Yukes has created quite the hefty story for Sword of the Berserk, and it is carried over through a bevy of cinematics between levels. There are three traveling companions that we learn of right from the start: Guts (the character you get to play as), Casca (Guts’ mentally messed up wife) and Puck (a little fairy that tags along with Guts and helps in taking care of Casca). The trio of characters travel the land searching for a cure to Casca’s illness when they come upon a town struggling with a disease that has been named “Mandragora”. The Mandragora start in little plant-like forms, but when entered into the body of a human or animal they turn the host into a disfigured monstrosity. The leader of the town claims that there is a cure he is developing, and if Guts goes on a mission for him he will share the cure so that his wife can return to her normal state.

Like mentioned in the previous paragraph, the plot for Sword of the Berserk is told through cinematics that play after you complete a stage. This is something quite common in games these days, but the one quirk I had with SotB’s was that the cinematics dragged on forever. Instead of the usual couple minutes, we have more than a couple of times that length. The plot is certainly interesting to follow and the cinematics were enjoyable most of the time, but at times I was just squirming in my seat with impatience at the amount of cut-scenes. I didn’t want to sit and watch everyone around talk about the Mandragora, I wanted to get out there and slash it up for myself! Despite this slight disappointment, I must compliment Eidos Interactive for getting together some top-notch voice acting talent to give the characters some life. I thought a few of them sounded oddly familiar at first, and I was right: the voice of the Elder God from Soul Reaver was voicing Ballsac, and the voice of Raziel was Guts himself. Sometimes the voices don’t match with the lips moving on-screen, but for the most part the voice acting in Sword of the Berserk was unmatched. It really helped to make the story more believable.

Enough about all that other stuff, let me move onto what I’m sure you really care about: the action. Similar to Final Fantasy VII’s Cloud, Guts gets to carry around one huge ass sword with him. And believe me, pulling out that bad mother and whipping it around at the enemies surrounding is more fun than any normal person should have. When using the sword (called the Dragon Slayer), Guts can block with it, perform a normal over-the-head slashing move, pull off a sword cut that will smack into everything in his close radius and a variety of other move sets. Unfortunate as it is, putting away the sword at times is a must; there are times when there will be some close quarters to work in and swinging around the sword will only result in having it clash into the walls. During those times Guts can whip out his personal hand cannon, toss out some knife (which he has an infinite supply of, thankfully) or kick some Mandragora butt using his plain old fists.

Thrown in between the sections where you’re pounding away at the Mandragora-possessed characters are Shenmue-like QTE scenes where you have to quickly press a button when told to on-screen. Not hitting the button quickly enough will either result in completely dying and having to use a continue or making your way to the intended destination through a new path. This leads to different ways to complete the game; you could go one direction the first time through and perhaps the other another time through. The sections themselves are a bit boring, though I will commend Yukes for trying to spruce things up a bit.

The action is fantastic, the story is just as good, but there is one major problem that still stands: the game is far too short. Most competent gamers will have no trouble blazing through this game within the span of two hours or so. If managed correctly, Sword of the Berserk provides plenty of continues, lives and power ups to make it through even the most difficult sections of the adventure. There are three levels of difficulty, and completing each of them opens up new secrets in the game’s Prize Box, but that is barely enough to give the incentive to play the game again. Sword of the Berserk is definitely extremely fun for what is there, but to be really worth the purchase it could have used another couple hours of plot and action. And anyway, there are quite a few plot openings that aren’t closed when the game is finished, and it would have been nice to see those explored. But perhaps that is for a sequel.

Sword of the Berserk is a short game, but a fun one, at that. Find a place that has this one in for rent and give it a shot. Unless you’re the type of gamer who wants to sit around and play through the game a couple of times on various difficulty levels in order to unlock some neat mini-games and modes, chances are you will want to pass on this one in terms of a full-priced purchase.