In A time when Capcom had a genesis of IPs and problems with sales. Very few appreciated what they made. Street Fighter 4 and DMC: Devil May Cry. But one game never made it out, at least until nearly a decade later.  The late 2000s and early 2010s era of games chased tropes and formulas that were popular during that time. Capcom was looking for a way to compete with the God Of War series. The game they found was Asura’s Wrath, the fiery enigma.

The development of the game was by Cyber Konnect 2, they had just come off the success of the Naruto: Ninja Storm games and Jojo’s Bizzare Adventures: All-Star Battle. This was preceded by the backing and funding of Capcom. However, the studio made an unorthodox approach via writing the story and scripts first and then taking it to a real story writer to trim the fat. But in an unfortunate event, and due to the recovering economic crisis in the U.K., the game was labeled as a bomb. But even though wrong timing hindered the overall profits of the game, the approach to storytelling brought a game with a game that rivaled the God Of War story.

Asruas’s Wrath takes place in ancient times as Asura, a demi-god, fights with other Hindu gods to defeat the Shinkoku army. But the other gods see Asura’s Daughter as a key to defeating the army, so they frame him and kick him out so he can’t fight back. He then has to fight the Gohma, which is an earthly force of shikoku, and fight through the Pantheon of gods to get to the top. What makes this game and its missions so unique is its mission structure is based more on TV shows. For instance, it has an intro, recap, and even a “coming up,” in every episode (Mission). Zeiji, who has been a forum helper since 2017 believes that the typical story is used differently in the game. 

“Getting revenge is a typical story overall, but the anger that Asura has is kinda unique,” Zeji said, “Also, I like how he transforms and stuff, and how he always breaks his limit after he gets defeated.”

The art style and visuals are based on neo-Hindu styles and combinations of Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball Z anatomy and, during action scenes with Kentaro Muira’s Berserk. Colors used in the game differ upon each area and time in the story. Most of the time they use assets of space and also desert and rock colors on earth. The 2 biggest things were the architecture of the homeworld of Asura and also the fights with Yasha and Asura working together. Long-time fan, Anthony Huynh, believes that there is that much physical fidelity until there are major parts of the plot presented.  

“I like the 3-D classic sunset vibes and has ancient background vibes to it,” Anthony said, “throughout the series, until Asura fights literal gods, it’s a very gloomy vibe.”

The three main factors of Combat in Asura’s Wrath is your normal hack-and-slash gameplay, 2-D shooter sections, and Quick Time Events (QTE). The hack-and-slash gameplay is very simplistic, but its very few combos are nevertheless flashy. The combat is watered down into Heavy and Light Combos, and is almost reminiscent of DMC: Devil May Cry’s approach to combat when it comes to the accessibility to new players. The 2-D shooting sections are more than what I like in the game, but I see the importance of them. Especially when it is within a boss fight and due to the very simple hack-and-slash sections. The QTEs are best described as keeping the player on their feet even during cutscenes or even the other way of keeping a great cinematic take on gameplay. It also shows some very cool executions on each enemy with each of them being unique to its enemy type. However, in dissent, Sharrveswareen S. vocalizes that they don’t agree but love some aspects. 

“ I don’t really like them that much, but I enjoy the counterattack and special attack the most,” Sharrveswareen said.

Even though most frame Asura’s Wrath to be an enigma amongst the Capcom brand, I feel that there is no reason for it. I love that it has gained a massive resurgence and even though most panned it due to a number of DLC controversies, I think most see it not as bad as what EA and Ubisoft has done over the past 5 or so years. So call it what you want but it is an enigma that has asserted itself to be the best and no apologies were wanted nor required.