Sword of Berserk was actually my first exposure to Berserk. i remember hearing about how violent the game was, so i picked it up one day at work to check it out. (at the time i worked the video game section at toys r us). i brought at home and was stunned at the amount of blood in the game. everytime you hit an enemy they would erupt in blood. i went through, but never could beat the game.. griffith always kicked my ass. after a while i pawned it off to my little brother for safe keeping, and in turn, he went out and sold it with a bunch of my other games.

3 years later, i was introduced to the Anime series at spamm. i was quite impressed. berserk has such a raw approach to its characters and events, surrounded by compelling characters. it would have been perfect, if not for the ending, to which i am saddened. berserk is one of those series that the anime caught up to the manga, so they just stopped the anime, RIGHT during the climax of the story. ugh.

After which, KJ kept telling me how great the manga is, so i bought the first few books. ugh, i didn't like it. it had the raw violence, but the drawings were kinda funny and there wasn't any story yet. the first two books were basically part of the 1st episode of the anime. it was just violence without an introduction to the characters.

a couple weeks ago, KJ got me the scanlations for berserk and said i should try reading it again. once i got past that first story arc, i was hooked. this was the berserk i remember, and not only that, there was more detail in the situations and story. and after the first couple of books, the drawings actually got good too. they were more fluid and less stoic. i finished the 28 books in about the span of a week. i was hooked ^_^.

after reading the manga, i wanted to know how the berserk game fit into everything. so off i quested for the game, and found it relatively easy...

good lord, this game really isn't good. someone who didn't know anything about Berserk would be dissapointed because the story is closely tied to the manga, and it doesn't explain who the hell anyone is. a fan of berserk would be dissapointed because the story is pure crap anyways. the story is that guts and caska stumble onto a town infested by mandragora, which are evil monsters mixed with mandrake roots. guts come in and saves the day, while meeting two other characters.

now, the berserk magna does have some side stories that last quite a while, namely the Jill arc. What is missing from Sword of Berserk is emotion. None of these news characters experience any emotional conflict. Stuff basically just happens, and then you, as Guts, go kill it.

the graphics aren't that good either. although the enviroments and character are well textured and detailed, the facial animations of Guts are hideous. I feel embarrased just watching it.

the gameplay is insanely repetitive and occasionally annoying. all i ever did in the game was hit the B button. swing, swing, swing. swing, swing, swing. the only time the game got interesting was the battle against Zodd. You actually had to dodge attacks, and come up with a strategy to defeat him. Zodd was tough, but the rest of the game was cake after that.

I suppose the one part of the game that didn't suck was the music.

anyways, Sword of Berserk is quite terrible. I wouldn't recommend it, but if someone would have told me all this before i played the game again and after i just read the manga, I wouldn't have listened. I think thats how anime videogames work.

since i found one anime game on the dreamcast, i figured i should find the other one people talk about.

Record of Lodoss War is one of my favorite Animes. One of few fantasy anime that is actually good. ya know, fantasy anime is alot like movies about african-american culture. the serious ones are really really good because they focus on the most compelling points of the genre, like malcom x, etc, and lodoss war, berserk. however, when they start doing comedies, you get a bunch of crappy series/movies which are really all the same. like Barber shop, etc, and like slayers, rune soldier, etc. there aren't any movies/series that fall in between that gap.

anyways..

record of lodoss war isn't really all that bad, it's just not good.

first off, the game is complete ripoff of Diablo. down to all the gameplay details. well, when your anime series is based off highly popularized american rpg, why not do the same for the game?

second off, the game really isn't all that fun. All you do is walk around, kill stuff, find treasure, kill more stuff, gain levels, and kill bosses. The game does have a little bit of story, but it's "i must prevent kardis' ressurection". the exact same story of both the anime series, and maybe even legend of crystania. The story of the game takes place around episode 10-ish of the OAV series and acts as an alternate ending.

you do get to meet up with character from the original anime series, however. you get to team up with Parn, Deedlit, Slayn, Lelyia, Pirotess, and Ashram, and as well as fight Wagnard, and be guided by Wart. kinda neat. however Ashram is incredibly weak. I can't believe the author would drag this character through the mud. First, in legend of crystania he's so weak that he was taken over by the spirit of beld. and Now he's so weak he does almost no damage against enemies i can kill in one hit?! whats up, man?

SPOILERS: speaking of weird story choices, you later find out that your main character is actually the reincarnation of emperor beld. beld really doesn't want to stay dead does he? he comes back in legend of crystania, too. wtf? I mean, he was killed by lightning in the anime. I don't think god wants you alive.

anyways, the music is annoying and the graphics are basically playstation quality.

as stated earlier, it's not all bad, but it's certainly not good. I don't really see how this game is actually fun. The story doesn't do anything for the game, and even the anime appeal doesn't do anything either. but i keep playing it.

well, this is basically what i did over spring break ^_^. does anyone else have any reviews of other Anime Videogames or these games? I also bought the Ghost in the Shell game for the playstation which i have yet to get around to playing.