Guts Rages Again in Omega Force’s Berserk

For the last few years, it’s been difficult to read discussions surrounding licensed Warriors/Musou collaborations and not see constant wishes of a Berserk title in this style from fans. The requests popped were all around discussions regarding other Warriors anime/manga collaborations like Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage and its sequel and Arslan: The Warriors of Legend (adaptation of the current The Heroic Legend of Arslan series), with people thinking Berserk would be right up developer Omega Force’s alley.

All you have to do is observe even a small portion of Kentaro Miura’s manga or the anime series/movies, or their promotional art and advertisements, to understand their point. Its imagery frequently shows protagonist Guts and others mowing through hordes of enemies, which would make for a perfect adaption in a gameplay series with precisely that hallmark.

Little did those ardent fans know the aforementioned developer and publisher Koei Tecmo heard those requests, as they confirmed that a Warriors game based on Berserk is indeed coming. The company uploaded a teaser site shortly before its announcement, which used the series’ familiar black and red colors. Upon seeing that, there wasn’t much else it could have been for. (Though some thought it was for a Devil May Cry Warriors game, for some bizarre reason.) However, they didn’t start detailing it until this week, because they naturally didn’t want news of it to get buried in the torrent of news coming from E3.

The game will cover the story period from the beginning of the “Golden Age Arc,” continue through the “Conviction Arc,” and until the end of the “Millennium Falcon Arc.” (No relation to that Millennium Falcon, of course.) That means they’ll be skipping or condensing the “Black Swordsman Arc” (the first arc), meaning the developers are well aware of the period where fans started to enjoy the series. Keep in mind the Golden Age Arc occurs first canonically, with the Black Swordsman arc coming second, and others following that. I hope this isn’t too confusing, though that’s hardly surprising in terms of chronicling a manga series that’s been running since the late ‘80s.

Given that they’ll be covering so much ground with three arcs, they clearly won’t have the opportunity to highlight every event which happens in them. Like other Warriors adaptations, they’ll focus on the biggest events, and those which will make for the best gameplay possibilities.

That also means this game will be covering far more ground than previous game-related adaptations from developer Yuke’s. Both Dreamcast title Chapter of the Flowers of Oblivion (localized by Eidos as Sword of the Berserk: Guts’ Rage) and Japan-only PS2 title Chapter of the Holy Demon War took place during the Millennium Falcon arc.

While we’re on the topic of adaptations: the 1997 anime TV series took place during the Golden Age Arc — the first episode notwithstanding, which swiftly ran through a tiny portion of the Black Swordsman Arc. The Golden Age Arc movies went through…well, guess. The upcoming 24-episode TV series starting in a week (with Crunchyroll simulcasting) will cover the Black Swordsman Arc, continuing after the movies in terms of canon, and retaining the similarly questionable animation choices. The timing of this and the resuming of the manga means this game adaptation is coming at an opportune time.

The game’s first trailer primarily shows Guts decimating hordes of enemies, precisely what anyone would have expected or wanted for a Berserk Warriors game. Currently, only Guts and Griffith (also capable of fighting hordes) have been confirmed as playable, though others will undoubtedly join them.

Among those should be Casca, who’s being given a Wet Towel alternate outfit as preorder DLC in Japan. Showing her semi-naked in the main visual is okay, since it serves to let people know precisely what kind of dark fantasy series this is. But it was beyond peculiar to see this as the focus in the teaser. Skeevy outfits are a norm for video games, especially in Japan these days, but this is incredibly disturbing if you’re aware of the scenes in the manga where these events occurred. At least they didn’t bleach her skin like in the Golden Age movie trilogy.

Despite just being announced, the game will release in Japan in less than three months on September 21st, strategically timed to land right in the middle of the new anime’s airing. It will release on all PlayStation platforms, but the PS3 version will only arrive through PlayStation Network — unusual for a Japanese title. Meanwhile, though no release timeframe has been confirmed for western territories, it will arrive on PS4, Vita, and PC via Steam. Since we’re already close to the release date, expect more to be shown in the coming weeks.

Let’s also hope they can convince everyone that it will be good, unlike some other Omega Force anime adaptations. And I’ll just assume they’ll do the right thing and hire Susumu Hirasawa to perform a song. There’s no way they wouldn’t, right? Right. Let’s not get crazy here.