Berserk and the Band of the Hawk

 PlayStation 4
User Score
7.6

Generally favorable reviews- based on 112 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 74 out of 112
  2. Mixed: 17 out of 112
  3. Negative: 21 out of 112
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  1. DimLord_Urza
    Feb 28, 2017
    7
    First let me emphasize, if you are a fan of musou/dynasty warriors games, you will like this game. If you are not, and are not a fan of Berserk, you most likely won't care for it. There is a reason Dynasty Warriors games are a niche franchise, you either love them or hate them.

    That being said, as a Dynasty Warriors game, this game is very fun to play. At first I was honestly a little    First let me emphasize, if you are a fan of musou/dynasty warriors games, you will like this game. If you are not, and are not a fan of Berserk, you most likely won't care for it. There is a reason Dynasty Warriors games are a niche franchise, you either love them or hate them.

    That being said, as a Dynasty Warriors game, this game is very fun to play. At first I was honestly a little underwhelmed from a lack of moves in your moveset and item/equipment options, but once you get further into the game the depth begins to show with more moves to unlock, transformations, costumes, and accessories to combine and use at your disposal.

    For a $60 price tag, I think it's fair to say the game does fall a bit short in terms of content when compared to other Musou games. However, there's a lot of hours to be spent in the endless eclipse mode for unlocking things for the specific character you choose to play through the mode with.

    DON'T Spend $60 unless you are either a huge fan of Berserk or love dynasty warriors style games.

    Final Score: 7/10    … Expand
  2. SpookyScaryWuf
    Feb 22, 2017
    10
    A brutal experience for any fan of the Black Swordsman. A truly faithful adaptation to the manga and the animes (with actual scenes from the Golden Age arc). If you've got a weak stomach, stay away from this game.
  3. raineye
    Feb 22, 2017
    10
    It's no cut!

    and Berserk!!

    Better then Japan type.

    Good Graphics and good actions, good animation of character
    good weapons , good voices,
    It's good game.
  4. SuperkenGaming
    Feb 24, 2017
    6
    Berserk and the Band of the Hawk
    Mindless Hack and Slash
    Berserk and the Band of the Hawk is a Dynasty Warriors style hack and slash game based on the Japanese manga Berserk.. It tells the story of a lone mercenary named Guts as well as the leader of the Band of the Hawk Griffith who is promised a kingdom by an egg shaped necklace he obtains as a boy… The whole story is centered around    Berserk and the Band of the Hawk
    Mindless Hack and Slash
    Berserk and the Band of the Hawk is a Dynasty Warriors style hack and slash game based on the Japanese manga Berserk..
    It tells the story of a lone mercenary named Guts as well as the leader of the Band of the Hawk Griffith who is promised a kingdom by an egg shaped necklace he obtains as a boy…
    The whole story is centered around this prophecy which leads to many unexpected twists and turns.
    This game is about 14 hours long and is spread across 46 main missions...
    Unfortunately this game is extremely repetitive saved only by its story…
    The game is told through a mixture of still dialog, a few animated 3d scenes, and my favorite of the mixture an anime style..
    There is unfortunately no English dub here, so if you don’t speak Japanese you do have to play the game with subtitles on…
    And as the game goes on it sadly ventures away from delivering the story with anime cut scenes… which is when all interest in the game and its characters disappear... you’re essentially left only with reading dialog…
    And it’s a shame because the gameplay here isn’t enough to keep the game interesting…
    From start to finish its all the same…
    Get thrown into a mission.. go to the points of interest on the map and kill your targets there until there’s a new point of interest, rinse and repeat…
    And the level design is so bland and uninteresting that it eventually starts feeling like a grind despite the quick pace of you being able to slice through most enemies like warm butter…
    You can play a few missions as other characters as well as unlock new character to play in free mode and endless eclipse mode, but everyone feels practically the same so it doesn’t matter…
    in combat you have a light and heavy attack… you also have ranged weapons, and consumable slots to temporarily boost stats..
    You slice through enemies to fill up a bar to then do more damage while you’re invulnerable for a few seconds to fill up another bar to unleash a power attack killing most enemies in the surrounding area…
    rinse and repeat...
    at the end of each mission you get your spoils of war to equip accessories on your characters as well as upgrade items and their stats by using stones or unwanted items…
    So you can slice through the spongier enemies a little easier…
    they’re also a few bosses thrown in here that are really well designed…
    but rarely feel anything more than normal enemies with larger health bars…
    These rare encounters are the only time you’ll find yourself dodging or blocking..
    Berserk and the Band of the Hawk is carried by its interesting story and characters that I genuinely loved…
    I just wish there was more to the game than the same mission copy and pasted 46 times for 14 hours with some story sandwiched in between them.
    I give Berserk and the Band of the Hawk
    a 6.5/10    … Expand
  5. Himonji
    Feb 25, 2017
    2
    This review has been CENSORED by Metacritic once, i edited it to make it "luss uffunssive, muh feelings", but i'll keep posting it if it gets deleted.

    It is pure cash-grab seriously, the game has like 0 depth whatsoever in terms of game-play you are better playing the PS2 game which was WAY better with more game mechanics than this game. Difficulties are broken all of them, if you    This review has been CENSORED by Metacritic once, i edited it to make it "luss uffunssive, muh feelings", but i'll keep posting it if it gets deleted.

    It is pure cash-grab seriously, the game has like 0 depth whatsoever in terms of game-play you are better playing the PS2 game which was WAY better with more game mechanics than this game.

    Difficulties are broken all of them, if you play on Berserk the game at first glans seems to be super hard and it is because the game has 0 depth in terms of combat and is just a button mashing game (and not even a good one just smash X and Y...) then they made a mechanic called RAGE, when you press O and get all powerful and mighty YOU CAN'T DIE, you are literally IMMORTAL and here is another thing... that rage meter thing charges ON IT'S OWN once your health is red... so here is how you beat the game on Bersker mode:

    Get on red health---> wait for rage--->press O and become immortal ---> hack and slash everyone-->charge "ult"---> press O again in the direction of a multitude of enemies or the boss---> WIN.

    There is no "git gud" so don't pretend this game is hard, it isn't, this mechanics just shows how bad this is, people trying to pretend this game is hard and one must "become good" are just lying to themselves, the game combat has no mechanics whatsoever is unresponsive and it's basically done to just spam X and Y and sometimes hit O.

    The fact of the matter is that if you put the game on "Hard" it is outright BABY MODE, enemies hit for like .04% of your total health bar... ARE YOU KIDDING ME NOW?, and you know why is that?, because the core of the game, the combat is terrible, it has no depth so the game can't be "balanced" either Baby mode or super hard mode with CHEESE.

    Then the "customization" is sooo LAME i mean compared to games like Dragon Quest Heroes this is terrible, no crafting, no item drops, no skills, no leveling up points, no character builds, no world map, no new areas with hidden bosses. All you have is lame accessories and that's it...

    They were so lazy that they just outright put the same stuff you already saw in the movies, you are basically seeing the movies again, the cut-scenes are just LAZY rip-offs.

    On top of that the game runs poorly and it has many problems with alt-tabbing, crashes and stuff...AND day 1 DLC, trash overpriced costumes.

    Anyone, ANYONE that defends this is just a fanboy, PERIOD.    … Expand
  6. blackorderphase
    Mar 5, 2017
    2
    berserk and the band of the hawk is a dynastysamurai warriors -like game but it's simply a waste of time even for a fan,
    I've read the manga, watched the anime and movie, but this game doesn't do it.
    it has a decent graphic models which is loyal to the source and the cutscenes are taken from the movies but that's about the only good thing I have to say about this game. this game    berserk and the band of the hawk is a dynastysamurai warriors -like game but it's simply a waste of time even for a fan,
    I've read the manga, watched the anime and movie, but this game doesn't do it.
    it has a decent graphic models which is loyal to the source and the cutscenes are taken from the movies but that's about the only good thing I have to say about this game.

    this game fighting style is so simplistic and repetitive, every mission is about the same and by the same I mean - almost the same map, same models , idiotic ai .
    to me it feels like there's a template for the game just different models inserted, you could've easily do another game and it all feels the same. bosses such as zodd are laughable in normal difficulty and horseriding is absolutely bad.
    it takes you through the story but the only thing that gives you the feeling you're playing it is ONLY the cutscenes, specially when I compare it to the PS2 berserk game, there everything from cutscenes to fights were related and felt like a continuous story, here it simply bored me. I literally forced myself to play the game but couldn't get into it.

    there're some obscure decisions in this game like equipment is just for stats but nothing interesting, really reminds me of the old dynasty warriors I've played ages ago but back then it felt fresh but this simply refuse to take off.
    you can upgrade your rings and etc but it all feels very cheap and in each and every step of the way it feels like a bad template that berserk models were pour into...
    even when you unlock characters and try them it's the same story, mechanic is the same but the moves are different.
    I wouldn't recommend it to anyone not even a die hard fan(the kind who checks constantly if there's another manga chapter!) would find this game disappointing and boring    … Expand
  7. MKAU-Gaming
    Mar 17, 2017
    8
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Aww Anime, one minute you can be so cute and innocent, then the next minute if you don’t do your research you're in the world of the dark, violent and twisted, as though being given a lollipop and then turning around and being punched in the face. This is the latter. ‘Berserk: The Band of the Hawk’ developed by Omega Force and published by Koei Tecmo, is the classic one vs the thousands, hack and slash, and is very reminiscent of The Darksiders.

    ‘Berserk’ is based off the gory and blood-soaked manga and anime by Kentaro Miura. You initially begin your journey as the ever so flatteringly named Guts, a lone wolf pack-less mercenary with his huge sword (which is desperately over compensating for something) who just can’t escape his past as much as he tries. Eventually you meet the charismatic and uptight Griffith and his band of merry men (and women) infamously known as ‘The Band of the Hawk’, together you travel the lands often torn between moral and physical battles of good and evil. Now if you aren’t a connoisseur of manga and anime, don’t rush out to get a heads up on the plot, as this game covers the premise of the original story pretty closely. A really nifty feature is that loading screens also fill you in with tidbits of the backstory, so it is easy to piece it all together.

    Each cut scene, cell shady and dark, feels as if they have been lifted straight out of the show, to be honest they probably have been, Berserk is an old anime now. Some of these scenes in-between battles are quite long, and you’d be a fool to not expect subtitles from a Japanese anime based game, my only annoyance by this though was the lack of warning to buy some popcorn for all the drama.

    The game plays out like any other typical hack and slash thriller. You have a base attack, heavy attack and a dodge. What is a little different is the Frenzy gauge, which you fill with combos and kills, meaning once activated will deal bulk damage while losing no health. Fill this gauge with their souls and you can unlock a finishing brutal death blow move that is vital when a boss battle arrives.

    Omega Force were also the driving force behind another manga inspired game I have reviewed previously, Attack on Titan: Wings of Freedom. The menus, leveling, items and gameplay are all very, very familiar, and like the aforementioned most chapters or ‘battles’ are lackluster fights in pretty linear environments. The real boss fights (not the casual buffed up minions with a bit of extra health) are where the real excitement lies.
    The game is sorted into 3 distinct modes. Story Mode is a series of battles with challenges and objectives that need to be complete before the boss arrives or the mission is accomplished. The time it takes, bonuses you pick up and challenges completed negate how much experience points you receive. Experience points are used to level up your character. Speaking of leveling, the game pretends to be stat driven with 4 rudimentary areas; vitality (health), Attack, Defense, and Technique (Specials). There is the RPG element of items used during the game to boost stats or to sell for stone cold cash, but my problem is it is a weak stab at customization. You could boost stats till the proverbial hordes of cows come home, but at the end of the day a level 20 Guts still is cumbersome and strong, and Griffith is still agile and fast, and they handle exactly the same as if they were level 1.

    Free Mode is as simple are replaying your favorite battles as other unlocked characters. The Endless Eclipse Mode was tedious, monotonous but oddly addictive. Essentially, it just has you picking a character you would like to fight wave after wave of the same type of enemies, with bosses sprinkled within each layer. At every 5 layers you get to return to base camp and replenish your supplies, so the motivation you may ask? Each base camp has ‘Desires’, in essence rewards. The things you do for in game resources and money huh. The big reward for that character is waiting at the end in the ‘Abyss’...the 100th layer. I fell for it hook line and sinker, and spent so much time in the Endless Eclipse Mode doing the same thing over and over, rather than advancing the story. I did have a pretty dope jacket for Guts though after all of it, just saying.
    Overall, Berserk is a surprisingly entertaining bloody romp. Gameplay can be a bit repetitive but sometimes you need a good simple hack em’ up game to clear the bad vibes and to let off some steam. Would I recommend buying it? Sure, it beats having to watch an anime series or read a collection of manga and you get the added bonus of being included in taking names and .. body parts.    … Expand
  8. shootingstars99
    Sep 5, 2019
    0
    What happens when you cross Dynasty Warriors with baby's first seinen manga series? Apparently a dumpster fire worse than the worst Kingdom Hearts game...

    I guess if you are a Berserk fan, your mind can only handle hitting one button repeatedly while fighting the same enemies throughout the same three backgrounds. At least this game serves as a containment of sorts from keeping brain    What happens when you cross Dynasty Warriors with baby's first seinen manga series? Apparently a dumpster fire worse than the worst Kingdom Hearts game...

    I guess if you are a Berserk fan, your mind can only handle hitting one button repeatedly while fighting the same enemies throughout the same three backgrounds. At least this game serves as a containment of sorts from keeping brain dead idiots from getting into anything of substance and keeps their grubby, Cheeto powdered hands off of actually good franchises... If you like your Tolkien knock offs with rape, rape and more rape, you haven't quite figured out games with two button combat, and you like your main characters that carry around 7 foot long swords because they are compensating for having a short sword where it counts, this might be your game of the year.    … Expand
  9. jelikey
    Jul 17, 2018
    7
    First let me emphasize, if you are a fan of musou/dynasty warriors games, you will like this game. If you are not, and are not a fan of Berserk, you most likely won't care for it. There is a reason Dynasty Warriors games are a niche franchise, you either love them or hate them.
  10. Izago
    Oct 1, 2018
    7
    Eu que sou muito fan de Berserk e o considero como melhor anime/manga de todos tive dificuldades no começo para jogar berserk por ser um pouco chato e ultra repetitivo mas para todo fan reviver a historia ou parte dela jogando vai gostar e vai querer se dedicar ao game, Um bom jogo para Fan para quem não é fan deve ser chato demais.
  11. peck324
    Apr 8, 2017
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Here's my review of Berserk and the Band of the Hawks (Spoilers):
    Story: The story is pretty long, but in a good way. Took me 13 hours to beat the game in which it included missions from the movie and in the manga later on. The story takes place where your introduced Guts as a mercenary to where you team up with Zodd to fight against the Thunder Demon (Forgot his name lol). I admit this was my first time seeing Berserk and I love it thanks to this game!
    Gameplay: Like most One Piece games its still categorized as a simple bet 'em up game. But this fits perfect for Berserk as Guts uses his Giant Cleaver (Dragon Slayer as its named) sword to slaughter so many demons (As told in the Manga, he literally slays more than a thousand demons just to get his revenge on Griffith.) and the combos are pretty intense on multiple enemies. As for character selection it depends how the story goes, but after completing the game, you are free to choose whoever you want beside Guts (My favorite is Judeau). The items/accessories that are shown in the game are useful in any difficulty. The Berserk armor is a BAMF, just wanted to put it out there lol!
    Mechanic: Again like any other beat 'em up game, executions are great and no lag inputs. Only problem is the camera function because I'm always thinking that pressing L3 would revert the camera behind Guts/The Character but for some reason it does not have that input.
    Conclusion: Story was intense, Combos are fun and easy to use, and the camera mechanics still needs some work. This game fits in the category for this anime. If you don't know or if your really interested in it. I recommend getting this for experience wise or search for the anime series and then get the game for again, experience purpose.
    Final Verdict:
    7.5/10 - Its a great game, but it gets repetitively boring from time to time.
    Buy or Not Buy:
    Buy - If you are a fan of this anime.
    Rent:
    No - If you want to pay the rent fee for it.    … Expand
  12. djinvasion21
    Jul 13, 2017
    7
    Even after playing a few chapters of this game and of course knowing about the anime story behind it. I really wanted to see what Koei Tecmo has done to the story line. I see a mixture of the story and cutscenes from the anime put your heart in the right place. Talking to Koei Tecmo they also developed the Dynasty Warriors franchise so you will definitely see some cross between the gameEven after playing a few chapters of this game and of course knowing about the anime story behind it. I really wanted to see what Koei Tecmo has done to the story line. I see a mixture of the story and cutscenes from the anime put your heart in the right place. Talking to Koei Tecmo they also developed the Dynasty Warriors franchise so you will definitely see some cross between the game play and mechanics with Berserk. I noticed it a lot more on Easy difficulty which allows you to play the story line easier and faster. What do I mean by faster meaning just like Dynasty Warriors I can walk up to a group of enemy shoulders and they probably wouldn't hit me for a few minutes.

    This is truly a hack and slash game. Not a lot of different "finishers" if you would like to call it that. Not very complex combo moves which can be a hit or miss to many who play. But I do like that you can have enhancements that are picked up to make your character whether its Guts or Griffith better at defeating enemies... OR help you pick up drops more effectively.

    Not a $60 game which is why I rented it instead but probably should fall short of that based on the playability. Would I play this again probably not once the story mode was completed. But they do offer a Free Mode (Free roaming) and other side-games that you can entertain yourself with.

    Also for any parents out there that are already letting your child play a mature game, they have a Gore option - you can turn it off, but you can't turn off the weird "hell" bizarre things that happen in this game towards the beginning and end.

    Take it how you see it, I like both Berserk and Dynasty Warriors and what a great way to vent after a crap day by playing a hack and slash that combines your favorite anime with a long time favorite series.    … Expand
  13. FBraggy12
    Jun 19, 2020
    6
    If you are a fan of both Berserk and the Dynasty Warriors franchise you will love this hack and slash, gore-fest, that stay authentic to the Berserk anime. There is nothing ground breaking about this game, its a hack and slash with spliced in scenes from the Berserk movies, and television series. I enjoyed it because I am a glutton for completion with Dynasty Warriors-esq titles.

    This    If you are a fan of both Berserk and the Dynasty Warriors franchise you will love this hack and slash, gore-fest, that stay authentic to the Berserk anime. There is nothing ground breaking about this game, its a hack and slash with spliced in scenes from the Berserk movies, and television series. I enjoyed it because I am a glutton for completion with Dynasty Warriors-esq titles.

    This game does fix and expand on the television series season two and I am glad it expanded upon how the show left off.

    There was potential in this game to have countless characters to play as, yet we are limited in size and scope for playable characters. It's depressing that we will never get to play as the Skull Rider, or other characters such as Pippin, and other various generals and apostles from the Anime series.

    Fun to play, replay ability, just falls short on its potential.    … Expand
  14. FGTdamned
    Jan 7, 2023
    10
    fking awesome i liked it i dream about it im bussing rn fr help meee im gonna die

Awards & Rankings

51
#51 Most Shared PS4 Game of 2017

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
66

Mixed or average reviews - based on 53 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 53
  2. Mixed: 34 out of 53
  3. Negative: 1 out of 53
  1. Playstation Official Magazine Australia
    May 2, 2017
    50
    Plenty of Guts, then, but not enough glory. [May 2017, p80]
  2. Playstation Official Magazine UK
    Apr 11, 2017
    50
    Part gruesome medieval fantasy, part bleak supernatural horror, Berserk evokes the spirit of its source but descends into drudgery in an overlong campaign. [Apr 2017, p.96]
  3. Atomix
    Apr 10, 2017
    71
    Berserk and the Band of the Hawk its one of the simplest Musou games that Koei Tecmo has made. It is not a bad game by any means but it also doesn't offer anything different or new from what we have saw in any other titles from the genre and one that, sadly, doesn't fully capture the essence of the story that its based on. Simply put, is one game that fans from the original manga or anime will enjoy, but also one that other players will forget really quick.
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