Given the excellent responses I received from the last issue of WNU, I've decided to keep going and try to make this a regular feature here on the Community Blogs. This has been several weeks in the making mostly because of my procrastinatory habits when it comes to schoolwork and such. But I digress. What you'll be looking at is a new article roughly every week. Since these will more than likely be posted later in the evenings, I'll repost them at some point the next day so that everyone can enjoy them.

Now let's get down to business.

Last time I covered Demon Chaos, a game that sports a few demonolicious anime cutscenes and as a result, this week we have a little something for the anime/manga fans. HIT THAT JUMP, FOO!

This week's game is:


Berserk



Now, I have to tell you that the official translated title of the game is as follows *sharp inhale*:

Berserk Millenium Falcon Arc: Chapter of the Record of the Holy Demon War

Sporting a title that would put Capcom to shame, BMFA:CotRotHDW (I know you saw what I did there) was created by the people at Yukes Media Creations. These are the people responsible for just about every Smackdown game under the sun. The game itself was published by Sammy Studios and released in October of 2004. Sammy Studios, of course, is comprised of those wonderful folks who brought you the Guilty Gear series as well as the abomination that was Seven Samurai 20XX. Now, for those of you who may not know what Berserk is, I'll give you a to-the-point, spoiler-free synopsis: Guts is a man with a giant sword who gets very angry and proceeds to annihilate demons by the hundreds. Pretty simple, eh? If you were fortunate enough to have owned a Dreamcast, you may remember Guts from Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage. Now that I look at it.. that's a title that doesn't leave much to the imagination as far as character depth goes. And do I detect a hint of Engrish grammar?

As far as gameplay goes, it's pretty standard hack-and-slash. You choose your weapons, use combos, counter and reverse attacks, summon help from some of the other characters, etc. What makes this game stand out however, is that all of this comes with a hint of strategy. You see, Guts' sword is about as long as he is tall and despite his mastery of it, he can still be thrown off balance by swinging it too much. If you were to just randomly mash buttons, he would swing the blade slower and slower, eventually getting tired and unable to do much of anything except block until his stamina returns. This sort of gameplay actually leads to the player learning how to use their abilities to the fullest extent.

And don't think that this game skimps on the gore either. In fact, it has a mode that you can unlock called, I sh*t you not, Animal Murder Mode. Don't believe me? YouTube can prove it!



So you've seen the gameplay, heard the story, and are probably wondering to yourself, "Why didn't I get to play this?" Besides the obvious reason that it never came stateside, the reasoning behind the decision itself lies on the shoulders of the people at Dark Horse Comics. I'm gonna have to pull a Rev. Anthony here and give you a little background on the manga that spawned these games as well as an anime series.

Essentially, the series' author Kentaro Muira created Berserk at the end of his college career. By the time it was serialized in 1990, he had already released three volumes of the story. Now fast forward thirteen years to 2003 when Dark Horse Comics acquired the rights to publish the manga stateside. Assuming that the comic's readers hadn't searched for any fan translations and such, by the time the game was released, Dark Horse's version was on the verge of releasing volume 5. This is pretty harsh considering that the game itself takes place during volumes 22 through 27. In fact, DH has just released volume number 19... a full three years after the game's release. So I'm sure by now you can see where I'm going with this.

One of the biggest reasons that this game didn't make it here may have been that the developers didn't want to risk exposing North American readers to characters and plot that they hadn't even heard of yet (again, assuming they weren't reading fan translations). A second possible reason would be that they didn't feel it would have been a financially viable decision. Most of the time this might be the case. A small audience combined with minimal exposure just doesn't add up when you're trying to push a product from halfway around the world.

If you feel that this game really is worth playing (and it damn sure looks it), you can import the Korean version from Play-Asia, but it'll cost you a pretty penny. Not to mention that you need the modding tools. The game is listed on Goozex as well for only 250 points, but as of this writing there are zero offers and only a few requests. It's sad to see a game like this slowly grow farther and farther out of reach, but I guess that's just the way of the gaming world.

Join me next time when I start in on some of the suggestions that you guys gave me last time. Who knows? You may even get a double-feature.

[Sources]: Wikipedia
Dark Horse Comics
MobyGames

As always feel free to throw out suggestions. They can be anything that you want; is there anything that you want to see more of? Any games you want to suggest? Just drop a comment. I make sure to consider damn near everything because these blogs are for the community and I'd hate to disappoint Workman.