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. 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
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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
  6. 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
  7. 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

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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