Berserk and the Band of the Hawk

Berserk is a mashup between the manga/anime series and the musou style gameplay that Koei Tecmo is (in)famously known for. Honestly, i wasnt expecting a great game going into it, just a few more story beats considering that i dont read the manga. And thats pretty much what i got, Berserk is only a passable musou game, but it does expand a bit on the story beyond what has been adapted.

This is the sort of mindless game that you put on when you want to be as mind free as possible. Just put some podcasts or music on and its much more enjoyable. The game is really, really easy, and it only gets midly challenging during boss fights, for all the wrong reasons. Guts seems perfectly designed for this sort of game, as some of his combos can dispatch over 50 enemies at a time. Not to mention the finishing movies after berserk mode which can all enemies in a 20 meter radius. You feel like a damn god playing this game, and thats really the best things about it. I was also impressed with the gore system and the high number of npcs on scree, though some of the more intense battles have frame drops.

A big issue with the game are the boss battles however, especially those that for story reasons make you go 1v1. The combat system simply wasnt build with these in mind, and this plus the huge health pools and enemy attacks that can make you stun make this very frustrating at times. Femto in particular is very annoying, as he keeps repeating these AOE attacks that knock you back and you cant get to the sucker. Really, really annoying, and in these stages the game drops from a 6/10 to a 2/10. Fortunatly they are over quickly.

As for the extra story besides the golden age arc, well be prepared to suffer through some very awkward cutscenes and voice acting. It looks extremely low budget stuff, after the initial use of movie cutscenes for the first part. Still, its cool to learn more about beserk, and the enemy variety in the latter stages changes things a little (even if your strategy doesnt change).

All things considered its a very mediocre adaptation for an IP that clearly deserves more. It does have its shining moments here and there, but it also has a lot of bs that i cant really recommend it to anyone.