BERSERK and the Band of the Hawk

BERSERK and the Band of the Hawk (ベルセルク無双, Berserk Musou) is a Warriors collaboration with the Japanese comic series Berserk. The game will cover the Black Swordsman, Golden Age, the Conviction, and the Falcon of the Millennium Empire arcs of the story. It was first unveiled to the public at E3 2016.

Hisashi Koinuma is the producer. Dai Kawai and Jun Kawahara are the directors; Kawai focused on the inclusion of the game's animated material while Kawahara was in charge of the game's action segments. Koinuma spearheaded the game's development after discussing his love of the story with the other staff members. He was pleased with the overall response to the game's announcement, but feared that the erotic content may hamper overseas localization. Their hopes is to create a game that will appeal to fans of action games around the world, regardless of their familiarity with the source material.

The keywords for development were "gore, violence and eroticism," leading to the game's Japanese slogan: "The most sinister in Warriors history." Berserk creator Kentaro Miura stated his formal thanks for the collaboration and remarked that this is perhaps the "most stressful" adaptation for Omega Force yet.

Buy the game new to receive a downloadable serial code for Casca. Reserve the title from Gamecity Shopping to receive a serial code for a Schierke pirate outfit. Other store outlets offer different costume serial codes.

Japanese is the only voice option for all international releases.

Gameplay
Before the start of each stage, players can view the map, the positioning of each faction, and adjust their character's strength, defense and/or skill parameters through accessories equipped at the briefing screen. Horses can also be assigned before battle. Behelits in this game unlock key visuals within the Gallery; the specific conditions for obtaining them is told to the player before battle.

Players control one character in battle. Characters retain the familiar Warriors charge attack system. C8 is the max, but the number of charge attacks and altered execution depends on the individual character. For instance, when playing as Guts, players can press and hold the last input of his combo finishers to perform a charged, stronger version of the attack. Character attributes can increase with levels. Like the Pirate Warriors series, characters can use the "Step" action to evade attacks and/or cancel their attack animations, as well as offset their combo strings.

Every character can use unique sub-weapons. Swap between either sub-weapon with the directional pad and press R1 (or tap L1 with certain characters) to activate them. Sub-weapons do not necessarily have to be weapons, as they can be actions or stat buffs.

When an enemy attacks, press L1 the instant before the hit connects to perform a "Just Guard". If successful, the enemy will be momentarily stunned and open to a counterattack.

As characters attack foes, the Frenzy gauge will grow. Once it is filled, "Frenzy Mode" can be activated. It halves the damage received from enemy attacks, and increases the character's attack power. A third beneficial attribute activates, but its effect varies on the character. The length of the duration of Frenzy Mode varies on the character's level. Characters are not invincible during this mode; if they suffer too many hits, Frenzy Mode will end. The maximum Frenzy gauge level is five.

During Frenzy Mode, defeated enemies will drop Lost Souls. Defeat foes with a character's "Charge" attack to have them drop a greater amount. Collect these souls to fill up the Death Blow gauge. Once the Death Blow gauge is maxed, press to unleash the character's greatest attack. The Death Blow can only be performed while Frenzy Mode is active.

Once the player has finished certain story arcs in Story Mode or Eclipse Mode, Transformations become another Frenzy Mode feature. During Frenzy Mode, press R2 with a full Death Blow gauge to transform Guts, Griffith, Zodd, or Wyald into their alternate forms. While in these forms, these characters use a new moveset, a different sub-weapon, and their attack power increases greatly for a limited time. Each character has varying secondary effects to further distinguish them.

Other traits for this game include:
 * L2 whistles for the player's assigned horse. Press and hold L2 to have the character automatically call and mount their steed. is still used for the standard mount and dismount. Horses have three parameters: Charge (damage to enemies while sprinting), Durability, and Speed.
 * Players can collect stones from fallen enemies to enhance their accessories. Rarer stones drop in the higher levels of Eclipse Mode.
 * One-on-one boss fights are in the game.
 * BERSERK is the hardest difficulty level.
 * Blood explosions accompanies the violence, as well as enemy dismemberment. The Japanese version does not contain human dismemberment, while the western versions do.
 * Visuals from the 2012 movies and 2016 TV series are used in the game. Voice actors from both works reprise their roles in the game.

Story Mode
Self-explanatory retelling of Berserk's aforementioned story arcs. Total of six chapters. Certain maps allow for character selection between multiple characters. Proceeding through this mode is necessary for unlocking characters and Guts's true potential.

Clear Story Mode once to break the maximum floor limit for Eclipse Mode and to unlock the option to change the main menu background.

Free Mode
Same as other Warriors titles.

Endless Eclipse Mode
Survival mode which includes the game's bosses. Each floor is filled with enemies and random objectives. Recovery items will become scare on higher levels. Players who want to unlock Wyald need to complete 30% of this mode.

There are initially a maximum of 100 floors. Escape points appear every twenty floors. Checkpoints are specifically assigned to the 1, 21, 41, 81, and 101 floors. If the player loses on a non-checkpoint floor, they can restart from their last earned checkpoint. Character specific accessories and specific mounts can be earned by getting to floor 100 with every playable character. Additional Behelits can be collected within this mode.

Defeat the hundredth floor at least once to see a special ending movie and to unlock Griffith's transformation into Femto.

Gallery
Collection of movies, events, images, character models, and weapon models.

Option
Audio and visual adjustments.

Download
Downloadable content specific material.

Characters

 * See also Unit Types (BERSERK and the Band of the Hawk)

Playable

 * Guts
 * Griffith
 * Casca
 * Judeau
 * Nosferatu Zodd
 * Wyald
 * Serpico
 * Schierke

Bosses

 * Snake Baron
 * The Count
 * Nosferatu Zodd (Apostle form)
 * Wyald (Apostle form)
 * Ogre and Kelpie
 * Slan
 * Mozgus
 * Ganishka
 * Femto

Non-Playable Characters

 * Bazuso
 * Corkus
 * Pippin
 * Rickert
 * Gaston
 * Julius
 * Gennon
 * Boscogn
 * Adon Coborlwitz
 * Skull Knight
 * Silat
 * Void
 * Ubik
 * Conrad
 * Grunbeld
 * Puck
 * Isidro
 * Farnese de Vandimion

Locations

 * Hill of Swords
 * Zodd's Space
 * Witch's Mansion
 * Bazuso Castle
 * Burning Hamlet
 * Sanctum of the Count
 * Field of the Hawks
 * Doldrey Castle
 * The Field
 * Tower of Conviction
 * Enoch Village
 * Mansion of the Spirit Tree
 * The Qliphoth
 * Womb of Darkness

Related Media
Games Ma-Ya organized a pre-launching event on October 6 for customers who wished to experience the game firsthand.

The congratulatory completion press conference was held on October 18, which included Bazuso's voice actor, Kendo Kobayashi, and a real-life replication of Guts's Dragonslayer. Another live stream to celebrate the Blu-Ray release and the game was done on October 26; special guests for this livestream were Hiroki Iwanaga (Guts) and Toa Yukinari (Casca).

Koei Tecmo America hosted a Twitter giveaway to anyone who retweeted, liked and commented their hastag for the game. The giveaway ended February 24, 2017, 1:00 PM (PST).