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"Rage never dies."

Asura's Wrath is an Action Game published by Capcom and developed by CyberConnect2, released February 21st, 2012 in the US, February 23rd, 2012 in Japan, February 24th, 2012 in Europe, and March 9, 2012 in the UK.

In a story that draws heavily from Hindu Mythology and Buddhism, Asura is one of the eight Guardian Generals, demigods assigned to protect the world of Gaea and its inhabitants from the Gohma. After their latest victory, the other seven demigod generals kill his wife, kidnap his daughter, and frame him for murdering the emperor, all in an attempt to destroy the Gohma once and for all. When Asura confronts them, he is killed and cast down to Naraka. But a mere thing like death cannot keep a demigod like Asura down for long, and quite understandably, he is pissed. After spending several millennia climbing out of Naraka and emerging into a very changed mortal world, Asura sets out to rescue his daughter and get his revenge on his fellow Guardian Generals, who now call themselves the Seven Deities.

While very much a revenge story through and through, it explores a surprising variety of themes, ranging from familial love (particularly between father and daughter and brotherly love) to showing, ironically enough the true consequences of being an embodiment of Unstoppable Rage, just how far someone would have to go to save the world, and above all else, the consequences of a Martyrdom Culture worshiping some of the most horrific Jerkass Gods ever found in fictionland. This does not distract from the awesome visuals, spectacular fight scenes and just plain over-the-topness.

Asura gets his first crossover appearance in the crossover social game Minna to Capcom All Stars.

On September 26, 2011, a manga adaptation called Asura's Wrath: Kai began. It serves as a retelling of the game's events, albeit more compressed and introduces a new character called Upara, a "godsperson" tasked by the Deities to supervise and lead the people before meeting Asura and discovering how callous the gods of her world really are. The manga ended on July 26, 2012 with two volumes.

Not to be confused with Asura Cryin' and definitely not with Asura.


Tropes featured include:

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     A-K 

  • 100% Completion: Collecting all the Artwork, CG Art, Interludes, Trophies/Achievements (including DLC), and Gauges.
  • Achievement Mockery: The "View of the Valley" achievement is awarded for staring too long at a girl's bust.
  • Action Commands:
    • Gameplay revolves around timed button presses, stick movements, and button mashing to perform awesome attacks.
    • At the end of Episode 22, the final boss gets his own.
  • Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: Durga's death scene, Yasha resurrecting Asura using the mantra accumulated by the Seven Deities for millennia.
  • Adapted Out: Neither the Golden Spider nor Naraka make any appearance in the manga adaptation. Similarly, the girl Asura meets when he resurrects a second time is also absent, with her role largely being replaced by Upara. The manga also ends with Asura and Yasha defeating Vlitra, albeit at the cost of their lives and there's no mention of Chakravartin appearing anywhere.
  • Advanced Ancient Acropolis: Inverted with the City of Shinto.
  • Aerith and Bob: Along with the conventionally Hindu-sounding Asura, Mithra, and Yasha, you have gods named Olga, Sergei, and Deus. It's a bit baffling.
  • All There in the Manual: A lot of story elements that aren't shown explicitly in the game are shown in the extras section, and in the Pre-Order Bonus art book from Gamestop.
    • The Official Complete works, for example, has a couple of Asura's forms have different names from what is given in the game. Mantra Asura is referred to as Prajna (Wisdom in Buddhism) Asura, and Mantra Reactor Asura is just plain old Mantra Asura.
  • Alternate Universe: The story takes place in a setting where humanity discovered a powerful source of energy called Mantra. Modified humans called Demigods could control this mantra, and it was able to propel technology to unimaginable levels; real Clarke's Third Law kind of stuff. Unfortunately, due to pollution and overpopulation, the Will of the Planet, Gohma Vlitra, sent the Gohma to kill all humans on the planet out of anger, thus starting the War of Creation. Said universe also manages to be the same one as Street Fighter, just millions of years ago.
  • Always Over the Shoulder: When using a certain projectile outside of huge boss fights (one of them being a rapid-fire barrage of bullets that are shaped like Asura's fists), the camera focuses on his shoulder.
  • Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: Naraka and the Event Horizon.
  • American Kirby Is Hardcore: Inverted, believe it or not. The American cover has Asura trying to smash your face in, true, but the Japanese cover has Six armed Vajra Asura screaming in rage at you with his arms raised, instead.
  • Ancient Astronauts: Sources differ on whether the game is set in the extremely distant past or the future. The modern setting at the end and a Chun-Li cameo could confirm this as a distant past.
  • And Now for Someone Completely Different: Yasha, Asura's brother-in-law is playable. In contrast to his brother-in-law, his fighting style consists of very speedy multi-hit combos and projectiles used for higher-yet-slower damage. Unlike Asura, who becomes tougher during Unlimited Mode, Yasha becomes faster and hits faster, and his dodge moves are faster, short-ranged teleports instead of simply rolling aside.
  • Anger Is Not Enough: Asura's rage at being betrayed, as well as having his wife killed and daughter kidnapped, makes him powerful enough to come Back from the Dead, and rampage through the Seven Dieties and their forces. But Vlitra proves too much for him, and it is only once his daughter channels the remaining Soul Power into him that he is able to defeat it.
  • Angst Nuke: Asura literally explodes with anger when Olga destroys a village and kills Ahria, the little girl that looked like Mithra right before his eyes. Cue epic beatdown.
  • Animesque: Not just design-wise, but the story progression is literally like an episodic anime or Japanese Tv Drama, and is even referred to by many critics as an "Interactive Anime".
  • Annoying Arrows: Asura treats being impaled with a dozen spears on his back with one of then poking through his chest as simply an annoyance.
  • Arrogant God vs. Raging Monster: Essentially what the whole plot boils down to, with the twist that the 'monster' is a god as well.
  • Artificial Human: The demigods are descendants of these.
  • Art Shift:
    • The art in the various scenes between episodes are all done by different artists and differ greatly in style.
    • Episode 11.5 and 15.5. Unlike the rest of the game's style, these episodes look as if they were lifted straight out of an anime.
    • At some moments of the fight against Ryu, the art style becomes closer to Street Fighter IV.
  • Astral Finale: As well as an Astral Beginning.
  • As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Ahria, the girl who looks like Mithra, as well as all of the other humans in this game, speak Gibberish. This is actually why they don't bother with different voice actors for humans in the English dub.
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The crown king of this trope. Just the first boss is big enough to stick itself out of Gaea and try to eat an entire fleet of spaceships. And it gets even bigger later on. And this is to say nothing about the True Final Boss, which is quite literally the biggest in videogame history.
  • Award-Bait Song: "In Your Belief" by Tomoyo Mitani, the same singer of Aura's theme. Now with readable lyrics.
  • Badass Armfold: Many characters do this. Asura even does it on the tip of his personal flagship in outer space similar to a Certain Trope Codifying Mecha.
  • Bait-and-Switch: In the final episode, Chakravartin returns Mithra to Asura and extends his hand to him as a kind gesture. Asura's smile and the Action Command "Extend arm" makes it appear like Asura has finally reached his happy ending. Then, upon following the prompt, Asura extends his arm...with his fist balled up right into Chakravartin's face.
  • Barehanded Blade Block:
    • Said blade is about three times as big as Asura is.
    • And even more impressive is the extendo-sword long enough to launch him from the moon to the Earth.
      • Bonus points as it eventually goes though the earth itself.
  • Batman Can Breathe in Space:
    • One of the main powers that the deities in the game have.
    • In the DLC "Lost Episodes," both Ryu and Akuma have been given this power just to fight Asura.
  • Battle Aura: After knocking Vajira Wyzen off him after he gains six arms, Asura unleashes a massive one that looks like a cross between Super Saiyan Goku's and Kyuubi Naruto's. The other Deities are seen having them as well.
  • Beam Spam:
    • Standard Shinkoku space battleship tactics, apparently.
    • Asura's berserker form.
  • Beam-O-War: Berserker Asura vs. the Brahmastra. The Brahmastra wins, but Asura is able to hold it back with his own ki attack for a few seconds — that is, his anger is rival to trillions of souls' worth of power.
  • Behind the Black: A lot of the intermission slideshow images have things hidden outside the immediately visible area which can be viewed by panning the images.
  • Being God Is Hard: Asura has this opinion, as he calls bullshit on his fellow demigods slaying their own followers to power themselves up. Considering that Asura managed to become more powerful than even them by sheer wrath alone, he might have a point.
  • Berserk Button: Don't even try to mention Mithra to Asura in any way that suggests that you want her suffering to continue. You will be brutally crushed.
  • The Berserker: Asura fights with the grace and power of a monster truck fueled by pure, distilled rage. His berserker form is even worse.
  • Beyond the Impossible:
    Deus: "Power without a purpose is meaningless and worthless. A purpose that is firm can change the impossible to the possible."
    • This trope also appears in the preview for episode 11:
    Narrator: "Asura and Augus' duel to the death begins. Their battle breaches the limits of possibilty and breaks into the heavens."
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Yasha. On the outside, the guy's a Badass Pacifist who along with Deus wants nothing more than to exterminate the Gohma from threatening the world. Just don't waste countless lives on something pointless if you don't want a ki slash through your torso.
  • BFG: Many of the Taison mooks (the big gold buddhas) wield these. Taison Nyudo (the really big gold buddhas) dual wield them.
  • BFS:
    • Augus' sword grows 300,000 miles long, more than long enough for the other end of the blade to come poking out on the other side of the moon.
    • Rasho-class mooks will frequently come equipped with these. They seem to have thrusters on the back for extra oomph.
  • Big Bad: Deus. Driven to extreme lengths to destroy the Gohma at all costs, he orders Durga's death and kidnaps Mithra before killing Asura and demonizing him for future generations. Then there's Chakravartin, who is responsible for the creation of the Gohma and the overall Greater-Scope Villain of Asura's Wrath.
  • Big Badass Battle Sequence: The game opens with one, with Asura immediately leaping into the thick of battle and going straight for Vlitra while the rest of the generals' forces combat the Gohma.
  • Big Bad Ensemble: The Gohma and the Seven Deities, who oppose each other. Then Chakravartin, who is manipulating everyone for his own ends.
  • Big Fancy House: Asura's residence.
  • Big "NO!": Wyzen in Episode 5, and Asura in episode 12. Being the setting that it is, this is a rare case where the Big "NO!" works.
  • Bittersweet Ending: The pointless cycle of destruction is finally broken with Chakravartin's death, humanity finally is freed from the shackles of its various godlike tyrants, but no one in the cast survives save Mithra, who spends her mortal life retelling the events of the story.
  • Blood Knight: Augus. By his own admission, he doesn't give a damn about Deus' plans or the mission of the deities. He lives to fight and only to fight. He even goes out of his way to get Asura to a healing spring where he can mend his injuries, if only so that the two can have a thrilling fight to the death.
  • Bloodier and Gorier: The earlier trailers were shown like this, in that all the minions of the demi-gods had regular blood come out of them instead of orange blood and Asura was also shown being much more brutal towards enemies. Why this was changed in the final product is unknown, but it seemed likely that it was the result of thematic reasons and to probably not seem like a God of War rip-off like some people were making it out to be.
  • Book Ends:
    • The game starts with Vlitra's appearance, a Title-Screen like moment complete with press start, and Asura jumping off of Shinto towards Gaea. The last episode starts with Vlitra's reappearance, a Title-Screen like moment complete with press start, and Asura jumping off of the Karma Fortress towards Gaea.
    • The last DLC episode starts with Asura awakening from meditation, a Title-Screen like moment complete with press start, and Asura riding a Shinkoku ship off of Gaea into space.
  • Boss-Only Level: Quite a few of these. Specifically, the final fight against Wyzen, the first Yasha battle, Augus, Wrath Asura, the final Deus Battle, the final Gohma Vlitra Battle, The Final Boss Preview battle against Chakravartin, the final Yasha battle, and finally, the last Chakravartin battle.
  • Boss Subtitles: Starting with Gohma Vlitra, each boss has these, as well as different ones for each form they have. They even have them for their weapons, as well.
  • Breather Episode: "Episode 10: Words of Wisdom," in which Augus helps Asura recuperate after his fight with Kalrow with the help of some scantily-dressed maidens.
  • Breath Weapon: Gohma Vlitra's specialty.
  • Brick Joke: The rock shelf on the moon that was raised up during the Augus fight is pushed back down during the fight with Ryu in Lost Episode 1, only to be brought back up again during the fight with Akuma in Lost Episode 2. Also in Lost Episode 1, Augus' discarded scabbard can be seen.
  • Brought Down to Badass: The creators have mentioned that Asura has lost some of his godly power while being exiled. Looking at all the footage before that, how that stops him from doing anything seems to be anyone's guess.
  • Bullying a Dragon: Really, everything the Seven Deities do just succeeds at pissing Asura off even more.
  • Butt-Monkey: Wyzen, in story and out. The Asura's Wrath Facebook page even has a Wyzen Diet.
  • By the Power of Grayskull!: "I CALL UPON THE POWER OF THE MANTRA!!!"
  • Call-Back:
    • In Episode 5, Gongen Wyzen calls our protagonist "Asura the traitor, Asura the destructor." Seventeen episodes later, "Asura the Destructor" appears again with a great deal more significance.
    • The very final scene of The Stinger to the very first trailer.
    • In the "Lost Episode 1" DLC, where Asura fights Ryu, he Shoryukens him all the way to the moon... particularly the area where he fought Augus earlier. You can tell because of the giant slanted cleaved area from when he used Wailing Dark, as well as the sword sheath sticking out to the side. Bonus points for Evil Ryu's Ultra II having enough force to slam the cleaved area back in place.
      • And Oni then proceeds to use Misogi at the beginning of the battle, which Asura deflects to the side in the same manner as Wailing Dark to cleave it right back up.
  • Calling Your Attacks: Mostly averted with the exception of Wyzen, humorously enough.
  • The Cameo:
  • Canon Discontinuity: Both Lost Episodes are officially said to have no canonical bearing on either the Asura's Wrath or Street Fighter universes.
  • Casual Interstellar Travel: In the finale episode of Part IV: Nirvana, Asura achieves this in his destructor form by simply flying fast enough. As in, flying by solar systems in mere seconds fast enough.
  • Censor Steam: During the hotsprings scene.
  • The Chosen People: The Demigods of Shinkoku were originally a civilization of regular humans that were chosen by Chakravartin to wield the esoteric power known as mantra as a part of a long-term plot to choose his successor as Gaia's divine ruler. They would use this power to advance their civilizations, becoming so physically and technologically superior to the rest of mankind that they were worshiped as gods.
  • Chunky Updraft: Common when Asura and Augus power up.
  • Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Before realizing they could just siphon Mantra out of Mithra by force (and out of mortal humans by killing them), the Deities used this method to power themselves and their weapons up, with Mithra being the main priestess that preached about the Shinkoku faith.
  • Cliffhanger: The ending to True Episode 18, with the true ending of the game being DLC.
  • Climax Boss: Every single boss fight. The DLC trailer reveals that even Gohma Vlitra was one of these.
  • Colony Drop: The head of the Karma Fortress crashes down on Gaea at the end of Episode 19.
  • Combat Breakdown: The last battle of the game begins with two gods capable of becoming planet sized, throwing and destroying planets, meteors, and small stars, causing supernova, warping reality, firing laser beams at each other, and stopping time, and ends with them grappling and punching each other to death after all their godly strength has been exhausted.
  • Combo Breaker: The initial burst from entering Unlimited mode can be used as this.
  • Conducting the Carnage: Sergei is introduced waving his arms as if conducting an orchestra of death as Asura, three other guardian generals, and the other demigod troops are fighting in an intense battle with the Gohma, ecstatically remarking how life is at its most beautiful when it ends in death.
  • Cool Old Guy: Asura's Old Master, Augus. Though he is completely amoral.
  • The Corruption: The Gohma, which are stated as being corrupt, impure beings that take the form of rocky and lava-esue animals. The strongest of them all are planet-sized, and can easily destroy planets casually, and nearly destroyed mankind. It took the combined power of Asura and the other Demigods to defeat them the first time around, but they make a comeback. This cycle has been going on for some time even before the game's story begins.
  • Crapsack World: The world where Asura awakens after being exiled is most definitely this.
    Asura: Is this how you save the world? This place looks like hell.
  • Cross Counter: Asura and Augus.
    • Also happens against Chakravartin the Creator.
  • Crossover: DLC allows Asura to fight against Ryu and, afterward, Akuma. The first rounds of their battles go with Street Fighter IV rules... Mostly.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Quite a few major ones and countless minor ones
    • The first is when Asura is curb-stomped by Deus when on his streak of anger. Deus then sends him to Naraka.
    • The next is his first battle with Yasha. Yasha dodges most of his attacks effortlessly and when he does get hit, he just brushes it right off. Eventually, he cleaves Asura in two, sending him back to Naraka. This is minutes after Asura destroyed a planet-sized Wyzen, his arms are broken, and he is hopelessly drained.
    • After Asura goes into the Berseker Form after the girl that looks like his daughter gets killed he curbstomps the entire fleet of the Seven Deities! It takes the Brahmastra itself to defeat him, and it has the power of trillions of human souls!
    • Asura's first fight with Chakravartin is this. Chakravartin defeats both Asura and Yasha before the captured Mithra sends them away for their safety
  • Damsel in Distress: Asura's daughter Mithra gets kidnapped by the other gods.
  • Darker and Edgier: Episode 11.5 is notably darker than the rest of the game. Not that the game is all that happy to begin with.
    • As is Part IV: Nirvana. The game is also darker as a whole compared to most other Capcom IP's, despite being amongst their rated T games. It does so rather well, too.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Technically, the Gohma are natural, being Gaea's defense mechanism as the balance was disrupted by the removal of souls. Unfortunately, this puts them at conflict with humanity.
  • Dark Reprise: "One Who Spins Samsara", a darker version of "In Your Belief".
  • Deadly Euphemism: "Saving souls" means killing people for their lifeforce. "Exorcism" means destroying one of your own ships because there's an enemy on board. "Purification" just means killing.
  • Deadly Upgrade: Asura's black-skinned 'Wrath Asura' form. The extra materials states that, while he's more powerful than even his six-armed form in this state (though still not nearly as unstoppably devastating as his Berserk Form), his attacks do more damage to his own body than to others. The black color is due to the fire of his wrath burning so hot it scorched his skin...
  • Death Equals Redemption: None of the reincarnated characters in The Stinger of Episode 22 have any of the evil traits they had as Demi-gods.
  • Deface of the Moon: Augus slices the moon deep enough in Episode 11 to make the sliced chunk rise high. Evil Ryu punches the sliced chunk back into place in Lost Episode 1, and Oni not only does the same damage in Lost Episode 2 that Augus did, but Asura's fight with him ends up epically destroying the moon.
  • Deranged Animation: Episode 11.5. That is all. The fact that the person who directed it worked on FLCL and AKIRA should tell you this.
  • Destroyer Deity: Asura becomes this by the end of the game, "Asura the Destructor". He's gigantic enough to crush planets.
  • Determinator:
    • Even without his own arms, Asura still fights on and actually headbutts Yasha, a being who calls himself God, in the face.
    • Better yet: Armless Asura is playable, fighting only with kicks and headbutts.
  • Detonation Moon: Oni and Mantra Asura start fighting so hard the moon starts crumbling just by their fighting. Not to mention Oni split the moon in half with a single punch to start the moon's destruction.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Several times.
  • Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Done to Chakravartin after refusing to take over his role as the watcher and guide of the world of Gaea.
    Chakravartin: If you will not inherit this world...Return to nothing!
  • Died in Your Arms Tonight: Durga.
  • Died Standing Up:
    • How Yasha dies.
    • Same with Asura.
    • Subverted in Lost Episode 2, however, as when Asura and Akuma fought each other, they eventually turned into stone. The subversion is that they start moving again and fight once more, still looking like stone statues!
  • Dies Differently In The Adaptation: In the Kai manga adaptation, some characters meet die differently in comparison to how they bite it in the game. Sergei, for example, is killed by Yasha as his mech explodes and Deus is cut in half right down the middle.
  • Dimension Lord: The Golden Spider/Chakravartin rules the dimension between life and death, Naraka.
  • Dirty Old Man: During his speech to Asura in the hot springs, one of the things Augus says along with fighting is sleeping with beautiful women. Fighting with them, too.
  • Disappears into Light: Every demigod does this when they die, from common Mooks to the great guardian generals.
  • Disposable Woman: Asura's wife.
  • Distant Finale: The True Ending in Episode 22 takes place 870 million years in the future in modern New York City.
  • Diving Kick: Yasha's Specialty.
  • The Dog Was the Mastermind: The nasally, obnoxious golden spider Asura meets during his trips to Naraka turns out to be a disguise for Chakravartin, the nigh-omnipotent deity manipulating the entire planet for his own benefit.
  • Downloadable Content:
    • Episodes 11.5 and 15.5, done in a literal anime style, are downloadable. There is also Part IV: Nirvana, which consists of four episodes, and the game's true ending. The true reason for this, as data miners discovered, is that they literally ran out of disc space to contain it!
    • There's also Lost Episode 1 and Lost Episode 2, both of which crossover with Street Fighter, right down to using the Street Fighter IV HUD and battle system. The first lost episode has Asura fighting Ryu, and the second one has Asura fighting Akuma. Both episodes switch to Asura's Wrath-styled gameplay in the second halves of both fights upon Ryu and Akuma turning into Evil Ryu and Oni respectively, and the many cinematic cutscenes and animesque QTEs are put in between and near the end of both battles.
  • Dude, Where's My Respect?: The Generals knows for a fact that Asura is innocent of the Emperor's murder (having committed the crime themselves), yet every single one of them repeatedly and, seemingly, with absolute sincerity calls him a traitor.
  • Dueling Player Characters: Asura and Yasha repeatedly.
  • Earth-Shattering Kaboom: Happens multiple times throughout the game.
  • Eldritch Location:
    • Naraka. A vast brown abyss with no visible bottom, punctuated with ludicrously tall towers.
    • The Event Horizon is weird.
  • Electric Torture: How Deus incapacitates Asura before throwing him down to earth.
  • Eleventh Hour Super Power:
  • Escaped from Hell: Asura claws himself out of Naraka when he was banished to it. When he ends up there again, he goes out of it faster.
  • Eternal Recurrence: Chakravartin implies on a few occasions that the events of the games Narrative (Chakravartin gives humanity the gift of Mantra, allowing the Shinkoku rise to power, Chakravartin creates the Gohma rise up to kill humanity, leading to the eventual successful defeat of the Gohma thanks to Shinkoku's increasing technological prowess and fighting power, only to for the world to be destroyed by him when he feels they aren't worthy of being his successor and recreated to start the process all over again) have occured seemingly countless times in the past.
  • "Everybody Dies" Ending: In the end, the only named character that is still alive is Mithra.
  • Evil Old Folks: Kalrow fits the look. Technically, all the evil deities are, as 12,000 years to them as far as aging goes is only a few months to us.
  • Evolving Attack: As Asura gets angrier and changes forms, his fighting style changes accordingly, allowing him to have more attacks open to him. This also applies to situations in which he is armless.
  • Excuse Plot: Intentionally avoided, unlike most other action games. The developers even stated that they conceived the story first and adapted the gameplay to it.
  • Eyecatch: Put in to make it look even more like the anime shows this game emulates as well as also filling the function of a loading screen.
  • Fanservice: The entire hot springs sequence, such as the girls' Jiggle Physics.
  • Fantasy Kitchen Sink: A Hindu Mythology / Buddhism equivalent of this.
  • Faster-Than-Light Travel: Asura in his Destructor form can fly at a rate in which he passes by entire solar systems worth of planets in mere seconds just to fight the final boss in the last episode.
  • Father's Quest: The game is about a very angry demigod dad going on a Roaring Rampage of Rescue to find his missing daughter and make the world a better one for her to live in.
  • Final Battle: A truly epic one in episode 22. See Serial Escalation for a few more details.
  • Final Boss, New Dimension: Chakravartin. You fight him in both Naraka and its Event Horizon.
  • Fictionary: The humans speak a language that generally goes untranslated during cutscenes. The demigods are capable of understanding and communicating with them, however.
  • Final Boss Preview: Done twice. First with Yasha, who you fight early in the game, and then much later as the penultimate boss. And then with Chakravartin, who you fight in Episode 19, and then as the True Final Boss.
  • Finger Poke of Doom: A country-sized finger poke.
  • Flash Step: Displayed by many of the demigods.
  • For The Cel Of It: In traditional CyberConnect2 style, although not quite as pronounced as it usually is, possibly due to using the Unreal Engine instead of their own Sensible Arts Innovation engine.
  • Free-Fall Fight: Episode 21 has a flashback battle where Asura and Yasha beat the crap out of each other while plummeting toward the surface.
  • Gaia's Vengeance: The true nature of the Gohma. Vlitra embodies the planet's very will.
    • Subverted since Gaia was manipulated by Chakravartin. The planet was also just one of its pawns.
  • Gainax Ending: The True Ending.
  • Gameplay and Story Integration: Happens all throughout the game justifying the scenarios and conditions (armless Asura, fighting Wrath Asura, and the like), but a subtle one occurs in DLC Episode 22: Asura, upon taking his Destructor form, permanently has the Destructor gauge equipped.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: Mostly avoided, thanks to the the above details.
  • Gameplay Roulette: Stated to be one of the main selling points of the game.
  • Genre-Busting:
    • Along with traditional Beat 'em Up gameplay, there are Rail Shooter elements as well.
    • Other elements of this include that there are no Action RPG elements like Devil May Cry or Bayonetta have, (like getting new weapons or collecting stuff like a Heart Container), nor is there a upgrade of stats. Asura's stats instead change depending on the episode.
    • One can also add in Fighting Game thanks to the DLC that pits Asura against Ryu, complete with the health bar, Super Combo Gauge and Revenge Gauge note  from Street Fighter IV (although in Asura's case, the latter two are replaced by his Burst and Unlimited Mode Gauges).
    • A review has pointed out that while this might not really be considered a "game," but as a multimedia experience, it is a memorable one.
  • Giant Equals Invincible : Subverted. Wyzen turns himself into a planet-sized being to literally crush Asura, and gets his ass kicked. Immediately afterward, the rest of the Seven Deities are shown scorning Wyzen for his mistake of thinking being bigger equates to being more powerful.
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom: Asura, constantly. Probably because his wrath never ends.
  • A God Am I: The shtick of all of the Seven Deities, though none more than Deus.
  • A God I Am Not: Asura's view.
    "That's why...I pray to no one! Nor will I be prayed to!"
  • God Is Evil: The Seven Deities aren't all bad, and some of them even maintain good intentions. The problem is that they've spent 12,000 years committing genocide.
    • Chakravartin probably considers itself Above Good and Evil, but it has ended the world, possibly the entire universe, who knows how many times without remorse because it couldn't find an appropriate heir. It also made Mithra cry. If you still have doubts, check out its second form.
  • Götterdämmerung: The Seven Deities all die one by one, but the ultimate end happens in the double knockout of Chakravartin and Asura. Technically, Asura kills Chakravartin, but since he's the god of Mantra and Life, he dies too.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: Gohma Vlitra, who is also the game's first boss. Then Chakravartin turns up as the Even Bigger Bad.
  • Green Aesop: The Gohma are the will of the planet seeking to wipe out threats to its survival. Ultimately, however, subverted. The Gohma were really just a tool created by Chakravartin to determine whoever would be powerful and decisive enough to become his successor; the "will of the planet" was just the lie used to explain what the Shinkoku/Seven Deities were fighting.
  • Grievous Harm with a Body: Several counters and specials involve picking up a mook and smashing him into his buddies.
  • Groin Attack: Done by Asura to Evil Ryu via a Kinniku Buster in the DLC Lost Episode 1.
    • For those unfamiliar with Kinnikuman, what Asura does is throw Evil Ryu high into the air, leap up after him, and grab him from behind with his normal pair of arms. He then holds Evil Ryu's wrists with his upper pair of arms while using his lower pair to lift and spread his opponent's legs before dropping him nads-first onto his knee. Oh, and the actual impact happens after Asura and Evil Ryu fell over a kilometre just to build up more force behind the drop.
  • Ground Punch: Asura, who punches the ground a few times. In an interesting take on this, Asura doesn't use it as an attack, but rather to launch himself into the sky.
  • Guest Fighter:
    • Technically, Ryu in the special DLC for this game counts as this. Played around with in that he isn't actually playable, but an A.I. opponent only.
    • And Akuma, Oni, and Evil Ryu, as well.
  • Ham-to-Ham Combat:
    • Asura vs any Demigod.
    • Interestingly averted with Chakravartin. For most of the fight, while Asura is as loud and shouty as ever, Chakravartin speaks softly and in a kind of dull monotone. At least until he starts losing.
  • Handshake Substitute: Just before Yasha dissolves, he and Asura share one of the most touching fist bumps you'll ever see.
  • Heel–Face Reincarnation: The Seven Deities are the main villains of the game and all die, most of them by Asura's hand. The epilogue which takes place 870 million years later shows them reincarnated as humans with none of the evil traits they displayed in their past lives.
  • The Hero Doesn't Kill the Villainess: Although she does suffer his eponymous wrath in spades when he wipes out her entire fleet as revenge for killing a girl that reminded him of his daughter, Olga is the only villain who Asura doesn't kill. Instead, she's sliced up by the Golden Spider.
  • Holy Halo:
    • Most of the demi-gods have these, including Asura's daughter Mithra. Curiously, Yasha doesn't seem to have one. Until he fights Wrath Asura.
    • You only see Asura's when he first assumes his Vajra Asura form. Then at the end upon the assumption of Mantra Asura form. Then he turns it into a jetpack while in his Destructor form.
  • Hot-Blooded: Asura.
  • Hot Springs Episode: Asura talks with his master in one.
  • Hopeless Boss Fight: In what can be described as inversion of this trope, this happens not to the player, but the True Final Boss, Chakravartin. It is glorious.
  • Hopeless War: The Shinkoku have been fighting the Gohma for as long as they can remember, and have never been able to do anything more than force Vlitra into hibernation. Deus intends to end the war, which actually kicks off the game's plot, as he determines the only way to destroy Vlitra is to actively harvest souls from humanity to power the Brahmastra, and to use Asura's daughter to control said Mantra. Considering that Asura will object violently to either of those eventualities, he's got to go.
    • Made even more pronounced with Chakravartin stating that even if Vlitra, the source of all Gohma, were to be destroyed, he can bring them back as much as he wants. It's even implied that he can make Gohma in a level of power that would make Vlitra seem like a bug in comparison.
  • Human Pin Cushion: Asura is first seen in the first trailer skewered by several spears. Doesn't stop him, though. He was later seen fighting against Wyzen as this via having multiple spears sticking in his back when he was first betrayed.
  • Human Resources
    • Mantra is artificially produced by processing human souls. It's even more horrifying than it sounds, since the people whose souls are harvested believe they're being taken to paradise, and actually beg to be killed.
    • According to Yasha, in 12,500 years they've harvested seven trillion human souls. That comes out to about five hundred and sixty million people per year that the Deities have killed, either personally or by their soldiers, plus or minus whatever Wyzen wasted against Asura.
  • Humiliation Conga: Near the last leg of the final battle, Chakravartin the Creator sports his own Sanskrit lettered Action Commands. But after getting hit repeatedly by Asura's barrage, he physically staggers and the action commands start to fail. Asura is just casually pummeling him and countering his attempts to fight back at this point, giving a rather epic and angry speech how he's not going to take anymore shit from anyone that calls himself a god and never forgive him for making his daughter cry. He takes quite a beating before finally dying.
  • Ignored Enamored Underling: Olga to Deus, who (wo)manhandles her roughly despite her obvious worship.
  • Injured Player Character Stage: The game features several segments wherein Asura ends up breaking all of his arms. These instances don't deter him (and the player) from trying to kick and/or headbutt everything that pisses him off, even if it's less convenient.
  • Interactive Movie:
    • Asura's Wrath is something of a unique example. While there is actual gameplay in it like most other Beat Em Ups and Action Games, a lot of the gameplay focuses on cutscene based QTE's, but usually each one synchronizes with every action taken on screen, and some of the presses synchronize with attacks similar to a Rhythm Game. Episodes 11.5 and 15.5 are even straighter examples that still use the same synchronic attack principles, as it's based on button inputs that mimic all the hits on the screen of an Anime-like stage that acts as a stand in for Full Motion Video, and they are arguably even better examples of this than the main game.
    • Also, unlike other examples, there's no actual Full Motion Video involved, but it instead uses the main graphics engine to simulate Full Motion Video, and instead of being more of an interactive movie, its plot structure, episodic nature, and the running time of most of the episodes, it's more of an Interactive Anime.
  • Interface Screw:
    • During the final fight against Chakravartin's last form, "the Creator," he starts doing his own QTE's that have a unique design to them that make you think you have to press them, except it's him who's pressing them, and you have to counter them with your own QTEs (protip: Chakravartin's buttons have an "om" design rather than your console's usual buttons).
    • That's nothing. The entire Part 4 is an exercise in screwing with the predictable button prompts of before. Prompts appear all over the screen, multiple prompts may appear at once, and one prompt even goes in extreme slow motion before getting cancelled out!
  • Ironic Echo: "Let us decide!" "Decide what?" (face-punch) "Who is stronger!" (Asura says this to Yasha when looking for a fight 12,000 years ago, and Yasha says this later to get him to activate the Mantra Reactor inside him.
    • This example is unique in that we hear the echo before the original time the line was spoken.
  • It's All About Me: The Seven Deities. With the exception of Yasha and Deus.
    • Even moreso with Chakravartin, who implies that the only reason he's trying to find an heir is so it can benefit him to go to other worlds and "help" them.
  • Jerkass Gods: Played around with quite interestingly. The Demi-gods treat humans as a lower class, but most of them didn't act like jerks towards humans (with the possible exception of Wyzen post becoming a guardian general). This changes after Asura is betrayed by his fellow guardian generals, who act like this to a degree even by Jerkass God Standards. They turn humanity into a Martyrdom Culture by having them pray to them before they get killed and have their souls taken any to be converted into mantra, specifically used to power the Brahmastra. Only Yasha and Deus have regrets for what they do. Augus just doesn't care any more, and he's certainly not rude to the three humans he knows. Chakravartin, who is this from the start, goes beyond even them by proxy of being the reason why the Guardian generals turned into Jerkass Gods in the first place, and is even more arrogant than them.
  • Jiggle Physics: The servant girls in the hot springs.
  • Kill the God: Asura's plan for the Seven Deities. Well, less plan and more objective. Asura seems incapable of planning.

     L-Z 

  • Launcher Move: Asura can perform one by doing a pause in his combo. This can be followed up by an air combo.
  • Lag Cancel: Jump cancels which can be done the moment you do a launch attack and then follow up with a an air combo, and a Homing cancel that can be done immediately after an air combo to home in on a locked on opponent to keep doing more damage.
  • Last Chance to Quit: At the end of the DLC chapters, Asura is offered one last chance by Chakravartin to accept his offer to become Gaea's new god after ascending to levels of power none before him had and thus allow Chakravartin to leave Gaea and spread his "guidance" to other worlds. Just to drive it home, he even returns Mithra, the main reason Asura began this quest, to him and lets them hug. All he asks in return is for Asura to accept the offer and take his hand. Despite everything Chakravartin has done to Gaea and the suffering its people have endured, Asura does look sorely tempted at least for a moment. He then "extends his arm" right into Chakravartin's face before angrily refusing and affirming his intent to make the deity pay for all he's done.
  • Levitating Lotus Position: Chakravartin does this in space, sitting on a nebula, surrounded by galaxies while casually throwing planets and stars as Asura approches him.
  • Limit Break: The Burst mechanic; when the rage meter is filled, Asura can perform powerful moves in cutscenes that move him along to the next section of the episode, along with doing immense damage to the enemies. As the game goes on, the effects of Burst grow even greater.
  • Little Brother Is Watching: In Episode 8, after beating Kalrow's minions, Asura mercilessly beats on a surviving Doji, his Burst Gauge filling with every punch. But when he sees Ahria beating the corpse of another Doji with a rock and crying, his Burst gauge empties.
  • Luck-Based Mission: The missions in the 2 Lost Episodes. It starts off simple, but in one mission, you have to beat them under 40 seconds (which is a very strict limit), and in another, you have to beat them without taking a single hit! Also, the last mission against Akuma is to beat 10 consecutive matches against him, slightly recharging your health with each victory.
  • MacGuffin Super-Person: Mithra can freely manipulate Mantra to a point where she can be used as a power source to increase the power of the deities. And is apparently the perfect vessel for The Golden Spider to regain his full power.
  • Macross Missile Massacre:
    • Asura is attacked by one of these in the first trailer. He doesn't care..
    • Happens later in Episode 22, where Chakravartin tries to do this with planets and stars.
  • The Magic Goes Away: With Chakravartin dead, Mantra no longer exists, and now all the former Demi-gods that haven't died now age like regular people. The Stinger, however, hints that it might've come back.
  • Magitek: All of the technology used by the Shinkoku and Seven Deities runs on Mantra, which is mystical power supplied by either prayer or processing human souls. All of the Seven Deities possess a "Mantra reactor" in their bodies that supplies them with the Mantra needed to do their various insane feats of superhuman power, save for Augus (never needed the stuff) and Asura (who was "killed" before he could get one when the Seven rose to power). Pretty much all of the "magic" that the Seven and the other demigods use comes from this source, though Asura doesn't need a reactor because his Mantra Affinity for Wrath lets him tap into Mantra directly as he gets more and more pissed.
  • Male Gaze: Rewarded with an achievement.
  • The Man Behind the Curtain: Chakravartin. The episode where he formally introduces himself has this trope as the title, almost word for word (The One Behind the Curtain), though the trope isn't actually used, since he is in no way feeble.
  • Martyrdom Culture: The Seven Deities have cruelly managed to transform their followers into this with villagers begging for the chance to die at their leaders' hands and become Mantra. Asura and Ahria are utterly disgusted by this.
  • Meditating Under a Waterfall: Asura does this right before heading off to face the Final Boss.
  • Might Makes Right:
    Augus: The one who stands in the end is righteous.
  • Mook Horror Show: The soliders that were witnessing Wrath Asura destroy their armies were absolutely terrified of him, and could only watch in horror as he ripped through everything in his way.
  • Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Asura grows hundreds of arms and merges them all together into a pair of gigantic arms with built-in rockets.
  • Mundane Made Awesome:
    • Gongen Wyzen, now bigger than all of Gaea, tries to kill Asura by poking him to death!
    • Followed by Asura lifting up said finger and punching it repeatedly. He destroys it, causing Wyzen to blow up. Yes, ladies and gentlemen. He is THAT awesome.
  • Named Weapons: Augus's blade is called Wailing Dark.
    • Deus' nunchucks are known as the Sakras.
  • Nature Spirit: The Gohma are a twisted version of this, being the embodiments of the planet's anger.
  • Neck Lift: Deus to Asura.
  • Next Tier Power-Up: Being the Video Game equivalent of an interactive Fighting Series, Asura himself under goes a few transformations of this nature. The best examples are Berserker Asura (he's shown after being knocked out of this form to be able to use the form's arms, but nothing ever comes out of it), Mantra Asura (initially gained with all the mantra Deus gained over 12,500 years of killing 7 trillion humans being given to him by Mithra's prayers, later shown to be utilized at will), and the implantation of the Karma Fortress Mantra Reactor, which allows him to use his anger without damaging his own body, increasing his overall stats at least a hundred times over and allowing him to unlock the ability to turn into a Planet sized Humongous Cyborg known as Asura The Destructor.
  • Nintendo Hard: Not usually, but equipping the mortal gauge onto Asura turns the game into this, even on Easy Mode.
  • No Endor Holocaust: You will lose count of how many times the planet should have been knocked out of orbit or just outright destroyed.
  • Non-Dubbed Grunts: The people of Gaea use the same voice clips (Japanese VAs speaking a made-up language) in both English and Japanese. The Lost Episodes are also only done in Japanese with reused audio clips; Asura's are taken from different cutscenes in the same game while Ryu and Akuma's are taken directly from Street Fighter IV.
  • No-Sell: Yasha and Augus are capable of taking Asura's normal attacks to the face with little effect. Deus takes a punch Yasha used to knock Wrath Asura back to his normal state, just to show how powerful Deus is.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • When Wyzen realizes that turning into a planet-sized Buddha and crushing Asura with a country-sized index finger not only didn't work, but that it just made Asura angrier.
    • Chakravartin gets this when his attempt to No-Sell Asura's punch is failing.
  • Older Than They Look: Much older, in fact. Despite being countless millennia old, certain demi-gods besides Kalrow look to be only in their twenties or thirties. Even Kalrow, despite looking about seventy, is even older than all the other Guardian Generals put together at least.
  • Ominous Latin Chanting: True to form of taking influence from these particular mythologies, Ominous Buddhist / Hindu Chanting is all over the place in the soundtrack.
  • The Omnipotent: Played around with. Chakravartin is described in the extras as the Omnipotent ruler of Gaea, but Asura eventually defeats him, which shouldn't happen to an omnipotent ruler.
    • It should be noted that he's merely an Omnipotent Creator, not a destructor. He's merely more akin to Hindu God, Brahman the creator, while Asura is essentially Shiva, the destroyer.
    • Furthermore, Chakravartin's dialogue suggests that he didn't actually create humanity or the universe. He talks about other worlds he needs to visit and 'help' in the same way he helped Gaea, implying that he might merely be a powerful cosmic being with delusions of godhood that wanders from planet to planet 'fixing' what he sees as wrong. In spite of this, he is shown to have a form bigger than multiple galaxies, so he is still pretty damn powerful reguardless.
  • On the Next: Each episode shows a preview for the next one, except episode 18.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Just the sight of Yasha starting to smile even a little bit is instantly enough for Asura to break off an attack and investigate more closely.
  • Orange/Blue Contrast: Both the above image and the English Box-art use this.
  • Orochi: Gohma Vlitra's True form is this, and is probably the biggest depiction of an Orochi to date.
  • Our Giants Are Bigger: Much, much bigger.
    • To the point where Chakravartin's Giant form is so gigantic it sits on its own Nebula / Galaxy, and a now planet-sized Asura, who is even bigger than Gongen Wyzen or Sakra Devanam Indra Deus, seems like just a tick or a flea trying to punch into Chakravartin's forehead.
  • Papa Wolf: Aside from getting back at the gods that cast him down, Asura wants to save his daughter. And Hell to anyone who tries to stop him.
  • Pastel-Chalked Freeze Frame: All the To Be Continued screens are animated this way.
  • Pillar of Light: Happens when Asura first reawakens. Also happens during Asura's transformation into his Berserker form. It also happens when Yasha finishes implanting the Karma Fortress's Mantra Reactor into Asura.
  • Power Creep, Power Seep: Considering just how strong Asura is in his game, the Crossover DLC with Street Fighter is full of this. Both Ryu and Akuma are able to breathe in space, survive being punched to the moon, and Evil Ryu closes up the cut out trench Augus made in the moon. With his foot. And Oni can split the moon in half with a single punch even when Mantra Asura is blocking said punch.
  • Power Glows: All deities have these, and is Color-Coded for Your Convenience
  • Power Levels: Impurity Levels for Gohma. Most of the big ones, especially ones seen in the first episode, were huge and Vlitra was simply "Immeasurable".
  • The Power of Hate:
    • Asura's sheer rage and hatred can keep him going for quite a while.
    • Evil Ryu is referred to as Hatred Incarnate, making him strong enough to tangle with Six armed Vajra Asura.
  • Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: The game itself delivers one in Episode Twelve:
    Achievement Unlocked: "Heads Will Roll"
  • Press X to Not Die: 1/3 of the game is made up of quicktime events, but usually for a better rating instead of death.
  • Public Domain Soundtrack: The usage of New World Symphony in the fight between Asura and Augus.
  • Pummel Duel:
  • Punch Parry: Augus counters two of Asura's blows by simply punching them with his own. They Pummel Duel after Augus runs out of hands to do this with. Asura also does this to counter Chakravartin the Creator's punch after he stops time (Which initiates a QTE).
  • Punch Catch: Asura does it early on to a Taison. Chakravartin later does it to Asura.
  • Quick Time Event:
    • Used in a way to convey the scale of the game, rather similar in usage to Bayonetta and Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2, a previous game made by CyberConnect2. They are also a part of the scoring system, and unlike most examples are not a case of Press X to Not Die for the most part.
    • There's also a unique example in a version called "Synchronic Impacts". Usually, whenever a quick time event appears on a video game screen, you need to press it immediately in order to succeed. These particular versions, however, act more like Rhythm Game inputs where you wait for a circle to shrink around a Y or Triangle button command and time your button press to them, and it usually occurs whenever Asura does a big attack on an opponent after pressing the burst button to initiate. This is one of the skippable examples, but doing so costs you End of level points that give High rankings. Depending on how well you time the button press, you even get a Good, Great, or Excellent ranking, just like a Rhythm Game.
    • Another unique example is that Chakravartin "The Creator" gets his own. They are activated by the AI, implying his stature as a true God. And as you fight on, he starts messing them up.
  • Rage Against the Heavens: Asura. May god have mercy on their foolish souls.
  • Rail Shooter: Switches to this occasionally during certain moments in the game.
  • Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Asura's checklist is basically Step 1: Find guy I hate. Step 2: Punch the shit out of him as fast as Asuraly possible. Step 3: Repeat.
  • Rated M for Manly: Nearly all males involved are (very) Badass, muscled, and shirtless, and the whole point of the game is punching through a whole godly pantheon, including some giant planet monster and the most powerful creature in the universe to save your daughter. To sum it up, it's pretty manly.
  • Razor-Sharp Hand: Yasha's speciality, opposed to Asura's fists.
  • Reality Has No Subtitles: The humans speak a different language from the Demigods with no subtitles. This is used to show how out of touch they have become over the millennia.
  • Really Dead Montage: Yasha's death.
  • Really 700 Years Old: The demi-gods of ''Asura's Wrath' take this to really ridiculous extents, in that despite some of them looking around certain ages as described in their profiles, they are actually countless millennia in age. In fact, the entire civilization they come from takes this trope to new heights, in that the demi-gods are descendants of previous demi-gods that protected the Shinkoku Civilization, and there are at least over 100 generations of demi-gods that have protected their home.
  • Recurring Riff: In your Belief can be heard all of the place, such as the ethnic version of the theme, The Reprise of the theme, Vajra Asura vs. Vajra Deus, and Bonds.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Chakravartin's final form has blood-red glowing eyes.
  • Red Sky, Take Warning: Whenever there are Gohma around, the sky and the lightning will get red.
  • Redemption Equals Life: For Yasha. He's the only one of the Seven Deities to survive Asura's wrath (aside from Olga... until the true ending).
  • Reference Overdosed: It sure is, both in visual shout outs and in story-based ones, while still giving a unique story all on its own.
  • Reincarnation: Asura is heavily implied to have been reincarnated in The Stinger, along with his family and the other Deities.
  • Repeat Cut: Common, but the most epic one is Asura's second to last punch to Chakravartin's face, before killing him with a final punch.
  • The Rival: Yasha in the main story, and Akuma / Oni in Lost Episode 2, as Asura and Akuma are so determined to defeat each other, they turn into statues after 500 years. And then move again and fight some more!
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: His wife was killed, his daughter was kidnapped and he was framed for a murder he didn't commit. He murders his way through his former comrades to get his revenge.
  • Sad Battle Music: A very distinct trait of the game is that many battle themes are very mellow and sad.
  • Scenery Gorn: All over the place. Episode 21 mixes this with Scenery Porn for the final battle with Yasha.
  • Science Fantasy: It's a combination of Eastern Mythology and Space Opera. And pure, unadulterated awesome, if it were a genre.
  • Scifi Writers Have No Sense Of Scale:
    • Scale in general is all over the place, and it's not surprising the game struggles to be consistent, especially when the scale is "holy-shit huge." Often objects are in entirely different scale depending on the scene. One such example is when a planet-sized Wyzen uses his index finger to crush a human-sized Asura. His finger in the shot from outer space is the size of a country, but when it lands to crush Asura in the shot on Earth it's merely the size of a large mountain. If the two were to scale, Asura would not only be a microscopic dot - he wouldn't be visible at that scale at all.
    • According to the CG Art gallery, the Gohma Carriers are supposed to be roughly 800 kilometers long and 200 kilometers wide. For reference, the Kármán line (a proprosed boundry between Earth's atmosphere and outer space) is 100 kilometers above sea level. Not surprsingly, they aren't depicted as being anywhere near this size in the actual game.
  • Secret Test of Character: EVERYTHING has been a ploy by Chakravartin to find a successor who will lead the world; yes, that includes the Gohma and the Gohma Vlitra. It's also a deconstruction by its amorality, as Chakravartin can easily revive Vlitra back to life should he wants to, and remarked that he has ended and restarted the world many times before. Asura wasn't happy when he found out, and he was rightly pissed that The Almighty would sacrifice countless human lives just for said test.
  • Serial Escalation:
    • Just how much more powerful (and in some cases, bigger) can the bosses get, and how much more insane will the fights themselves be? To put this in perspective, the very first boss in the game is as big as a continent and can wipe a battalion of Shinkoku Trastrium ships with ease. And it just gets more insane from there on out.
    • It all culminates in the final battle with Chakravartin. His giant form is many, many times bigger than any other character in the game, to the point where he's still visible from Gaea even when he's outside of the galaxy. Even after Asura grows to planet-size, he still looks like an ant next to this thing. Chakravartin can casually fire really strong, really fast laser beams that cross the solar system at several times faster than light, throw entire planets and even STARS at you, and even tries to make the sun go super nova JUST TO TRY AND KILL YOU! The kicker? This is only the first half of the fight. And Chakravartin hasn't even tried using his full power or his next form after this one out, trying to merely "test" Asura.
    • And finally done with Asura's last bursts, with each subsequent burst symbol getting bigger and bigger untill the very last one where it covers almost the entire screen.
    • The overall idea of the trope (and one of Deus's mottos, no less) is deconstructed in the actions of the Seven Deites. Just how far can an entire civilization go in order to compete against the will of the entire world, that with each awakening, grows more and more powerful everytime? Deus's plan is harvesting over 7 TRILLION souls and fusing with the well-above-planet-sized Karma fortress to destroy Vlitra, risking the destruction of the planet and its inhabitants in the process, just to defeat said will once and for all. Also Deconstructs Lensman Arms Race at the same time.
  • Sequel Hook: The last shot of Episode 22's recap, which shows a now reincarnated Asura spreads his arms to stop a massive meteor.
  • Sequential Boss: Almost all the Boss fights are like this, especially the ones that take an entire episode to fight against.
  • Seven Deadly Sins: Five of the Eight Guardian Generals have a sin as their Mantra, the driving force of their power. Asura is Wrath, Deus is Pride, Olga is Lust, Kalrow is Sloth, and Augus is Greed. Wyzen is Violence. Sergei is Vanity, a sub class to Pride. The only real odd man out is Yasha, whose Mantra is Melancholy.
    • Fridge Brilliance sets in once one realizes Acedia (Melancholy) was part of the precursor list of the Seven Deadly Sins.
  • Shout-Out: Several of them, not to just video games, but due to being made by a company well known for using anime and manga as main influences, along with being major fans of big name Japanese developers, there are so many that the game has its own page.
  • Shown Their Work:
    • This page describes the extensive amounts of Buddhist symbolism in the game, and inspirations for its visuals. Just for example, the way the Demigods are injured is made to resemble the damage done to old Buddhist gilt lacquer statues.
    • The Second and the third parts get even more specific.
  • Shut Up, Hannibal!: Why skip through the cutscene when you can just punch the guy doing the Breaking Speech instead? There are three achievements for doing this to Wyzen, Kalrow, and Augus.
  • Skyward Scream: Asura when Durga dies.
  • Sliding Scale of Realistic vs. Fantastic: Definitely Fantastic, especially when it shows ridiculous feats of power and strength, weaponry capable of rearranging continents, and Asura coming back from the dead multiple times (and exponentially faster each time) just because he's angry enough.
  • Smite Me, O Mighty Smiter: When Wyzen gives "The Reason You Suck" Speech followed by a planet-sized growth, having nothing to lose, Asura challenges him. And manages to beat him.
  • Social Darwinist: Augus, who shouts "Survival of the Fittest, that is the Law of Nature!" to Asura.
  • Soul Power: How the Seven Deities power up their wave motion gun, the Brahmastra, either through human prayer, or killing the humans and harvesting their souls.
  • Soundtrack Dissonance: On occasion.
    • Perhaps one of the most memorable ones is when Berserker Asura tears Olga's army a new ass while the game's main theme, "In your Belief", is playing.
      • "In Your Belief" tends to cause some dissonance in general; it's incredibly beautiful and melancholy, and it tends to play when Asura is performing his greatest feats of destruction. Almost as if the planet is lamenting his rage…
      • Given he'd just watched Olga kill the one human he'd made a connection with, one that happened to look a lot like his daughter, the mixture of sorrow and rage is actually quite fitting.
    • One of the game's most prevelant traits is that in the really big fights, it plays very slow and sad or serious themes as opposed to bloodpumping themes.
  • Space Base: The Karma Fortress.
  • Space Battle: Several occur throughout the game. The most epic one of all is in the DLC Part IV, Nirvana. During the final fight with Chakravartin, Asura becomes the extremely huge planet-sized Destructor Asura, and starts flying towards Chakravartin as he throws planets and stars at you like they are basketballs, and causes a star to supernova just to kill you!
  • Space Opera: Has some elements of this. Played much more straight later when Chakravartin hints at protecting other worlds throughout the universe.
  • Speaking Simlish: The humans speak in untranslated gibberish.
  • Spell My Name With An S: With such a heavy emphasis on Buddhist mythology, you'd think they would've bothered to check that Vritra is spelled with 2 Rs.
  • Sphere of Destruction: Berserker Asura uses these in episode 12 whenever you use the Burst command.
  • Spin Attack: Asura's heavy attack involves a 720 spin that blows nearly every enemy away from him.
  • Spiritual Antithesis: There are many reasons why many refer to it as the Japanese God of War. That said, Asura, to his credit, is much nicer than Kratos is for the most part in the pre-PS4 God of War games.
  • Spiritual Successor:
    • The creator of the game stated that the over-the-topness of the action will be like God Hand, acknowledging how Clover Studio was a very innovative group and that they hoped they will give the same feel for Asura's Wrath.
    • The Rail Shooter Segments are probably this to games like Sin and Punishment, Rez, and Panzer Dragoon.
    • The Game is very much one of these to many Super Robot and Fighting Series anime as well, in story and scope.
    • The concept of the game itself (an interactive Anime series) can be seen as this to the likes of Time Gal and Yarudora, which do something similar. Episodes 11.5 and 15.5 are even closer to this than the main game is.
  • Standard Power-Up Pose: Asura adopts this pose when entering Unlimited form and other forms.
  • Stepping Stones in the Sky: The first phase of the fight against Wyzen's second form has this.
  • Story to Gameplay Ratio: Favors the story end of the spectrum.
  • Sufficiently Advanced Cyborg: All of the demigods are Mantra-powered cyborgs. This isn't stated openly, and you'd be forgiven for thinking Asura and the other demigods were human at first glance, at least until they start getting really mangled. At this point you can see sparks flying from their damaged bodies (and clearly visible machinery in the case of Asura when his arms are destroyed) and they "bleed" a glowing orange liquid. Also, all of the demigods have skin that looks like the enamel on Buddhist statues, though it is more obvious on Asura and Yasha than it is on Olga or Mithra. In the DLC, Yasha also "opens" both his chest and Asura's, revealing the machinery underneath and the slot for Mantra reactors to be placed in their chests. There's still some clear biological elements to their bodies, as characters are shown eating a couple of times, and Yasha explicitly tells Asura that Durga "is about to give birth" in Chapter 21, and characters are shown getting tired, feeling physical pain, and in Kalrow's case, getting old, albeit at a MUCH slower rate than regular humans do.
  • Superhero Gods: All the Guardian Generals / Deities in the game. Plus Chakravartin. Subverted with most of your former allies now being enemies. Chakravartin averts the hero part entirely, though.
  • Super Mode:
    • In gameplay-terms, there's Unlimited Mode, activated by hitting people (or getting hit) enough, although it seems to go up the fastest by shooting at enemies that don't block your shots. When activated, Asura doesn't take any damage, recovers from knockback and knockdowns automatically, and can spam his heavy attacks without cooldown, although every one decreases the Unlimited mode time limit. Yasha, on the other hand, trades the invincibility for a major speed boost, but the other properties are the same.
    • In story-terms, there's even more fun. Technically, Asura's 'normal', metal-armed form is a Super Mode, referred to as 'Vajra Asura' — his 'normal' form only has metallic gloves. Then there's his rage-fueled 'Six-Armed Vajra Asura' form, and - when his anger peaks — the uncontrollably powerful Berserk Asura. Finally, at the very end, we get Mantra Asura, who combines the power of a thousand arms into one burly set of punching-tools.
    • Destructor Asura goes even further, now becoming bigger than Gongen Wyzen and Sakra Devanam Indra Deus put together.
    • Then thrown all over the place during the final final final boss, in which Asura manages to defeat the single most powerful thing in the game in his base form.
  • Super-Strength: Another basic power that the deities have, though it varies in level depending on the deity.
  • Tag Line: "Rage never dies."
  • Talking Is a Free Action:
    • Characters manage to make extensive monologues, no matter how dire a situation. Perhaps most notably, how Sergei managed to give a mocking farewell speech while being held up by his throat by Asura and with everything except one of his arms hanging limply below him.
    • At one point, Yasha almost got hit by Asura in the middle of his speech, and if you screw up one of the inputs, which is easy to do, he does.
    • Several points in the game allow you to interrupt a monologue by hitting the punch button, but you can totally just let them talk and have the cutscene progress normally. The final episode lets you do this to Mithra begging you not to sacrifice yourself, but you don't punch her, obviously
  • Taking You with Me: What Gohma Vlitra tries to do to Asura before disintegrating into tiny pieces. It doesn't work.
  • Talk to the Fist: When the deities try to Breaking Lecture Asura, you can choose to interrupt them this way!
  • Tennis Boss: Wyzen and a giant ship he brings with him, in which you reflect missiles back at either of them.
  • That's No Moon: That's a planet sized deity.
  • Theme Song Power Up:
    • Whenever you hear Wild West-style whistling, it's about time for Yasha to kick some ass.
    • Similarly, when Surge of Mantra plays, in both a heartwarming and awesome way ala Ōkami; the moment it gives Asura his penultimate form, you know he cannot lose at all in this form.
  • Third-Person Shooter: Has a few elements of this, like when not in the Rail Shooter segments, when you use your main projectile, the camera focuses on Asura in a very similar way to one.
  • Time Abyss: The Demi-gods are an entire race of this. 12,000 years of time is barely a few months worth of aging to them. Chakravartin, who is as old as, if not older than, the universe itself counts as well.
  • The Time of Myths: Subverted. It actually takes place in the far future, but many of the elements of this trope are mixed with science fiction. Zig-Zagged in reality, as the setting is revealed in the Stinger to be the Street Fighter universe (or something like it) 870 million years in the past.
  • Time Skip: Two of them. The first at 12000 years and the second 500. And another 500 years at the end of the non-canonical Lost Episode 2. And another at 870 Million Years in the finale.
  • Title Drop: In episode 12, "Gods of Death":
    Asura: Is this what Gods do!?...There is no need...For Gods that only take...FOR GODS OF DEATH!!
  • To Be Continued: At the end of each episode except at the last episode of each of the 4 acts.
  • Touched by Vorlons: The entire Shinkoku Tratrium race is this, as revealed by Chakravartin, the one who did the touching in the first place.
  • Trailers Always Spoil: The launch trailer used almost exclusively footage from the third act and spoils several important plot points, including Asura's wrath form, Yasha's Heel–Face Turn, and the Gohmas' true nature.
  • Transformation Sequence: Supplemental materials mention how Asura is unusual among demi-gods in that he has multiple transformation stages.
  • Trash Talk: It's particularly vicious in the case of Asura and Augus, where it's not so much trash talking as much as Augus saying how he's having fun hunting and Asura yelling death threats back at him.
    Augus: You need to enjoy this a bit more!
    Asura: You need to shut up and die!
  • Tutorial Level: Episode 3, for ground combat.
  • A Twinkle in the Sky: Variation. Akuma sends Ryu flying, who then disappears in the same kind of portal he initially appeared from.
  • Unconscious Objector: During the final fight between Yasha and Asura, Yasha pushes his body to the absolute limit without his Mantra Reactor in his body to ensure Asura is ready to fight Chakravartin and dies with a smile in the middle of their fight before managing one last fist bump.
  • Unexpected Character: The Street Fighter DLC "Lost Episodes."
  • Unexpected Gameplay Change: The DLC "lost episodes" start with two rounds of Street Fighter IV-style gameplay, with a few modifications on Asura's part, such as single-button projectiles, automatic single-button combos, evasive rolling which doesn't exist as a mechanic in Street Fighter 4, the inability to block attacks outside of Action Commands and the fact that the fights go on even if you win 2 rounds out of 3 with your opponent simply choosing to use a continue, meaning you won't progress until you use your Burst which carries over between fights. After those rounds, it goes with the standard gameplay the rest of the game uses.
  • The Unfought: Two of the Seven Deities die before we get to see them in action.
    • And a third doesn't really get a proper boss fight, though the player at least gets to finish him off via Action Commands.
  • Unstoppable Force Meets Immovable Object: The only way to describe the Asura vs Akuma battle where both sides refuse to fold.
  • Unstoppable Rage: The game's plot is centered around Asura's Roaring Rampage of Revenge and his power only grows the more angry he becomes.
  • Use Your Head: A necessity when Asura loses his arms, which he does with regularity, the way he fights.
  • Utopia Justifies the Means:
    • Technically, this is what drives the 7 Deities to betray mankind, their kingdom, and their comrades, as well as enslaving and harvesting mortal souls as a power source while wiping out most life on Gaea and destroying chunks of the planet itself. For five of them, it's just a flimsy excuse to seize unlimited ultimate power to fuel and cement their already enormous god complexes.
    • This also drives Chakravartin's creation of the Gohma so he can find someone who can become his heir as the protector of Gaea so he can go out into the rest of the universe to "help" other worlds. And who's to say he hadn't already done so? Or that some of his "heirs" didn't choose to continue the cycle on their own?
  • Villainous Breakdown: Chakravartin immediately loses his calm demeanor once Asura begins to pummels him.
  • Volleying Insults: During Asura and Yasha's last battle in episode 21, the amount of insults that get thrown around almost rivals the amount of punches. For example:
    Yasha: OVERGROWN APE!
    Asura: STUBBORN BASTARD!
  • Vicious Cycle:
    • No matter how many times Vlitra's been beaten, the Gohma have always returned.
    • According to Chakravartin, he has destroyed and recreated the world god knows how many times in the past. Asura finally ends the cycle.
      • Going farther than that, his original plan after giving the role of the planet's God to Asura was to do the same to other worlds that needed his 'guidance'. It's also possible this cycle has happened to other worlds before he came to Asura's.
  • Walking Shirtless Scene: Asura, aside from a robe he wears after his first resurrection, is always shirtless when fighting enemies. There is an exception in the flashback fight in Chapter 21.
  • Walking Spoiler: Dear lord, Chakravartin. This is to the point where the entire character sheet had to be completely rid of spoilers due to sheer usage, which is very uncommon for this site.
  • War Was Beginning: Episode 1.
  • Wave-Motion Gun:
    • Used in the prologue/Episode 1 to provoke Gohma Vlitra, called the Brahmastra.
    • And Gohma Vlitra unleashes one of its own after Asura pummels it.
    • Chakravartin has his own, which practically rivals the Ideon Gun in raw size and length of the laser.
  • Wham Episode:
    • Episode 6: Asura, having lost his arms in the previous episode, is easily beaten by Yasha, who then splits him in half and throws him into a pool of lava, leading to a five-hundred year Time Skip before he is revived.
    • Episode 12
    • True Episode 18 and Episode 19 (Via DLC) following it are even bigger examples of this.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Olga flat-out disappears from the plot after the Brahmastra Cannon misfires. Until the True Ending, at least.
  • White Void Room: What Chakratarvin's final form does to the Event Horizon stage in the final battle.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Asura becomes this in Episode 12.
  • World of Badass
  • World of Ham
  • Written by the Winners: After the Seven Deities kill Asura (the first time), they would go on to rule of Gaea, depicting themselves to Shinkoku and humanity as benevolent saviors and Asura as a traitor that was righteously banished from paradise.
  • Wrestler in All of Us:
    • Surprisingly averted. Early trailers showed Asura using numerous wrestling-moves against his foes, but other than the basic Spinning Lariat and an occasional Flying Dropkick, none of it is present in the finished game. Whether this was done to make the combat flow better or for thematic reasons is uncertain.
    • Played straight in Lost episode 1, where Asura does the equivalent of a Kinniku Buster to Evil Ryu.
  • Yin-Yang Clash: Asura the Destructor VS Chakravartin the Creator.



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Asura punches Chakravartin

After everything he's done, Chakravartin offers true godhood to Asura. Asura responds by punching him in the face.

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