BERSERK

—by Kenneth Lee

When BERSERK was first announced for the Dreamcast in Japan, my immediate gut reaction was, "Great! Another cheesy anime game created to cash in on the blind otaku fans." Not that the anime was poor, but rather that most of the anime-licensed games that have ever been released have been horribly bad - check the utter crap that was MACROSS VF-X (PSX), or the various DRAGONBALL games for proof. But as early screenshots and movies were released on the net, BERSERK started to look like a solid game. Perhaps there was hope. When all is said and done, ASCII delivers an outstanding anime 3D action game that does justice to its excellent roots.
BERSERK is much more than just good, it is downright compelling. It delivers the best cinematics (via real-time cut-scenes) ever to grace a video game! Some of the cut-scenes are even better than METAL GEAR SOLID! It's that good. And since they use all the actual in-game character models, the entire game has a much more cohesive feel to it, versus games that use CG movies at various points, but then cut back to regular in-game graphics.
For those that don't know, the BERSERK show is based off of the original manga by Kentarou Miura, which follows the story of Guts (this is ASCII's official translation of his name), a roaming black knight who carries a sword the size of a human being—think Cloud from FINAL FANTASY VII and you get the idea. The anime is extremely violent, and the game remains true to its roots: As you control Guts and hack your way through various battles, the hemoglobin flows non-stop! You have never seen this much blood in a video game! Monsters can be cut in pieces, vertically or horizontally, SAMURAI SHODOWN-style. But fear not, it is never gratuitous, or overly grotesque. After all, any creature chopped by a 7 foot-long sword would probably spew that much blood anyways.
Essentially BERSERK is a 3D action game, similar to TOMB RAIDER in perspective. The action part of the game is solid—tight, responsive controls, a nice number of moves, and a (mostly) intelligent camera. You control Guts with the analog control pad. You have two attack buttons (horizontal and vertical attacks), a jump button and block. By holding the R trigger button, you gain access to various extra items to use (think CASTLEVANIA), such as bombs, knives, healing potions, and a Super Bomb. Guts can also put away his massive sword with the L trigger button and then use punches instead. In this mode, he also gains access to a Bow Gun hand weapon.
While not a fighting game, Guts has a nice small arsenal of combos that are really simple to execute, mainly involving tapping a few buttons in a certain order like "A, A, A, B." In addition, they even added in some SHEN MUE-inspired real-time action events: For example, you walk along a wooden bridge when a goblin at the end of it starts to cut the rope. A button flashes on screen for an instant, and if you hit that button within the time allowed, Guts will safely recover. If not, Guts falls down to the cavern below, and you go down a completely different path!
Yet interestingly enough, the main attraction of this game isn't the 3D action sequences—as cool as they are—but rather the story itself. You see, being the smart people that they are, YUKE'S (creators of HERMIE HOPPERHEAD (PSX) and SOUKAIGI (PSX)) hired the original manga creator, Miura Kentarou, to write an original story for this game! In addition, he served as Executive Supervisor on this project as well. Good things can only happen when that occurs, and BERSERK shows the effort in spades.
As aforementioned, the in-game cut-scenes are some of the most stunning, beautiful real-time cinematics ever to grace a video game system! When I say "beautiful," I don't just mean high-res graphics and massive polygon count characters. I mean the amazing camera work, and perspectives. All the cut-scenes play out as good as if you were watching an anime show or movie! Words truly cannot do this game justice in this respect. Overall, you spend more time watching the gorgeously choreographed cut-scenes than you do playing the game, which sounds bad, but in actuality is rather refreshing.
BERSERK does have its share of problems, unfortunately. During the action sequences, the camera does get stuck in corners at times, although this is rare. Also, although realistic, Guts manages to get caught in many tight corridors while fighting hoards of baddies—since his sword is so huge, you can't swing it in those tight areas, as it gets caught in the wall when you try to swing. The only problem is your fist attacks are just too weak. You end up getting reamed, and are forced to either draw out the enemies slowly (away from the tight spaces), or just diving into them and taking the massive damage.
You also have the perennial 'slightly off angle so you can't hit them' problem that plagues most 3D action games: There are many times when you try and point Guts at the exact, correct angle to face an oncoming enemy, but when you start swinging, the enemy turns out to be 20-30 degrees to your left, and you miss them! This is one thing that I hope most companies can correct in the future by using the ingenious creation of Miyamoto Shigeru: ZELDA 64's 'Z-lock' move, which basically allows you to lock onto whatever object you want and remain 'locked' onto it. As a result, if you move in any direction, you will always be facing that creature/object you just locked onto, thus eliminating this annoying problem of being just slightly off-kilter when you attack an enemy. It makes sense in these 3D environments, since it takes much more work to interact with things in 3D (judging how far you are in distance, the right angle to face, etc.).
And lastly, the balance on some of the NPC's are just horrible at times - there is a certain enemy you face (just a generic NPC) that swings a giant halberd around. The range is horrendous, and if you get caught in it, you get sucked in and get hit repeatedly as he swings the halberd around. Well, at a few key points in the game, you sometimes face two or three of these baddies—imagine what happens if one sucks you in and a second one starts in and swings! You essentially die and have to restart that section.
Overall, BERSERK for the Dreamcast is an outstanding, compelling "story game." It's like watching a three hour anime movie based on BERSERK the anime/manga series. They even hired the original seiyuu cast, with great actors like Miyamura Yuko (Asuka from EVANGELION). It is an original story and scenario written by the original creator, and with the Dreamcast's awesome power, the real-time cut-scenes are sharp and crisp, with wonderful 3D models that accurately reflect the characters. Add in a solid 3D action game, and you've got a winner. Despite its slight flaws, BERSERK is fun to play. Giant boss encounters await you at the end of many stages, and while the final boss was a cake walk, the overall presentation made up for it. Lastly, you get a prize box that contains various omake extras that you can unlock, like a detailed back history for all the main characters in the BERSERK universe, or an art gallery. You can also save all the movies and access them at any time after you've beat the game once. This is a wonderful anime-inspired game that is one of the Dreamcast's best.

Rating: 9.0 / 10.0

Dreamcast (1 CD)
Dramatic 3D Action 1 Player
T-2101M
¥5800
Available now in Japan
Where to buy