim was an utter mess of non-artistic misdirections. Seeing those npc standing there with arm crossed and with no expression on their ugly rendered faces while giving a speech about killing a dragon was seriously something we should not tolerate in a gaming anymore. Just because there are overwhelming contents, they should not excuse from lack of artistic creativity. Lets not be amused like a baby with a giggling keys and wake up.

Seriously, what happened to the entertainment industry that we never see "Two demigods battling in space destroying planets throwing fireballs at each other" anymore?
Where did all the AWESOME go?
THANK YOU Asura's Wrath! Hope in awesome humanity restored!

lol your unkempt beard makes you look a lot chubbier. Tame that wild beast mang! Going out to buy this game nooooooooow

New World Symphony!! Hell yeah! Nice choice of music...oh and good review too!

That big ass smile on Joe's face even just talking about the game has to tell you something about just how fun this game is.

Joe's Wrath blows up a small continent o.o;