Berserk and the Band of the Hawk Review (PS4)
Berserk seems like a series that should make for a supremely enjoyable hack-and-slash game, and that’s exactly what Berserk and the Band of the Hawk provides. Even the violence and sheer horribleness of the series is taken into account, with Berserk and the Band of the Hawk being the most brutal Warriors game to date.
At over 40 stages, there’s a huge amount of story covered. This includes some exciting new ground for those who haven’t read the manga, as the game goes beyond even the 2016 anime series – starting with the Golden Age arc and going right through to the Hawk of the Millenium Empire arc. It’s an interesting and enjoyable rendition with lots of detail. Between stages, there are additional events and brief conversations between the characters too. Though often only a few lines long, these scenes add a nice insight to the bonds between the characters and I found myself looking forward to them after each battle.
Like some other recent Warriors games, a stream of missions in the levels keep you focused in your hacking and slashing endeavours. Although these are ultimately ‘kill these people first’, the objectives help the gameplay feel fresher. Each character has a different play style with some variations in how Frenzy mode influences their fighting, on top of their individual move set. Free Mode allows you to run wild as whoever you feel like, of course, but some stages in Story Mode also allow you to play as other characters. Most of the time you’ll be playing as Guts, though, and that’s fine for the most part, as it’s exactly the Berserk hack’n’slash experience you want.
Objectives help the gameplay feel fresher.
On top of the simple and enjoyable Warriors standards, Berserk and the Band of the Hawk refines gameplay with its additional elements. Various sub-weapons are available for ranged attacks, allowing you to change up combos, and the multiple levels of Frenzy make it a particularly interesting take on the chargeable special move formula. Some characters have a special transformation for inflicting even more carnage when the Frenzy gauge reaches its maximum level too. The sheer destruction afforded to you by these transformations is supremely satisfying, but it’s an ability you won’t get to experience until completing the vast majority of the story mode.
Berserk and the Band of the Hawk refines gameplay with its additional elements.
In addition to Story Mode and Free Mode, is the intense Endless Eclipse. I went into this expecting an average survival mode, but it’s a lot more in-depth than I thought it would be! In fact, it’s a little confusing. Endless Eclipse is divided into multiple quests called ‘Desires’, and you can play as any character you have unlocked. Fighting through the Desires and their waves of enemies layer by layer earns you rewards, which are different for each character. With no chance to heal except the limited items you bring with you and those gained from the occasional escort mission, Endless Eclipse is a massively long test of endurance.
By defeating optional Stray War Demons, you can also obtain more Behelits to unlock picture panels. These enemies in particular really can be pretty tough, but not impossible, especially with Skull Knight to help out sometimes (he’s a lot more useful than I expected). The big thing about Endless Eclipse is that your progress resets when you leave the mode or lose a battle. Although you’ll have your rewards, and Desires you’ve completed and Behelits you’ve earned are still marked, you’ll have to recover some ground in order to get to the next set of quests and go deeper into the Abyss. It takes a fair amount of patience to get far in one sitting, but it’s an interesting challenge, and provides a great opportunity for levelling characters up.
On the PS4 version at least, the visuals are excellent, and interspersing scenes from the anime movies is an excellent way to emphasise some of Berserk‘s most important moments. Only scenes from the trilogy of movies are used, so from the end of the Golden Age arc onward it’s solely game graphics. This is a little disappointing, especially when the most recent anime adaptation could have been included for some sections. The lovely graphics quite frankly put the CG from the Golden Age movies to shame though, so they still do a great job.
Being more used to Berserk‘s excellent English dub, it’s a bit of a shame that there is no option for English voices in the game. The Japanese voices are still great though, and there’s not a huge amount of dialogue during battles, so keeping up with it isn’t too difficult. The game’s soundtrack is new, and can sound a little weird over scenes from the anime, but it’s still really good stuff and suits the game perfectly.
There are a couple of areas where Berserk and the Band of the Hawk isn’t quite so polished. Especially later into the game, there are a lot of spelling and grammar and mistakes in the text, and the story becomes somewhat rushed. The camera can also cause a few issues, especially up against some of the huge bosses. I’m a little better acquainted with Apostle kneecaps than is useful when trying to fight. With a roster of only 8, the game could have a few more playable characters too, although the ones there are cover a lot of bases as far as fighting style and prominence in the story go.
Berserk and the Band of the Hawk captures the essence of the series in spectacular fashion.
Ultimately, these minor flaws detract very little from the brilliance of the game as a whole. Berserk and the Band of the Hawk captures the essence of the series in spectacular fashion, and I could ask for little more in a Berserk game.
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