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.

Modes

Story Mode

The story is a re-telling of the manga of the same name, with a total of six chapters. The story primarily follows Guts through his early battles as a wandering mercenary to the becoming the Black Swordsman, although several other characters such as Griffith can be used in certain stages. 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

Free mode is identical to other Warriors titles. Players can choose any character that has been previously unlocked in the story mode, and can select any stage regardless of whether the selected character actually appears in it.

Endless Eclipse Mode

Similar to the survival mode that has appeared in other Warriors titles. Players select missions ('Desires') that act as requests from specific characters, though some are unique to each character. 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, 61, 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

Playable

Bosses

Non-Playable Characters

Locations

Trophies

Name	Unlock Method	Type
True Berserk	Obtain all other trophies.	Platinum
True Liberator	Complete the gallery.	Gold
Berserker	Defeat the Large Apostle under the Berserk difficulty setting.	Gold
The Desired	Fulfilled 100% of the desires in the Endless Eclipse mode.	Gold
Gatherer	Collect all portable items.	Silver
Stable Master	Collect all warhorses.	Silver
Jeweler	Collect all accessories.	Silver
Setting Sail	Clear the "Hawk of the Millennium Empire" scenario in Story Mode.	Silver
Abyss Conqueror	Clear 100 floors in Eclipse Mode.	Silver
Abyss Champion	Clear 75 floors in Eclipse Mode.	Silver
Wish Fulfiller	Fulfilled 100% of the desires in the Endless Eclipse mode.	Silver
Music Lover	Unlock all background music.	Silver
Avenger	Defeat the all the large Apostles using Guts.	Silver
Causality Scholar	Unlock all events.	Silver
100,000 Men Slayer	Accumulate 100,000 KOs.	Silver
Apostle Lord	Defeat all the large Apostles using Griffith.	Silver
10,000 Men Slayer	Accumulate 10,000 KOs.	Silver
Absolute Lock Master	Unlock all famous scenes.	Silver
Black Swordsman	Clear the "Black Swordsman" scenario in Story Mode.	Bronze
Declaration of War	Clear the "Tutorial Battle" in Story Mode.	Bronze
Lock Master	Unlock a famous scene.	Bronze
The Struggler	Clear the "Golden Age Part 3" scenario in Story Mode.	Bronze
Liberator	Complete 25% of the gallery.	Bronze
Apprentice Witch	Have Schierke summon 10 golems in a single battle.	Bronze
100 Men Slayer	Defeat 100 enemies while in Frenzy Mode.	Bronze
Abyss Explorer	Clear 50 floors in Eclipse Mode.	Bronze
Abyss Challenger	Clear 25 floors in Eclipse Mode.	Bronze
Separate Ways	Clear the "Golden Age Part 2" scenario in Story Mode.	Bronze
Loyal Servant	Rescue Farnese using Serpico.	Bronze
Woman-warrior	Defeat 1,000 enemies using Casca.	Bronze
1,000 Men Slayer	Defeat 1,000 enemies in a single battle.	Bronze
Victory Cry	Win a battle using every playable character.	Bronze
The Swordmaster	Maximize a character's level.	Bronze
Raiders Captain	Clear the "Golden Age Part 1" scenario in Story Mode.	Bronze
Hawk of Light	Clear the "Conviction" scenario in Story Mode.	Bronze
Nosferatu	Have Nosferatu Zodd transform 3 times.	Bronze
Secret feelings	Rescue Casca using Judeau.	Bronze
Enjoy and Excite!	Defeat 1,000 enemies using Wyald.	Bronze
Elf Dimension Style Pupil	Gained more than 1 point in Becchi Catch..	Bronze
Elf Dimension Style Secret Keeper	Win 50 or more battles while accompanied by Puck.	Bronze

Related Media

This is one of the games that was featured on stage at Tokyo Game Show 2016.

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).