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 project 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. Characters from the 2016 TV series are appearing, but the game's concept and visuals are primarily based on the 2012 movies.

Unveiled at E3 2016, Koinuma Hisashi spearheaded the game's development after discussing his love of the story with the other staff members. He was pleased with the overall response of the teaser video, but feared that the erotic content may hamper overseas localization. The development team is aiming to release the game as a CERO D title.

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.

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. Behelts 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. C5 is the max, but the number of charge attacks and altered execution depends on the individual. Guts, for instance, can hold the last charge of his sequence to strengthen his attack. Character attributes can increase with levels. Like Samurai Warriors series, characters can use the "Step" action to evade attack and/or cancel their attack animations.

Every character can use four unique sub-weapons. Swap between either sub-weapon with the directional pad and press R1 (or L2 with certain characters) to activate them. Sub-weapons are not all weapons, as they can be actions like countering or temporarily increasing a character attribute. Guts can unlock a fifth sub-weapon once the Black Swordsman arc is finished.

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

As characters attack foes, the Berserk gauge will grow. Once it is filled, "Berserk 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 Berserk Mode varies on the character's level. Characters are not invincible during this mode; if they suffer too many hits, Berserk Mode will end. The maximum Berserk gauge level is five.

During Berserk Mode, defeated enemies will drop spirit icons. Defeat foes with a character's "Smash" attack to have them drop a greater amount. Collect these spirits to fill up the Killer Technique gauge. Once the Killer Technique gauge is maxed, press to unleash the character's greatest attack. Killer Techniques can only be performed during an active Berserk Mode.

Once the player has finished certain story arcs in Story Mode or Infinite Eclipse, Transformations becomes another Berserk Mode feature. During Berserk Mode, press R2 with a full Killer Technique gauge to transform Guts, Griffith, Zodd, or Wyald into their alternate forms. While in these forms, these characters have a new moveset 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:
 * Players can collect stones from fallen enemies to enhance their accessories. Rarer stones drop in the higher levels of Infinite Eclipse mode.
 * Blood explosions accompanies the violence.
 * Downloadable content

Story Mode
Self-explanatory. Total of six chapters. 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 Infinite Eclipse Mode and to unlock the option to change the Main Menu background.

Infinite Eclipse
Survival mode which includes the game's bosses and Femto. 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 at least 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 can be earned by getting to floor 100 with every playable character. Additional Behelts can be collected within this mode.

Defeating 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.

Playable

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

Bosses

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

Non-Playable Characters

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

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. Another screening by Koei was held on October 18 which included TV performer Kendo Kobayashi as a guest.