Berserk and the Band of the Hawk could be the greatest representation of the Warriors games yet. I really don’t say that lightly, it delivers both a grand Berserk experience, and a brightly engrossing Musou.
Within mere minutes of slashing up great swathes of soldiers with the burly one-man army known as Guts, the original 100 man slayer, it’s clear there’s not been a better-suited license for developer Omega Force’s Musou setup than Kentarou Miura’s manga and anime heavyweight Berserk. It slots into the mould that’s mostly used for the long running Dynasty Warriors series so comfortably you’d be forgiven for wondering if it was developed to one day use this very license.
While there have been some great spinoffs (Dragon Quest Heroes, Attack on Titan, Fist of the North Star, Hyrule Warriors etc), the way in which Berserk retains the qualities of Omega Force’s tried and tested structure whilst being a largely faithful videogame adaptation of the grim n’ grisly adventures of Guts puts it on a different, if still somewhat similar, level to the rest.
Band of the Hawk kicks off with the events of the Golden Age arc last seen in the three Berserk films from 2012/2013 (The Egg of the King, The Battle for Doldrey, and The Advent). This is a swirling epic retelling of the early days in the career of lone wolf mercenary, Guts, as he goes from reluctant underling for the titular Band of the Hawk, all the way to his hellish endurance as the legendary, vengeance-fuelled ‘Black Swordsman’ battling evil forces that pollute the land. Band of the Hawk focuses on the more recent retelling of this story rather than the 1997 television series version, and while it doesn’t include any cutscenes from the most recent TV show, the game does head into that territory all the same. That might be a point of contention for some Berserk fans given how revered the original series is (and the goretastic violence is a little less prevalent in the films), but it does allow those still curious about the series to dip a toe in with relative ease, potentially gaining a new audience.
Band of the Hawk’s presentation of the world of Berserk is immediately pleasing. From the soundtrack’s rousing battle music, to the 3D model’s hand-drawn look, Band of the Hawk lays on the Berserk butter nice and thick. There’s also plenty of lengthy animated cutscenes taken straight from the three movies that add a surprising amount of depth and meaning to the hack-’n-slash madness that comes in between. It provides fans with a good deal of the blood-soaked and battle-scarred atmosphere they’ve come to know and love, while for newcomers, there’s a genuinely captivating and enthralling story to get into that builds up the characters you’ll be playing as, fighting alongside, and going up against as more than just armored stab-happy avatars. On the downside, the areas you fight in start to repeat themselves a bit, and aren’t particularly spectacular to look at in the first place. Menus are a bit drab too, despite the nice backgrounds of idle characters resting up.
The game also provides you with little optional conversations between characters during the rest points between the visceral battles. These don’t seem like much at first, but they really help to further flesh out the relationship between the Band of the Hawk members whether you know much about them already or not. All in all, there’s a mightily impressive amount of Berserk tucked into these Musou trousers.
Out on the battlefield, things will be quite familiar to those acquainted with Omega Force’s work. The fundamentals of a Warriors title are here of course, that same over the top epic slash-‘em-up action, and the ever-escalating objective chasing that’s been good enough to keep the Musou style going for many years. With Berserk, you have Guts destroying mobs of humanity with his bloody huge sword in a gloriously over the top fashion, so this of course means it fits the Musou style better than even Dynasty Warriors. The added bloodshed really amplifies the carnage you’re causing on the battlefield. Cutting through a sea of infantry with consummate ease, ploughing your sword through one hapless soldier and using him as an impromptu hammer against his comrades is something that just doesn’t get old. Essentially, the Berserk brand gives the combat a bit of extra flavor beyond the novelty of the license. Getting to cut loose with the likes of the band’s leader Griffith, the fiery Casca, and knife-flinging rogue Judeau also helps, with the Band of the Hawk members handing in differing ways (agility, ranged etc) in much the same way as characters in other Musou do. As you get deeper into the campaign, the combat opens up again, as Gut’s acquires the weaponry of the Black Swordsman arc, and ups the level of mad carnage.
Even the best Musou titles become a touch dull after a time, and while Band of the Hawk has a little extra gas in the tank than most, the air of over-familiarity emanates heavily from it all the same. The core of the game is still a Musou, for all the good and bad that it brings. Tried and tested as it is, it might just be too much of the same again for some—even with a heavy dollop of Berserk’s blood-letting combat.
There’s plenty to do beyond following basic objectives thankfully. Collecting Behelit unlocks tiles for a larger image, and are obtained by completing side objectives in each of the story stages such as assisting a member of the Band of the Hawk, ensuring the safety of a civilian, or setting traps for enemy units. You can also pick up items on the battlefield that can be equipped by your characters to boost their stats, and when combined with special stones (also found on the battlefield and available to buy) you can further enhance their effect, as well as amalgamate the items to give even more oomph to them.
Band of the Hawk has some great chapters that, thanks to the backing of the cutscenes, feel like properly epic battles. In particular the main assault on Doldrey is thrilling, evoking memories of Lord of the Rings’ near-climactic battle at Minas Tirith, outdoing the videogame versions of it as well. A later relentless skirmish with a band of inhuman soldiers and their near-unstoppable leader is another highlight, as you race to keep your band safe, and setting traps to keep the enemy at bay, all whilst fending off seemingly endless attacks from the beastly clan. I only wish the boss battles had felt a little more special. They’re enjoyable enough as encounters go, with plenty of good preamble to them, and the characters used for them are perfect boss fodder, but they tend to revolve around whittling away multiple hit bars using the same tactics as you would for the mid-range enemies.
It’s not until the tail end of the game’s story that you get to see some true variety to enemy types though, as more monstrous foes come to the fore and the game lurches into the realm of violent high fantasy at a quicker pace. It obviously fits the story to keep this till the end, but it does make the enemies feel a touch samey for a good chunk of the story-led part of the game. Luckily, there’s plenty of opportunity to go up against all sorts in Infinite Eclipse mode, which, as the name hints at, is an endless mode where you take on all manner of vile creatures and people. You can also return to areas to mop up challenges and grind out stats with the other characters without the stresses of story objectives, a mode which remains one of the most oddly relaxing things in gaming. More so here considering the absolute carnage on display.
It seems that no matter how long in the tooth the core of Omega Force’s Musou titles gets, there’s always another one round the corner that flies in the face of normality by being at least as good as the last one, and in the case of the more recent titles, even better. Berserk and the Band of the Hawk is at least as good as the best Musou around, but it’s how the license slots into it so seamlessly that makes it a better game overall. How the hardcore Berserk fans take to it remains to be seen, but there’s little room to argue that this hasn’t represented the series well.