But – and this is a very big reservation – it often forgets to be interactive. Its story – bonkers and entirely nonsensical as it is, towards the end – is what keeps you playing you always want to know what's going to happen next. Asura's Wrath is, in my opinion, one of the greatest achievements in Japanese animation in a very long time.

The static illustrations that feature between episodes are gorgeously detailed too – as you might expect from a studio (CyberConnect 2) whose staff are suffused with passion for manga and anime. It's awesome scene after awesome scene: a fleet of spaceships exploding in the sky, a space weapon shaped like a giant Buddha made of light, a face-off between six-armed Asura and stylish, mask-wearing rival Yasha in a smoking crater. It's beautifully directed the animation is often up there with the best in Japanese film. The style, which is a synthesis of bizarre science-fiction and Japanese mythological imagery viewed through a pen-and-ink, comic-book filter, is unique and striking. You'll see some astonishing things: the Earth exploding into a gigantic laser-shooting maw, a sword so long it can cleave the Moon in two, and Asura regularly punching people so hard that they literally go into orbit.Īsura's Wrath's presentation is faultless. As he comes back to life and sees what a mess of the world his former comrades have made, his rage gets stronger and stronger, leading to some incredible scenes of over-the-top, fantastical violence. He loses his wife and daughter to a power-plot dreamed up by the other deities, and finds himself resurrected centuries later through the sheer force of his anger.

The game's story spans 12,000 years and follows the story of Asura – a demi-god betrayed by his fellow gods and thrown out of heaven. It delivers a story that's up there with the best gaming has to offer in terms of visual spectacle, but in doing so, it stays very close to the conventions of film, and rather shies away from actually being a game. It is an attempt at a new kind of interactive entertainment, one much closer to living, breathing anime than traditional action game. This is, self-evidently, an excellent thing – and a rare one, if you've been playing games for a long time. Asura's Wrath is not like any game you will ever have played before.

Asura wrath gameplay